Huddersfield Town take on Luton Town at the Accu Stadium on Tuesday night. It comes quickly after Town’s brilliant 3-0 win over Bradford in the West Yorkshire derby last weekend and will provide another stern test of Martin Drury and his team of merry men. Luton Town are on a similar run of form to Huddersfield Town, so this game could be very entertaining to watch.
In this article I’ll have a go at predicting the team, look at each team’s form, highlight the former Town players on Luton’s books and try to forcast the scoreline. Enjoy!
Predicted Huddersfield Town XI to take on Luton Town
Martin Drury has confirmed that there are no fresh injury concerns after the weekend and no players returning from injury for this match (though a few might be ready for Saturday). With that in mind, it’ll be a very similar lineup to Saturday with my only doubt coming over who will play in defence.
There isn’t room in the starting XI for all of Bowat, Balker, Low and Roughan to play. Bronkhorst is the only outfield player to have played every minute of this season, so he’s pretty much nailed on at right back but Drury could go a few different ways with the rest of the backline.
Radinio Balker is probably our best defender but he’s just back from a hamstring tweak and playing Saturday-Tuesday may be deemed too much for him. Joe Low scored and was completely dominant at the back on Saturday but it’s possible that Drury might see this game as not being suited to a player that does the ugly side of the game well but isn’t exactly cultured on the ball. Ibane Bowat was dropped to the bench on Saturday despite having barely put a foot wrong and could easily be brought back in as either a straight forward centre back of the kind-of-leftback/kind-of-centreback role that Roughan currently occupies but Roughan’s in good form and it would be harsh to bench him.
My suspicion is that Balker will be moved to the bench to avoid overloading his hamstrings, which may end up with the strength of cheese strings if we play him too often. That means Bowat comes back in and Low keeps his place. Though Martin Drury often sees other possibilities, so it could be that he whacks Joe Low up front and tells him to focus entirely on reproducing his overhead kick again.
Predicted lineup: Young, Bronkhorst, Low, Bowat, Roughan, Fernandes, Collins, Humphreys, Mumba, Fletcher, Taylor
Who can beat the Town today?
Huddersfield Town and Luton are the two most in-form teams in League One going into this game. We’ve won five and drawn one of our last six games and Luton have won five and lost one of their last six. Both teams go into this game having won four games on the bounce.
Playing against an in-form team might have caused me some concern in a normal sort of season but with the way Town have been playing lately, I’m looking forward to see how we measure up against one of the best teams in League One.
The unofficial Town anthem, Smile A While includes a line that goes, “Who can beat the Town today?” and I’ve always loved it because there’s a quiet confidence baked into this line, rhetorically asking if anyone is good enough to beat this team. The players seem to be going into games with a similar mindset these days. Not arrogant or expecting victory but knowing that the opposition will have to be very good if they’re going to get the better of us.
Maybe Luton will be the team that are able to beat us during this run but I suspect they’ll fear us more than we’ll fear them and as long as that’s the case, it’s going to continue to be fun watching this Huddersfield Town team play.
Have we met before? 3 former Town players and a false alarm
Huddersfield Town have got through so many players in recent years that most club have at least one ex-Terrier on their books but Luton Town have no less than three and another that looked like he was. D. Gore plays for Luton, but that’s Dale Gore, a youngster on loan from Man United not Dean Gorre, the 56-year-old former Town winger (currently managing Curacao if you were wondering).
Kasey Palmer played a crucial role in the David Wagner promotion season and is one of the string of excellent loanees we’ve had from Chelsea over the years. His career probably hasn’t panned out as he would have expected all those years ago but he’s still a very useful player at this level and has a classy way of playing. Hopefully our players will be mindful of the red card Alfie May picked up last season when he pulled Palmers hair.
Nahki Wells – Another veteran of the season we won promotion to the Premier League, Nahki Wells is now 36 years old and doesn’t have the same burst of pace that he had back in 2016/17 but he’s a seasoned campaigner and age doesn’t tend to impact finishing instincts, so he’s still a threat despite being a relative pensioner compared to the average footballer.
Callum Marshall – It doesn’t say great things about Callum Marshall that he’s still on loan in League One two seasons after his spell at the same level with Huddersfield Town. He won our player of the season when he was with us on loan and was one of the few Huddersfield Town players to emerge from that season with any credit. He’s started five games and come off the bench in seven others so far this season, so he’s likely to be involved but may not play from the start. I’d have thought his all-action style would complement Wells as the elder statesman who stays close to where the goals will come.
Score prediction – Huddersfield Town 2 – 1 Luton Town
Will this be a case of two good teams going at each other and we’ll be treated to a festival of football or will each side neutralise the other and we’ll have to endure a tense stalemate? My money is on the former and I’m expecting a high-quality game where both teams try to play attractive football.
With Taylor and Fernandes both on the pitch, it’s hard to predict anything but a Town win. I think we’ll be tested and may struggle to keep a clean sheet but, like Kevin Keegan’s Newcastle United, I think we’ll always be able to score one more than the opposition while we’re in our current vein of form and have two brilliant attackers fit and in form.
Martin Drury talked about how important mentality is for a game like this, coming straight after a high-intensity match against Bradford. So far we’ve looked a lot more mentally strong this season, so I’m hopeful we’ll pass another test in this match.
Another match another question to answer for Town and a potential step to add belief we can go all the way this season. Who can beat the Town today? Some team will at some stage and hopefully even if it’s tonight the fans won’t moan about it and forget how brilliantly we have been so far.
Excellent read af usual TS.
Amen.
Love how unhappy Drury was with our first half against Badford. Hope the fans turn up tonight.
Regarding injuries it would appear that that Bojan is not injured but has had a fallout with Drury?. Given that Fletcher lacks some ability and Torvide is work in progress, this leaves us short of quality cover for Taylor in the forward area. It is not good for any individual or team moral when this happens but given that the situation continues, Bojan now sits it out which leaves us looking to bring in another striker in January. Think we need some clarification on the matter.