Shadow

Tag: birmingham

Notes on Huddersfield Town’s 1-1 draw with Birmingham – A relegation special

Notes on Huddersfield Town’s 1-1 draw with Birmingham – A relegation special

Matches
Unless Huddersfield Town beat Ipswich next weekend by more than a dozen goals AND other results go in our favour, Saturday's draw with Birmingham has confirmed our relegation to League One (though I suppose a more modest victory would be OK if Plymouth lose their game by seven or eight goals). My dad made the point that a 1-1 draw was a fitting result to virtually seal our fate, as it's the result Town have all too often ended games on this season, often in games where they should have won. This game was their fourteenth 1-1 draw of the season and like the thirteen before, Town had the chances to win the game but not the quality in front of goal to finish them off. So can we really complain about going down? I'm not sure we can, despite all the bad luck and injustices, we've also been...
A spineless performance, a failed formation, Mr Nice’s nasty side, not putting it in the mixer, succession planning? – Notes on Birmingham away

A spineless performance, a failed formation, Mr Nice’s nasty side, not putting it in the mixer, succession planning? – Notes on Birmingham away

Matches
I try and write these articles a day or two after the match so I've had time to think on the match, calm down and it's not one long rant. But I'm still wound up about how abject Town were in that first half having slept twice after the game. There have been some really bad Town performances in the last four or five years to compare that 45 minutes to and I don't think it was the worst I've seen them but it wasn't far off Jan Siewert-era Town.  Thankfully a hairdryer treatment team talk and a few teacups getting flung around the changing rooms seemed to shake some sense into the bunch of wasters that had turned out in the first half and I didn't feel embarrassed to support the team that played in the second half even if it was far from perfect.  You can read my player ratin...
“He’s really dragging the team down” – Player ratings for Huddersfield Town’s 2-1 defeat to Birmingham City

“He’s really dragging the team down” – Player ratings for Huddersfield Town’s 2-1 defeat to Birmingham City

Matches
Huddersfield Town lost 2-1 to Birmingham City last night in a game where they struggled badly in the first half and weren’t able to turn an improved second-half into the goals we needed to get anything from the game. It’s a result that adds pressure onto Danny Schofield, as he’s now lost his opening two games in charge at Town and both performances have been unconvincing at best.   Schofield showed a lot of faith in the team that failed to perform against Burnley last week, only making two changes when far more players could have been dropped. That faith was not repaid, after the same mistakes were repeated in another poor first half performance, with sloppy passing and poor positional play leading to Birmingham dominating the play. Schofield’s post-match comments hinted towards a bad ...
Predicted Huddersfield Town XI to take on Birmingham City tonight

Predicted Huddersfield Town XI to take on Birmingham City tonight

Matches
Huddersfield Town head to Birmingham tonight for another Friday night game. After seemingly never playing on Saturdays at three in the latter half of last season, we've had our first two fixtures of this season moved to Friday nights too. As much as football under the floodlights has a certain kind of appeal, I'll be pleased once we get back to playing most of our games on Saturdays.  Tonight's team selection has a bit more riding on it than usual as most people felt that Danny Schofield got it wrong last week. I'm less inclined to say that as I predicted the exact starting eleven but Schofield does need to make sure he doesn't repeat the same mistakes again tonight. With that in mind, I think we'll see a bit more attacking flair but I don't think there will be huge changes to the...
Picking new signings, taking shots, finding a philosophy, Bacuna’s revenge and an intriguing barometer – 5 questions about Huddersfield Town’s trip to Birmingham City

Picking new signings, taking shots, finding a philosophy, Bacuna’s revenge and an intriguing barometer – 5 questions about Huddersfield Town’s trip to Birmingham City

Matches
Tomorrow night sees Town take their first away trip of the season and their second Friday night game when they take on Birmingham City at St Andrews. It’ll be an interesting test for Danny Schofield and his Terriers, after a poor showing against Burnley last week he will most likely fancy his chances against Birmingham but. While Birmingham might not have the talent or footballing ambition of last week’s opposition, they won’t roll over for us either and we’ll have to earn any points we get tomorrow night the hard way. In this article I’ll look at some of the key questions we’ll find out the answers to in tomorrow night’s game…. Will Schofield keep faith with the old guard or give his new boys a run? Against Burnley, Danny Schofield’s selection was panned for featuring none of ou...
Deleted tweets, Birmingham poor, comfortable cushions, going up the right way and rotation rewards – Notes on Birmingham away

Deleted tweets, Birmingham poor, comfortable cushions, going up the right way and rotation rewards – Notes on Birmingham away

Matches
Town continued their miraculous unbeaten run by beating Birmingham at the weekend, also giving them their third win in eight days. Beating a relatively poor Birmingham side may not be as attention grabbing as our recent exploits, but it was a professional and disciplined job from the Terriers and further boosted our playoff credentials. Here are a few of my thoughts on the game. A 2-goal cushion makes life more comfortable One of my favourite things about this game was how Town managed to win without being particularly exceptional. They got their noses in front, then got a second goal and after that we looked to be mostly in control. Pot shots from range by Hernandez and Bacuna went close to going in but Nicholls and the woodwork meant we kept our clean sheet. Beyond those two mo...
“He keeps playing well despite being shunted all over the pitch” – Player ratings for Huddersfield Town’s win over Birmingham

“He keeps playing well despite being shunted all over the pitch” – Player ratings for Huddersfield Town’s win over Birmingham

Matches
Huddersfield Town achieved something incredibly rare yesterday: a straightforward victory. After putting in a defensive masterclass against Fulham and then coming from behind in the final moments of the Cardiff game, this game was far less dramatic with Town getting comfortably ahead in the game and then doing enough to keep their hosts at bay. It’s very rare for Town to win by more than a single goal so I feel like this result represents another step forward for this team. It was also another clean sheet to add to the tally, which the defence deserves credit for after withstanding a lot of Birmingham pressure in the second half. Here are my player ratings. Lee Nicholls - 8 out of 10   There’s a concept called the “hedonic treadmill” which states that whenever you ha...
Predicted Huddersfield Town XI to take on Birmingham 

Predicted Huddersfield Town XI to take on Birmingham 

Matches
We've barely had time to fully savour the win against Cardiff on Wednesday but such is the relentlessness of the Championship that there’s another game to look forward to today. This time it's Juninho Bacuna's Birmingham City away and another opportunity to extend our unbeaten run.  Huddersfield Town’s starting eleven has become increasingly hard to predict recently as Carlos has started to rotate his squad more and is tweaking his tactics to suit the opposition. As my predictions tend to be a bit wayward at the best of times, expect today’s efforts to be less accurate than even the usual low standard! Goalkeeper: Lee Nicholls One selection we can be fairly confident of is our keeper, who pulled off some decent saves against Cardiff on Wednesday in the first half. Paul Cleme...
Predicted lineup, score and key talking points for Huddersfield Town v Birmingham 

Predicted lineup, score and key talking points for Huddersfield Town v Birmingham 

Matches
Huddersfield Town play Birmingham City tonight in a game that has potential to define the rest of this season. A positive result could push Town clear of the relegation strugglers and end this poor patch. A defeat will plunge Town right into the mess at the bottom end of the table.  There's a tendency to overhype games these days but I genuinely believe this game is the most important one of the season so far. I'd be lying if I said I felt confident going into it but this team, for all its flaws, can produce a performance when you least expect it.  Predicted Huddersfield Town XI to take on Birmingham  Goalkeeper: Ryan Schofield  Defence: Edmonds-Green, Keogh, Stearman, Pipa  Midfield: Vallejo, O'Brien, High Forwards: Mbenza, Phillips, Holmes  I have no ...
Diakhaby’s critics, anti-football, Pipa as a winger & not time to panic – Notes on the defeat to Birmingham

Diakhaby’s critics, anti-football, Pipa as a winger & not time to panic – Notes on the defeat to Birmingham

Matches
Here are a few of my thoughts about the Birmingham game, not in any order and a bit too late to be relevant. I’ve written it now though, so I thought I might as well put it out there. Birmingham were awful to watch but did their job effectively Birmingham were incredibly negative in their approach on Wednesday night and it was dire to watch. Once they scored they rarely even bothered trying to break against us and instead just sat back and kept things tight at the back. Playing this way will most likely be enough to keep them up this season but you have to wonder if it’s worth it. Is surviving enough to justify playing dreadful football all the time? Birmingham had a better team than us on paper, so it's a bit depressing for their fans that they set up like we were Liverpool or Man City...