Huddersfield Town take on Stevenage Borough in their opening home league game of their League One campaign. And after winning away at Peterborough last Saturday and at home in the FizzyPop Cup, expectations are steadily starting to rise among some Town fans (or at least they are with this one).
While it’s common to ignore early league tables, last weekend’s win at Peterborough catapulted Town to the tip of the embryonic table, so suddenly publishing tables after one game seems like a sensible thing to do. Town will be hoping to keep their winnings start to the season going with a victory today to add to last weekend and their Carabao Cup success against Morecambe as this would keep them at the top end of the table and give them their best start to a new season since the sixties.
In this preview article I’m going to predict Town’s likely starting eleven today, take a look at what to expect from Stevenage and try to predict how the game will go. Enjoy…
Predicted Huddersfield Town XI to take on Stevenage
I spoke in my post-Morecambe writeup about how Michael Duff has some selection headaches going into this game after several players did excellently in the Carabao Cup in midweek. However, I suspect Duff is going to opt for the same starting eleven he went with at Peterborough. I didn’t fancy trying to stretch out “no changes” to over a thousand words, so I’m doing a broader preview of the game as well as looking at the team selection.
Nicholls place at number one seems untroubled, after Maxwell had no opportunities to prove himself in midweek. In fact, Brooky the kitman could have been in goals and nobody would have noticed, Morecambe did so little to trouble our goal.
I did wonder if Matty Pearson might come in for Brodie Spencer today, as Stevenage like to go direct and having another big, awkward central defender in the mix may help us with these battles. And while there’s a logic to that, I think Spencer’s pace and confidence on the ball is useful to have in the back three. Not to mention, we should be picking teams based on our own strengths rather than trying to counteract our opponents.
At left wingback, Jaheim Headley was arguably the best Town player against Morecambe but Miller was also very good against Peterborough, so I think it would be unfair to drop a player after they’ve done nothing wrong. I suspect Miller will be subbed and Headley given a run out late in the game, so both get minutes and Headley has a chance to strengthen his case for a starting role when he comes off the bench.
Similarly, Jonathan Hogg has pressure on his starting position. Either David Kasumu or Herbie Kane could take the deeper lying midfield role from Hogg, with Kasumu offering a more energetic option and Kane providing a more sedate but creative way to play this role. Even so, I think Jonathan Hogg is the safe option, as his experience and in-game intelligence is a valuable asset to have. And if this game is going to be a bit feisty, Hogg is a useful player to have on the pitch to mix it up with them.
Sorensen, Evans and Wiles are all players that are playing too well to lose their spot. Antony Evans did take a couple of whacks against Peterborough and may have been a bit bruised during the week but I’d expect him to be fine to play today.
Up front, Ward and Marshall both scored against Morecambe and our new signing on loan from West Ham looked particularly sharp. However, I think Koroma and Healey will remain as the first choices for now. Marshall faded quite a lot in the second half on Tuesday night, so may need to do a bit of work on his fitness before he can start games in the league. And despite his neat finish, Ward didn’t do enough in midweek to convince me he’s in good enough form to start up front at the moment.
Stevenage player to watch: Tyreece Simpson
It feels inevitable that the returning ex-Town striker, Tyreece Simpson will score against us this afternoon. Despite him never setting the world alight for Huddersfield Town, he’ll most likely turn into a League One Romelu Lukaku and tear us to shreds. Though, I have to say, while I don’t want him to do well against us, I do want him to do well in his post-Town career. I always got the feeling that Simpson didn’t get the chances he deserved at Town and after arriving with much fanfare (despite being injured, if I remember rightly) he was quietly shunted out to the B Team and then off on loan with very few first team chances. He doesn’t seem to bear Town any ill will though, as he left a lovely, heart-felt message upon leaving the club that suggests there are no hard feelings despite his time at Town ultimately ending in failure.
Seemingly, Stevenage are more keen on giving Simpson a chance, as he started for them last weekend and played 20 minutes off the bench in the cup in midweek too. I expect he’ll start for them today and he’ll no doubt be extra motivated to show everyone at Huddersfield Town what they could have had. It’s also probably true to say that Stevenage are a better fit for him, with his impressive physique, he’ll benefit from a team that wants to play a direct style of play.
Stevenage – what to expect
Huddersfield Town have only played Stevenage Borough twice in their history, winning once and drawing the other in the 2011/12 season. I know so little about them I had to Google what their nickname was, which is, imaginatively, The Boro. This trip to Google made me realise I didn’t really know where Stevenage was, other than vaguely down south, so if you were bothered, it’s just off the A1 and a bit north of London. Though other than attending the away leg of this fixture, I’d be surprised if I even had reason to visit.
In terms of football, Stevenage are one of the most direct and physical teams in the league. They were managed by Steve Evans for much of last season before he left to take over Rotherham’s inevitable relegation from the Championship. However, his no-nonsense football did get decent results, with Stevenage ending the season ninth.
Their current manager, Alex Revell, is in his second spell at the helm of the club and guided them to a 1-0 victory against Shrewsbury in last weekend’s opening fixture and a creditable 4-3 defeat to Norwich in the league cup in midweek. So these results and their finish in the table last season show that we should take today’s visitors lightly.
Michael Duff spoke in his press conference on Thursday about how he doesn’t judge Stevenage for adopting a direct and less pretty approach to the beautiful game because it’s results that matter in football. As Duff made his name playing at Burnley under Sean Dyche, he can hardly say otherwise. But we can expect a bit of a rough and tumble game today with plenty of long balls and a team that is happy to sit deep, allow us to have the ball and perhaps bully us a bit when they do launch those high balls up field.
Match prediction: Huddersfield Town 3 – 1 Stevenage
I think this will be an interesting game from a tactical point of view. Against Peterborough, Town were up against a team that also wanted to play attractive football and their desire to play out from the back gave us the ability to press them high which let us in. If Stevenage aren’t interested in holding on to possession and boot the ball away before we can press them it will create a different sort of game and we may have to play differently ourselves.
I expect the possession stats will be a bit different in this game, with Town enjoying a lot of the ball but the challenge will come in trying to use it effectively to create opportunities without leaving the backdoor open for breakaways. Stevenage won’t be the only team to come to our stadium this season with this sort of approach, so passing this test today will be a big confidence boost for Town. If we struggle it will give other teams a blueprint to follow against our system.
My hope is that Town’s midfield and wingbacks will be able to move the ball quickly enough to find gaps and create shooting opportunities. In both games we’ve played so far there has been a real fluency to our attacking play and I’m looking forward to seeing more of that in this game. I expect we’ll get the chances we need to get some goals but because creating those chances will require taking some risks, I suspect we’ll concede at least one too. So my prediction is a 3-1 win to Town.
If you want to read more before today’s game, check out my summary of the pre-Stevenage press conference.
interested to see crowd numbers for this game.the feel good factor,tempered by ppl off on holidays,hoping numbers steadily rise as season progresses.
stevenage has been hme to both david beckham & lewis hamilton.
this will b a big test,if stevenage have a go? our defensive record will b under threat,if they sit in? we may dominate possession,like you am interested to see how many chances are created & if we can convert.
i think our players will relish the challenge,as Duff certainly will.
hoping good atmosphere with kilner bank open & good run & confidence continues.
UTT
Ah, good Stevenage knowledge. Not bad for a fairly small area to have been home to two of the country’s most successful sportsmen.
The last update on season card sales was 14,000+, so add on one-off tickets and away fans and it could be between 16 and 18,000 even if Stevenage only bring a few. Should be good atmosphere.
I think it will be tough but it’s also worth bearing in mind that their first choice striker was our sixth best until we sold him to them. So we should have more quality if we can win the physical battle first to let the quality show.
Well Tyreece Simpson showed why Town were right to not give him many opportunities. He only seemed intent on bit of needle and I don’t recall seeing him do anything useful with the ball at all.
If anything, I thought his heartfelt leaving message seemed like a cut/paste effort, and he looked like he bore a grudge today with his petty fouls.
He will not be missed, and nor will he ever be the “one that got away”.