[Lord Snooty]

Huddersfield Town v Barnsley
Sky Bet League One
Saturday October 5th - 12:30 ko
and also
Bristol Street Motors Trophy - Group F
Tuesday October 8th - 19:45 ko
both at the John Smith's Stadium

Huddersfield Town welcome the neighbours Barnsley to the Town Ground on Saturday lunchtime for a football fixture to be played in the 3rd tier of English football. And then welcome them back again on Tuesday night for a fixture in the group stage of the EFL Trophy.

Having plummeted ten places in the League One table in a week, Town now need to stop messing about, quite frankly. Having won 4-0 at Bolton and looking towards taking over the lead at the top of the table, a ridiculous mix up between Lee Nicholls and Michal Helik gave us what could turn out to be a wrong direction, turning point in the season, in the Northampton home game. We now need something similar to kick us back in the right direction.

That hopefully will come in the shape of a league and trophy double over the Toby Tykes. Yes, I'm clutching at straws in the search for something, anything positive to say about this topsy turvy, upsy daisy, wibbly wobbly season, but after four straight defeats in the league, it's not very easy to do.

I'm thinking about things like the unexpected beauty of a goal fron Josh Ruffels against Middlesbrough after about ten seconds of the second half that sparked off four goals in next to no time. I'm also looking at the late winner at Hull from Harry Toffolo that started an unbeaten run that took us all the way to Wembley.

Going further back, the Iain Dunn goal at Stockport that revived the team and started the run to the Autoglass Final. The Friday night hammering of Rochdale that had Steve Kindon pleading Mick Buxton to sign him on. Or a bit further back, the Billy Smith goal at Burnley that took us top of the league in 1924 on the way to our very first League title.

Something magic. Anything, please. Just win with a rebound off the back of the keeper's head. Anything. Come the futtock on, Town!



Head to Head



Town lead the head to head with 34 wins to Barnsley's 29, with 16 draws.

In League games that's 30 Town wins to their 24 and we have never met before in the EFL Trophy. They did however beat us over a two legged Play Off semi final in 2006.

We got off to a good start in the series of matches with our neighbours from Oakwell, meeting them in our first season in the Football League. That was 1910/11 and they were the first team we did a league double over. We beat them 2-1 at thier place with our goals coming from James Richardson and Sandy McCubbin. That was in November and we completed that double in February by beating them 2-0 at Leeds Road, with Joe Jee and James Macauley getting the goals.

We played them each season in Division Two up until the Football League was suspended for the First World War. Barnsley finished in 3rd place at the end of the 1914/15 season and so when after the war, the FL announced that they would extend the number of clubs in both divisions from 20 to 22, they expected that they would be promoted to the top tier. However, it was sixth placed Arsenal who went up instead. Some say it was a thank you from the government for the service to the war effort of the Woolwich Arsenal, but it was most probably corruption, as usual. Anyway, Arsenal have been in the top tier ever since and Barnsley got there eventually..... in 1997......for one season.

So when we won promotion in 1919/20, it was the last time we met in the league for a while. We beat them 4-1 at home in what would become game 3 of our club record run of eleven consecutive league wins and we had at this time already reached the FA Cup Final by beating Bristol City in the semis. Sammy Taylor, a couple from Jack Swann and an own goal were our scorers in that game.

So the next league games between the two clubs came in 1952/53 after Town had been relegated for the first time ever. We won promotion straight away and our aggregate score over the two league games against Barnsley was 10-2. We beat them 6-0 at Leeds Road (Jimmy Glazzard (2), Vic Metcalfe (2, 1 pen), Willie Davie, Len Quested) and 4-2 at Oakwell with Glazzard scoring again to add to a hat trick from Tommy Cavanagh.

We had four seasons together in Division 4 in the 70s before we had our first 3rd tier games in the 1980/81 season. That was a memorable season under the leadership of Mick Buxton where we came so close to back to back promotions. Barnsley came to our place in February on the back of a club record unbeaten run, but it was the Town fans in a massive Leeds Road crowd of 28,901 who were singing "you can stick your f***ing record up your arse" when David Cowling scored the only goal of the game. The Reds had the last laugh though, finishing as runners up to Rotherham United, while we finished 4th when only the top three went up. The Play Offs weren't around back then.

We did meet in the Play Offs in 2006, losing 2-3 on aggregate and we had an astonishing 2-2 draw in the last game of the 2012/13 Championship season. The last time we played each other was in 2021/22. It was the third game from the end of the season and we were heading for the Play Offs and they were heading for League One. Jordan Rhodes scored our first goal and Harry Toffolo got the second just before half time as we dominated the game, but failed to keep a clean sheet as Callum Styles got a consolation in the 7th minute of added on time.

Recent form - last 6 matches:

Birmingham 1-0 Town
Reading 2-1 Town
Town 0-2 Blackpool
Town 1-3 Northampton
Bolton 0-4 Town
Doncaster 2-1 Town (EFL Trophy)

Barnsley 2-2 Wycombe
Barnsley 1-1 Stockport
Burton 1-2 Barnsley
Man Utd 7-0 Barnsley (EFL Cup)
Stevenage 3-0 Barnsley
Barnsley 2-1 Bristol Rovers

Town are 15th in the League One table with 12 points. Barnsley are 7th with 15.


And then after the League One fixture, it's on to the Tinpot Trophy.........

Click here for the Wiki page for this season's competition

There have been three games so far in this group. First up was Barnsley at home to the Manchester United u21s. A young Tykes team were cruising with 80 minutes on the clock, with a 2-0 lead thanks to both goals from 18 year old Vimal Yoganathan. He's a Welsh lad of Sri Lankan Tamil heritage and so when he came on a a sub in last season's EFL Cup against Tranmere Rovers (replacing Herbie Kane) he became the first player of Tamil heritage to play in an EFL competition. The two goals he scored in the Trophy game against MUFCu21 were his first first team goals. It wasn't enough to win the game though as the Ten Hag Teenies turned it around in the last ten minutes. Ethan Ennis scored in the 81st minute then Jack Fletcher scored twice to give United a 3-2 win.

Then came our disastrous defeat at Doncaster.

On the 24th of September it was the Man Utd kids who went to the Keepmoat and did better than our team, coming from behind again, this time to earn a 3-3 draw. Rovers were 3-1 up but it was Louis Jackson (who according to his Wikipedia page is a film producer born in 1904) who scored the equaliser in the 6th minute of added on time. And so in this competition both teams took one point for the draw, but then played out a penalty shoot out for an extra bonus point. United won it 5-3 and so now sit at the top of the table with 5 points. Rovers are 2nd with 4 and Town and Barnsley are still pointless. Therefore, whoever loses in this game at the JSS will be out of the competition.


Tickets for the Trophy game: The club are only opening the Riverside Lower Stand for home fans for this fixture.

PRICES

Adults - £10
Under 18s - £5

HOW TO BUY

Online – Please click here to purchase online
Over the Phone – Call 01484 960 606 during open hours
In person – Visit the Ticket Office at the John Smith’s Stadium during open hours

DIGITAL DELIVERY

Supporters who purchase their tickets online will see the ‘digital delivery’ option.

If this option is selected, you will receive an email that allows you to print your tickets at home or add the ticket(s) to your smartphone via Apple Wallet or Google Pay functions.

Details on how to download your ticket to your smartphone will be on the email received after purchase.

If you have any further queries, please email ticketenquiries@htafc.com.



A brief history of Huddersfield Town in the EFL Trophy (Part Two): click here if you want to read part one


So after the defeat at Bury in the Northern Quarter Final in 1994/95, Neil Warnock and his merry men went on to win promotion through the Play Offs at Wembley against Bristol Rovers. This meant that we would no longer have to play in this prestigious football tournament. Joy amongst joys though, the team got relegated again in 2001 and so in October a crowd of 3,570 turned up on a Tuesday night to see the Terriers take on our next door neighbours, Halifax Town at the McAlpine Stadium.

No group stage in the competition for this season, it was straight in with the knockout games and after a dire 0-0 draw, we got the excitement of a penalty shoot out. Chris Hay, John Thorrington and Nathan Clarke all scored to match three succcessful kicks from the Shaymen. But then Town keeper Martyn Margetson saved the next one, followed by Kenny Irons scoring to put us 4-3 up meant that Halifax had to score their next. They didn't and so our brave boys went through to round 2 and a trip to Wrexham.

"Where were you when you were shit?", will be the chant from the Town fans when we return to the Racecourse Ground later this month. Only 1,725 turned up for this LDV Vans Trophy game, which the Terriers won 1-0 with a 5th minute goal from Chris Holland.

We were back home again for the next round, a quarter final tie with Scunthorpe United and we won easily by four goals to one. Danny Schofield got two of them, Chris Hay got the third and then Andy Booth rounded it off with the fourth in the 85th minute.

An away game in Hull was the destination for the Northern semi, a last ever trip to Boothferry Park. And it was Booth very good as our Andy scored the only goal of the game to get us into the area final, a two legged tie against Blackpool.

We lost the first leg away, 3-1 with Schoey scoring, but we soon had the tie all square in the second leg. Clyde Wijnhard scored from a penalty and then young Schofield scored an absolute belter for the aggregate equaliser on the half hour. We didn't add to that though and so the game went to extra time. Having had the first ever Golden Goal in our favour a few years previously when Iain Dunn scored against Lincoln City, unfortunately we were on the other end of that situation in this one. One goal away from Wembley, but it never came and we lost 4-3 on aggregate.

That was all done with Lou Macari in charge, but due to budget cuts or more realistically the club being on the brink of going bust, we had Mick Wadsworth now as manager. We ended the season getting relegated, but worse was that we were knocked out in the first round of the LDV. We had a return trip to Wrexham, where even less people came out to watch. Dwayne Mattis got our goal in a 2-1 loss.

The next season saw us lose at Carlisle in the first round, but the one after that had us beating Morecambe, a team from the Conference League, 3-0 with goals from David Mirfin, Junior Mendes (pen) and Lee Fowler in round one. That was followed by an extrordinary game at Bloomfield Road in round two. Level at 2-2 after 90 minutes with John McAliskey scoring as well as that boy Schofield again, the game went into extra time. Town were down to ten men after 48 minutes because Efe Sodje went and got himself sent off and by now the Golden Goal rule had been scrapped. Just as well as Blackpool scored first again. They scored another to make it 4-2 before Adnan Ahmed got one back for 4-3. The goals kept flowing though in the wrong net and we ended up losing 6-3.

More early defeats came in the next few seasons. Defeats against Boston United away, Doncaster at home, Grimsby away and Darlington away came along before we finally won another match in this Trophy tournament. That was a 2-1 win against Rotherham at home with Peter Clarke and Robbie Simpson scoring. That brought us to a round 2 game at Saltergate against Chesterfield.

It was 0-0 at half time but by the time the added on time board was held aloft after 90 minutes, we were 2-1 down. That became 3-1 to the Spirestarters as all the Town fans standing in the rain behind the goal walked out. Those who stayed saw an amazing fightback as goals from Anthony Pilkington and Nathan Clarke unbelievably drew us level. Extra time had now been scrapped and so the game went to a penalty shoot out.

Pilks took the first and sent it out of the ground. Robbie Williams and Antony Kay scored theirs, but Jim Goodwin had his saved by Tommy Lee, leaving future Town player Donal McDermott to score the winner and give us a rare penalty shoot out defeat.

The season after, 2010/11, we got to the Northern Final again. And it was another roller coaster of a competition. Starting off in style, going 3-0 up in half an hour at home to Peterborough through goals from Graham Carey and a couple from Pilks, we almost cocked it up but held on to win 3-2. That was followed by a trip to the Don Valley Stadium for a game against Rotherham. We were three up after half an hour again with two from Jordan Rhodes and one from Benik Afobe, but kept going this time. Scott Arfield got the 4th and then young Benik got another as we won the game 5-2.

Rhodes scored twice in the Northern semi, a 2-0 win away at Tranmere Rovers, which brought us to a two legged area final against our old Autoglass foes, Carlisle United. It looked to be all over as Carlisle got their revenge from 1994 by stuffing us 4-0 in the first leg. As a result of that, only 6,528 came out to see an almost miraculous come back. Pilkington had us 1-0 up at half time in the 2nd leg. And then the legend Alan Lee scored twice to make it three by the 81st minute. An almost mirror image of the area final of '94, this time it was Carlisle holding on for dear life, which they eventually did and got their day out at Wembley.

Our last season in this competition was in 2011/12 and we started with an away game at Northampton. Yes, still regionalised, an away game in Northampton. We won it 2-1. That lad McDermott who was on loan at Chesterfield from Man City before, was now a Town player and it was he who opened the scoring. The Cobblers equalised but then Lee Novak got us a late winner.

Bradford City came to the Galpharm Stadium for the next round and that was our last game in this competition until last month's embarassing defeat at Doncaster. Tommy Miller (pen) and Peter Clarke scored for us in a 2-2 draw. But then Miller missed his in the shoot out, as did Antony Kay and so Nialle Rodney it was who got the winner for the Bantamweights as our Johnstone Paints Trophy campaign peeled off badly.

[WakeyTerrier]

Like a mad man I’ve predicted Town will win this. At some point the players and the management have to wake up to the Sh,t show that’s been going on the past few weeks.

[jjamez]

Well wakey we've been thinking and hoping that for years!

The thing is, we could play really well and win on Saturday but it'll no longer be 'oh this is Huddersfield town' but more 'is this a blip?' the whole one swallow doesn't make a summer sort of thing.

Really we need to go unbeaten the rest of October and most if not all of November (pointless trophy aside) for the general mood to lift I think. We probably need a good run of form if we are to reignite any hopes we have of reaching the playoffs.

If we limp through this season and finish where we are say, then god knows how kev and his lot can get fans back on side

[Lord Snooty]

Here's what was said if you can't be arsed sitting through all of this, via Steven Chicken of Not the Examiner O'Clock News.......

Michael Duff, reacting to the 1-0 defeat to Birmingham on Tuesday night:

“I thought we were better team for the 25 minutes, but overall I’ve got no argument with the result. And we've just got to try and take the positives and move on because you're not going to play them every week. They are the best team, there's no doubt about that.”



Michael Duff, on whether his side can get back into promotion form

“We're in a difficult moment, but the teams that finish in the top six don't always sit there all season.

“We're working through a lot of things at the minute. There's been a lot of change at the football club: lots of players coming in, lots of injuries. So there's been lots of moving parts.

“I'm not going to sit here and be delusional. Like I just said, we need to win a game football first and foremost before we start talking about where we want to finish. Everyone wants to win the league. But talking and doing it two different things. Birmingham are walking the walk at the minute.

“We just need to deliver some better, more consistent performances and try and work hard and get the confidence back in the group, because one thing you can see is a lack of confidence.”



Huddersfield Town injuries and absences:

Lee Nicholls had to pull out in the warm-up against Reading after struggling with an elbow ligament issue, which now requires surgery. The goalkeeper is expected to miss 10-12 weeks, putting his expected recovery date around mid-late December.

Josh Koroma didn’t start against Birmingham due to a bad back, but did make it off the bench and trained on Thursday. A decision will be made on his availability for the weekend.

Rhys Healey and Danny Ward are back in full training after hamstring and calf injuries respectively, but Duff has suggested they will not be available to play on Saturday.

Herbie Kane has missed the past couple of games but there is no new issue for him: he simply needed more time to get his fitness up following his recent groin injury. Duff says the midfielder may be back in his thinking for the weekend now.

Michal Helik has been ruled out until the back end of November with a hamstring injury, and Radinio Balker is out until the new year.

[theo_luddite]

Barnsley top scorer Phillips has a hanging big toe nail injury and likely won't play in either game

[Lord Snooty]

Whereas our top scorer Phillips, is banging them in over in America and is nominated in the league's player of the month award.

[theo_luddite]

It would help if I replaced him as one of my badgers. So I have, eventually.

[Lord Snooty]

13. Jacob Chapman

2. Lasse Sorensen

4. Matty Pearson ©

7. Callum Marshall

8. Ben Wiles

9. Bojan Radulović

14. Mickel Miller

17. Brodie Spencer

18. David Kasumu

23. Nigel Lonwijk

41. Joe Hodge

Substitutes

Chris Maxwell; Jonathan Hogg, Jaheim Headley, Herbie Kane, Freddie Ladapo, Antony Evans, Tom Lees

---

Huddersfield Town Head Coach Michael Duff has made two changes to the starting line-up for today’s Sky Bet League One game against Barnsley; 12.30pm kick-off at the John Smith’s Stadium.

Those two changes see our Wolverhampton Wanderers loanees, Nigel Lonwijk and Joe Hodge, return to the team at the expense of Tom Lees and Antony Evans.

The starting side is otherwise unchanged from the team that started our midweek game at Birmingham City, although there is a further change among the substitutes. Josh Koroma misses out through injury, so former Barnsley man Herbie Kane takes his place.

[Lord Snooty]

Great performance all around. Two good goals and no stupid mistakes.

[theo_luddite]

Never known Arthur and Dickie's mates be so quiet at our place. 0-0 all over it until Wiles walloped one in and Kasumu finally threaded a screamer through the defenders. I'll have to ask them sat next to me to leave after 80 mins more often.