SwanseavHuddersfield Competition - Sky Bet Championship Venue - Swansea.com Stadium Date - 2 December 2023 Kick off - 3:00pm Following their 1-3 defeat away at high flying Leeds, next up for Michael Duff’s stuttering Swansea squad is a match against fellow ‘strugglers’ Huddersfield Town in a fixture looking very much like the proverbial ‘6-pointer’. On Wednesday evening, Leeds maintained their pursuit of the Sky Bet Championship's top two with a 3-1 win against the Swans at Elland Road. In a breathless start, Leeds had already had a goal disallowed when Jamie Paterson gave the Swans a first-minute lead, but Daniel Farke's side hit back to level through Joel Piroe against his former club three minutes later: his 9th of the season, 7 for Leeds and 2 for the Swans. Georginio Rutter fired Leeds ahead in first-half stoppage time and another former Swan, Dan James added their third just after the hour-mark. Leeds leapfrogged West Brom back into third place by extending their unbeaten home record this season to nine matches and have now won seven of their last nine. The Swans are 18th, 7 points above the relegation zone but only 1 point above Huddersfield who are 21st, immediately above the bottom 3. The same evening, Huddersfield moved six points clear of the Championship's relegation places with a smash-and-grab victory at Sunderland. The Terriers led when Tom Lees nodded Sorba Thomas' free-kick back across goal, where Michał Helik headed in from close range. But the hosts went in level at the break after Luke O'Nien fired into the roof of the net from close range following a well-worked set-piece. The Terriers hit the front once more against the run of play when the ball broke to Delano Burgzorg on the edge of the box following Jaheim Headley's run and he swept a first-time shot into the bottom corner. A fifth defeat in eight matches meant that Sunderland dropped to 11th in the table, while a fourth win of the season for 21st-placed Town - and a second in 11 matches for ‘new’ boss Darren Moore - moved them within three points of Coventry in 15th position. The Swans first played Huddersfield on Christmas Day 1952. In the 62 matches played, the Swans have won 18, drawn 18 and lost 26. In the corresponding fixture last season the Swans ran out 1-0 winners courtesy of a Ryan Manning strike: Turning to Saturday, Stephen Martin will be the man in the middle. Staffordshire-born Martin has officiating in his blood with his father and grandfather blowing the whistle in the Football League. He first took up refereeing in 2002 and had made it to step five of the football pyramid within six years. He joined the National List of Referees ahead of the 2012-13 season and took charge of his first Championship match in January of that campaign. In 2015, he was included in the list of Select Group 2 officials. This will be the 15th time he has taken charge of a Swans games. 12 of the previous contests were league matches and the most recent of those was the win at Blackburn earlier this season. So far this season Martin has taken charge of nine EFL league and cup games, handing out 55 yellow cards and one red. On Saturday, he will be assisted by Blake Antrobus and George Byrne. Keith Stroud will be the fourth official. Following a poor November, it feels like the pressure is starting to build again for Swans’ Manager Michael Duff. On paper, this game and the next one against Rotherham are both winnable - indeed some would argue that both are must win matches. Yannick Bolasie could well make his first Swans start, whilst Harry Darling will be hoping to return to the starting line up. I’m hoping for 3 points but suspect that Huddersfield will return home with a point in a 1-1 draw.
You could easily argue Huddersfield are in better form than us right now. I'm hoping home advantage will give us some help but I can see this being a draw, 1 - 1.
Bristol Rovers are set to appoint former Rotherham United and Exeter City manager Matt Taylor as their new manager. After the 41-year-old left his role at Rotherham on November 13, the Rovers hierarchy sounded out the Englishman as a potential candidate and conducted talks soon after with Taylor believed to be keen on an immediate return to the dugout should the right opportunity emerge. Talks also took place with a number of other candidates, including Garry Monk, Karl Robinson and Dean Holden, but Taylor emerged as the board's pick.
For the first time this season I'm worrying we could be in the mix. Take out the bizarre three 3 - 0 win run we had and we'd be sunk. Not sure we can do that again either.
Clearly the injuries haven’t helped, but Duff doesn’t ooze confidence (yet?) that he can cut it at Championship level
I hope you smash them today, good luck lads. Once we’ve overtaken Huddersfield, we’ll be coming for you……..(this is the overconfidence born of a two match winning run and having a proper manager at last)
Good comparison They've had the ball ONCE and what did they do? Pass it about at the back for for 10 minutes? No, they ran upfield and scored.
Poor header by Cabango. Fair play to Huddersfield, they have a game plan and are sticking to it. Play to your strengths.
They're mightier than us at half time. Cyril's doing some keepie uppies, get him on for the second half.
