Blue is the theme of the week for Huddersfield, although the mood is far from it in the camp following Towns surprising 2-1 win against Fulham at Craven Cottage. It was a bit of a turn up for the books, with Town so used to being on the receiving end of a damn good thrashing, but in truth, we defended well and let them keep the ball in front of us for the most time, and in return got what we deserved through good counter attacking football. Marco Silva probably disagrees and in terms of the penalty, he probably has a point, but as is always said, football evens itself out over a season, just last week against Sheffield United, we had 3 clear penalties turned down, yet we got a dubious one in our favour this week. It is quite conceivable that this week we'll have some strange decisions against us, but I think it is starting to be because the standard of refereeing is drastically diminishing and consequently is inconsistent, rather than the God of Football.

Our first blue game this week sees European side Cardiff get their passports out of the drawer as they venture to West Yorkshire to visit the John Smiths Stadium, now Cardiff cost me some money this weekend as they let my bet down, so I am not going to be favourable to them in this 
I had the Bluebirds down to win but all they could muster was a 1-1 draw against Blackpool. The Tangerines took the lead through Marvin Ekpiteta's 11th minute header, before Joel Bagan pulled the Welshmen level with his third goal in three games. The result comes as part of a mini renaissance in the Welsh capital as Cardiff continue to stretch the gap between themselves and the relegation places, which now stands at 15 points. Its been a fairly positive feel at the Cardiff City Stadium since the turn of the new year with 4 league wins, 2 draws and 3 league defeats, as well as a cup win against Preston after extra time and a defeat away at Liverpool. A cold January heated up at The Hawthorne's to begin 2022, it was only a 1-1 draw, but it was a fiery one at that. James Collins gave the Bluebirds the lead before Callum Robinson restored parity, but midway through the second half, former Barnsley midfielder Alex Mowatt received his marching orders for a foul on Will Vaulks. After the final whistle beleaguered former manager Valerian Ishmael went on to the field to confront the referee, whilst a melee broke out between the players, Cardiff's Aden Flint and West Brom's Sam Johnstone both received reds for their part in the trouble. Following the FA cup weekend, Blackburn made the trip to Wales and came away with the 3 points, Joe Rothwell scoring for Rovers, who saw Ryan Nyambe shown a red for two yellows. A short trip to Bristol followed, but they left empty handed as they lost 3-2. Collins opened the scoring for the Welshmen, but Chris Martin pegged them back immediately and then doubled his tally midway through the second half before Andi Weimann made it 3. Max Watters scored in injury time, but it proved to be too little too late. High flying Nottingham Forest were next up for Cardiff, but it would be a turn up for the books as former Swansea manager Steve Cooper's side were out played by the lowly Welsh side who earned just their third home league win of the season ( one of the others was Town). Jordan Hugill capitalised on some sloppy defending to score on debut, before Isaak Davies scored in the second half to make it 2, Forest's own Davis, this time Keinan, scored for the Trees, in what would be their only shot on target. That win led to a bit of momentum going into a bottom of the table clash against Barnsley. Uche Ikpeazu came off the bench to score what would be the winner on debut in a dire match, tempers boiled over after the final whistle between the two benches which saw Steve Morrison and the Barnsley assistant manager both yellow carded. Another relegation clash was next on the cards as Peterborough came to Wales, they left with their Posh tails between their legs. 4-0 would be the score that night as Joe Ralls and Aden Flint scored in the first half, before Ikpeazu and Hugill scored in the second, but their bubble was about to burst as they visited London Town at the weekend to face manager Steve Morrisons former club, the Lions of Millwall. After a quiet first half, Scottish defender and former Town player, Murray Wallace earned a measure of revenge for his rugby compatriots as he headed home a corner from another former Town player Scott Malone in the 73rd minute. Mason Bennett scored a second for the hosts as Cardiff piled forward to grab an equaliser. The Bluebirds did manage to grab a goal with Bagan scoring his first ever senior goal for the side in injury time. He'd score his second goal of the season next time out at home to Coventry, it came in the second half as he cut in and curled a right footed effort past Simon Moore. Mark Harris bagged a second for Cardiff on the counter as they ran out 2-0 winners.



So whats new at the Cardiff City Stadium? well after being in caretaker mode the last time the two sides met, Steve Morrison, was rewarded for the 2-1 win by being named interim coach until the end of the season, former Town captain and coach, Mark Hudson has been named as one of his coaches to help out for the remainder of the season. Speaking of the last time the two sides met, Danel Sinani gave Town the lead before Kieffer Moore scored a brace, the winner coming in the 94th minute after Sorba Thomas lost the ball on the half way line and we were hit on the break. In terms of the winter transfer window, there was quite a bit of movement at The Cardiff City Stadium, Max Watters and Ryan Wintle both saw their loans end, whilst Cody Drameh and Jordan Hugill joined on loan from Leeds and Norwich. Uche Ikpeazu and Alfie Doughty joined on loan from fellow Championship sides Middlesbrough and Stoke, whilst the Bluebirds were able to complete the loan signing of Tommy Doyle from Manchester City, he was linked with Town in the summer and was set to sign, but his agent messed the club around and took him off to Germany for an unsuccessful loan spell. As for departures, Ryan Giles who was also linked with Town, saw his loan in Wales cancelled by parent club Wolves and he was instead shipped off on another loan to Blackburn, traded up? Tom Sang went on loan to St Johnstone, Ciaron Brown went out on loan to Oxford, whilst Kieron Evans went on loan to Northern Irish side Linfield. Perhaps the biggest surprise from the January window in the Championship was the fact that Kieffer Moore left to join Bournemouth for a bargain basement price of £3.7 million, sure it marked nearly a £2million profit for the Bluebirds all in all, but one would think he would be worth a slight bit more than that.

Team news and the good old manager spiel.

CC;
"We have no new injuries from Saturday's game and we have the opportunity to add Levi Colwill tomorrow. Pipa's progressing really well, but we're not going to have him for tomorrow. We need to see how Tino Anjorin progresses before he can play.

"It's very positive to have him here and be able to talk to him about the previous games and make him ready.

"You can't forget any moment in football. It's important to defend, it's important to attack. What you do in attack will affect what you can do in defence and vice versa, and it can all have an impact on the result."

"I think the last time we played Cardiff City we did enough good things in the first half to win the game and enough good things in the second half to have a better result. It was a key point from a learning point of view, and a game we used to keep growing. Cardiff are a different side now and over the past few games have achieved the same number of points as, say, Fulham."

We always just need to be focused on ourselves and performing well in the best way we can, just like we have from the first game of the season. There's no more or less pressure than any other point of the season."

"The more we attack and create set pieces the better it is for us, and vice versa. It could be very important in the game tomorrow. The value of set pieces is too high, so it's important to try and avoid them. If you can't, then you need to stay switched on."

"Our game against Fulham was one of the highest values for distance covered, but not for high intensity because we did a good job defensively to avoid those high intensity moments. We need to analyse what we're doing well in attack, defence, and set pieces, and what we need to improve. However, there's always things you can't control, so we need to make sure we get those performances to give ourselves the best chance of a positive result."

"I like my players to have the reward of the successes and the sacrifices and being humble and working hard. That's how I see life and that's how I see football. As a player it's important to know what minute you're in and balance the risk with the reward. I think with our team, though, it's important to keep going to get what you can get."

"You're going to have both moments in life - situations where you try to win and you lose, and situations where you try to win and you win. We need to try and balance the risk and the reward and get something positive. That's always your challenge in football."


Steve Morison

“Let’s hope that we can go up there and spoil their run, they’ve gone a long time unbeaten, and hopefully we can be the team that ends it. It’s a game that we’re really looking forward to.

“We’re going to be up and down in our performance, and I think you could see that in the performance against Blackpool; it was up and down throughout the 90 minutes.

"We’re trying to find that level of consistency, which I think we’ve managed, especially over the last six games.

“Even when we had a bit of a down day at Millwall, we still weren’t blown out of the water, we were well in the game and had our moments where we could’ve taken the lead."

“They’re learning all the time and it’s really good and fun to be a part of, we’ve still got to win a few more games to get to a place where we can try to add some facets to our game.

"It’s more of a consistency of attitude and application across the board, and if we can do that then we’ll be alright.”

In regards to team news, as already mentioned, Town are able to welcome back Colwill but Pipa remains out, it seems highly possible that Town may go into the game with an unchanged starting 11 with no player really deserving to be dropped after the win on Saturday, the possible only change could see Jon Russell, who despite looking like a seasoned pro and best player, being replaced by Danel Sinani in the starting line up, maybe with an eye on Saturdays game against Birmingham.

As for Cardiff, it remains likely that they will line up in a 3-5-2 formation with former Town stopper Alex Smithies between the sticks, with a back 3 of Perry Ng, Aden Flint and Mark Mcguinness, another former Town player in Sean Morrison has a bad injury to his knee and looks likely to be out for up to 9 months. Bagan and Drameh are likely to be the wing backs tasked with keeping an eye on Sorba Thomas and Duane Holmes, with the midfield comprising of former Rotherham man Will Vaulks, Ryan Wintle and Tommy Doyle, but Marlon Pack could be considered as an option there too. Up top it looks like Hugill will be leading the line, with Harris, Davies or Ikpeazu being his strike partner. Max Watters could return to the bench after being hauled off in the first half last time he played and missing out against Blackpool through injury.



Ones to watch

Hugill- Big lad on loan from Norwich, had a long path into football, beginning at Seaham Red Star before moving on to Consett and then later the Glenn Hoddle Academy in Spain. From that experience he gained a big move down the coast to Whitby and then on to Marske. His time at Marske earned him a move to Port Vale for his first taste of League Football and he would move on loan to Gateshead. He returned the next season to Vale and a good campaign saw him earn a big money move to League 1 Preston in a deal worth £27 thousand, another couple of loans out followed but after gaining a bit more experience he became more of a regular at North End and was soon on his way to the Premier League when West Ham signed him for over £9 million, he would again struggle and the Hammers ended up loaning him out to boyhood club Middlesbrough and then QPR before promotion chasing Norwich took the plunge on him. He'd feature for Farkes side during the promotion campaign before spending the first half of this season on loan at West Brom where he failed to make an impact, leading to the Canaries recalling him and sending him off to Wales where he seems to be finding his feet once again and will be a handful for the Town defenders due to his style of play, although he may also be the exact sort of striker that the likes of Pearson and Lees would want to be coming up against.

Vaulks- Was player of the season for Rotherham and had an eye for a spectacular goal, whilst also possessing a long throw. He left for Cardiff when the Bluebirds were relegated out of the Premier League alongside Town, and probably should have been a player that Town tried hard to get, but we ended up with Reece Brown... The Welsh international started his career at Tranmere Rovers before moving going to Workington and then onwards to Falkirk north of the border. He had 3 years there before coming down to South Yorkshire and became a real force in the Millers midfield. He was a stand out performer as the club got relegated to League one but that didn't stop Neil Warnock who had worked with him at Rotherham from taking a punt on the midfielder. He is out of contract at the end of the season.




Blues Clues- Some clues for players that have played in the blue of Cardiff (maybe even red) and the blue and white stripes of Town. You know the drill

1- Been around Wales a bit having played for 3 teams in the country and struggled to make much of an impact outside of it. Came to Town on a short term loan before heading to London for a second spell, although it only lasted for a season. It wasn't a breath-taking season and he was involved as swap in deal for a player that has often been a menace for Town. (bonus point for the menace as he too has played for both clubs, but isn't in the quiz)

2- A striker that has been to a few countries around the continent, some even colder than here, in fact Huddersfield and Cardiff were positively balmy for him in comparison. His time at both clubs yielded no goals, but he came to the country on the back of fairly decent scoring spells, it just dried up for him when he came to England. The closest he got to regaining it was during a loan at Hull, but even that was at a stretch. He played his first league game since 2020, maybe even 2019 not too long ago as he looks to try and finish his career brightly.

3- A northern boy who was deemed not good enough for a lot of Lancashire's teams. It was at a non league Lancashire side where he caught the eye of some Football League sides and made the decision to sign for one close to home. It was a 3 year spell that saw him be a bright spark for a side that often struggled along and it was from there that he made the move to Huddersfield where he was able to show case his talents further. He spent two years at Town but that time finished marred by injury. When he recovered and found his form once again he would make it to the Premier League where he would score against a side managed by someone who once told him he wasn't good enough, this would be amongst the highs of his career though as he joined Cardiff for a number of seasons before heading back to Lancashire. After a short spell abroad he once again returned to his home county, where he can still be seen playing today.

4- Another who made a start to his career in Lancashire, again not making it as his parent club, he instead was sent out on loan to illustrious clubs such as Northampton and Wigan. The Wigan kebab was too much of a draw for him and he decided to stay there. It did nothing for his injuries as they hampered his time there, and an offer from Merrie England drew him to Huddersfield on loan. It would be one of the only relatively injury free spells of his career as the Beef and Onion sandwich worked wonders, but it wasn't enough for him to turn the loan permanent. Instead he would continue to bounce around from club to club for a bit, including a short stay at Cardiff and a trip to play on the tractors in Ipswich, where injuries would once again rear their head. He now plays in League Two along with a host of former team mates.

5- A player who was more trouble than what he was worth, he too began his career in Lancashire, well the Liverpool area to be exact, but seeing as Lancashire play cricket there sometimes, I'm counting it. He had little loans out at the likes of Accrington Stanley but it was in the midlands at Walsall where he made his true break through, representing the Saddlers in over 150 games across 4 years, before a move to Wales came calling. His time in Wales lasted 3 years and included a loan at Hull after he fell out of favour with the manager. The loan on Humberside didn't amount to a move and he had to return to Wales. He would go on to join Town and would stay for 3 years. It initially started brightly for him but started to turn sour nearer the end with fallings out with staff, players and fans alike and he would be allowed to leave the club for free. After leaving Town he would bounce around a few clubs, including signing for Oldham, rejecting a contract and then resigning for Oldham after no one else wanted him. His time at Oldham ended when his contract was cancelled for misconduct. He finished his career when Chesterfield cancelled his contract.

6- Type journeyman striker into google and this is probably what appears. 14 different clubs, some on more than one occasion, he forgot about a rule change that meant he had a chance to make his debut, he was reminded not long before the game and had to make a swift change of plans from a date with a girl to a date with the bench. It would be at the likes of York and Macclesfield where he would make his name, this prompted Hull to take a chance on him, even though he was injured and it never really got going for him there, resulting in a move to the Potteries which went even worse for him. An emergency loan was all it took to reignite his career and a tonne of appearances at Preston brought him back into the eyes of the footballing public, before he was tempted to join Cardiff. His time in Wales was relatively bleak, he scored on debut and then not again for the Bluebirds and then had a couple of fallings out over not taking a paycut to earn a move elsewhere. Instead he would take fruitless loan spells before one at Scunthorpe saw him score a few goals and then saw his contract at Cardiff torn up. This freed him up to move to the lower end of the football league where he would garner cult status amongst fans, a brief venture back to Wales came before he was tempted back to finish his career at a club where he originally made his name.

7- Another who started off in Lancashire, he would however make appearances for his club, albeit seeing them relegated, the club in question now no longer looks like being a relegation candidate anytime soon. It would be difficult for him however as during a 6 year stay he would only make 50 appearances often finding himself as back up. He decided to move south to Southend where he would play for just the one season, before again finding himself back at backup. He came close to joining Blackpool but went to Huddersfield, again as a backup player. He would wind up becoming number 1 as Town would lose in the play offs and he soon found himself without a club not long after. He made the switch to Cardiff and made 32 appearances over a 5 year stay before retiring and moving into coaching. His coaching career began at Cardiff and has since seen him go to the likes of West Ham, Crystal Palace, Swansea and a couple of national teams.

8- Guess where this one started his career...NOT LANCASHIRE! but the midlands. Not that it made any difference as he never made an appearance, instead his first real taste of professional football came in a short loan at Torquay, before another short loan spell at Port Vale would lead to Burnley coming in for him. A former Town striker prevented him from getting a real run in the side at Burnley and he soon left to join Rotherham. He would stay there 3 years and would earn the reputation as a hard working player and became a bit of an icon there. He impressed Cardiff in an early game of a season and they would use that as a reason to sign him. His time at Cardiff lasted 3 seasons but they were largely impacted by injury and he struggled to find a real run of form resulted in him finding a move away in a cut price deal to Ipswich, where he managed to impress. This led to former club Burnley taking an active interest in him, but he rejected a move back north, instead finishing the season and moving to the capital. His stay in the capital saw goals dry up again and he had to take a loan to Ipswich's closest rivals, the loan revitalised him and he finished the campaign back in the capital and managed to save his club from relegation. This wasn't enough for them and they instead sold him back up north where he would become somewhat of a cult icon for some reason... not that it really mattered as he struggled to find the net on a regular occasion and he would ultimately end up back at Ipswich where he would wind up becoming an academy coach for a period of time.




Feeling the blues against Cardiff?

Well, truth be told, we have a fairly even record against Cardiff, winning 29, losing 28 and drawing 23, with the first recorded fixture against them being back in 1921 as the two sides played out a 0-0 draw in Wales. From the 60's through to the mid 80's Town would have the upper hand over our Welsh counterparts, but the most recent history between the two sides belongs firmly to the Bluebirds, Town haven't beaten Cardiff since 2003 when Andy Booth scored in the 80th minute. There was then an 8 year gap until the sides faced off in the league cup where Cardiff beat Lee Clarks Town side 5-3 after injury time. Our recent record against Cardiff not including that cup games reads as played 15, drawn 5, lost 10...suppose that has to change at some point?

We did a double of draws against the Bluebirds when we were both in the Premier League, the home draw saw Hogg given his marching orders by Michael Oliver for a coming together between him and Harry Arter, which Arter made a big meal out of, Hogg would get revenge on Arter last season when Town faced Nottingham Forest, a bad foul that nearly broke Arters leg went unpunished by the referee, but who's caring? The return Premier League fixture saw a clown called Lee Mason give Town a penalty only to then um and ar over it and in deliberation with the linelump, decide that it was a freekick to Cardiff instead. The next day David Wagner left the club...Lee Mason if you're reading this... he has since retired from refereeing, mainly after making numerous mistakes over the last god knows how long.

Gamball:
Birmingham - Huddersfield

Others:
Leeds - Spurs
Brentford - Newcastle
Brighton - Villa
Blackburn - QPR
Millwall - Sheff Utd
Bournemouth - Stoke
Luton - Derby
Plymouth - Doncaster
West Ham - Wolves

Derby, I'll pm you with your holiday fixtures

Aldershot 2-0 Dover
Barnet 2-0 King's Lynn
Chesterfield 1-0 Wrexham
Dag & Red 1-1 Woking
Eastleigh 1-3 Southend
Maidenhead United 0-3 Yeovil
Notts County 2-2 Halifax
Solihull Moors 0-1 Wealdstone
Torquay 1-1 Boreham Wood
Weymouth 0-2 Bromley



League Table After Matchday 39

St Charles = 414
Lord Snoots = 414
Amelia = 408
Devon = 398
Dancing = 394
Spireitematt = 348

2 points for a correct result
4 points for a correct score
2 points for each correct scorer
Correct joker doubles your score      
Wrong joker result gives you minus 2
Correct Random Badger gives you 2 points

The random badger is used for any random prediction used once in each matchday sequence. For instance, a scorer at a particular match, the number of red cards in the matches or yellow cards or own goals or owt you want really within reason, I do need to be able to check whether it's correct or not. Please don't put stuff like....."Commentator says...."  
The joker   is played for one match in each sequence and if correct you get double points. So if you've predicted 1-0 and it finishes 2-0, you get 4 pts, but if you've predicted 2-0, that's 8 pts. But if you get it wrong, it's minus 2.
Jokers and badgers are optional. You don't have to play one if you don't want.


Cup games:
In the event of a draw, it's half the points if you've predicted a draw when it gets to 90 mins and the full points if it's still a draw after extra time. Half the points will be awarded for correctly predicting the winner of the match if it goes to penalties. Similarly with the badger, if your random prediction is affected by this, it'll be half the points.

Random score generator: I will be using the random score generator again for those who miss predicting, so we shouldn't get some people too far behind that after missing a couple of weeks they lose all interest, because I know it's not easy getting on here every week.
To be fair to everybody, this is going to be like, say if three people in one week miss their predictions, the first one in the table will be given all 0-0, the second one down the line will get 1-0 and the third will get 0-1 and so on, like if there's four missing the 4th will get 1-1, then 5th 2-1, 6th 1-2. and if there are so many missing, might as well pack in.
And if you miss two weeks on the trot, I'll stop until you come back on again. Not doing it for half a season like I did t'other year.  

NEW FOR THIS SEASON: End of season Play Offs.

The one who finishes top of the league will still be champion, but after the season finishes there will be Play Offs between the top 4, with 1st v 4th and 2nd v 3rd. This will take in stuff like the EFL Play Offs, FA Cup Final, final day of Prima Donna League, European Finals etc. It will be one matchday for the semis and one for the Final. It will be the individual scores for each matchday against the allotted opponent, with some kind of tie breaker for a drawn match.
So last season's matches would've been Baggiebob(BBB) v theo_luddite and jjamez v St Charles Owl and would've given a bit more to play for towards the back end of the season.
The prize for winning will be enormous. Another rep point.

We now have an Appeals Committee set up, consisting of me, myself and I. All appeals must be made before the next Matchday kicks off.

Saturday 26th February:
Birmingham v Town
Town scorers:
Brum scorers:

Blackburn Rovers v Queens Park Rangers (12:30)
Barnsley v Middlesbrough
Blackpool v Reading
AFC Bournemouth v Stoke City
Cardiff City v Fulham
Coventry City v Preston North End
Luton Town v Derby County
Millwall v Sheffield United
Nottingham Forest v Bristol City
Peterborough United v Hull City

Monday 28th February:
West Bromwich Albion v Swansea City

Tuesday 1st March:
Cardiff City v Derby County

Bonus matches:
Sunday:
Carabooboo Cup Final:
Chelsea v Liverpool (16:30)

Tuesday:
FA Cup:
Peterborough United v Manchester City
Crystal Palace v Stoke City
Middlesbrough v Tottenham Hotspur

Wednesday:
Luton Town v Chelsea

Table after Matchday 30:

1. Baggiebob(BBB) = 722 pts
   
2. jjamez = 679 pts
   
3. Lord Snooty = 660 pts
   
4. St Charles Owl = 654 pts
   
5. theo_luddite = 654 pts
   
6. themaclad = 646 pts
   
7. neonfoxinthebox = 634 pts
   
8. SHEP_HTAFC = 587 pts
   
9. WakeyTerrier = 550 pts
   
10. ritchiebaby = 544 pts
    
11. Amelia Chaffinch = 507 pts

LAST TIME OUT



FORM GUIDE

PNE 13 NOTTS FOREST 12

MISSING IN ACTION

Sadly this lunatic will not be in the sticks for Forest on Tuesday due to being sent off in their last night, celebrated infront of us at the City Ground, sadly Brice revenge will have to wait

Celtic take advantage of Rangers failure at Tannadice in a drawn 1-1 match and extend their lead to 3 pts at the top of the Scot Prem - not at their best, but pulled out "all the stops" after being "pegged back" to 2-2 and Giacoumakis delivering a welcome "hat trick" of goals to show that he can be a deadly striker when called upon to do so. These three pts could well be priceless ones in the run in to season end.

Curtis Weston?

Was he our captain?

Did he really nut an opponent after we'd just gone 2-0 up?

Am I right that in a long career he'd never been sent off before?

Should we book him into The Priory?

At least we can now take Wrexham by surprise. They'll never guess what's coming next.

I have a (little tongue in cheek) question!

If we assume clubs bring in players and pay them to play football for the club and that, to the very best of their ability, why do clubs pay 'win bonuses'? Why do we pay strikers, goal bonuses, isn't that what they get paid for and why they command the highest wages and transfer fees? Do goalkeeper get a bonus for every save?

My question: 'Why don't we have loss deductions, instead of win bonuses'? While I would not expect Norwich to beat Man City away and perhaps that may justify a win bonus, do Man City players deserve a bonus for beating Norwich at home?

Perhaps some type system is needed, a simplified system might be, beat a team above you in the league you get a bonus, lose to one below you, you get a deduction, it would certainly bring a bit of effort into the workplace.

Strong rumour Tom Whelan is on his way back with others.
Makes you wonder what really went on with James Rowe if this is correct.