Blog – Page 19 – Terrier Spirit – Huddersfield Town FC blog

Jul72022 by Terrier Spirit2 Comments

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

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...

May262022 by Terrier Spirit7 Comments

6 reasons to feel confident about Huddersfield Town’s chances in the playoff final

Matches

It’s not long now until Huddersfield Town and Nottingham Forest take to the field at the national stadium to fight it out for a place in the Premier League. Despite not being too bothered about going up, I do desperately want Town to win the game anyway. I can’t explain these contradictory feelings but have accepted them now. The bookies fancy Nottingham Forest and the national media have focussed mainly on them for their build up. I don’t particularly care about either of these things but I thought I might redress the balance by writing about why I think Town may have a good chance on Sunday. To be clear though, I’m writing this from the perspective of trying to convince myself that we’ll win, not from a position of arrogant expectation. Town are good at making games tight an...

May252022 by Terrier Spirit3 Comments

Town fans beware: Sneaky Forest fans are trying to get tickets in our side of Wembley

News, Opinion

Notthingham Forest have sold out their allocation for the playoff final on Sunday and many of their fans have been left without a ticket. Some of these frustrated fans are living up to their nickname of the Tricky Trees, as they have taken to social media to try and con Huddersfield Town fans into buying them tickets. We have not yet sold out our allocation and tickets are on general sale for anyone who wants one, with one significant caveat. You can only buy a ticket in the Town end if you have previous booking history on the Huddersfield Town system. This measure is there to weed out cheeky Forest fans, though many are trying to circumvent this by getting Town fans to buy them tickets. Why are Forest fans trying to get tickets in the Huddersfield Town end of Wembley? There have...

May222022 by Terrier Spirit4 Comments

A Wembley myth – Town and Forest’s players have nothing to fear with the pitch

News, Opinion

I can’t count the number of times that I’ve heard people talk about the intimidating size of the Wembley pitch. The energy-sapping nature of covering all that extra ground compared to the piddly size of a regular pitch. How defensive teams struggle to cover the extra space in behind them on the mammoth pitch at Wembley. But it’s just not true. The dimensions of the pitch at Wembley are actually very similar to just about every other pitch at major English football grounds. I find it a bit strange that there’s any latitude at all in pitch dimensions, though it does allow clubs to have even more of a home advantage by customising the size of their pitch to their style of play. While pitch sizes do vary from one ground to the next, Wembley stadium is completely average when compared t...