[Lord Snooty]

Huddersfield Town v Leeds United
The Sky Bet Championship
Sunday February 5th - 12:00 ko
at The John Smith's Stadium

Huddersfield Town play host to our beloved near neighbours from Beeston, Leeds United at the John Smith's Stadium on Sunday afternoon for another massive match in this massive season for both clubs. In front of the Sky cameras as well and with the close proximity of both teams in the Play Offs line ups, this is probably the biggest of all our recent "Cup Finals".
Both clubs are in terrific form as well. Town having just beat the league leaders Brighton, in a thrilling Thursday night match by a scoreline of 3-1, which frankly flattered the opposition. Leeds had a lucky 2-1 win at Blackburn of the bottom three. This of course coming on the back of a famous 1-0 defeat at non league Sutton Utd in the FA Cup.
Despite beating the team at the top, I expect David Wagner to rotate his squad again. Izzy Brown, Sky's man of the match the other night, and Christopher Schindler are both rated as doubtful having picked up knocks on Thursday. Jack Payne is back in contention after his totally unjustified three match ban. And Philip Billing should be available again after he reported in sick for the Brighton game.


A brief history of Leeds United: Back in the 1970s, Leeds United became Champions of Europe and have been every season since.

Lolz!  

Seriously though.....they were formed in 1919, following the enforced disbandonment of Leeds City as a punishment for illegal payments to players (a recurring theme here?). But they weren't happy with just reforming and starting from scratch. No. They tried to steal Huddersfield Town FC, lock, stock and barrel, by moving them into Elland Road. Leeds were a bit like the MK Dons of the day. Town chairman Hilton Crowther made the move to Leeds, but the rest of the town was having none of it.
Town went on to win promotion, the FA Cup and the Football League three time in a row. Hilton Crowther's head now stands on a spike outside Huddersfield Town Hall.
The new Leeds United were elected to the Football League in 1920 and were to spend decades in the shadows of their more illustrious small town neighbours, until a certain Don Revie took over in 1961, from which time we have never finished a league season above them.
He changed their kit colours from the blue and white stripes that they also stole from us, to the all white kit they have today, modelled on the famous Real Madrid kit (Champions of Europe). In his thirteen years in charge, Revie guided Leeds to two Football League First Division titles, one FA Cup, one League Cup, two Inter-Cities Fairs Cups, one Football League Second Division title and one Charity Shield.
But it was after he had left to take the England job that they reached the European Cup Final, under the management of Jimmy Armfield, losing 2-0 to Bayern Munich. Armfield had taken the job after Brian Clough had replaced Revie, who famously told the Leeds players to "chuck all those medals in the bin, because you won them by cheating". Clough was sacked after 44 days in charge.
And it was mainly downhill from then on, with a brief respite in the 1990s when they won the league again, this time under Howard Wilkinson. The Premier League was formed the season after they had become the last league champions of the old formation and they were to be known as Premier League giants (still called as such by Sky commentators to this day) and were a major player in the Champions League for a few seasons. But despite the fans' chant, they never actually became Champions of Europe.
In 2004 they were relegated and have been out of the Premier League ever since.

Brian Clough (centre), Don Revie (right)

Head to Head




Town lead in the overall head to head with 31 wins to Leeds' 27, with 19 draws.

The match at Elland Road this season of course was one of the wins that put us for a few weeks at the very top of the Championship. The 1-0 win, courtesy of an Aaron Mooy goal, also saw Leeds drop into the bottom three and heaped loads of pressure on manager Garry Monk. He seemed to be cracking up in his post match interview with Radio Leeds.
Last season, we also won at Elland Road, 4-1 this time, with goals from Mark Hudson, Harry Bunn, Karim Matmour and Nahki Wells. This being after Nahki had missed a penalty at 0-0 and Stuart Dallas had given Leeds the lead.
The match at the JSS last season was notable only for it being the last match before the start of the David Wagner era, as Leeds won 3-0. That was the fourth in a series of four consecutive wins by the White Shite over us. We are now hoping to make it three consecutive wins for us.

OK. Indulge yorselves.







So what's new at Bellend Road? 

Managed nowadays by Garry Monk, a sulky faced toss pot who used to manage Swansea. He also played the majority of his playing career there as well, having started out at Torquay Utd.
His management career started when Swansea sacked Michael Laudrup and Monk became caretaker player/manager. He did alright, saving the Swans from relegation and was rewarded with a permanent contract. Swansea started the next season well, winning at Old Trafford, but by December it had all gone wrong and Monk was sacked.
He became Leeds' manager in June after fat boy Steve Evans was sacked by maniac chairman Massimo Cellino.

Notable players in their squad:- The most notable name is Chris Wood. A New Zealand international, hated by many Leeds fans for being an absolute donkey. But they seem to have warmed to him a bit more now that he's started hitting the back of the net.
He came to England in 2009 to have a trial with West Bromwich Albion, was taken on by the Baggies and played in their academy and soon made his debut at the age of 18. Scored his first goal in a League Cup match against Doncaster and then his 2nd in an FA Cup match against...... yes, it was us.
He had a few loans spells away from the Hawthorns, to Brighton, Barnsley, Millwall, Leicester, Birmingham, Bristol City and Ipswich. He scored two goals against us in his Millwall days and three times in a Leicester shirt. So with his goal against us last season, that's seven career goals this tosser has got against the mighty Huddersfield Town.

One of Plank o' Wood's 7 goals against Town

Line up for match v Blackburn:

1 Green
2 Ayling
5 Bartley
18 Jansson
28 Berardi
14 O'Kane
26 Bridcutt
24 Sacko
7 Roofe
15 Dallas
9 Wood

Substitutes
10 Antonsson
11 Doukara
12 Silvestri
19 Hernández
23 Phillips
25 Vieira
31 Coyle

Pontus Jansson

Club Connections:

Well where do we start? Right at the beginning, I suppose. The aforementioned Chairman Crowther took with him the Town manager at the time, Ambrose Langley. But a connection going the other way was ex Leeds City manager, Herbert Chapman, who of course went on to be not only a Town legend, but a massive name in the game, still talked about today.
More recently, management connections have been Bobby Collins, Neil Warnock, Andy Ritchie and Simon Grayson. Warnock and Grayson of course, both took us up via the Play Offs. Kevin Blackwell, the ex Town goalie, managed Leeds.

On the playing front there have also been many.

The one that rankles the most with me was Trevor Cherry. He was Huddersfield Town through and through, coming through the junior ranks to captain the team. He was part of the last Town team to win promotion to the top flight of English football, but two years later he was one of the infamous deserters who left the club after relegation in 1972 amid stories of players stopping trying after having a pay rise rejected.
He and Roy Ellam left the club in the summer, heading down the road to Beeston. Never to regain respect.
Cherry's career took off though and he earned 27 England caps as a Leeds player. One of those, a friendly match with Argentina, saw him become only the third England player ever to be sent off when got into a fight and lost two front teeth after being punched by Daniel Bertoni.

Trevor the Traitor Cherry

There have been loads more. Recent seasons have seen the likes of Jermaine Beckford, Alex Bruce, Mustapha Carayol, Adam Clayton, Neil Parsley, Lee Peltier, Paul Rachubka, Scott Sellars and Frank Worthington.

But the best name of all of them, came to us from them in 1999. Clyde Wijnhard became one of the Steve Bruce superstars at the MacAlpine Stadium, a member of the last Town team to top the Championship. He signed from Leeds after scoring 3 goals for them in 16 apps, but scored that many in one match for us, when we took Crystal Palace to pieces, beating them 7-1. He scored a hat trick in that match and went on to be our top scorer that season with 15 goals. A burly, bustling centre forward in the Steve Kindon mould, his only down side was his inability to stay onside, which led to the inevitable nickname of Offside Clyde.
Sadly he never added to his Town goal tally. After 4 matches at the start of the next season, he was involved in a road traffic accident which effectively ended his career. He did get going again, scored a couple of goals on his return after a couple of years out, but he was never the same. Town had been relegated in his absence and it was with lower league Preston, Oldham, Darlington, Macclesfield and Brentford that Clyde's playing career faded out.
He still makes the odd return to Huddersfield and is always made most welcome doing the half time draw, at one he revealed he had started up his own business, Green Tree Energy Solutions Ltd. in Leeds which specialises in eco-friendly LED lighting. He's also involved with a project that helps young Dutch footballers get trials with English clubs.

Offside Clyde

Celebrity Leeds Utd Supporters:

They have quite a few famous fans. There's that awful band The Kaiser Chiefs, who named themselves after the South African club they signed Lucas Radabe from.
There's that terrible wooden actor, Russell Crowe, who they tried to get to buy the club from Cellino.
Swedish tennis star of bygone days, Stefan Edberg, was a self confessed Dirties fan.
The ridiculously untalented former Radio 1 DJ, Chris Moyles, is also a Leeds Utd supporter.
There is of course another old famous Radio 1 DJ who was a celebrity Leeds fan. He's one of your own, but let's not go there.  



Recent Form: Town are 5th in the league with 52 points and Leeds are 4th with 54.

Last 6 matches:

Town 3-1 Brighton
Rochdale 0-4 Town (FA Cup)
Town 2-0 Ipswich
Sheff Weds 2-0 Town
Town 4-0 Port Vale (FA Cup)
Wigan 0-1 Town

Blackburn 1-2 Leeds
Sutton 1-0 Leeds (FA Cup)
Leeds 2-0 Nottm Forest
Barnsley 3-2 Leeds
Leeds 1-0 Derby
Cambridge 1-2 Leeds (FA Cup)


The weekend's other fixtures:

Friday:
Wigan Athletic 0-1 Sheffield Wednesday

Saturday:
Barnsley v Preston North End
Birmingham City v Fulham
Blackburn Rovers v Queens Park Rangers
Bristol City v Rotherham United
Burton Albion v Wolverhampton Wanderers
Cardiff City v Norwich City
Ipswich Town v Reading
Newcastle United v Derby County
Nottingham Forest v Aston Villa (17:30)

Sunday:
Brentford v Brighton & Hove Albion

[theo_luddite]

Nice effort there M'lud don't pull any punches. . I see comments by (ahem) L666s fans on other forums suggesting their best way to stop us is to kick the crap out of a few of our players. I think you need to revisit the historical timeline M'lud. It seems Revie is still Manager and Bremner and Giles are still in their midfield.

[jjamez]

I could see hudson starting with schindler but if schindler is out then do you go with hudson and hef or do you throw stankovic in, but i could see him being bullied no end by wood.

I would start palmer regardless of browns fitness, think either would draw fouls but think palmers style will suit the game better

[theo_luddite]

Best plan of attack is how we defended against Brighton. In their half at a high pace whenever we got the ball and get it back quick when we lose it. Rarely have we seen a Town side dominate even poor opposition for 90 mins, but we did against Brighton and they are far from a poor side. Wouldn't be surprised to see the L666s lot park the bus again though.

[EastLondonTerrier]

If Brown is carrying a knock, best not to risk him and give Palmer a run. He was champing at the bit against Brighton and he'll be on a massive high from becoming a Dad. Let him loose and just tell him to go and express himself. Hudson for Schindler if he's not fit. Stankovic is getting better but I think this derby may be too soon for him. Cracking thread as always M'Lard.

[theo_luddite]

Any road. Just settled me sen darn for a nice Yorkshire pint or two in a nice Yorkshire pub. Will be visiting a few in my home town a bit north of The Ainleys (and no I don't mean Elland). Enough to lubricate the vocal chords, not enough for a thick 'ead in the morning.

---

As per the BBC website.

Huddersfield hope to have Izzy Brown and Philip Billing available for the West Yorkshire derby against Leeds.
Forward Brown picked up a knock in the win over Brighton, which midfielder Billing missed because of illness. (Don't tell me he eats in Nando's )

Leeds will have loan signings Modular Wheel Barrow, signed from B&Q, and Alfonso Pedraza, signed from the Anti Pasti section of a menu in an Italian Restaurant in Wolvo I was in the other night, in their squad for the first time. Not as creamy as Carbonara apparently but cheesier than Chicken Parmesan. Defender Charlie Taylor is still not ready to return to action following the Achilles injury suffered while wearing his other half's nylons at Brentford before Christmas.

[Lord Snooty]

Did it really say all that on the BBC website?

[theo_luddite]

Well, might have enhanced some their coverage a little.

---

It said a bit more but it was more tripe than they sell darn the butchers.
Good stuff this Yorkshire ale

[Lord Snooty]

Over excited. In our seats over an hour before kick off.

---

Wells and Brown on the bench. In come Palmer and Quaner.

[jjamez]

Where you sit snoots?