Terrier Spirit

Nov142022 by Terrier Spirit12 Comments

Passed to death, revealing xG stats, the table is weird and getting the World Cup break right – notes on Huddersfield Town’s draw with Swansea

Matches

Wins are always happy occasions, even if you have to win ugly, it’s always nice to take three points. Defeats are never nice, even if you play well and lose valiantly, you’ve still tasted failure and that’s hard to take. Draws are awkward though as you have to make up a story to go along with the point that you take away from the game. So some Town fans will have come away from the game against Swansea feeling happy about a battling performance where our injury ravaged side took a point from one of the league’s better teams and “on another day” (Fotheringham’s favourite post-match line) we could have taken all three. But other Town fans will have walked out of the stadium feeling frustrated at our lack of ambition and cutting edge in the final third, bemoaning how readily we allowed t...

Nov122022 by Terrier Spirit1 Comment

Predicted Huddersfield Town lineup, what to expect from Swansea and score prediction for today’s game

Matches

Huddersfield Town have their last game for a month today, as they host Swansea City at the John Smith’s Stadium. They will be hoping to put together back-to-back wins for the first time this season after Josh Ruffels' brace proved enough to come away with three points against QPR on Tuesday night. Victory today can’t pull Town out of the relegation zone but it can help them to finish this part of the season on a positive note and put leave with more than one point per game so far this season, which is usually enough to keep you up. Here’s my preview of today’s game… Predicted Huddersfield Town lineup There are some tough calls for Mark Fotheringham to make for today’s game. He’s already confirmed that Tom Lees will come straight back into the team now he’s back fro...

Nov92022 by Terrier Spirit12 Comments

The Josh Ruffels finishing school, understudies shine, QPR poor, goal dissected – Notes on Huddersfield Town’s first away win of the season

Matches

When Danny Ward spurned a presentable chance in the opening seconds of last night’s game and then QPR went straight up the other end and scored the opening goal it felt like it was going to be a long night for Town. And then it suddenly wasn’t. The script of recent weeks was torn up and instead of Town playing well but ultimately losing, they got their noses in front and then hung on until the final whistle. It wasn’t always pretty but Town deserved the three points for showing the character and nerve to dig in and resist relentless pressure from QPR. The second half was hard to watch from a Town perspective as we went long periods without meaningful possession but we stuck to our task and came away with three vital points and a renewed sense of hope. Here are a few of my thoughts o...

Nov72022 by Terrier Spirit5 Comments

Which loan players might Huddersfield Town recall in January?

Opinion, Transfers

Huddersfield Town are currently bottom of the league, riddled with injuries and looking League One in the face. As the club is currently up for sale it seems unlikely there will be a large war chest available for new blood in January, so another potential source of fresh faces could be to recall some of our youngsters who are currently out on loan. I thought it might be interesting to take a look to see which of the crop of loanees might be interesting to Mark Fotheringham, based on a combination of their stats for their loans so far and the gaps in the current Town squad. Here’s what I’ve found out… Ryan Schofield On loan at: Hibs Level: SPL Games played: 0 WhoScored.com average rating: N/A Stats: Number of times he’s warmed the bench: 9 He was sign...

Nov62022 by Terrier Spirit8 Comments

Trying to find positives, goal drought, Fotheringham’s tunnel exit, mounting pressure and looking ahead – Notes on Huddersfield Town’s defeat to Blackburn

Matches

Huddersfield Town lost 1-0 to Blackburn yesterday afternoon in a game that was frustratingly similar to their recent outings, where they actually played pretty well for long spells of the game but a lack of cutting edge up front and a momentary lapse at the back meant they left Ewood Park empty handed. There’s no point talking about what Town deserved or not from this game because you only win games by scoring goals and Town’s players are currently showing a complete inability to get the ball into the back of the net and it’s causing us a great deal of pain at the moment and could ultimately cost us our place in the Championship. But yet, we went away from home with a weakened team and went toe-to-toe with one of the division’s best teams for 90 minutes and looked pretty...

Nov52022 by Terrier Spirit6 Comments

Predicted lineup and preview for Huddersfield Town’s trip to Blackburn

Matches

Huddersfield Town’s hectic pre-World Cup fixture run continues later today when they take the short journey over the Pennines to play near-neighbours, Blackburn. This War of the Roses clash sees our Lancastrian foes come into the game in better form than Town, sitting in second in the table compared to our bottom position. Add to that the fact that Town are currently ravaged by injuries and it’s hard to be too optimistic for this game. But there were still glimmers of hope in Town’s defeat to Sunderland on Wednesday night. Despite still lacking cutting edge in front of goal, Town fought hard and had spells where they played some nice football. The youngsters that stepped up to fill the gaps created by injured senior players also did well too. Sadly, the games key moments were really decid...

Nov32022 by Terrier Spirit10 Comments

A whole season in 90 minutes, Mackem’s quality, injury woes, Town’s youth shines, slow transitions, bleak future – Notes on defeat to Sunderland

Matches

Huddersfield Town stay stuck at the bottom of the table after defeat to Sunderland last night. Injuries and suspension forced them to field a weakened team and despite battling valiantly in horrendous conditions, they were second best against a Sunderland side that weren’t a great deal better than Town but possessed just enough quality to finish us off. More worrying still, after losing Ollie Turton to long-term injury and Tom Lees to injury before this game, we also saw Yuta Nakayama and Ben Jackson both stretchered off, both looking distraught. Hopefully the prognosis will be positive once they get properly checked over but neither injury looks good, which is particularly heartbreaking for Nakayama with the World Cup just around the corner. Here are a few more of my thoughts...

Nov22022 by Terrier Spirit4 Comments

Predicted Huddersfield Town XI to take on Sunderland

Matches

Huddersfield Town take on Sunderland this evening and will be hoping to extend their unbeaten run to three games. Strangely, it is the first time we have played Sunderland in the league this century, with our only encounter this side of the millennium celebrations coming in a league cup encounter that Town won back in 2003 despite being several leagues below the Mackems at the time. Tonight’s game should be a closely fought encounter with both sides finding themselves in the bottom half of the Championship. After Town’s decent display against Millwall at the weekend though, it’s possible to feel a bit more optimistic about our chances tonight. However, Sorba Thomas will miss the match through suspension after picking up his fifth yellow card of the season on Saturday (most have been for o...

Nov12022 by Terrier Spirit2 Comments

The Fotheringham Way, shooting boots, towel drama, making Millwall bad & table climbing – notes on Town’s win over Millwall

Matches

Huddersfield Town beat Millwall on Saturday and given it was such a good result for the Terriers, I’m going to write another article to dig into what went on. While there will be better performances for Town this season, there most likely won't be one that comes as more of a surprise as we turned a spell of indifferent form into a decent performance that warranted a win against a team that had won their last four games. The next challenge is for Town to build on their hard-fought draw at Middlesbrough and impressive win against Millwall and turn it into a proper run of good form. If they can do that then they may well pull themselves clear of the relegation zone before the World Cup break comes in a few weeks' time. That would be a lovely pre-Christmas present for fans. But before we get ...

Oct312022 by Terrier Spirit3 Comments

“The closest thing we have to a Lewis O’Brien replacement” – Player ratings for Huddersfield Town’s win over Millwall

Matches

After I confidently predictee defeat before the game, regular readers of this blog will have not been surprised to have seen Huddersfield Town’s players make me look silly. On Saturday afternoon Town put in a performance that few saw coming and outplayed Millwall for 90 minutes and came out worthy winners, even if it took a goal that required an outrageous piece of fortune to win the game for the Terriers. While Millwall fans might curse the circumstances that led to the winning goal, few will argue that Town were the better team on the day and, if anything, I think 1-0 flattered the London team and Town really should have converted their dominant spells into a more commanding lead. That minor quibble aside, it was an excellent afternoon’s work for Town, so expect generous scores to f...