Team News
There are no reports of any new injuries for Blues but James Hurst might start his first game at right back.
The Terriers will give late tests to James Vaughan and Adam Hammill who are both rated as 50-50. Jermaine Beckford will be available after being ineligible for the match against parent club Leicester in midweek.
Last Meeting
Other than a third round FA Cup defeat in 2008 the last time the two teams faced off was back in 2001. Both the home and away fixtures that season ended in 2-1 victories for the Blues.
Recent Form
Blues are nineteenth but if it wasn’t for their poor goal difference they could be fourteenth. They are on a reasonable run of ten points from their last six games.
Huddersfield are eighth and just three points ahead of us. They have also gained ten points from their last six but have lost the last two. They have a very good record away from home this season.
Outlook
This time last week I was commenting on how bad things looked after the Barnsley game but then Blues being Blues they go and win at the league leaders. The performance at Cardiff was also encouraging with only bad luck and poor defending from a corner stopping them getting a result. The league is so tight at the moment so our position means little and is not too different to where we were last season. Hopefully we can match last October and put a string of decent results together starting tomorrow.
While the win at Brighton was more of a battling ‘smash and grab’ type game rather than a dominating performance it was obvious that there had been a positive reaction. In defence Curtis Davies was back and seemed really focused and fired up. Despite the fact we were playing with stand in full backs the defence was the most organised it had been all year. Brighton had a lot of possession but few clear chances and they were caught offside so much that you’d have thought Marlon King must be playing for them. Chris Burke’s goal will help his confidence and it was also refreshing to see the manager name the same side two games in a row.
Huddersfield have followed a familiar pattern for a promoted team with good early results including a win at Blackpool but they are now in a bit of a mini slump. Their manager described their defeat against Leicester as “Men against Boys” so he will also be looking for a reaction from his team. Let’s hope their early season confidence has been knocked a little and we can move up to mid table before the international break. It will be interesting to see what changes are made to the team considering this is a home fixture and we would expect them to be more attacking. If Marlon King has fully recovered from his illness he could return to partner Lita probably at the expense of Peter Lovenkrands (Shabba!) although I’d prefer it to be instead of Elliot. This is because Lovenkrands adds more balance to the side on the left and is the more attacking option. I wouldn’t be upset if the same team is name as while it was definitely 4-5-1 at Brighton it could easily go 4-3-3 if the wide players push more forward.
Hopefully the “Clark Out” brigade have put away their bed sheets and will come and support the team. There are a number of good ticket offers for this one and while I not expecting miracles it would be good to get the crowds up to the levels we were getting this time last year. The last few weeks I’ve been getting the score very wrong so I’ll just go for the same result as in 2001.
Blues 2 Huddersfield 1.
C’mon you Blue Boys!
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