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Tag: friendly

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

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...
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Jul232023 by Terrier Spirit8 Comments
Glorious goals, captain Sorba, same old problems, Rhodes spite, special teams subs – Notes on the Stockport friendly

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...
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Jul252021 by Terrier Spirit10 Comments
Beauty and the beast, Sorba steps up, grafting midfielders and the usual gripes – Notes on the Norwich friendly

Beauty and the beast, Sorba steps up, grafting midfielders and the usual gripes – Notes on the Norwich friendly

Matches
My cat likes to catch mice and bring them into the house when they're half dead. He'll then play around with them for a while, having great fun while the poor defenseless creature suffers. That's the closest metaphor I can think of to compare our last meeting with Norwich. So it's not a huge surprise to see that most Town fans came away from this game happy to have only lost by two.  Norwich were clearly the classier outfit but Town played with a good tempo and unsettled Norwich with our energy and high press. There was good stuff and not so good stuff on display from Town in this game, I'll try to talk about both below.  We played some nice football but didn't create enough and made individual errors at the back The above summary of this game could probably apply to around two t...
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Jul192021 by Terrier Spirit10 Comments
Thoughts on the new boys, familiar concerns, players MIA and encouraging signs – Notes on the Southport friendly

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...
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Jul142019 by Terrier SpiritNo Comments
4 standout performances in the Town v Hamburger SV friendly

4 standout performances in the Town v Hamburger SV friendly

Matches
I don’t particularly like friendlies, but I still found myself tuning in to watch Town play Hamberger SV on the club’s official live stream. Town ran out 1-0 winners in a solid but unexciting performance against a decent second-tier German team. Here are a few of the players that caught my eye during the game. It’s worth remembering that preseason doesn’t count for a great deal, but until the season starts it’s all we have to go off. Lewis O’Brien I was very impressed by O’Brien’s work rate and composure in his first-half performance (the entire XI was switched at half-time). He aggressively pressed the opposition, made some smart tackles and looked comfortable in possession. The year on loan at Bradford must have done him a lot of good, as he looks like a professional footballer o...
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Jul132017 by Terrier Spirit1 Comment
Six things we learned from the Accrington Stanley friendly

Six things we learned from the Accrington Stanley friendly

Matches, Opinion
As I said in my preview of the Accrington Stanley friendly, I'm not a big fan of preseason games. I find them frustrating to watch even though I know that they're meant for building fitness rather than entertaining the crowds. Having said that, there are a few things we can take away from the game which are quite interesting. Here are six things I noticed: Embed from Getty Images Nahki Wells may have to play deeper to get game time Last night Nahki Wells played in the second-half 11, alongside Laurent DePoitre. I thought this may have represented a change in formation to accommodate two strikers but it seems that Nahki played deeper, as a number 10. He later played in central midfield when Kasey Palmer replaced Mark Hudson. I don't think he's likely to play in the midfiel...
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