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 pointing out that Bromley were champions of League Two last season and are competing at this level on merit. They may not be the strongest squad in the division but they’ve beaten Barnsley and drawn with Blackpool and Cambridge so far, suggesting they shouldn’t be taken lightly.
Martin Drury will need to make sure he gets his team selection right if he wants to win this game, here’s who I think he’ll pick for this game…
Goalkeeper: Young
Unless there’s an injury or a massive dip in form, we’re going to be seeing Matty Young starting in goal for most of this season. So far he’s seemed OK, allowing the odd soft goal in but making some decent saves at times too. I’m neither overwhelmed or underwhelmed by his performances so far. I’m whelmed. Which is fine I suppose but it would be nice to see some evidence of why he’s so highly rated by Sunderland, his parent club.
Defence: Sorensen, Balker, Wallace, Bowat
We’ve not yet seen a lot of evidence of how long Martin Drury keeps faith in a player when their form has dipped; this game will show if Bronkhorst can keep his spot in the team despite some iffy recent performances. His final ball and decision making in the final third has been dodgy and it’s been a bit of a problem when we attack, so I think he’ll make way for Lasse Sorensen who looked pretty sharp and aggressive in the EFL Trophy game the other week.
Radinio Balker and Murray Wallace have been a decent combination in the middle of central defence. Balker is able to do the fancier stuff, like pinging balls forward into the feet to the strikers, while Wallace is the more rough and tumble of the pair, heading and kicking everything that comes near him. Like last season, I wasn’t expecting to see much of Murray Wallace beyond the cup games and the odd cameo to cover injury. But Whatmough’s injury and Wallace’s dependability has meant he’s played loads. Thankfully he’s been pretty decent and Jack Whatmough’s return from injury doesn’t automatically mean he can step back into defence as Wallace has done more than enough to justify his selection.
At left-back/left sided centre back, depending on how you view it, I think it has to be Bowat. Sean Roughan has returned to training after his injury but probably isn’t ready to start games yet. The extra competition is always useful though and it means Bowat will be aware that he needs to perform to a decent level to avoid Roughan taking his spot.
Midfield: Fernandes, Collins, Humphreys, Mumba
Thankfully, Derensili Sanches Fernandes is a much better winger than he is interview subject. He did the prematch press conference and answered questions in the style of Johnny Tightlips from The Simpsons. In fairness to him, his English seems good for someone that’s only recently arrived but his dismissive attitude to the more inane questions he was asked was enjoyable to listen to. After his explosive start at Huddersfield Town, it feels like Fernandes is getting special attention in games now and he’s having to work harder to find space and create opportunities to get one-on-one with his fullback. He’s still exciting to watch though and I feel like more goals are coming for him.
Ryan Ledson’s tumble in last weekend’s game resulted in a torn tricep and ligament damage to his elbow, which is exactly the kind of luck we have with injuries these days. The kind of fall that you see dozens of times in a typical game has resulted in our captain being out for four to six weeks (which usually ends up being two or three months). While Archie Collins isn’t a like-for-like replacement, he seems like the obvious candidate to come in for the skipper and it may actually mean we have more control in the middle of the park though we will miss Ledson’s aggression in that area.
Cameron Humphreys, who my brain is determined to call Jake Humphrey, was our best player last weekend during the patch of the game where we played ten men. Of all our players, he was the one that was able to use individual skill to find gaps in Mansfield’s defence. OK, it didn’t actually result in the goal we needed but he seemed like the most creative player on the pitch. While Ledson is injured, I suspect Humphreys will continue to be one of the two deeper lying midfield players but his performance last weekend hinted towards a possibility of him playing further up the field, either in the hole behind the striker or maybe even as a tucked in left winger. Which would solve the problem of how we fit Humphreys, Ledson and Collins into the same starting lineup in the current system.
Our lack of a left wing option was something many fans picked up on long before the transfer window shut but we’ve come into this season without a decent option in this area of the pitch. Every potential player in this position has problems and limitations. Harness has been playing here but his tendency to drift in field means we’re weak down the left, even if he’s having a good game (which he didn’t last weekend). Jay Sway has a lot of promise but isn’t yet consistently producing his best form. Cameron Ashia doesn’t seem to be in contention, the last time Drury talked about him was a few weeks ago when he said he needed to be physically and mentally right before he’d be back in contention. Which leaves Mumba, who has been a disappointment since his arrival in January. I don’t think he’s great as a left winger but, in my opinion, he’s the best of a bad bunch.
Attack: Fletcher, Taylor
Bojan Radulovic and Ashley Fletcher have been job sharing the role of our target man so far this season. Radulovic started last weekend but I think Fletcher might be the better option for this game. Despite the former Blackpool player not scoring yet since his arrival at Town, he’s a handy player to have at the top end of the pitch and links up play well.
It was interesting to hear Martin Drury talk about Joe Taylor’s temperament in his pre-match press conference. He’s aware that Taylor can get exasperated on the pitch and that can affect his game negatively but the tricky thing is that his hunger to score is most likely tangled up with that instinct to get angry when the goals aren’t going in. So Drury is aware that Taylor needs to keep his emotion in check at times but also doesn’t want to coach his killer instinct out of him either. Taylor hasn’t scored for a couple of games, after picking up five goals in the first four games. I’m not concerned though, as the main issue has been a lack of quality balls for him to feed off. If we can get the supply side right, I think he’ll continue to score freely.
