Terrier Spirit

Jul192022 by Terrier Spirit13 Comments

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

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...

Jul182022 by Terrier SpiritNo Comments

Who are Sports Broker and should Huddersfield Town be in partnership with them?

Opinion

One of the most amusing trends of the summer has been the outrage from fans that has followed every new commercial partnership that the club has announced. While we’ve been desperately awaiting announcements of new signings the club has instead tried to keep us happy with updates of their latest sponsorship that they’ve managed to line up. There is literally no limit to the number of commercial partnerships that the club can arrange from official lubricant partners, taxi companies and, back in our Premier League heyday, Falconry Partners. But today I’m going to look a little deeper into our relationship with our ties with Sports Broker. We’ve been sponsored by Sports Broker for around a year now but this partnership was renewed and extended a few weeks ago, with the Sports Broker logo ...

Jul132022 by Terrier Spirit22 Comments

Carlos leaving, Schofield steps up, O’Brien and Toffolo going, Mooy returning rumours – Huddersfield Town roundup

Transfers

Despite it being a few weeks from the start of the football season, there has been a lot going on with Huddersfield Town in the past week, so I thought I’d write a bit of a roundup blogpost where I can get down my various thoughts on the last week or so of things that have been happening. I usually try to keep my articles around one particular theme but this one, I have to confess, is all over the place. Like a supermarket trolley with a mind of its own, I’m going to crash from one thing to the next. I’ll return to a more orderly approach to putting out blogposts shortly. I may even get around to writing the Mick Wadsworth in Africa article I’ve been talking about writing for so long. But for now, here’s my waffle on the latest Town news… Adios Carlos! What a shock! After the pl...

Jul72022 by Terrier Spirit2 Comments

What do MK Dons and Millwall fans think of Kasumu and Mahoney signing for Huddersfield Town?

News, Social media, Transfers

Huddersfield Town made their first signing of the summer fairly early and we’ve had to wait a seeming eternity for them to announce their second and third signings of the summer. But we’ve finally made a couple of acquisitions and I have something to write about! So I’ve pushed aside my plans to write an investigative piece about Mick Wadsworth's disastrous time in Africa and instead I’ve looked into what our new signings fans really think about them. In case you didn’t pick up the news yesterday, Town signed David Kasumu and Connor Mahoney yesterday. Both were free agents but as Kasumu is only 22 years old we have had to pay compensation to MK Dons for his development (someone on Twitter guessed £60,000 - which seems low but not crazy). I’ve waded through the online com...

Jun132022 by Terrier Spirit1 Comment

Rule change could be good news for Town’s glut of young talent

Opinion

It was announced last week that the upcoming Championship season will see teams allowed up to five substitutions to be made in any game. The rule change will allow teams make more changes to their lineups mid-game and the team that finishes the game will often only feature half of the outfield players that started the game. In this article I’m going to dig into why this change could be good news for Town’s younger players, particularly those that are close to breaking into the first team but aren’t quite there yet. What exactly are the new Championship rules on substitutions? The headline change is that you can now make five changes instead of three but it’s not quite that simple. You can still only stop the game for substitutions three times, so if you don’t make any...

Jun32022 by Terrier Spirit10 Comments

Where are the gaps in Huddersfield Town’s squad?

Transfers

Town have cleared the decks this week by letting go of their out-of-contract players and sending back loanees to their parent clubs. This means the squad is now a bit on the thin side, even when you add in the players returning from loans that might add something to the first team. In this article I’m going to look at the various areas of the pitch and try to identify where Town are light and where they have enough players. Here we go… Goalkeepers Lee Nicholls Ryan Schofield Youth options: Bilokopic / Chapman / Bellagambi At the start of the season just gone, I had my doubts about this area of the pitch, with Schofield wobbily and Nicholls unproven at Championship level. After one of the best seasons of any Town goalkeeper in my memory, Lee Nicholls has d...

Jun22022 by Terrier Spirit5 Comments

“The transfer went badly wrong” – Some thoughts on Huddersfield Town’s retained list

Transfers

As is tradition shortly after the end of the season, Huddersfield Town released their retained list yesterday. Very few players were offered new deals, with only Toffolo and Koroma being offered new deals and they were only one-year extensions on existing deals rather than proper new contracts. This list suggests that Town are planning to be busy in the transfer market this summer or intend to promote youngsters into the first team. It’s hard to be too objective about what this list means without seeing what we are going to replace these players with. It’s possible that we’ve already lined up high quality players to come in and improve the squad or maybe we’re just trying to trim the wage bill. We’ll know more by the end of the upcoming transfer window at the start of September. Ren...

Jun12022 by Terrier Spirit14 Comments

An out of shape ref, dodgy VAR, iffy tactics, subdued fans but something to build upon – Notes on Huddersfield Town’s play-off final defeat

Matches

I’ve been putting off writing this article because I’ve not wanted to dwell on Sunday’s game. Despite thinking before the game that I wasn’t too bothered about the outcome, defeat stung and the manner of the defeat even more so. Huddersfield Town lost the game 1-0 to a Levi Colwilll own goal but the match will be remembered for two penalty decisions that weren’t given to Town in the second half of the game despite VAR being available. VAR, bad decisions and conspiracy theories From my position in the stands I could see the contact when Toffolo went over and was surprised when Moss didn’t give the penalty. Then when the game paused for the review, I was certain we’d be given the penalty and was outraged that the video referee didn’t spot the contact between Colback and Toffo...

May292022 by Terrier SpiritNo Comments

5 key battles in today’s play-off final between Huddersfield Town and Nottingham Forest

Matches

The big day is finally here, Hudddersfiedl Town and Nottingham Forest fight it out for a place in the Premier League at half four today. Both teams have proven themselves to be more than capable over the course of the season and it should be a good game. Winning individual battles is a big part of how any game is decided and today is no different. Here are a few of the most important matchups in today’s game and how I think they will go. Lewis O'Brien v James Garner James Garner has all the expectation that comes with being a Manchester United youth player and clearly has potential to be a great in the future. Currently, I’m less convinced by him. He’s got touches of class about him but in the games I’ve seen him play against Town (including when we played Man United’...

May282022 by Terrier Spirit2 Comments

Predicted Huddersfield Town XI to take on Nottingham Forest tomorrow

Matches

It’s getting close now! After a very long wait and a lot of fussing about tickets, the playoff final is almost here. After 46 league games and two playoff semi-final matches, everything boils down to tomorrow’s winner-takes-all encounter against Nottingham Forest. Carlos said that he has a virtually fully fit squad to pick from for tomorrow’s game in his pre match press conference. If I’m honest, I’m not sure I believe him and he may just be keeping his cards close to his chest to avoid giving an advantage to Forest. But I’m going to take him at his word for the purposes of this predicted lineup and pick the players I think Carlos will pick if all the main players are fit. Goalkeeper: Lee Nicholls He’s been a hero for Town already this season and the stage is set for him to...