[Lord Snooty]

Ipswich Town v Huddersfield Town
The Sky Bet Championship
Saturday May 4th - 12:30 ko
at Portman Road

Huddersfield Town travel to Ipswich to the Alf Ramsey Arena on Saturday lunchtime for a game of football.

After Tuesday night's victory away at Coventry, the Tractor Boyz only need a point to gain automatic promotion to the land of milk and honey, also know as the Premier League. A bit of a poisoned chalice maybe, but once you've got to this position, you have to give it a go. Remember 2017 and how excited we were? Well, that's what the Ipswich fans are having now. They just don't know what evils lie ahead.

It's been 22 years since they've been there and have more recently been a League One side. They were relegated in 2019 and didn't get back up again until this time last year. They clinched promotion with a 6-0 win over Exeter City.

Six-nil? Hold my beer!

The game is live on Sky Sports and we will be just a footnote in the coverage. We'll be expected to roll over and let them win easily. And that might well be how it pans out, but we must approach the game professionally and do the job for our noisy neighbours.

Yeah right!

Will we even have Andre Breitenreiter in charge after all the speculation this week? Who knows? Who even cares? The season's gone. We've been relegated. Let's get it over with.

Tickets:

UPPER TIER

Adults - £34
Over-65s - £27
Under 23s - £20
Under 19s - £12

LOWER TIER

Adults - £30
Over-65s - £24
Under 23s - £19
Under 19s - £11

FREE COACH TRAVEL

Town supporters making the final journey with us to Ipswich can benefit from free coach travel to the game! Wanting to see as many Terriers as possible with us on the road, the Club has committed to covering the cost of ten coaches.

Seats are strictly one per supporter and you must have a valid match ticket in order to join us, with places available on a first-come first-served basis. Our full away travel terms and conditions are available below.

Please note: Under 16s must be accompanied by an adult on the same coach.

TRAVEL INFORMATION

Our official travel coaches will depart from St. Andrew's Car Park at 6am on match day (Saturday 4 May).




Head to Head


Ipswich lead the head to head with 22 wins to Town's 15, with 9 draws.

I covered all this in the thread for the home game back in September, so if you want to go and have a look, click the link below. It also has the Brief History of Ipswich Town, the Club Connections article on Marcus Stewart and a bit about their manager, Kieran McKenna.

https://www.sportsbabble.co.uk/showthread.php?tid=12553

That match at the JSS this season ended in a draw, another one where we couldn't hold on to a one-nil lead. Ipswich were in second place in the Championship at the time, the 30th of September (we were 17th), and this point took them above Leicester City who had been top all season, but regained that lead the following day.

We had looked good for all three points, in a game I didn't attend, can't remember why, but by all accounts was one of our best performances of the season. Delano Burgzorg gave us the lead in the 61st minute, before doing his party trick of balancing on the ball for no apparent reason. Before the inevitable happened and Brandon Williams headed in a late equaliser to give the Tractor Boyz a share of the points.

Huddersfield Town manager Darren Moore:

"It was a good, solid performance. We set out our stall early in the game by disrupting Ipswich from settling into their play and their rhythm.

"And then we got the ball into real threatening areas of the pitch; we could have capitalised more with the chances we created.

"We had the more clear-cut chances in the afternoon and I was pleased when we got the goal because we deserved to get our noses in front.

"I'd have liked to have seen us extend that because the game was disrupted by the substitutions we were forced to make.

"When Ipswich did score, we didn't allow them to go on and win the game, which was pleasing because it would've been a travesty from our point of view."


Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna:

"We need to stay humble and keep learning. There's parts of the team and the group that are relatively inexperienced at this level and we'll learn lots from a game like today.

"We're in the middle of a busy schedule and against a motivated team with a new manager and that makes for an excited crowd and energetic group of players.

"It was a tough-fought and competitive game; we had to fight really hard for the point and we can take positives in the way that we kept going.

"We were the team at the end of the game that looked likelier to get the winning goal and that shows good resilience and ambition from the group.

"It's a good point because we didn't play anywhere near our best but we just need to keep focusing on our performances."

Snooty's season review and a look ahead to life in League One:

It's been rubbish, hasn't it?!

Sure has!

It started off well enough. Some massive pre season victories against Bodmin, Liskeard, Stockport and SC Heerenveen gave us all hope of a season of at least mid table comfort with Neil Warnock and Ronnie Jepson steering the good ship Huddersfield Town into calmer waters than of late.

But as soon as the real thing got under way, mistakes started happening. A 3-1 defeat away at Plymouth, in which Warnock said that we had to work hard to lose that one, was a sign of things to come. That was followed by a Cup defeat at home to Boro and then a home loss to champions in waiting, Leicester City. Signs were encouraging despite the three defeats.

The first of the 18 draws of 23/24 came up at Middlesbrough, but that was followed by a comedy of errors at home against Norwich.

It was at this point, after four matches under the leadership of the great manager who had saved us from relegation the season before and was persuaded to stay on by thousands of fans at the last home game of that campaign, that the club's heirarchy decided to let him go. Immediately after a brilliant 2-1 win down at West Brom, Warnock was told of the Board's decision. And despite backing that up with a win over Rotherham and a draw at home to Stoke, they stuck with that decision.

We were in 16th place and rising when Neil and Ronnie left the building. What came next was a disgrace. Neil kept saying that they hadn't told him who he was being replaced with. Must be somebody big. A name that would make people sit up and gasp in amazement that little old Huddersfield Town had managed to acquire the services of.

The way Jake Edwards spoke of the man at the press conference, I genuinely think he thought we had done such a thing. But the name of Darren Moore was announced and nobody, nobody at all, was impressed.

His era started badly, got slightly better with a late equaliser at Coventry, reached a peak on Boxing Day at home to Blackburn, but the inevitable happened shortly after the debacle at Loftus Road, where we failed to hold on to a lead, not for the first time, and ended with a 1-1 draw.

Then the fun began and the real Huddersfield Town finally woke up. Under the leadership of Jon Worthington as caretaker manager, we played with freedom. A 4-0 win at home to the Wednesday moved us 8 points above the Owls. Surely they would never catch us now.

That was followed by the best match of the season, down at Southampton. We lost it obviously, but playing in the true Terrier Spirit, having raced into a 3-1 lead, we just couldn't match the quality of their substitutes and eventually lost 5-3.

Next up came a Wednesday night win at home to Sunderland, completing our only double of the season. And then the only defeat of the Worthy games, a 2-1 defeat at home to Hull. By that time we could say, meet the new boss.

Same as the old boss? Too bloody right.

In came Andre Breitenreiter, slowing the game down again with boring, boring football. Just like Mr Moore, he got lucky in his first game with two late goals from supersub Danny Ward, with other supersub Tom Edwards getting an assist for the winner. A fortunate victory.

He soon lost the dressing room. For whatever reason, the lads just weren't up to the job of playing out of position, playing without strikers or even playing with enough discipline to see out a win without giving away late penalties.

The inevitable happened last week against fellow relegation candidates Birmingham City, but the damage had already been done. Not that hammering at home to Swansea. The damage was done in August and we never recovered.

So where do we go from here? (Is it down to the lake I fear?)

Not quite, but we are going to a few places that we haven't been to for a while. Coming up from League Two will be Stockport, Mansfield and Wrexham, with all their Netflix n chill stuff. Some Town fans won't have seen us play those three, it's been that long. Not played Stockport since a 6-0 win at Edgeley Park in 2010. Wrexham haven't been on our fixture list since 04/05 and apart from a League Cup game in 2006, we haven't played the Stags since that memorable 0-0 draw in Cardiff in 2004.

One of MK Dons, Donny Rovers, Crewe Alexandra and Creepy Crawley Town will also be making the trip to the John Smith's Stadium. If it is Crawley, it'll be our first ever meeting.

There will be a few familiar club crests appearing on the scoreboard, teams we've played in the Championship recently like Wigan, Charlton and Reading and of course Rotherham. Maybe Barnsley if they don't win the Play Offs. And Bolton, their semi final opponents. The other two Play Off players are Oxford United and those posh twats from Peterborough.

Also definitely on our league schedule are Lincoln, Stevenage, Leyton Orient, Exeter, Northampton, Bristol Rovers, Cambridge, Shrewsbury and Burton Albion. Names there that should any of them come away from the McAlpharm with any points at all, will have Town fans gnashing their teeth in anger.

Wycombe Wanderers are still in League One, as are Blackpool. Always gets the young 'uns excited that one.

Which games are you all looking forward to? I fancy a trip to Wrexham to have a gawp at the Leigh Richmond Roose memorial. Amelia fancies Stevenage. I'll let her explain that one.

Tuesday night's line up away at Coventry:

31, V. Hladký
40, A. Tuanzebe
3, L. Davis
25, M. Luongo
4, G. Edmundson
15, C. Burgess
7, W. Burns
5, Sam Morsy ©
24, K. Moore
20, O. Hutchinson
33, N. Broadhead

Subs:
1, C. Walton
6, L. Woolfenden
10, C. Chaplin
14, J. Taylor
19, K. Jackson
21, J. Sarmiento
27, G. Hirst
28, L. Travis
30, C. Humphreys


Recent form - last 6 matches:

Town 1-1 Birmingham
Town 0-4 Swansea
Bristol C 1-1 Town
PNE 4-1 Town
Town 1-0 Millwall
Stoke 1-1 Town

Coventry 1-2 Ipswich
Hull 3-3 Ipswich
Ipswich 1-1 Boro
Ipswich 0-0 Watford
Norwich 1-0 Ipswich
Ipswich 3-2 Southampton

Town are 23rd in the Championship table with 45 points. Ipswich are 2nd with 93.


Leading scorers:

Terrierz:
Michal Helik (9)
Delano Burgzorg (7)
Josh Koroma (6)

Tractorz:
Conor Chaplin (13)
Nathan Broadhead (13)
Omari Hutchinson (10)




Anagrams of the Huddersfield Town 2023/24 season:

1. Ponced Berries
   
2. Lorenzo Drug Bag
   
3. Aberdeen Tin Terrier
   
4. Mod Steward
   
5. Yeah Sheryl
   
6. Bile News
   
7. Weak Arsed DJ
   
8. Rear Doormen
   
9. Pesioner Jon
   
10. Geneva Link