friendlies – Terrier Spirit – Huddersfield Town FC blog

Aug52024 by Terrier Spirit12 Comments

Selection shows recruitment needs, putting Blades to the sword, new boys shine – Notes on Huddersfield Town’s friendly draw against Sheffield United

Matches

The stadium looking very smart after it's summer refurb (all the home fans were in the Riverside and away fans in the South Stand - I promise it wasn't empty!) Huddersfield Town completed their preseason fixtures with a decent 1-1 draw against Sheffield United on Friday night. The first half was impressive and the second half was more of a mixed bag but overall it was a good showing against a team that were in the Premier League last season and will most likely compete at the top end of the Championship in the season to come. While preseason is often a poor predictor of how a new season is going to pan out, this final game caps off an impressive start to Michael Duff's first few weeks in charge at Town and he seems to be doing everything right so far. The first proper test wil...

Jul262024 by Terrier Spirit9 Comments

Town tighten up, Koroma & Wiles shine, Thomas exit looms, new signings needed – Notes on Huddersfield Town’s 2-1 victory over Hertha Berlin

Matches

Huddersfield Town put in a very solid display against Hertha Berlin yesterday in their 2-1 victory. While results aren't all that important in preseason friendlies, it was reassuring to see the frailties that were exposed in the game against Aris Limasso shored up in this game and Town were much more solid despite coming up against a high-quality opponent. In this article I'll take a look at what this game might have shown us about Huddersfield Town, as we get ever closer to the start of the season. I think Michael Duff showed a slightly different side to how he could set Town up in this game, which was a bit less exciting but was reassuring too as it showed some flexibility and pragmatism. Town were deserved winners in the end, with Hertha Berlin struggling to break Tow...

Jul232024 by Terrier Spirit9 Comments

Avoidable goals, moments of quality, sluggish selection & vulnerabilities exposed – Notes on Huddersfield Town’s 4-2 loss to Aris Limassol

Matches

Huddersfield Town fell to their first defeat of their preseason yesterday when they lost 4-2 to Aris Limassol in Austria. While obviously we all know that the results of friendlies aren't all that important, someone needs to tell that to Michael Duff's face, as he was clearly unhappy in his post-match interview with the club's media team. He was frustrated with the goals the team conceded and the performances levels though offered some insight into why Town didn't reach the levels we might have expected. Aris Limassol were a decent opponent. Being a top Cypriot team doesn't sound like much to brag about but they actually were a very decent team and looking back on their recent history shows they played Rangers in Europe last season and beat them at home and drew away with them. So goin...

Jul152024 by Terrier Spirit9 Comments

Battle of the HTAFCs – Notes on Huddersfield Town’s 3-2 friendly win against Harrogate Town

Matches

Huddersfield Town notched up their third preseason victory on Saturday with a 3-2 victory over Harrogate Town in a friendly win that was far more one sided than the scoreline suggests. Town played some decent football and showed some glimmers of real quality and structure alongside the usual preseason clunkiness that you expect in these games. The positive afternoon's work was marred by the late injury to Radinio Balker, who was stretchered off after going down awkwardly as he tidied up a loose ball. As we've seen in the previous two friendlies, there were wholesale changes to the team in this match, with a completely different eleven coming out in the second half. Hopefully we'll soon see players going beyond 45 minutes in a game but in the time the players had on the pitch, I t...

Jul82024 by Terrier SpiritNo Comments

Michael Duff’s system starts to take shape – Notes on Huddersfield Town’s 7-0 friendly win at Guiseley

Matches

Huddersfield Town had another emphatic friendly win on Saturday, brushing aside Guiseley 7-0 in their second warm up game of the preseason after beating Emley 5-0 last weeekend. Obviously the result was secondary but the game provided a reasonable workout for the Terriers and a step up in exertion, as the first teamers played a full half of football each, having only played for 30 minutes a piece last weekend. There were some signs of Michael Duff's tactical work starting to bed in with the team too and the positions and attacking shapes seemed to be following a particular plan which I suspect we'll see a lot more of in the season to come. In this article I'll wring whatever talking points I can from a game where we battered a team that are several steps below us i...

Jun302024 by Terrier Spirit10 Comments

33 players used for Town – some good but others less so & 6 missing without explanation – Notes on Huddersfield Town’s 5-0 friendly win over Emley

Matches

If, for some bizarre reason, you measured value in a football match by the number of players you saw on the pitch then the game between Emley and Huddersfield Town would have felt like a feast. The home team swapped their entire team at half time, fielding 22 players but Town went one better, switching their full lineup every half hour and getting through 33 players. So 55 players were involved in this match in total. So for those that attended in person and paid the £15 entrance fee, you only paid just over 27p per player watched - very good value if that's what you're interested in. Or 0p ppw if you watched it on the live stream on YouTube. Obviously, the huge number of players involved, the very early stage of preseason and the difference in ability between the two teams didn't con...

Aug12023 by Terrier Spirit7 Comments

Midfield worries, red card call lacked common sense, Edwards’ long throw, Hudlin’s claim – Notes on Huddersfield Town’s 1-0 win over Heerenveen

Matches

Huddersfield Town finished their preseason schedule with a 1-0 victory of Heerenveen on Saturday afternoon. They faced a stern test in the first half until a red card just before half time saw the visitors from the Netherlands reduced to ten men and Town dominated the second half. It wasn’t as full-blooded as some of Town’s other preseason games, perhaps both teams wanted to preserve themselves for the upcoming season, but it was still relatively entertaining. However, I’m not sure the game served up warranted the time and expense invested by the 300ish Heerenveen fans who enjoyed a weekend in West Yorkshire. They were in fine voice and seemed to enjoy themselve but they must be a bit barmy to have made the trip to England for a meaningless friendly - hats off to them. First h...

Jul232023 by Terrier Spirit8 Comments

Glorious goals, captain Sorba, same old problems, Rhodes spite, special teams subs – Notes on the Stockport friendly

Matches

Huddersfield Town traveled to Stockport yesterday for a friendly and came away with a 4-0 victory. While it’s important not to get too carried away with preseason games, particularly when they’re against a team from further down the divisions, there were some positive signs on display alongside the important fitness test for the Terriers. The game was played at a fairly good tempo for a friendly game, I don’t think Neil Warnock would allow any team of his to drop their standards for even a meaningless game like this. While it wasn’t anything like a proper league game, there were some full-blooded tackles and there weren't those horrible lulls you sometimes get in friendlies, where the players almost stand on the ball to get their breath back. Both teams went for it and had a go. And w...

Jul282021 by Terrier Spirit14 Comments

Preseason optimism fizzles out at the seaside – Notes on the Fleetwood friendly

Matches

After feeling pretty chipper about Town's prospects after the friendly against Norwich, last night's defeat to Fleetwood caused me to recalibrate my expectations of what to expect from Town. While friendlies don't mean a great deal, the familiarity of Town's failings last night suggests that we're likely to see many of last season's problems repeated in the forthcoming campaign. Here are my thoughts on the game… Naby Sarr isn't as good as Colwill I don't like to single out individual players for criticism but Naby Sarr had a stinker in the first half last night. He got caught in possession all the time, slowed the game down by almost standing on the ball at times (though the options ahead of him weren't always great) and his passing was wayward even by h...

Jul192021 by Terrier Spirit10 Comments

Thoughts on the new boys, familiar concerns, players MIA and encouraging signs – Notes on the Southport friendly

Matches, News

After a few months of post-season rest I thought it might be useful to write an article about yesterday's friendly against Southport. At this stage in the season it's more about getting a few hundred words in the tank and getting back up to full blogging fitness. So don't expect anything too insightful or interesting from this article, I'm just trying to work my way back up to the, admittedly low, standards that I usually reach. And my lack of match fitness was abundantly clear when the first half literally sent me to sleep and I missed all of half time and the start of the second half. So apologies if the first ten minutes of that half completely contradicted the rest of the 90, I suspect it was more of the same but it could have featured Lewis O'Brien riding a pink elephant and Carl...