[Lord Snooty]

Huddersfield Town v SC Heerenveen
Saturday July 29th - 15:00 ko
at the John Smith's Stadium

So the final friendly before the big kick off down at Plymouth next week is to be played on Saturday, against the club that gave the legendary Rajiv van La Parra his big break in the game. We certainly owe them a debt of gratitude.

SC Heerenveen play in the Eredivisie, which is the Dutch top flight, finishing last season in 8th out of 18 teams. That qualified them for a Play Off to see who would get the final Europa Conference League place, but they didn't make it. And so they set out on a tour of European pre season friendlies, with this stop off in the West Riding of Yorkshire being their only game in Britain.

So far, they've had similar scores to us in our friendlies. They've had an 11-0 win and a 14-0 as well, so it would seem that both of us will be expecting a much tougher game than we've been having.

Our Dutch opponents are managed by, sorry Head Coached by former Feyenoord player Kees van Wonderen and he has taken on an English lad as his only signing so far. That's Charlie Webster, a 19 year old midfielder on loan from Chelsea. I wonder where his mate Tino Anjorin is these days.

Town played a behind closed doors game with the Derbyshire Rams this week and Head Coach, sorry manager, Neil Warnock reported that all 22 players involved came through without any new injuries. Among them was Ben Jackson, who missed the game at Stockport last week. But where's the skipper, Jonathan Hogg?

If you're not forking out a hard earned tenner to watch this, you may be interested to hear that the game is being shown live on the You Tube. 

[WakeyTerrier]

Got my ticket for this, don't usually do pre season friendlies but it seemed like a good excuse to visit Magic Rock for a few IPA's before the match.

One gripe though, There is no Pay on the turnstile anymore so I had the choice of buying from the ticket office or on the t'interweb. We'll I'm at work so that ruled out the ticket office unless I queue up on the day, so that means buying online. £10 tickets aren't really £10, they come with a £1.25 fee per ticket. Now I don't mind paying an admin fee of £1.25 but to pay it 4 times for one transaction just sums up companies taking the piss in the UK these days

[Lord Snooty]

Maxwell, Rhodes, Nakayama, Spencer, High, all playing for the B team this morning against Heerenveen's kids.

[Lord Snooty]

Finished 2-0 to Town in a 60 minute match. So maybe some of those could be on the bench later on today. Maxwell obviously. Maybe Yuta.

Anyway, Aaron Rowe and Charles Ondo scored.

[theo_luddite]

The pay-on-the-gate ship I reckon has long sailed. Keeping a hoard of cash safe, whether overnight or over the weekend, and expecting a couple of members of staff to run up town with it the following Monday or other weekday morning is a high risk exercise that that the Insurance companies aren't going to tolerate any more. Have you tried finding a bank branch that is still open anyway?

Yes you could pay Securicor to come round and get it but it's cheaper and safer to let Ticketmaster (or similar) handle it and do everything by bank transfer. That said, there's surely a potential for the barcode software and readers at the turnstiles to be also able to read a bank/credit card or a phone pay system, given that you can transfer your Season Card to Google Pay for example. They can do it on the buses. The only issue then is how they assign you a seat when you turn up without one already assigned. Can't be beyond the wit of a few 10 year olds, surely?

That said, it doesn't cost Ticketmaster (or rather, their computers) any more to do a transaction for 1 ticket than 4, so them getting a "per ticket fee" rather than a "per order fee" is a rip-off. Likewise for posting out away tickets, the stamp and envelope cost the same, whether Ticketmaster or Town are sending them out. You are doing more work in this transaction than they are for any more than one ticket. You've then to assign them to other people in your "group".

To paraphrase someone who was once unhelpfully directed towards the self-checkouts at a supermarket - "No thanks, if I wanted a job here, I'd have applied for one."

[Lord Snooty]

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Still no Hogg or Tommy Lees.

[Lord Snooty]

Kasumu off injured after 21 mins. Rudoni on.

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Red card in injury time for Heerenveen. Pulled Ward down when clear on goal.

Great free kick from Sorba well saved and again from the rebound from a Helik header.

Lively first half. Completly different vibe to last season's lackadaisical approach. Impressed with Edwards in his first game.

[Lord Snooty]

Hudlin, Koroma and Harratt on.

Thomas, Ward and Diarra off.

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HUDLIN 1-0

Exquisite football from the Terriers, with Harratt and Jackson combining to give big Kyle Hudlin a tap in from point blank range - brilliant football from all three, with the striker right where he needed to be. Town lead SC Heerenveen 1-0!

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REG, Edwards and Pearson off

Ayina, Spencer and Austerfield on.

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Full time 1-0

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A smashing all round performance against very good opposition. Let's hope this isn't another false dawn, but this has been a very good pre season.

[Lord Snooty]

Mon July 10, 19:00, Bodmin Town (a) W 9-0 (Koroma 2, Simpson, Ruffels, Harratt 2, Hudlin, Jones 2)
Wed July 12, 19:00, Tavistock AFC (a) D 0-0
Sat July 15, 13:00, Liskeard Athletic (a) W 13-1 (Ward, Koroma 2, Rudoni 2, Headley, Harratt 3, Thomas 2, Simpson, Jackson)
Sat July 22, 15:00, Stockport County (a) W 4-0 (Ward, Koroma, Rudoni, Hudlin)
Sat July 29, 15:00, SC Heerenveen (H) W 1-0 (Hudlin)

[theo_luddite]

I scrolled the YouTube vid through to the goal, wasn't aware of the red card.

Not a sensible move especially in a friendly. The Dutch FA presumably will now have to decide whether it merits a 1 match ban or a warning for their player (Syb van Ottele). No doubt there's a rule somewhere, but can that ban be served if they have another friendly lined up?