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Predicted lineups

Predicted Huddersfield Town XI to take on Bromley

Predicted Huddersfield Town XI to take on Bromley

Matches, Predicted lineups
Huddersfield Town head to Bromley on Saturday afternoon. It’s the first ever time the two teams have met in a competitive game, which is hardly a surprise given that Bromley’s first season in the football league came in 2024. More surprising is that Bromley were founded in 1892, so have a longer history than Huddersfield Town (founded in 1908) even if they've spent the vast majority of their time at non-league and amateur regional league level. It's not all that long since Huddersfield Town were in the Premier League and playing against the likes of Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool, so it feels a bit sad that we're now facing up against Bromley FC. Though, I remember the smug and patronising comments bigger teams’ fans made about us in those Premier League years, so it's worth p...
Predicted Huddersfield Town XI to take on Mansfield Town and pre-match talking points

Predicted Huddersfield Town XI to take on Mansfield Town and pre-match talking points

Predicted lineups
Huddersfield Town take on Mansfield Town this afternoon and will be hoping to continue their unbeaten start to the season. Mansfield have won two and lost three of their opening five league games this season, among those results, a 5-2 win over Luton showed they're a threat but their 5-0 defeat against Reading suggests they've also got significant weaknesses.  Martin Drury may have had his selection choices complicated for this game by some decent performances by backup players in the midweek game against Doncaster Rovers in the EFL Trophy. As well as a preview of today's game, I'll also look back in the 3-1 win over Doncaster.  Before that, here's my predicted XI for today's match… Predicted Huddersfield Town team to play Mansfield  Goalkeeper: Young Defence:...
Predicted Huddersfield Town lineup to take on Doncaster Rovers in the EFL Trophy and 5 reasons to bother watching

Predicted Huddersfield Town lineup to take on Doncaster Rovers in the EFL Trophy and 5 reasons to bother watching

Matches, Predicted lineups, Talking points
Huddersfield Town launch their EFL Trophy campaign tonight when they travel to Doncaster Rovers for their first group stage fixture. It's easy to ignore these games and focus on the more serious business of the league but I'll talk later about why I think these cup games can be a good thing.  Before that, here's who I think Martin Drury will pick for tonight's fixture. I'm assuming he'll use the match as a chance to keep our fringe senior players match fit and to blood a few youngsters who have potential to break into the real first team at some point in the future. Goalkeeper: Alnwick Some managers prefer to keep their first choice in the team for the cup games but the majority give their backup options a run out. It was Jak Alnwick on the bench on Saturday, so I presume he's the...
Predicted Huddersfield Town XI to take on Notts County and pre-match talking points

Predicted Huddersfield Town XI to take on Notts County and pre-match talking points

Matches, Predicted lineups, Talking points
Huddersfield Town host Notts County on Saturday afternoon and will be hoping to extend their unbeaten start to the season and to strengthen their position at the top of the League One table. I used to think league tables were pointless so early in a new season but now I think they're very very useful and relevant. Town being top may have been a factor in my change of heart.  Our opponents in this game are also unbeaten in the league so far, with three draws and one win. Two of those draws were against Luton and Leicester, so they've proven they can get results from the leagues most fancied teams.  Here's my prediction of our starting eleven and a few pre-match talking points.  Predicted lineup Goalkeeper: Young Defenders: Bronkhorst, Balker, Wallace, Bowat ...
Predicted Huddersfield Town XI to take on Oxford United

Predicted Huddersfield Town XI to take on Oxford United

Matches, Predicted lineups
Huddersfield Town started the season with a double-header against Wimbledon and the team that stole their old club's place in the league, MK Dons. The following two fixtures of our season see Town in a double-header against places better known for their universities than their football teams, with last Saturday's trip to Cambridge and tonight's visit of Oxford.  This fact isn't related to football, but I was surprised to see that Huddersfield University has almost as many students (20,000ish) as Cambridge (25,000ish) and Oxford(27,000). So if you judge a university's quality purely on the number of students studying there, we're not actually that far behind these more established university towns. Apologies for the weird digression, here's the predicted lineup…  Goalkeeper:...
Predicted Huddersfield Town XI to take on Cambridge United

Predicted Huddersfield Town XI to take on Cambridge United

Matches, Predicted lineups
Huddersfield Town take on Cambridge United on Saturday afternoon and will hope that they can continue their unbeaten start in League One. We're still finding out what kind of team Martin Drury's Huddersfield Town are going to be this season but the early indicators are promising with a few nagging doubts.  The attacking side of Town's game has been particularly impressive, with Fletcher being the exact kind of striker we've been missing for years, Fernandes looking like an exciting player with genuine goal threat and Joe Taylor suddenly looks like the player we hoped he would be when we first signed him. In defence of Taylor, Drury is the first manager to play to Taylor's strengths, so it's not exactly a surprise that he's looking more dangerous when the service he's receiving helps him...
Predicted Huddersfield Town lineup to play MK Dons and pre-match talking points

Predicted Huddersfield Town lineup to play MK Dons and pre-match talking points

Matches, Predicted lineups, Talking points
Huddersfield Town head to Milton Keynes on Saturday afternoon for their first away trip of the season. The fixture computer has thrown up a strange one-two combination for our opening games, with last weekend featuring AFC Wimbledon and this weekend seeing Town take on the town that bought the old Wimbledon club and moved them up to Milton Keynes. The sort of franchise move is relatively common in the US but it feels wrong in England, even if it did take place decades ago. After a marvelous opening day victory against Wimbledon last weekend, Town will be looking to build upon that with their first away points of the season. MK Dons are likely to be a tricky opponent though and should provide a stern test for Martin Drury's Town team. Rather than only doing a predicted lineup, I've wr...
Predicted Huddersfield Town XI to take on AFC Wimbledon

Predicted Huddersfield Town XI to take on AFC Wimbledon

Predicted lineups
Huddersfield Town open up their League One campaign on Saturday afternoon, when they take on AFC Wimbledon at the Accu Stadium. After blowing a 1-0 lead in injury time against Preston North End last week, Town will be hoping to put their Carabao Cup exit behind them with a positive result against AFC Wimbledon. In all honesty, few people would have been that bothered about losing in the league cup apart from the fact it was another game where we conceded a late goal from a winning position. Wimbledon aren't a hugely fancied team in League One but they are a physical side that will fight hard, so Town will have to win their battles in order to earn the right to play football. Martin Drury's job will be to select a team that's able to deliver that combination of work ethic and razzle dazz...
Predicted Huddersfield Town XI to take on Preston North End in the Carabao Cup

Predicted Huddersfield Town XI to take on Preston North End in the Carabao Cup

Predicted lineups
Huddersfield Town kick off their season on Saturday afternoon with a Carabao Cup game against Preston North End. Ground improvement works at Deepdale mean that the fixture is being played at Goodison Park instead. The Everton men' s team no longer play there since moving to their new stadium but it has continued to be used by the Everton women's team, albeit with a number of the areas of the historic ground no longer in use.  Typically, Carabao Cup games mean playing a second-string team to preserve the best players for league games but with this season's opening round falling on a weekend and seven days from the League One opener, I expect Martin Drury will field his strongest possible lineup for this match. Martin Drury's strongest starting eleven is still unknown and probably wo...
Predicted Huddersfield Town XI to take on Port Vale

Predicted Huddersfield Town XI to take on Port Vale

Matches, Predicted lineups
Huddersfield Town take on bottom-of-the-table Port Vale on Boxing Day, in a game that should in theory be an easy victory for Town but when does reality ever match up to theory in football? While Port Vale haven't won in the league since September, Town also have a track record of unburdening opposition teams of their bad runs of form. The "And He Takes That Chance Podcast" refer to Huddersfield Town as Charity FC because of this tendency to offer hope to seemingly helpless clubs. Will that tendency emerge during the season of goodwill to all men? If we play like we did against Rotherham last weekend then we should easily dispatch Port Vale but if it's more like our last game (against Wigan, not Wimbledon as I suggested in my last post) then any team would have a chance. Getting the sel...