On the latest episode of the And He Takes That Chance podcast one of the hosts mentioned that Town never seem to win midweek away games, so I thought I’d look up the details and see if this was true.
I’m not one of those fans that can immediately recall every Town result from years past but a quick Google search reveals that Town do indeed have a horrendous recent record when they play away from home on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
Here’s a look into this unusual stat and a bit of a preview of tonight’s game too.
How long is it since Town won a midweek away fixture?
Last season saw far more midweek fixtures than typical because the pandemic caused the season to start late and therefore have less time to complete the same number of fixtures. So there were far more than usual opportunities for Town to win away in the middle of the week. Despite this fact, they didn’t register a single midweek victory on the road in all of the 20/21 season.
Last season Town played away from home nine times and failed to win any of those games, losing six and drawing three. Here are the results:
- Birmingham: 2-1 defeat
- Wycombe: 0-0 draw
- Cardiff: 3-0 defeat
- Coventry: 0-0 draw
- Bristol City: 2-1 defeat
- Middlesbrough: 2-1 defeat
- Derby: 2-0 defeat
- Sheffield Wednesday: 1-1 draw
- Norwich: 7-0 defeat
You have to go all the way back to the Danny Cowley era for Town’s most recent midweek away win, when we beat Birmingham City 3-0 in one of the first behind-closed-doors games of the early days of the pandemic. We then failed to win in three more midweek away games after that result (Milwall 4-0 loss, Sheffield Wednesday 0-0, Reading 0-0), taking our current winless streak to 12 games.
Why can’t Town win midweek away games?
It may be that this terrible record is one of those strange statistical anomalies and it’s just a bizarre coincidence. It’s not like we win that many games anway, particularly away from home but this winless run is worse than our away record at weekends, where we won four out of 14 games last season. Perhaps Town struggle when having to play lots of games close together and the games in the middle don’t get the same amount of preparation time.
Town barely won any games in the second half of last season and even in the first half of last season we often underwhelmed when playing in the middle of the week. I distinctly remember looking forward to watching midweek games on iFollow last season and regularly feeling let down by tepid performances from Town.
Will Town let this monkey off their back tonight at Blackpool?
Tonight’s fixture is a good chance for Town to win their first midweek away fixture. Blackpool aren’t a bad team and will be high on confidence after beating Fulham at the weekend but we shouldn’t go into this game with any fear. If Town can recreate some of the form they showed in the recent Reading and Everton performances then they have a good chance of coming out victorious.
It’s likely that Blackpool will be happy to let us dominate possession tonight, so it will be a test of Town’s ability to break down a stubborn defence and an opportunity for our attacking players to show that they can create chances.
Predicted Town lineup to take on Blackpool
It seemed a bit pointless to make a dedicated team prediction article for tonight’s game, as Carlos has already confirmed two of his selections, with the remainder likely to be the same players that played against Stoke at the weekend.
Here’s how I think we’ll lineup:
Goalkeeper: Nicholls
Defence: Pearson, Lees, Colwill
Midfield: Thomas, Hogg, O’Brien, Toffolo
Attack: Koroma, Campbell, Sinani
It could be Lees or Pearson that make way instead of Sarr to create space for Colwill to return but I think the two older central defenders will be preferred to keep some stability and experience in the back line.
Sinani is also due to return and it’s hard to make a convincing argument for keeping Holmes in the starting eleven after he underwhelmed again on Saturday. Arguably Koroma and O’Brien could be sacrificed instead as neither shone against Stoke but at least they have a good recent track record to fall back on where Holmes doesn’t yet in his second spell at Town.
I’d quite like to see Odubeko start ahead of Campbell but reading between the lines of Corberan’s prematch press conference comments, it sounds like he’ll be on the bench again tonight. Carlos suggested the young striker is a talented finisher but needs to add more to his all-round game. I think I’d prefer a natural poacher who does little else over someone that will run around a lot but not get on the end of anything in the box but it’s up to Carlos to decide who he thinks will be best suited for this game.
Score prediction: Blackpool 2-2 Huddersfield Town
I’m hoping we’ll see Town let loose a little bit tonight. We played a disciplined strategy against Stoke on Saturday which worked against a team with obvious quality, or at least it would have worked if we hadn’t made the mistakes that gave them their goals. Tonight I hope we approach the game with a more attacking mentality and look to really get into Blackpool.
Having said that, I don’t think Town have the ability to play free flowing, attacking football while keeping the back door shut, so we’ll be vulnerable to breakaways and there’s always the possibility of a daft mistake to let Blackpool back into the game.
So I think an entertaining draw with plenty of goals could be on the cards tonight. Sorba Thomas continues to make things happen for Town in every game but our new-look defence showed a frailty against Stoke that makes me think a clean sheet is too much to expect.
Good research, TS. 4 goals scored in 9 away matches – therein lies the problem. Take out the Norwich debacle, and the goals conceded doesn’t look all that bad.
Having watched every game, I’m surprised I wasn’t prescribed antidepressants!
Your Town hopes & expectations are evidently going slowly downhill. From a predicted win at Stoke, only a draw at Blackpool?
This season it seems that most people will be happy with a mid table finish. Looking at the numbers we need to get about 63 points. To achieve this typically we would need 17 wins and 12 draws. That also means we will lose 17 times as well so whilst we are all upset to lose, the reality is that we will lose as many as we win. Unfortunately however much we criticise or praise that is the situation we will have to accept.
Who knew?!?!?!
Loved your stats and never saw last night’s second 45 minutes coming. What the hell is going on?
In life I’m a ‘cup half full’ guy; when it comes to analysing Town, I’m ‘cup half empty’.
Don’t let’s go OTT about that performance on Tuesday night. Blackpool are a ‘huff & puff’ side and for three-quarters of that game, they had enough huff & puff to blow Town off course. That first half ranked alongside the Preston performance.
I saw the individual player points awarded by the press and fans immediately after the match and they were far too high. Up to scoring his goal, Koroma had been hopeless. So was Ward. I’d hardly noticed O’Brien. Even the normally reliable Colwill had looked shaky. Here’s my question – if I play poorly for 89 minutes but score one important goal, what points should I be awarded? If the benchmark for ‘playing ok’ is a 6, surely my one moment of excellence can’t take me above a 6?
I saw only a couple of 7 performances despite the great (and unexpected) result. Town will need to raise their game against managerless Notts Forest.
Just sayin’.