[Lord Snooty]

Burnley v Huddersfield Town
The Sky Bet Championship
Saturday February 25th - 15:00 ko
at Turf Moor

Huddersfield Town travel to Burnley in deepest, darkest Lancashire to Turf Moor on Saturday afternoon for a match against the way out Championship leaders. They're so far ahead of the rest, it's virtually impossible for them to be caught. So the chance of Huddersfield Town going there and coming away with anything positive, other than keeping the score down to single figures, is slim.

But then again, this is football. It's unpredictable at times. Most people will have this down as a home banker. The Prediction Leaguers will be playing their jokers on this. But we have renewed belief. We have someone in charge now, who isn't a hopeless, inexperienced no mark of a coach. No. We have Neil Warnock. The man who's teams nobody wants to play against. We've seen in one game what a difference he can make to a very underperforming squad. If he can get any points from this one, it really will be a miracle.

I believe in maracles. Do you?

So Warnock will be without Matt Lowton, a Burnley employee for the moment. But he will be boosted by the availablity once again of the defensive enforcer, big Willy Boyle, who served his one match ban received for his two yellow cards at Stoke. Or will we see the return of young Brodie Spencer, who has been skippering the B team of late?

Burnley boss Vincent Kompany, had been whining on about illness and injuries as his team went to Millwall and drew on Tuesday night. One of those injury doubts was leading scorer, Nathan Tella. He was rested at the Den until the 87th minute, so should be fresh to start in this one. Or maybe, just maaaybeeee, they'll rest the entire first XI because they have a massive FA Cup 5th round match on Wednesday night against, errrrm, Fleetwood Town.

Now I did the match thread for the home game on the first day of the season, so some of the following you may have read before. A lot has changed since then and we only have three players from that starting line up, who played against Birmingham on Saturday. They were Danny Ward, Tom Lees and Jonathan Hogg.

Tickets:

Adults - £25 (Restricted Viewing - £22)
Senior - £18 (Restricted Viewing - £15)
Under 22s - £18 (Restricted Viewing - £15)
Under 18s - £10 (Restricted Viewing - £7)

Official coach travel is available for this fixture, costing £17 per person. Coaches will depart from the St Andrew’s Road car park at noon on match day.

A brief history of Burnley FC: formed in 1882, they moved into Turf Moor in the following year and were one of the 12 founding members of the Football League in 1888. They did nowt, being a lower end of the league club and got relegated in 1897. They came straight back up though, winning the 2nd division title in 1898. That title win didn't get them up automatically though. Back then they had "test matches", similar to today's Play Offs, but involving the bottom two of the 1st Division and the top two of the 2nd Division. Controversially, they and Stoke both went up as by the time they met, each club only needed a draw to go up and so played out a goal less draw, in a game where there wasn't any shots at goal. So the Football League introduced automatic promotion in the next season.

After the two losing clubs complained, the League also extended the 1st Division from 16 to 18 clubs, with the two losers, Blackburn and Newcastle starting the next season in there. Burnley went back down again in 1900 and spent the first decade of the new century in Division Two, but did win their place at the top back again in 1913. They also made it to the semi finals of the FA Cup that season, but went one better by making the Final in the next one. Not only that, they won it as well, beating Liverpool 1-0 with a goal from Bert Freeman, at Crystal Palace.

They were doing well in the League now, but then the first world war came along. Despite having players killed in the conflict, they managed to finish runners up to West Brom in the first season back and then actually went and won the League title in 1920/21.

They couldn't retain the title and struggled later on in the decade, finally going down in 1930, shortly after Jack Hill had retired, with a club record of 569 appearances behind him. They also had record goal scorer George Beel in the team at this time and when he left for Lincoln in 1932, he had scored 188 goals in the Claret shirt.

Those claret shirts changed to white in the 30s, in which time, 16 year old Tommy Lawton became their youngest ever player. He would score 16 goals in that season before being sold to Everton, where he would become one of the most prolific strikers of the time.

With not much going on in the world between 1939 and 45, a group of Burnley supporters led a campaign to reinstate the claret shirts and so when football came back again after the 2nd world war, they had the kit and the nickname, the Clarets. What's more, they got their first division place back as well, winning promotion in 1947 as runners up to Manchester City. Topping off a good season, almost, they reached the FA Cup Final and a first visit to Wembley, but lost 0-1 against Charlton Athletic.

During the 1950s, Bob Lord became chairman and would stay in that position for 26 years. In that time, they won trophies. One of those was the First Division championship title in 1959/60, under the management of Harry Potts. As champions, they entered the European Cup and made it to the quarter finals, where they were beaten by Hamburg.

They finished that season as runners up in the League to Ipswich Town and then runners up to Spurs in the FA Cup, losing 1-3 at Wembley, with future Town coach, Jimmy Robson scoring the Clarets' goal, being the 100th FA Cup Final goal.

A 3rd place finish in 1966 saw them qualify for Europe again, in the Inter Cities Fairs Cup, reaching the quarter finals and losing to Eintracht Frankfurt. But at the beginning of the next decade, they ended 24 years of top flight football by being relegated in 1970/71. They came back as 2nd division champions in 73, but went back down again in 76.

They did win the prestigious Anglo Scottish Cup in 1978/79, though the only Scottish club they faced were Celtic, who they beat 3-1 on aggregate in the quarter finals. They followed that by beating Mansfield Town in the semis and then Oldham Athletic 4-2 on aggregate in the Final.

It didn't lead to greater things though and they were relegated to the 3rd division for the first time in 1980. Bob Lord decided to retire and things improved slightly. They went up as 3rd division champions in 1982, but came straight back down again. Lord Bob had a stand named after him, but that has now come under review after his anti semitic comments from the 70s came under question recently.

Things did get worse. And worse. They were relegated to the 4th division in 1985. By the end of the 86/87 season, they were bottom of the 4th div as the last round of matches got underway. Promotion and relegation between the League and the newly formed Conference had just been introduced and Burnley needed to beat Orient at Turf Moor, whilst either Torquay or Lincoln had to lose. Luckily for them, they did win 2-1 and Lincoln lost, so it was the Imps who went down.

They celebrated survival by making it to Wembley in the EFL PaintPotPizza Windscreens Trophy Final in 1988, losing 2-0 to Wolves. Things were getting better and they made the Play Offs in 1991, losing to Torquay in the semis, but then won the 4th division title in the next year. That triumph made them the second team to have won all four divisional titles, with Wolves being the first and Preston, Sheffield Utd and Portsmouth having achieved it since.

Jimmy Mullen was the manager now and he had them up again in 94, winning the Play Offs at Wembley by beating Stockport County 2-1 with goals from David Eyres and Gary Parkinson.

Straight back down again though. Mullen was replaced by some geordie knob called Chris Waddle, who almost had them relegated again down to the 4th tier, but fortunately for the Clarets, their board had the brains to get shut of the dozy mullet bonce and get a turnip, sorry, Stan Ternent in to replace him. Stan was the man and he got them back up to the 2nd tier in 2000, with Burnley born, ex Town striker Andy Payton finishing as top scorer.

Burnley, like Town and a load of other clubs, were hit hard by the collapse of ITV Digital and so struggled to compete financially. However, they managed to stay in the, by now named, Championship and reached the Play Offs in 2009, under the management of Owen Coyle. After beating Reading in the semis, they faced Sheffield Utd at Wembley and won 1-0 with a goal from Wade Elliott and so that meant a return to the top flight after an absence of 33 years.

It was just for one season though. Coyle was poached by local rivals Bolton Wanderers and he was replaced by former player and ex Town full back, Brian Laws, who oversaw the relegation. Laws left to be replaced by Eddie Howe. He got homesick for Bournemouth and left to be replaced in October 2012 by ex Watford boss, Sean Dyche.

Despite being the bookies favourites for the drop, Dyche got them back into the Prima Donna League by finishing the 2013/14 season as runners up to Leicester. Straight back down and straight back up again, winning the Championship title in 2016. And despite being such a tin pot outfit, they managed to stay in the PL, even qualifying for Europe for the first time since the 60s. That was for the 2018/19 Europa League, but they didn't get past the qualification rounds.

But then at the end of last season, they got relegated, after six seasons in the Prem and so here we are, playing each other once more in the Championship.

Head to Head



Burnley lead the head to head with 34 wins to Town's 28, with 14 draws.

Back in time, Burnley were our second ever opponents in the Football League. Having won our first ever FL game, away at Bradford Park Avenue, Burnley came to Leeds Road the following Saturday for the first ever FL game at the new stadium. They went away with the points, winning 1-0, in front of a crowd of 7,371.

More recently though, we played them in both of our seasons in the Prima Donna League. We only lost one of the four games. After three draws, they finally beat us with the help of referee Mike Dean, who sent of Christopher Schindler as the Jugs came back to beat us 2-1 after Steve Mounie had given us a first half lead. This was very near the end for David Wagner. Sad times.

Last season though, under the leadership of Carlos Corberan, we beat them at Turf Moor in the FA Cup with us coming back from one down to win 2-1. Josh Koroma and Matty Pearson with the goals in that one.

After Carlos had walked out on us in the summer, Danny Schofield became Head Coach and his first game in charge was the first game of the new Championship season on the Friday night Sky Sports opener. It was a shambles! Despite them also having a new coach in charge, they out played us in every department and we didn't have one shot on target all night. Ian Maatsen scored early on and they really should've beaten us more than one-nil.

So what's going on down Harry Potts Way? Managed nowadays by Vincent Kompany, the former Anderlecht manager.

Recent form - last 6 matches:

Town 2-1 Birmingham
Stoke 3-0 Town
Wigan 1-0 Town
Blackpool 2-2 Town
Town 1-1 QPR
Coventry 2-0 Town

Millwall 1-1 Burnley
Luton 0-1 Burnley
Burnley 1-1 Watford
Burnley 3-0 PNE
Burnley 2-1 Ipswich (FA Cup)
Norwich 0-3 Burnley

Unbetaen in the Championship since a 5-2 defeat at Sheffield United on Bonfire night. Unbeaten at home all season.

Town are 22nd in the Championship table with 31 points. Burnley are top with 73.

Leading scorers:

Terriers:
Jordan Rhodes (6)
Danny Ward (3)

Claret Jugs:
Nathan Tella (14)
Anass Zaroury (10)
Benson Manuel (9)
Jay Rodríguez (9)

[WakeyTerrier]

Lots of talk amongst the Town fans on the back of Colin's pre match presser against Brum that this weekends game against Burnley is a free hit.
Well we're 4 points adrift of safety and games running out quickly. This kind of mentality is exactly what we came out with in our second Premier League season. It is vital that we come out of this game with something to keep momentum going and to give the team the belief that they can compete with the everyone in the division.

[jjamez]

A free hit mentality for this game might free a few players from the shackles and we might try and upset Burnley's flow and actually go at them

[Lord Snooty]

---

Huddersfield Town Manager Neil Warnock spoke about settling back into Town, the reception from the fans and our upcoming Sky Bet Championship game against Burnley in his latest press conference.

Asked about how he has been settling back in and how training has been, Warnock said:

“Training this week has been super, since I arrived last Thursday, they couldn’t have done any better – I thought we got what we deserved last Saturday.

“The players here – the young lads and the senior pros – are all really receptive. You could see that some of the young lads were struggling when I came in, but I’ve told them not to worry about making mistakes because that’s when your mate has to help you out.

“I’ve quickly settled back into the area; I’ve got a place sorted in the moors.”

Our Manager then spoke about the impact of the fans and what it means to have the fans back behind him.

“I was really proud of the fans; they were fantastic last weekend. They kept us going when Birmingham looked like they might get back in it.

“I was quite emotional before the game, but it was nothing compared to when I was walking round the pitch at the end of the game. I just want to make people happy.

“It was lovely for the fans to get behind me and they know I’ll do the best I can for them.

“I’m sure there will be good numbers of them at Burnley this weekend!”

Finally, Neil looked forward to this weekend’s Sky Bet Championship game against Burnley.

“I’ve just said to Ronnie that I think Burnley are the best Sky Bet Championship team in the last 20-25 years. They can do everything, and they could hold their own in the Premier league.

“Vincent Kompany has done a great job, but we want to go there and give them a game.

“We shouldn’t worry about anyone else, we need to concentrate on what we can do.”

[Lord Snooty]

And another miracle performed. He said pick up your bed and walk. And he walked.

Yes. Rolando Aarons is in the B team this afternoon. Well, on the bench anyway.

Ben Jackson back as well. No sign of Brodie Spencer. Hopefully in the first team squad.

[WakeyTerrier]

Isn't Brodie Spence rNo2 today, or have we another Spencer in the ranks?

I'm told we are going with a back 4 tomorrow and trying to stop Burnley playing out wide, we want to narrow the options on the pitch for them.

I'm also told the players are enjoying training under Warnock/Jepson..unlike under the Clown we had in charge before

[Lord Snooty]

I'll sue that optician.

[theo_luddite]

Good to see those copy and paste skills come to the fore again Snoots

A bit of revision never did anyone any harm. Just listened to Rocket Ron's YouTube interview (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvrRU6HU82o). It certainly seems like everyone is enjoying coming to work again. Unfortunately we can't undo the damage the Clown was allowed to inflict on players still here and those now on loan when they probably didn't want to leave anyway.

Been in similar situations where everyone is happy working for a particular boss, the results are great, everyone has a smile on their face, it's a joy to come in to work. Then that boss leaves/gets promoted/moved upstairs and someone else comes in who's a complete and utter pain in the arse. Morale drops through the floor, nobody dare complain because they get moved out, if anyone upstairs will listen anyway. Results suffer and the top brass say - what's different? You're all the same people? Yeah, but we're now working for a know all control freak that understands sod all about us or how we work and gets rid of good folk to make the bottom line look good when sales are falling through the floor and whatever we do, it's all about him/her.

I doubt I'm the only one - the wonder is, how the hell do these folk not get weeded out in the interview stage?

[Lord Snooty]

Sounds like that happened when Siewert was here as well.

Anyway, one of the lads that got frozen out, Ben Jackson scored twice in a 2-1 win for the B team. And Roly Aarons played the final half hour.

[theo_luddite]

Anyone coming in was on a hiding to nothing when Deano let Wagbo go. Letting him go was the right decision, the players knew he was dead in the water, where the hell they got Martin from Wakefield from is another thing, but he wasn't 4th division capable let alone Prima Donna League. Might as well have let me and Snoots pick the team.

I doubt Colin and Ron are freezing many out, unless they (players) think ten passes in your own box before involving your centre forward on the edge of the D at your end are the way to win matches.