preseason – 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...

Aug12024 by Terrier Spirit10 Comments

Overthinking Huddersfield Town’s squad numbers – who might leave, the new leadership group and theories about what the numbers might mean

News

Huddersfield Town announced their squad numbers for the 24/25 season yesterday and if you’re the kind of person who likes to scrutinise lists of numbers and names to try and find hidden meanings then this sort of thing will be right up your street. Obviously, squad numbers are relatively meaningless these days but then again, it was probably fairly significant to the handful of players that didn't receive a squad number at all. There was also some information about a new leadership group for the coming season which provided some hints at some players that maybe aren't expected to be around for much longer. So I'll speculate about that stuff too. Shirt numbers and leadership group for Huddersfield Town 24/25 Here are this season's squad numbers: 1 - Lee Nicholls ...

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...

Jul212024 by Terrier Spirit21 Comments

Huddersfield Town’s Austria squad: who are the winners and losers?

Opinion

Photo by Brian de Karma on Pexels.com Huddersfield Town have arrived in Austria for their nine-day pre-season trip to Austria. The club have been keen to emphasise this trip to a spa resort will not be particularly relaxing for the playing staff that are out in the Austrian mountains, as they will be subjecting to a gruelling routine of double training sessions and psychological torment* (*they didn’t actually mention anything about psychological torment, I just inferred that from the context of the article). Michael Duff has made some ruthless decisions in selecting his 27-man squad to take to Austria. In doing so, it’s the first clear indication of which players have impressed him so far in preseason and which ones are unlikely to be in his plans for the coming season. In t...

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...

Jul52024 by Terrier Spirit20 Comments

Antony Evans – Who is he, what do Bristol Rovers fans think of him and how will he fit in at Huddersfield Town?

Player profiles, Transfers

Antony Evans has become Huddersfield Town's fourth summer signing after his arrival from Bristol Rovers for an undisclosed fee (believed to be £450,000). He joins Lasse Sorensen, Mickel Miller and Herbie Kane as the club continue to build a squad that they hope will give Michael Duff the tools he needs to mount a promotion tilt in the coming campaign. And, it has to be said, the quality of the signings and fact they're coming in relatively early in preseason, bodes well for Town. Evans is Bristol Rovers reigning Player of the Season and is highly rated by their fans. So it seems like we've got a very promising player on our hands. In this article I'll dig a little bit deeper on our newboy. What is Antony Evans’ history? Evans came up through Everton’s youth ranks, playing i...

Jul42024 by Terrier Spirit13 Comments

Herbie Kane – Who is he, what do Barnsley fans think of him and how will he fit in at Huddersfield Town?

Player profiles, Transfers

Huddersfield Town have signed central midfielder and part-time Phil Collins impersonator, Herbie Kane on a free transfer following his contract expiring at Barnsley. Despite bearing a striking resemblance to the singer/drummer from Genesis (someone on Down At The Mac pointed it out and I can't unsee it now), this looks like a great signing for Town. So with no legitimate concerns about this bit of business it leaves unfortunate bloggers like me little material to write about oth(er than personal remarks about the player's physical appearance. We’ve been crying out for some creativity in the middle of the park for years and it seems like this signing could bring it. We also have a head coach that can get the best out of him too, as Duff worked with Kane at Barnsley two seasons ago...

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...