Terrier Spirit

Jul282022 by Terrier Spirit8 Comments

We’re doomed! 6 reasons to feel pessimistic about Huddersfield chances this season

Opinion

After getting your hope up with my optimistic preview yesterday, it's time to bring you back down to Earth with a thunk with my pessimistic look ahead to Huddersfield Town's 22/23 Championship season. If you're anything like the typical Town fan you'll feel much more at home among the misery and cynicism anyway. Those rare moments of success feel bewildering and almost threatening, much better the familiar and almost comforting gloom that tends to gather over Town Dan's faces when the subject of our club's fates come up. You don't have to be miserable to be a Town fan but it helps! I'm exaggerating but it does sometimes feel like it's better to expect the worst with Huddersfield Town so then at least it's not a surprise I'd things end badly. While we have had our moments...

Jul272022 by Terrier Spirit2 Comments

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

Opinion

We’re just a couple of days away from the new season starting so I thought I’d look ahead to what we have in store. Rather than try to write one balanced season preview article I’ve split my personality in two and written one that is completely miserable and one that is much more positive. This is the happy clappy, pollyanna one, that looks towards the sunny side of the street and tries to squeeze the positives out of our current situation. The negative preview will be out later. As an interesting aside, I’ve done this double preview approach over the last few seasons and the negative article usually gets about twice as many views as the positive one. So the next time you complain about how miserable the media are you should really blame yourself for clicking all that negative bile rat...

Jul262022 by Terrier Spirit5 Comments

Predicted 22/23 Championship table

Opinion

It seems like an act of pointless vanity to try and predict the league table before a ball has been kicked but it’s also a bit of fun and passes the time while we wait for the big kickoff on Friday. So here are my thoughts on what I think will happen in the Championship this season. Feel free to bookmark this post and come back to it in May next year when none of my predictions have come true so you can laugh at me. Then again, by May 2023 the robot uprising may well have taken place and we’ll no doubt look back with teary-eyed nostalgia at the times when we had the opportunity to think about football rather than spend every waking moment working for our robot masters. Anyway, on with the predictions! The top two - Norwich and Middlesbrough Norwich are pretty boring at this...

Jul252022 by Terrier Spirit1 Comment

Are Huddersfield Town unprepared for the start of the new season?

Opinion

Huddersfield Town concluded their preseason campaign at the weekend with a 4-1 victory at Tranmere Rovers with their second team and a 1-1 draw against Bolton with their, in theory, strongest team - though Bolton’s late equaliser came in the dying moments of the game when nearly half half the senior players had been subbed and replaced by the kids on the bench. Preseasons are notoriously difficult to use as indicators for the prospects for the season ahead but it’s literally all we have to go on until Town play Burnley on Friday of this week, so I thought I’d chew over some of my thoughts about the preseason campaign in general. Too short, not ambitious but probably fine Because Huddersfield Town’s 2021/22 ran for around a month longer than everyone else’s due to our playof...

Jul232022 by Terrier SpiritNo Comments

Which Huddersfield Town players are in the last year of their contract?

Matches, Player profiles, Transfers

Maybe it’s a bit early to be worrying about it, but a number of Huddersfield Town’s squad are entering into their final year of their contract this season. That means next could see more churn within the squad unless the people behind the scenes at the club are able to tie down key players to new deals. Or, looking at it from another perspective, some players that haven’t done enough or that have reached the twilight of their careers will be allowed to leave so we can recruit better replacements. There’s also the phenomena to consider that I like to call the “Simon Baldry effect” which is when a player that has previously been pretty average suddenly starts playing like a world beater when their contract is a few months away from ending to earn themselves a new deal before reverting ba...

Jul222022 by Terrier Spirit3 Comments

There are gaps in Huddersfield Town’s squad – here’s where they are

Transfers

Now we're only one week away from the start of the Championship season open against Burnley in front of the Sky cameras, I thought it might be interesting to see what shape the squad is in. Here's a quick look at how each position in the squad is looking. Goalkeeper NichollsSchofieldBilokapic / Chapman / Bellagambi / Roxburgh Obviously our first choice is superb but then the remaining options are a bit of a worry. It may be one or more of the B Team lads are ready to step up to be the main cover for Nicholls but otherwise we need senior backup before the season starts as Schofield hasn't been seen in preseason. I presume he's not recovered from the injury he had last season but this hasn't been officially confirmed by the club. Right back Ollie Turto...

Jul212022 by Terrier SpiritNo Comments

One of Huddersfield Town’s friendlies will be streamed online

Matches

Huddersfield Town's friendly against Tranmere Rovers is going to be streamed by Tranmere Rovers on their Facebook page on Saturday afternoon at 12 noon. Obviously it'll be much better to make the trip across the Pennines to cheer the Terriers on in person but for many fans that can't make the journey, it will be nice to be able to watch on from afar and see some new and familiar face lineup in a warm up match ahead of the new season. The stream is being organised by Tranmere Rovers, is being broadcast through their Facebook channel and they require a £5 donation to their "Nate's Tickets" scheme (more of the this below). How can I watch the stream It's pretty straight forward. You click on this link to go to Facebook and then click the big blue Get Access button and it'll take yo...

Jul212022 by Terrier Spirit6 Comments

How will Huddersfield Town replace O’Brien and Toffolo?

Transfers

After months of speculation, I found it was actually a relief when Lewis O’Brien and Harry Toffolo’s transfer to Nottingham Forest were finally officially announced yesterday afternoon. While I didn’t like seeing two of my favourite recent Town players gurning for the camera in the shirts of our recent rivals, it’s good that the saga is now over and we can move on to thinking about what happens next for Huddersfield Town. That’s exactly what I’m going to focus on in this article, how do Huddersfield Town move forward now we’ve sold two of our best players? I know many fans expect the club to go out into the transfer market and spend big on replacements but the club’s statement on Lewis O’Brien leaving pretty much confirmed we won’t be doing that: “We knew that we could realistically lo...

Jul202022 by Terrier Spirit3 Comments

What can Nottingham Forest fans expect from Harry Toffolo – A Huddersfield Town fan’s view

Player profiles, Transfers

After a tumultuous day of rumours regarding the O'Brien and Toffolo transfers to Nottingham Forest yesterday, it now seems likely that these moves are back on again. So after talking about what Forest fans can expect from Lewis O’Brien yesterday, it seems logical to do the same today about Harry Toffolo. The goings on yesterday may give some Forest fans that Toffolo is a bit of a diva, given the leaks in the press suggested it was Toffolo’s personal demands that nearly derailed both his and O’Brien’s transfers, but I’d say that Toffolo is one of the most professional and decent footballers I’ve ever come across. Perhaps this is a low bar to clear given the low moral standard of the average footballer but Harry Toffolo has always been nothing but a true gentlemen and model p...

Jul192022 by Terrier Spirit13 Comments

What can Nottingham Forest fans expect from Lewis O’Brien? A Huddersfield Town fan’s view

Player profiles, Transfers

At the time of writing it's not official but it seems increasingly likely that Lewis O'Brien will shortly both be confirmed as a Nottingham Forest player (alongside his best friend Harry Toffolo). It stings that our best player will be leaving us for the team that knocked us out in the playoff final, but we’ll be getting a transfer fee that’s rumoured to be in the region of £10m for him and it has been clear for over a year now that he was heading towards the Premier League, with or without Town. I’m going to look at Lewis O’Brien’s strengths, weaknesses, how he’s likely to fit in at Nottingham Forest and whether this is a good move for all the different parties involved. What are Lewis O’Brien’s strengths? There are a few things that Lewis O’Brien does incredibly well. The...