Terrier Spirit

Jul232024 by Terrier Spirit9 Comments

Avoidable goals, moments of quality, sluggish selection & vulnerabilities exposed – Notes on Huddersfield Town’s 4-2 loss to Aris Limassol

Matches

Huddersfield Town fell to their first defeat of their preseason yesterday when they lost 4-2 to Aris Limassol in Austria. While obviously we all know that the results of friendlies aren't all that important, someone needs to tell that to Michael Duff's face, as he was clearly unhappy in his post-match interview with the club's media team. He was frustrated with the goals the team conceded and the performances levels though offered some insight into why Town didn't reach the levels we might have expected. Aris Limassol were a decent opponent. Being a top Cypriot team doesn't sound like much to brag about but they actually were a very decent team and looking back on their recent history shows they played Rangers in Europe last season and beat them at home and drew away with them. So goin...

Jul212024 by Terrier Spirit21 Comments

Huddersfield Town’s Austria squad: who are the winners and losers?

Opinion

Photo by Brian de Karma on Pexels.com Huddersfield Town have arrived in Austria for their nine-day pre-season trip to Austria. The club have been keen to emphasise this trip to a spa resort will not be particularly relaxing for the playing staff that are out in the Austrian mountains, as they will be subjecting to a gruelling routine of double training sessions and psychological torment* (*they didn’t actually mention anything about psychological torment, I just inferred that from the context of the article). Michael Duff has made some ruthless decisions in selecting his 27-man squad to take to Austria. In doing so, it’s the first clear indication of which players have impressed him so far in preseason and which ones are unlikely to be in his plans for the coming season. In t...

Jul152024 by Terrier Spirit9 Comments

Battle of the HTAFCs – Notes on Huddersfield Town’s 3-2 friendly win against Harrogate Town

Matches

Huddersfield Town notched up their third preseason victory on Saturday with a 3-2 victory over Harrogate Town in a friendly win that was far more one sided than the scoreline suggests. Town played some decent football and showed some glimmers of real quality and structure alongside the usual preseason clunkiness that you expect in these games. The positive afternoon's work was marred by the late injury to Radinio Balker, who was stretchered off after going down awkwardly as he tidied up a loose ball. As we've seen in the previous two friendlies, there were wholesale changes to the team in this match, with a completely different eleven coming out in the second half. Hopefully we'll soon see players going beyond 45 minutes in a game but in the time the players had on the pitch, I t...

Jul82024 by Terrier SpiritNo Comments

Michael Duff’s system starts to take shape – Notes on Huddersfield Town’s 7-0 friendly win at Guiseley

Matches

Huddersfield Town had another emphatic friendly win on Saturday, brushing aside Guiseley 7-0 in their second warm up game of the preseason after beating Emley 5-0 last weeekend. Obviously the result was secondary but the game provided a reasonable workout for the Terriers and a step up in exertion, as the first teamers played a full half of football each, having only played for 30 minutes a piece last weekend. There were some signs of Michael Duff's tactical work starting to bed in with the team too and the positions and attacking shapes seemed to be following a particular plan which I suspect we'll see a lot more of in the season to come. In this article I'll wring whatever talking points I can from a game where we battered a team that are several steps below us i...

Jul52024 by Terrier Spirit20 Comments

Antony Evans – Who is he, what do Bristol Rovers fans think of him and how will he fit in at Huddersfield Town?

Player profiles, Transfers

Antony Evans has become Huddersfield Town's fourth summer signing after his arrival from Bristol Rovers for an undisclosed fee (believed to be £450,000). He joins Lasse Sorensen, Mickel Miller and Herbie Kane as the club continue to build a squad that they hope will give Michael Duff the tools he needs to mount a promotion tilt in the coming campaign. And, it has to be said, the quality of the signings and fact they're coming in relatively early in preseason, bodes well for Town. Evans is Bristol Rovers reigning Player of the Season and is highly rated by their fans. So it seems like we've got a very promising player on our hands. In this article I'll dig a little bit deeper on our newboy. What is Antony Evans’ history? Evans came up through Everton’s youth ranks, playing i...

Jul42024 by Terrier Spirit13 Comments

Herbie Kane – Who is he, what do Barnsley fans think of him and how will he fit in at Huddersfield Town?

Player profiles, Transfers

Huddersfield Town have signed central midfielder and part-time Phil Collins impersonator, Herbie Kane on a free transfer following his contract expiring at Barnsley. Despite bearing a striking resemblance to the singer/drummer from Genesis (someone on Down At The Mac pointed it out and I can't unsee it now), this looks like a great signing for Town. So with no legitimate concerns about this bit of business it leaves unfortunate bloggers like me little material to write about oth(er than personal remarks about the player's physical appearance. We’ve been crying out for some creativity in the middle of the park for years and it seems like this signing could bring it. We also have a head coach that can get the best out of him too, as Duff worked with Kane at Barnsley two seasons ago...

Jul22024 by Terrier Spirit13 Comments

Mickel Miller – Who is he, what do Plymouth fans think and is he a good signing for Huddersfield Town?

Player profiles, Transfers

Huddersfield Town announced their second summer signing yesterday evening. Not Alfie May, the Charlton striker we’ve been linked with for weeks but are now likely to lose out on to Birmingham after they turned on the money hose and we were shut out of the deal. The new signing is Mickel Miller, a left wingback who arrives as a free agent after running down his contract at Plymouth. The twenty-eight-year-old arrives on a two-year contract after turning down a new deal at his previous club and rejecting interest from others, reportedly including other Championship teams. In terms of his credentials, he’s won promotion from League One twice, with Rotherham and Plymouth and then played a good number of games last season in the Championship too. There are, however, a few question mark...

Jun302024 by Terrier Spirit10 Comments

33 players used for Town – some good but others less so & 6 missing without explanation – Notes on Huddersfield Town’s 5-0 friendly win over Emley

Matches

If, for some bizarre reason, you measured value in a football match by the number of players you saw on the pitch then the game between Emley and Huddersfield Town would have felt like a feast. The home team swapped their entire team at half time, fielding 22 players but Town went one better, switching their full lineup every half hour and getting through 33 players. So 55 players were involved in this match in total. So for those that attended in person and paid the £15 entrance fee, you only paid just over 27p per player watched - very good value if that's what you're interested in. Or 0p ppw if you watched it on the live stream on YouTube. Obviously, the huge number of players involved, the very early stage of preseason and the difference in ability between the two teams didn't con...

Jun292024 by Terrier Spirit7 Comments

Alfie May… or may not sign, training returns, Sorba’s narrative, home kit, first friendly & Kev’s gesture – A Hudersfield Town roundup

News

The bit after the season ends and before the next season starts is always a slow period for Town related stuff. But now we're entering into preseason the trickle of Town news is now starting to accelerate. So to celebrate, I thought I'd do an article to summarise my thoughts on the recent Town-related goings on. There isn't really a theme to all this stuff, it's just everything that I've nearly, but not quite written a dedicated article about in the last week or two. Now we're into preseason and the transfer market is hotting up so there should be more to write about in the coming weeks. But for now, here's my roundup of all the recent Huddersfield Town news. Alfie May… or may not sign for Town I had a whole section written about Alfie May's potential transfer being up in t...

Jun182024 by Terrier Spirit3 Comments

Who is Lasse Sorensen and will he be any good for Huddersfield Town?

Transfers

Huddersfield Town are currently being heavily linked with Lincoln City wingback Lasse Sorensen. And not the kind of wishful thinking rumour, dreamed up by a 14-year-old who opened a Twitter account last week, more the sort of rumour that gets out because he's done his medical and is about to be announced. Though any transfer can fall apart at any stage until it's officially announced I suppose, but this seems more all but certain to be confirmed in the next few hours, if it hasn't already by the time you read this introduction. In this article I'll dig into who Lasse Sorensen is, imagine how he will fit in at Town and comment on whether it's a good signing for the new-look Terriers going into our first season back in League One. Who is Lasse Sorensen? Sorensen played youth footb...