What To Expect From Sheffield Wednesday

Sheffield Wednesday will visit The John Smiths Stadium on Saturday to take on Huddersfield Town in a game which both teams will be expecting to take points from. As always, we went in search for an opposition fan to give us a bit of a insight into their club as well as what to expect from them when they take on the terriers. This time we have John Wozniak who wrote on behalf of East Midlands Owls;

3 wins on the bounce have silenced the Dave Jones critics (for now). A mixture of bad luck, bad refereeing decisions and some early season poor defending sent most of Sheffield 6 into a state of panic. 

Those that are familiar with Milan Manderic will no that he is not afraid to fire his manager. Despite a few calls for Dave Jones’s head, Milan and 99% of Wednesdayites have stood by him. 

Having watched the Owls home and away since our League Cup game at Oldham in August, Wednesdayites have spent most of the season scratching our heads, wondering how we have not taken 3 points or even a draw from all but a few of our games. 

A low point in the season was against Leicester and Watford at home. The team showed no spirit or desire to win. The East Midlands Owls lads, sat down and discussed who should come into replace Dave Jones. The answer we came up with after 3 hours of head scratching was simple, stick with Dave Jones. 

A 1-0 defeat away to Cardiff was harsh and the lads showed some spirit. Suicidal defending cost us a bitter blow at home to Bristol City. A backs to the wall performance at Barnsley set us up nicely to beat Chartlon at home followed by yesterday’s win away at Bolton.So what can you expect from the Owls on Saturday? Firstly 99% of Wednesdayites won’t want to see Jay Bothroyd playing. His lethargic approach to the game hasn’t won anyone over. You have already seen our pacely players Michail Antonio and Jermain Johnson. Our new recruit Jeremy Helan has blistering pace, and the goal he scored against Charlton was nothing short of class.  There is plenty of spirit and quality in this side, as the lads have shown in the last three games, they will play until the last whistle. We are not getting too carried away. The introduction of Stuart Gray to the back room staff has brought a sense of organisation to the team.  

Dave Jones’s team selection for Saturday will remain a mystery, but in Jones we trust.  I predict a hard fought game and plenty of noise from the 4,000 travelling Wednesdayites.There will be plenty of banter on twitter etc but on behalf of everyone at East Midlands Owls we would like to wish all Huddersfield Town fans a Happy New Year! 

FA See Sense Regarding Gerrard Red Card

The FA have today upheld the red card which was dished out to Anthony Gerrard following a perfect tackle which he made on the edge of the terriers box against Crystal Palace. Huddersfield Town appealed against the decision which saw Grayson's men having to hold on to a point against a strong Palace side and today the FA have agreed with the club.

Anthony Gerrard scored in Towns last match against Blackpool on Saturday and the upheld verdict from the FA means he will be available for selection against Sheffield Wednesday and will not face a three match ban which normally comes with a straight red card.





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Grayson Disappointed With Terriers Performance

Simon Grayson reflected back on his sides lucky 1-1 draw against Blackpool after the game yesterday and admitted that the terriers were lucky to get a point despite conceding in stoppage time;

"We can't be disappointed with a draw after that display. We should have been dead and buried within the first 25 minutes; the players can't play any worse than they did in the first half. We looked disorganised and we didn't have a run or a pass in us. Blackpool made us look very ordinary and the only saving grace at half time was that we weren't behind."

"We tried to match them up in the second half and by doing that we gained a little bit of momentum and managed to get a goal. You hope that you can see the game out from that position, but they managed to get a goal which was no less than what they deserved. It is difficult to work out why we were so bad."

"Players didn't get tight enough to the Blackpool players; they were two or three yards off every one of them. We didn't get anywhere near them and that led to us looking out of position. I am grateful for the point in the end, we should have been dead and buried. If we had won the game or even with the draw it is papering over the cracks of our performance. I am not worried because I have got belief in the players. We need to work harder than the opposition and stop them from playing and we will eventually get our rewards."

An unlikely goal for Huddersfield came from Anthony Gerrard who put the terriers in front in the second half. Grayson praised his defender but was keen to put a lot of blame on the entire team;

"He made a couple of decent clearances, but we shouldn't have been at full stretch in the first place to keep them out. We were on home soil, in front of a decent crowd and we failed to be the dominant team. I am hugely disappointed that we haven't carried forward the Crystal Palace performance, if anything we have taken a backwards step."

Calum Woods forced Grayson into a change as did Danny ward who picked up a slight knee injury before kick-off;

"Calum hurt his groin at the end of the first half and Danny Ward felt his knee during the warm-up; both players were taking off as a precaution ahead of Sheffield Wednesday."

Huddersfield Town are now without a win in eight straight league games and consequently sit in 15th position in The Championship table.

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What To Expect From Blackpool

This Boxing Day will see Huddersfield Town host Blackpool at The John Smiths Stadium. These two met earlier on in the season with the terriers coming out on top against the tangerines at Bloomfield Road on a cold, wet & windy night by three goals to one. Things are slightly different now for both teams and a similar result seems unlikely as Huddersfield go into this game on a poor run of form having not won one game in their last seven outings. On the other hand, Blackpool are on the up after previous manager Ian Holloway was replaced by Michael Appleton who has since got his team playing his style of football and it is working.

This view has been echoed by lifelong Blackpool fan Laura Bates who has provided us with a fantastic article outlining what to expect from her beloved side tomorrow afternoon;

After the departure of Ian Holloway, most people believed that our promotion chances had vanished. People described our new manager to be ‘the cheap’ option slating him before he even had a week in charge, after going 8 games without defeat opinions have began to change.  The team is starting to blend together with an Appleton flavour to it; they look fitter and more organised now.  The team have got more steel to their game and we have lost some of the cavalier exploits from the Holloway era.

After the brilliant start that we had, it was expected that we would be the team to beat this season. However, things changed when Huddersfield visited us in September for the televised fixture which then resulted in a slump in form which then saw us only picking up 5 points from a possible 21.  This has now changed, results have improved and we are now beginning to move up the table. 

There will still be mixed feelings from Blackpool supporters when they see the Huddersfield manager Simon Grayson due to the nature of his departure from the Seasider’s to Leeds, leaving them in the lurch with all the loan players he had signed leaving at the same time.  The departure left a sour taste to most Blackpool fans and nearly cost us our Championship status.

It will be nice to see Peter Clarke and Keith Southern again who were both favourites of the Blackpool supporters during their time at Bloomfield Road.  Southern spent 10 years at Blackpool, he will always be fondly remembered and we all wish him the best of luck!  
After Gary-Taylor Fletcher signed from the Terriers in 2007, he has become a fans favourite over the years showing real potential becoming a regular first team player till he got injured.  After coming on, on Friday against Wolves it is expected that he will be back in the starting 11 when we come to face Huddersfield on Boxing Day.

Opposition sides have seen Blackpool this season to be a one man team. With Tom Ince taking all the headlines with 13 assists and 9 goals in 20 league appearances it is understandable that Premier League teams want to snap up the young England under 21 star.  However as I am sure you will all see on Boxing Day that Blackpool are far from a ‘one man team’, with midfield steel from Osborne and the defensive skills of Baptiste plus others we will be a hard nut to crack this Christmas.

The reverse fixture saw Huddersfield take all 3 points deservedly,  with us being battered 3-1, showing one of our worst performances at home in a long time.  Hopefully on the 26th we will put out a better performance, take our chances and come back to Blackpool with all 3 points!

For my prediction, I am feeling a 3-2 victory for the mighty Pool! GTF with 1 and Ince with the other 2.

Beckford Loan Extension

Huddersfield Town have announced the news today that they have managed to secure Jermaine Beckford until the end of the current season. Christmas came early for Town fans as the news filtered through social networking sites before being officially announced by the clubs website.

Beckford's loan was due to end on the 29th of December but the loan extension will see him play in the blue & white stripes until the end of the current campaign. Grayson was delighted with the news;

"We're delighted that Jermaine wants to stay and that Leicester have agreed to the deal. I think people have seen his qualities and what he can bring to this football club when he's been in the team. He has a real hunger and desire to succeed here and do well for us. Unfortunately we've missed Jermaine a bit through injury, but hopefully he will get a clear run now and get plenty of games and goals under his belt. Jermaine has no history of long term injuries and unfortunately these things just happen at times. He's a very highly-tuned athlete and we've just been a little bit unfortunate. We've missed other players for spells this season and that just happens in football."

"Hopefully we can get the best out of him from now until the end of the season, because a fit Jermaine Beckford will get goals. He is a threat in the opposition's area and that's what we need."

Jermaine Beckford very rarely speaks to the press but he spoke highly of the club and the fans today after the news was announced;

"This decision came naturally, as the Manager and the players have shown a lot of faith in me. It feels like the right place to be right now."

"The reaction of the fans always plays a part in this sort of decision too, because they are the fabled 12th man. For the Huddersfield Town fans to take me in like they have done is a contributing factor to me wanting to extend the loan."

"The injury has been frustrating though, to put it mildly; I'm fortunate enough that I've never really been injured throughout my career. To have scored in half the games that I've played in so far is a nice feeling, but at the same time I would have liked to have scored much more. There's lots of time left in the season though."

"As the Manager has said, everybody's main aim here is to stay in this division; if we can do that, everyone will be happy. Personally I feel we have a little bit more than what's needed simply to stay in this division and without putting any pressure on any of the boys, I don't think we'll be far off the Play-Offs."

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Huddersfield Appeal Against Gerrard's Red Card

Huddersfield Town and Simon Grayson have appealed against the straight red card which saw Anthony Gerrard leave the field of play against Crystal Palace on Saturday. The defender was sent off after what can only be described as a beautiful sliding tackle on the edge of the terriers penalty box. A clearly frustrated Gerrard would of missed the next three matches but Huddersfield have decided to appeal to the FA for the red card to be overturned.

With how the appealing system works it will mean that Anthony Gerrard is now available for the Boxing Day clash against Blackpool as the appeal cannot be heard until Thursday at the earliest.




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We Are Back!

You may have realised that HTFC Hub has been a bit quiet a lately. Maybe you were thinking we had disappeared or maybe infiltrated by another Championship clubs fansite?! This would of been exciting but we have simply been on holiday for a few weeks but we are now back for the Christmas period. Huddersfield Town have been finding things tough whilst we have been away(since the Brighton Hove Albion game). Here are some statistics since our last post on the website (including Crystal Palace away);

Points gained - 3 
Goals for - 7 
Goals against - 15 
 Won - 0 
Drawn - 3 
Lost - 4

 As you can see we have been struggling immensely against teams which we could of managed better results against. A home defeat against derby rivals Leeds United will have dampened spirits and it hit Town fans hard as they slipped further down the Championship table. A leaky defence has seen them concede more than double what they have managed to score and in this league you cannot afford to have a leaky defence.

Tough scoreline for Huddersfield Fans to take

Injuries have also hit us hard whilst we have been away. Beckford & Vaughan have rarely partnered each other and this has ultimately left Simon Grayson with a limited amount of selection choices against opponents with full strength squads. Middlesbrough played us off the park and so did Leeds United in the second half. A small glimmer of hope emerged as we took the lead against Bolton at The John Smiths Stadium but it soon disappeared as the Lancashire club battled hard to gain a well deserved point. The terriers then fell victim to an on form Hull City side and although we managed to have some good spells of possession we failed to make the net ripple and ultimately lost the game 2-0.

Tempers flared against Hull City

An away point against high flyers Crystal Palace may well look a good point on paper but many Huddersfield Town fans will feel disappointed that they couldn't get all three after playing against ten men for the majority of the game. Whether this away point will see a revitalised Huddersfield Town remains to be seen. However, HTFC Hub is back!