Terrier Spirit

Apr62024 by Terrier Spirit3 Comments

Huddersfield Town v Millwall – predicted Town XI, opposition preview and guessing the score

Matches

Must-win is an overused term in football these days but I think Huddersfield Town’s match against Millwall today is one that has potential to define their season. Victory could set them on course for survival and anything else leaves them with a very tricky task with five games remaining. It probably isn't over for Town if they lose but negative results elsewhere and the morale sapping impact a home defeat to a fellow struggler could mean League One would beckon. On a positive note, victory would give Town a decent chance of pulling out of the relegation zone given Birmingham face Leicester today and either way it will leave them with a more achievable points target from the remaining fixtures in the season, not to mention the fact it keeps Millwall within touching distance too. ...

Apr32024 by Terrier Spirit4 Comments

Huddersfield Town falter in the Potteries – Notes on Town’s draw against Stoke

Matches

Town experienced their 12th 1-1 draw of the season against Stoke on Monday. It seems incredibly unlikely that one scoreline would turn up with such regularity in a season (the next most common scoreline is a 4-1 defeat, which has happened four times). Whether drawing so frequently is a good or a bad thing will depend if Town can scrape themselves over the line by the end of the season. Just like yesterday’s game against Stoke will either be a valuable point away from home or two dropped against poor opposition depending on which side of the dotted line we finish. After domestic complications forced a hiatus from blogging for the last few months (practical rather than anything more worrying) I'm now back and hopefully will be able to post more often during Town's attempts to stave...

Jan32024 by Terrier Spirit4 Comments

Sloppy goals, upward curves, dull but talented Foxes, and transfer needs – notes on Huddersfield Town’s defeat to Leicester

Matches

Huddersfield Town were soundly beaten by Leicester City yesterday, and I'm not sure there's a lot we can draw from a 4-1 scoreline against a team that are in the wrong league and are certain to be promoted as champions unless they implode between now and May. While Town were far from perfect, particularly in the individual moments that led to the goals, this game was such a mis-match that it's not much of a concern compared to other defeats we have suffered. A bit too easy for Leicester Having tried to keep some perspective in the introduction, it was a bit galling to watch Leicester toy with Town in much the same way that my cat plays with the half-dead mice it brings through the cat flap. My cat will disinterestedly bat around his prey for a while, bored and hoping to see a bit of...

Jan32024 by Terrier Spirit3 Comments

Who is Alex Matos and will he be a good signing for Huddersfield Town?

Transfers

I was just about to publish my article about Town's defeat to Leicester on New Year's Day when I saw Town are on the verge of making their first January signing, so I've decided to write about that first and will put up the post about Monday's game later today. Apparently we're about to sign 19-year-old Chelsea winger, Alex Matos on loan for the rest of the season. I wouldn't usually write about unconfirmed transfer rumours but this one has been put out by Fabrizio Ramono on Twitter (or X if you prefer) who is usually fairly reliable. Or at least, I doubt someone who typically breaks stories of ginormous transfers would bother making up stories about a Chelsea youth player going to a struggling Championship side, so it seems likely to be true. It's also been picked up and reported by t...

Dec292023 by Terrier Spirit6 Comments

Huddersfield Town made Blackburn look bad, the positives of negative football, Rudoni’s influence, Chapman’s debut – Notes on a great win against Blackburn

Matches

Huddersfield Town gave their fans an expected Christmas present of not just three points but a resounding 3-0 victory and a convincing performance that few fans saw coming. It was a welcome relief from the gathering gloom that had settled around the club to see the team effectively dismantle an (admittedly poor) opponent and execute a gameplay with ruthless efficiency. One win might not be enough to undo all the memories of recent failings at Town but it was certainly a welcome break from the dreary and depressing fare that has recently been served up. This win also gives optimists and dreamers the chance to wonder what this win could lead to. Maybe not much but there's always a chance it could be the start of things finally picking up for Town. Blackburn were rubbish but only becau...

Dec232023 by Terrier Spirit6 Comments

Predicted Huddersfield Town XI, Norwich preview and pessimistic score prediction for today’s game

Matches

Huddersfield Town are in Norwich today where they'll be hoping to give fans the Christmas gift of three points but David Wagner and his band of former Town coaches will be trying to make sure that the Terriers leave Carrow Road with little more than a lump of coal in their stocking. To stretch this Christmas themed introduction to breaking point, Town fans are also still making their minds up about whether Darren Moore is on their Naughty or Nice List - with a growing number finding his style of football, uninspiring press performances and failure to register enough wins making him a prime candidate for Santa's naughty list and an imminent P45. A hectic pre-Christmas week meant I didn't get time to do a dedicated article to reflect on the Millwall game, so I'll share a few of my ...

Dec162023 by Terrier Spirit21 Comments

Kevin Nagle’s Tweet and 4 other pressures on Darren Moore ahead of Huddersfield Town’s Millwall trip

Matches, Opinion

Today Huddersfield Town will take on Millwall at The Den and while it's never a pleasant place to try and get a result, Darren Moore is likely to feel that the hostility from the Millwall fans is nothing compared to the hostility he is getting from all other directions at the moment. In this article, I'm going to take a look at all the different ways Huddersfield Town's manager is currently being put under pressure. Kevin Nagle and his itchy tweeting finger Kevin Nagle took to Twitter (I can't bring myself to call it X) to address the concerns of fans following our defeat to PNE in midweek. While the performance and result on Tuesday were obviously sub-par, the tone of Kevin's tweet was probably more damning than Moore deserved given it was the team's first defeat in five games and ...

Dec92023 by Terrier Spirit6 Comments

Predicted Huddersfield Town lineup, Bristol City preview and score prediction for today’s game

Matches

Huddersfield Town take on Bristol City this afternoon and will be hoping to extend their three-game unbeaten run. Today should be a good test for Town, as we’re up against a team that are decent enough (they’re above Town in the table after all) but are far from world beaters. It feels like we have had to think a lot about the opposition in our recent games and account for their strengths and counteract them but this may be a game where we have an opportunity to assert ourselves a bit more and potentially even dominate possession for spells, which would be a novelty after three games of possession stats in the low twenties. Games in the Championship never go how you expect though, and it’s often the games you earmark as easier that prove the hardest. I mentioned in my article yesterday...

Dec82023 by Terrier Spirit8 Comments

5 big talking points ahead of Huddersfield Town’s game against Bristol City

Matches

I’m back! Apologies for my unannounced break. After a hiatus in November to work on a novel, I’m now writing about Town again. I’m now back to regular and potentially even more frequent service. So it’s going to be the action on the football pitch creating the drama, Huddersfield Town as the protagonists, the plot twists coming from the goals and the referees most likely being the villains. Over the next few weeks I’m going to be experimenting with a few new article formats using a similar principle to throwing mud at the wall and seeing what sticks. So in advance of tomorrow’s game against Bristol City, I thought it might be interesting to look at what big talking points there are ahead of this game, from a Town perspective. Feel free to chip in with your comments below. Anot...

Nov42023 by Terrier Spirit5 Comments

Predicted Huddersfield Town XI, Watford’s changes, Moore’s downbeat presser & unusual score prediction – PREVIEW

Matches

I’m usually fairly balanced in my opinions about Town, I’m typically somewhere in between the happy clappers who can never find any fault with the club and the doom mongers that will look for misery in even the most joyful moments (though I’m pretty sure long-term readers will probably disagree with my self-assessment). However, right now, it’s hard to be anything but glum about Town’s current prospects heading into their game against Watford later today. While Watford are only 16th in the table, just five places above Town and we have home advantage, it’s hard to overlook the fact that we’ve been spanked 4-0 and 4-1 in our last two games. Add to that our ever-growing injury list, Jonathan Hogg’s suspension from this game, the rift that seems to be growing between the fans and th...