Terrier Spirit

Aug52021 by Terrier Spirit1 Comment

7 reasons to be pessimistic about Huddersfield Town’s chances this season

Opinion

Yesterday’s article looked at all the reasons to feel positive about Huddersfield Town’s chances this season and by the time I’d finished writing it I’d almost convinced myself that we might be OK this season. So much so that I was tempted to not bother to write a more pessimistic preview of the season. But most Town fans will have experienced the wild mood swings that following can provoke. A decent win on a Tuesday night and you look up the table and think another three more victories could put us in the playoff hunt and then a defeat on the following Saturday leaves you wondering if this sorry team will ever win a match again. So I’m going to indulge my negative side in this article and look at all the reasons why it’s probably best to not expect too much from Huddersfield Town ...

Aug42021 by Terrier Spirit7 Comments

6 reasons to feel optimistic about Huddersfield Town’s chances this season

Opinion

The Championship season is due to start on Saturday and it feels about the right time to put together a preview of Huddersfield Town’s chances this time around. As has become a tradition on this blog, I am writing two completely contradictory previews - this is the positive, happy-clappy one. The miserable one will follow later this week. (As an aside, the miserable preview in previous years has usually had over double the number of views as the optimistic one. Which tells you everything you need to know about Town fans!) Regardless of the typically dour outlook of many Town fans, I’m going to try and make a case for why we should feel at least somewhat optimistic about this season. Prepare for the sound of barrels being scraped and levels of optimism that are bordering on sociopathic! ...

Aug12021 by Terrier Spirit8 Comments

Predicted Huddersfield Town XI to take on Sheffield Wednesday

Matches

Huddersfield Town return to competitive action this afternoon when they take on Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough. The South Yorkshire side are now a league below Town, following last season’s relegation but the bookies make them marginal favourites for the game, presumably because they have home advantage and Town’s record in cups in recent years is horrendous. It’s pretty common for clubs to be ambivalent towards the league cup these days but Huddersfield Town seem to take that a step further into open hostility. While most fans would be delighted by the welcome distraction on a cup run, it always feels like the club are desperate to get eliminated at the first opportunity. The fact that this match is taking place today instead of in its usual midweek slot shows that Town m...

Jul282021 by Terrier Spirit14 Comments

Preseason optimism fizzles out at the seaside – Notes on the Fleetwood friendly

Matches

After feeling pretty chipper about Town's prospects after the friendly against Norwich, last night's defeat to Fleetwood caused me to recalibrate my expectations of what to expect from Town. While friendlies don't mean a great deal, the familiarity of Town's failings last night suggests that we're likely to see many of last season's problems repeated in the forthcoming campaign. Here are my thoughts on the game… Naby Sarr isn't as good as Colwill I don't like to single out individual players for criticism but Naby Sarr had a stinker in the first half last night. He got caught in possession all the time, slowed the game down by almost standing on the ball at times (though the options ahead of him weren't always great) and his passing was wayward even by hi...

Jul252021 by Terrier Spirit10 Comments

Beauty and the beast, Sorba steps up, grafting midfielders and the usual gripes – Notes on the Norwich friendly

Matches

My cat likes to catch mice and bring them into the house when they're half dead. He'll then play around with them for a while, having great fun while the poor defenseless creature suffers. That's the closest metaphor I can think of to compare our last meeting with Norwich. So it's not a huge surprise to see that most Town fans came away from this game happy to have only lost by two. Norwich were clearly the classier outfit but Town played with a good tempo and unsettled Norwich with our energy and high press. There was good stuff and not so good stuff on display from Town in this game, I'll try to talk about both below. We played some nice football but didn't create enough and made individual errors at the back The above summary of this game could probably apply to around two th...

Jul212021 by Terrier Spirit12 Comments

Huddersfield Town’s latest signing could hint towards future transfer plans

Transfers

Huddersfield Town signed Jon Russell for their B Team following his release from Chelsea earlier this summer. Despite being on loan at Accrington Stanley last season and playing first team football in League One he will initially start off in Jon Worthington's B Team rather than going straight into the first team. This acquisition might hint at the long-term plan to use the B Team to bed in players rather than spending money on established players that are ready for the first team. A bit like buying green bananas and ripening them yourself rather than buying ones that are ready to eat. Since Town revamped their youth system and got rid of their younger academy age groups they have relied on recruiting players from other club's academies but it's unusual for them to bring in player...

Jul192021 by Terrier Spirit10 Comments

Thoughts on the new boys, familiar concerns, players MIA and encouraging signs – Notes on the Southport friendly

Matches, News

After a few months of post-season rest I thought it might be useful to write an article about yesterday's friendly against Southport. At this stage in the season it's more about getting a few hundred words in the tank and getting back up to full blogging fitness. So don't expect anything too insightful or interesting from this article, I'm just trying to work my way back up to the, admittedly low, standards that I usually reach. And my lack of match fitness was abundantly clear when the first half literally sent me to sleep and I missed all of half time and the start of the second half. So apologies if the first ten minutes of that half completely contradicted the rest of the 90, I suspect it was more of the same but it could have featured Lewis O'Brien riding a pink elephant and Carlo...

May102021 by Terrier Spirit16 Comments

Huddersfield Town’s predicted retained list – who should stay and who will go?

Transfers

Huddersfield Town limped to the end of the season with a tepid draw against Reading. I can't tell you much more about it than that as I didn't bother watching the game. Instead I had a pub lunch in a soggy beer garden which was infinitely more entertaining. Now the season is over the first bit of business will be for Town to announce which players in the current squad will be offered new deals and which ones will be leaving the club. Here are my predictions. New deals Romoney Crichlow This first one is cheating a bit as he's already posted on social media about how he's looking forward to playing for Town next season. Arguably he's at an age where he needs regular first team football and Rarmani Edmonds-Green's success may limit his chances as we won't want to play ...

May52021 by Terrier Spirit14 Comments

Lewis O’Brien to Newcastle – A Huddersfield Town fan’s view on the rumoured transfer

Transfers

There have been numerous reports recently linking Huddersfield Town's Lewis O'Brien with a move to Newcastle United in the upcoming transfer window. I thought it to might be interesting to offer a Huddersfield Town fan's perspective to this potential move. O'Brien was last season's player of the year for Huddersfield Town and has played more minutes this season than most other members of the squad despite missing the opening month and a bit of the season due to injury. What are Lewis O'Brien's strengths? I think one of the best things about O'Brien is that he's such a hard-working player. Running stats are closely guarded by the club but I'd wager he covers more ground than the majority of players in any given game. His relentless running helps when attacking as he provides ove...

May42021 by Terrier Spirit15 Comments

Baffling formations, repeating mistakes, dissecting their goal, limping over the line and thinking about summer – Notes on Town’s 1-1 draw with Coventry

Matches, Opinion

It's a couple of days since Town's 1-1 draw with Coventry and it's already a struggle to remember anything of great consequence from the game. Despite this season being exceptional for off the pitch reasons, we had to sit through another unexceptional Town performance where a point was a little bit fortunate. All the usual problems reared their head during the game and it was only results elsewhere that guaranteed Town's safety. In previous seasons beating the drop had been something to celebrate but this time it's slightly embarrassing as it doesn't feel like we deserve to survive after a woeful 2021. Playing three or four different formations at once Could you confidently say what the formation was for Town on Saturday? I was preoccupied by this question for long spe...