I’m happy to say that I’ll
be one of the thousand-odd Bluenoses making our way up the M1 to Huddersfield
on Saturday. I’ve only been to a couple of away games this season, and I’ve not
seen us win yet, but I do have a good feeling about this one. Huddersfield are
in poor form at the moment, and the return of our strikers ought to be a big
plus. I am hopeful that we can come back with all 3 points.
Squad
analysis
Despite the unfortunate
injury to Packwood, the injury situation generally has somewhat improved since
our last match. You’ll probably be pleased to know that Marlon King, who has
scored 36% (12) of our league goals this season, is now back in contention. Peter
Lovenkrands has also returned to the squad from injury, and though he hasn’t
been as effective goalscoring wise this season, he’ll add us another
much-needed option going forward. Zigic, who seems to have made the difference for
us as an impact sub in previous matches, comes back after his two match ban.
The likes of Callum Reilly
and Morgaro Gomis have done well for us in midfield, but I’m looking forward to
seeing Jonathon Spector back, because I think he can make the difference for
us- we’ve really missed him since he got injured against Wolves. A piece of
good news is that Rob Hall has extended his loan spell, which is great for us
because his delivery from set plays have been superb, occasionally earning him
the man of the match accolade. Hopefully Clark can judge Caddis fit enough for
the game, because I’m not sure otherwise who would be playing at right-back now
Packwood is injured.
Assuming the aforementioned
players will be fit enough, my team would be: Doyle; Caddis, Davies, Pablo,
Robinson; Reilly, Spector; Hall, Morrison, Lovenkrands; King
A
bit about Huddersfield
Huddersfield aren’t a club famous
for their history of success, but they were in fact the first club to win 3
consecutive English league titles in the 1920s, a feat which only Man United,
Arsenal and Liverpool have been able to do since. They won the FA Cup in 1922
and were runners-up on various other occasions. Post-war Huddersfield then
spent 30 years rarely far from mid-table in England’s top-flight until the 1950s,
when a slight yo-yo period ensued. They recovered well from being relegated for
the first time in their history in 1952, by attaining promotion at the first
time of asking and finishing 3rd on their return to division one.
They couldn’t sustain this however, and their second relegation from the
top-flight in 1956 lead to manager Andy Beattie’s resignation.
The next period saw
Huddersfield be the founders of two Scottish legends of British football.
Replacing Andy Beattie as manager was Bill Shankly, who was to go on to spend
15 successful years at Liverpool, but he couldn’t inspire Huddersfield to
success. However, notably under him Huddersfield became the first side in the
history of the football league to score 6 goals and lose a match. They led
Charlton 5-1 with half an hour to go, with a man advantage before letting the
lead slip, but on another occasion they also beat Shankly’s future employers
Liverpool 5-0, and with 10 men! Denis Law was the other man, and his £55K
transfer to Manchester City financed the building of the floodlights at Leeds
Road, although they collapsed due to a gale a year later, they were replaced
and are still known as the ‘Denis Law lights’.
They could celebrate
promotion back to the first tier in 1970, but this joy was to be short-lived.
They spent just two seasons there, before experiencing a rapid decline with three
relegations in the space of four seasons. Since then, they’ve been moving
between tiers 2 and 3, spending a maximum of 6 years in each, but never being
able to properly establish themselves in either league. They’ve made recent
steps forward though, as they earned promotion through the play-offs last
season and now look pretty good odds for another season in the Championship.
Recent
form
After a strong start to their
campaign, Huddersfield aren’t in good shape at the moment, at least in the
league. They did win in the FA Cup at Charlton last week, but they’ve failed to
win any of their previous 10 Championship matches, of which they’ve lost 5. In
fact, if the results of their last 10 games had been consistent over the first
half of their season, they would actually be bottom of the table and 12pts away
from safety.
Apart from Ipswich and all
the teams in the bottom 3, they’ve got the worst goal difference in the league,
though this is partly due to the heavy defeats they’ve had, such as losing 6-1
and 4-0 Leicester and Milwall respectively. The Terriers poor form suggests
that this is very much a winnable game for us.
The
dangerman
Huddersfield have struggled
to find an established goalscorer this season, the sources of their goals have been
particularly widespread- there are about 5 players who have scored a few goals,
so they don’t have one solitary talisman. If I was to pinpoint a striker however,
it would be Jermaine Beckford. Beckford has come up through the ranks of
non-league football, was impressive in scoring 72 goals in 126 games for Leeds
in League 1, but he didn’t quite take his opportunity to cut it in the Premiership
with Everton.
Although he’s only scored
four goals at Huddersfield on his loan spell from Leicester, one of them came
when the Terriers visited St. Andrews back in October, and Beckford scored what
proved to be the winner. Let’s hope the same doesn’t happen on Saturday, but I’m
quietly confident that it won’t.
Previous
meeting
On the last match of the
1994-95 division two season, Blues needed just a point at Huddersfield to ensure
promotion to division one, and Bluenoses had come in numbers to the newly-built
McAlpine stadium expecting a party, Huddersfield had nothing to play for as their
play-off place was pre-booked. Though Ian Bennett had to make a fine early save
from Jepson’s header, it was Blues who came closest to opening the scoring when
Steve Claridge, incidentally now a pundit with the BBC, dinked the ball over
keeper Francis from close range, but his shot hit the bar.
However, into the second
half Claridge made up for that miss. Donowa’s right hand cross was knocked back
by Cooper, and Claridge took a touch and scuffed his shot into the net to put
Blues in front, and send fans and of course Barry Fry into raptures. More
combination play between Claridge and Cooper allowed Cooper to pass the ball
across, before Paul Tait shoved the ball past Francis at the second attempt to
put us 2 up. Huddersfield got one back in the dying minutes, but Blues managed
to hold on for promotion back to division one. It was to be a season of
celebration for both teams, as we won both the second division title and the
Auto Windscreen Shield, but Huddersfield were to eventually attain promotion via
the play-offs.
My
prediction
I think a narrow win for us
in this game. If we get a bit of luck with the fitness of our players returning
from injury, then we’ll have a squad with more quality that can be more
reflective of what we’re capable of. I can’t wait to see Marlon King back
because the composure and experience in front of goal he provides is fantastic,
and I think we’ve caught Huddersfield at the right time given their winless
streak. I’m feeling positive, so will go with a repeat of that match back in
1995- 2-1 to the Blues.
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