Huddersfield Town take on Luton Town later today at Kenilworth Road. If Town win and other results go our way we could head into the international break in the playoff positions. Even if we don’t, our points tally and table position are looking very healthy when compared to most people’s expectations at the start of the season.
While there isn’t pressure on Town to get a result today, I would say there’s pressure to put together a consistent run of performances. The inconsistency this season has seen Town swing between looking like world beaters and relegation fodder from one game to the next. If Town play anything like decent today, regardless of the outcome, then I’ll be happy to see a sign that we’re heading in the right direction.
The “Luton Town” away chant
The Hatters are fast becoming a bogey team for Huddersfield Town, with us failing to beat them in our previous four meetings since our relegation from the Premier League and the creation of the chant where we sang about the ignominy of having to travel to Luton Town away after our Premier League adventure.
Even though the “Luton Town away” chant was sung with a tongue in cheek kind of gallows humour, I suspect the nuance was lost on Luton fans. They’ll look at us in the same way we looked upon fans that said “they shouldn’t be losing to the likes of Huddersfield” back when we were punching above our weight.
Of course, one chant isn’t the reason we’ve lost two and drawn two of the four recent encounters we’ve had with Luton. There’s also the fact that Luton have developed into a pretty good team for this level and they’ve taken points off us consistently because they’ve been hard to beat in all those games. Most likely they will be again today.
🎶 "We're going to Luton Town, Luton Town away" 🎶
— COPA90 (@Copa90) May 7, 2019
Huddersfield fans are taking their relegation well 😂👏 pic.twitter.com/hKEeJ4r6uC
Adebayo’s revenge
There’s also the fact that Luton Town’s striker, Adebayo, was all set to come to Town until we got cold feet and pulled out and left the way clear for the Hatters to pick him up last January. This was during that dismal period of the window where we tried to sign just about every striker going and ended up having to scrabble around for free agents after the window closed.
Adebayo’s goal scoring record since arriving at Luton has already shown that we misjudged that piece of business. Regardless of that fact he’s proved us wrong already, I’m sure the player will really want to ram home the message by delivering a masterclass this afternoon against the team he nearly joined.
This issue was made worse by our chairman’s public comments about how he didn’t think the player was ready to make an immediate impact on the Championship in an interview. In fairness, he didn’t directly mention Adebayo by name but it wasn’t too tricky to work out who he was referring to. In retrospect, it was probably a mistake to be openly negative about a player that would have the opportunity to make you eat your words.
Predicted Huddersfield Town XI to take on Luton
Injury doubts remain over Jonathan Hogg, Levi Colwill and Alex Vallejo and the availability of these three is likely to be the main factor in which team is selected for today’s game. You could also make an argument for Holmes to make a start after looking lively from the bench recently but he never seems quite as influential when he starts games, so I’d keep him on the bench today unless injuries mean he needs to drop into midfield.
I suspect we’ll go with the same lineup as Tuesday night’s game if Vallejo is given the go ahead from the physios after a knee issue saw him subbed off against Blackburn. For once, most fans will be happy to see Ward start today after a great performance on Tuesday night. After months of disappointing performances, he now needs to show Tuesday night wasn’t a fluke and that he can be consistently competitive.
Goalkeeper: Nicholls
Defence: Pearson, Lees, Sarr
Midfield: Thomas, Vallejo, O’Brien, Toffolo
Attack: Sinani, Ward, Koroma
Match prediction: 1-1 draw
I always think of Luton as being one of those “park the bus” types of teams but I think that’s an unfair stereotype as they can play a bit of football too. It’s likely to be a battle today but we also have to watch out for the likes of Cornick, who has a bit of quality too. Both teams won in midweek, so I’d hope this game is similar to Tuesday night, where both teams play good football and go toe to toe in an entertaining match.
A draw would be a decent result for Town in my opinion even though I’d hope we push for all three points. There’s no pressure on this game for the Terriers as we’re already in a good position. That freedom may mean we can have a good go at them today but after Luton thumped Coventry 5-0 earlier this week we shouldn’t expect this to be an easy game.
“There’s no pressure on this game for the Terriers as we’re already in a good position.”
Don’t become a motivation coach whatever you do!
True, there’s no chance of me being asked in to give the pre-match team talk.
“There’s no pressure on this game for the Terriers as we’re already in a good position”
Possibly the most rubbish statement that you have come up with up to now. What a negative, defeated outlook. Does that mean we should just give up and let them win. Unbelievable!
The literal sentence before says “I’d hope we push for all three points” then the following sentence explains we can play with more freedom because the pressure is off at the moment. Pulling out those few words out of context gives them a different meaning.
I think some Town fans have forgotten what pressure is. Points clear at the bottom of the championship is what I call ‘pressure’. We are far better off without such pressure. It doesn’t lend itself to the sort of football we saw against Reading and Blackburn.
We can rely instead on motivation, team spirit and confidence.
some context.
luton had scored 8 in last two home games,7 of them b4 the break.
the latest hme match was against coventry,above us,scoring 5.
pragmaticaly we had to set up defensively & without hogg & valejho.
scott high was great,alongside o`brien.
i suspect a clean sheet was above expectations,always possibility of goals from our set pieces.
the match i gave us less hope for was the blackburn game.playing another team who scored 5 in their previous match.confounding all expectations from me,a performance of quality,determination,no little skill,being pulled back twice,yet still finding a winner.
in fact going into international break again coming when results are on the up & we may have preffered to play again sooner?
we are in the mix,more than last season suggested,we have strengthened our squad in good areas,carlos is getting a tune out of this squad.
we were all disappointed with forest & swansea performances,yet the bounce back is great.
this season has much to b pleased with so far & i see a brighter future,fans back in stadiums,atmosphere energy in stadiums & our team is responding,rising to challenge.
A very good point in poor and awkward conditions, against a team used to winning at home, we now have some never- say- die players, Lees, Pearson, Nichols, and even Sarr is playing better after being with Colwill Hogg etc.
High came in and had some good touches but just thought we lacked that Colwill and Vallejo touch, two weeks to get everyone fit and then two home games on the bounce, these sort of results and performances are just what Carlos is looking for, (after saying he went for the win). need to keep going forward. UTT