[Lord Snooty]

Preston North End v Huddersfield Town
The Sky Bet Championship
Saturday February 27th - 15:00 ko
at Deepdale

Huddersfield Town travel to deepest, darkest Lancastershire to play Preston North End at Deepdale on Saturday afternoon for another must win game. The game comes just a week after one of our best performances of the season, a 4-1 win at home to Swansea City, but just as we thought the corner had been turned, they go and put on another abject display away at Derby County. The contrast in the two matches was amazing.

We go into this one with more and more absentees. Jaden Brown will be missing after being red carded. Not so much of a big miss, but another less option for Head Coach Carlos Corberán to use in the continued absence of Harry Toffolo. Fraizer Campbell too will be a doubt after coming off at half time with abdominal trouble, whatever that means. Shat him sen?

Let's just hope for some better news on the Jonathan Hogg front. He missed Derby with a calf injury. And boy, didn't the team miss him!

Now you may have noticed that we signed a new striker on Wednesday. Yaya Sanogo says he's very excited about playing for Town, but knowing Carlos, he'll have to wait for a while before he makes it into the team. First he has to train hard, then a couple of weeks in the treatment room, back to training, play a B team game, and another couple of weeks in the physio's and then.......maybe, just maybe, he might get a look in. By which time, the season will be almost over. So yes, we're all excited Yaya.  

So if you're looking for good omens, don't read this. We've just played away at Middlesbrough, a place we haven't won at since 1986. We followed that with a trip to Derby, where we haven't won since 1957. And guess what? Now we go to Preston, where we haven't won since 1969. Never fear though. Our Prestonic pal on Sportsbabble, themaclad says they're shite at home, so that's something to keep our spirits up as we cross the pennines settle on our sofas to enjoy endure another chapter in Huddersfield Town's 2020/21 Championship campaign.

He could be right. They have only won four times at home this season and they haven't done so since December. But then again, we haven't won away since October. You know what, this game's got nil nil written all over it.

I did the match thread for the PNE game at the JSS earlier this season. If you want to read that I have linked it throughout this thread, so as not to repeat what you may have read before. If you missed that, click on to read the history of Preston, the history of this fixture, which includes two FA Cup Finals, lots of club connections, including Andy Beattie who was Scotland's first national team manager. And a piece about Preston's greatest ever comedy actor, with a YouTube clip of him doing a sketch with Les Dawson.



A brief history of Preston Noth End: I've done all this already this season. If you would like to read what I wrote then, click the link.    https://www.sportsbabble.co.uk/showthread.php?tid=9726


Preston's other team: The famous Dick, Kerr Ladies FC were formed and based in Preston. Dick, Kerr & Co were locomotive manufacturers in the town who at the start of the war in 1914 took to making ammunitions and like many others decided to employ women to do this work, with there being a shortage of male employees, as they'd gone and joined up for the war effort. To keep up morales, sporting events were set up and in 1917, following a kick about in the factory yard by some women against the male apprentices, the women decided to set up their own team.

They became popular, drawing big crowds, so much so that on Christmas Day 1917, they played a match at Deepdale which attracted 10,000  spectators. So they decided to make use of this popularity by playing charity matches to raise money for injured servicemen. They carried this on after the war and in 1920 they were involved in the first ever international women's match. They played a France team, which had been organised by French women's sport pioneer Alice Milliat, who had been a campaigner for women to be allowed to participate in the Olympic Games.

Dick, Kerr Ladies FC v France became a series of four matches in England, starting with a 2-0 win at Deepdale, followed by a 5-2 win at Stockport. They then went to Manchester and drew 1-1, before the French finally won a game 2-1 at Stamford Bridge. They then returned the favour by going to France for another four matches. These were played at Paris, Roubaix, Havre and Rouen. The first three were drawn and then DKL won the final match in Rouen.

Two of the best players were Alice Woods and Lily Parr (who played for 31 years scoring 900 goals), who had both transferred from St Helens Ladies, who were the opponents for probably the most famous match of the era. That was on Boxing Day 1920 when the two teams met at Goodison Park and attracted a record crowd of 53,000, a record for the women's game that stood for 98 years.

However, there were rumblings at the Football Association. The popularity of women's football was such that men's games played on the same day would attract smaller crowds, so some nonsense about women not being physically suited to play football was made up and the FA banned women from FA affiliated stadiums on the 5th of December 1921, less than a year after that massive crowd at Goodison. This ban lasted for 50 years, which I am ashamed to say included the 14 years when Huddersfield Town chairman, Amos Brook Hirst was FA chairman. What a way to repay them after all the money raised for the injured ex servicemen.

Not that this stopped the Dick, Kerr Ladies. In 1922 they went on a tour of Canada and the USA. Not without problems as the Canadian leg was cancelled with the Canadian FA banning them from playing in the country. The USA leg went ahead though and they played nine matches against men's teams, winning three, drawing three and losing three. Most of the American teams were made up of immigrants, many of whom had previously played in league football in Britain.

They changed the name of the team to Preston Ladies in 1926 and carried on playing until 1965, folding six years before the FA lifted the ban.

Programme v Huddersfield Atalanta, 6/5/1921

Head to Head



The head to head record is level with 35 wins each and 23 draws.

Same as above. Click the link to read about previous encounters. https://www.sportsbabble.co.uk/showthread.php?tid=9726

The game this season was another of those stupid games where we threw the lead away. A good first half performance saw us go for us half time oranges with a 1-0 lead after Fraizer Campbell slotted home from a Lewis O'Brien through ball. But then two goals from Alan Browne just after the interval gave the Lillywhites the lead. To make matters worse, Naby Sarr went and got himself sent off preventing them extending that lead.

That was their first win at the John Smith's Stadium and their first win in Huddersfield since 91/92. We haven't won at Deepdale since 69/70. That's 51 years!  


So what's going on down at the Sir Tom Finney Stadium? Managed still by Alex Neil, and again, click the link if you want to read about him https://www.sportsbabble.co.uk/showthread.php?tid=9726





Who's in their squad then? Read about them here. https://www.sportsbabble.co.uk/showthread.php?tid=9726

Since then, they have recruited. They have signed Everton's Anthony Gordon, Stoke City's Liam Lindsay and Liverpool's Sepp van den Berg on loan for the rest of the season, as well as sex offender Ched Evans, who had been on loan from Fleetwood, making his deal a permanent one.

Their big loss was Ben Davies who went to Liverpool for a couple of million quid.





Wednesday night's line up at home to QPR:
22 Iversen
2 van den Berg
14 Storey
16 Hughes
37 Cunningham
8 Browne
17 Whiteman
31 Sinclair
44 Potts
42 Gordon
26 Evans

Subs
7 Bayliss
11 Johnson
15 Rafferty
19 Riis Jakobsen
21 Molumby
23 Huntington
25 Ripley
29 Barkhuizen
38 Rodwell-Grant


Club connections: https://www.sportsbabble.co.uk/showthread.php?tid=9726


Preston in popular culture: https://www.sportsbabble.co.uk/showthread.php?tid=9726




Other Championship matches this weekend:

Friday:
Derby County v Nottingham Forest

Saturday:
AFC Bournemouth v Watford
Barnsley v Millwall
Birmingham City v Queens Park Rangers
Blackburn Rovers v Coventry City
Brentford v Stoke City
Luton Town v Sheffield Wednesday
Middlesbrough v Cardiff City
Rotherham United v Reading
Swansea City v Bristol City

Sunday:
Wycombe Wanderers v Norwich City


Recent form - last 6 matches:
Derby 2-0 Town
Town 4-1 Swansea
Boro 2-1 Town
Town 2-3 Wycombe
Luton 1-1 Town
Town 1-1 Stoke

PNE 0-0 QPR
Cardiff 4-0 PNE
PNE 0-1 Watford
Blackburn 1-2 PNE
PNE 1-2 Rotherham
Sheff Weds 1-0 PNE

Town are 19th with 36 points, Preston are in 14th with 40.

Leading scorers:
Terriers:
Josh Koroma (6)
Frazier Campbell (6)
Isaac Mbenza (5)
Naby Sarr (4)

Lillywhites:
Scott Sinclair (8)
Tom Barkhuizen (6)
Daniel Johnson (4)
Sean Maguire (4)


February the 27th down the ages: How did we get on in previous matches played on this date?

1909: Spennymoor Utd (h) North Eastern League, drew 1-1 (J.Wallace)
1915: Stockport County (a) Div 2, lost 1-2 (Ralph Shields)
1922: Manchester Utd (h) Div 1, drew 1-1 (Neil McBain og)
1924: Newcastle Utd (h) Div 1, drew 1-1 (Clem Stephenson)
1926: Leeds Utd (h) Div 1, WON 3-1 (George Cook, George Brown, Joey Williams)
1932: Arsenal (h) FA Cup 6th rd, lost 0-1
1937: Middlesbrough (a) Div 1, lost 0-5
1943: Doncaster Rovers (a) Wartime League North, lost 1-3 (Henry Baird)
1954: West Bromwich Albion (h) Div 1, lost 0-2
1960: Rotherham Utd (h) Div 2, WON 2-1 (John Coddington pen, Denis Law)
1965: Manchester City (h) Div 2, WON 1-0 (Billy Legg)
1971: Stoke City (h) Div 1, lost 0-1
1978: Stockport County (a) Div 4, WON 1-0 (Kevin Johnson)
1979: Doncaster Rovers (a) Div 4, WON 2-0 (Ian Holmes, Peter Howey)
1982: Fulham (h) Div 3, drew 2-2 (Terry Austin, Brian Stanton)
1988: Birmingham City (h) Div 2, drew 2-2 (Ian Banks, Mark Barham)
1993: Reading (a) Div Two (3rd tier), lost 1-2 (Iwan Roberts)
1999: Wolverhampton Wanderers (h) Div One (2nd tier), drew 2-2 (Kevin Gray, Des Hamilton)
2001: Tranmere Rovers (a) Div One (2nd tier), lost 0-2
2010: Leeds Utd (h) League One (3rd tier), drew 2-2 (Anthony Pilkington, Gary Roberts)
2016: Ipswich Town (h) Championship, lost 0-1


Not good again. Played 21, won 5, drew 7, lost 9.

Ralph Shields, who scored in the 1915 match against Stockport, I have written about before. He was the one who emigrated to Australia and died in a Prisoner of War camp in the 2nd World War.

Clem Stephenson, who scored in the 1924 match against Newcastle, went on to manage the club as well. I have previously written about him as well. https://www.sportsbabble.co.uk/showthread.php?tid=9416

George Brown, who scored against Leeds on this day in 1926, is our all time leading goal scorer with 159.

The game in 1932 against Arsenal in the FA Cup was the one where 67,037 spectators turned up to watch. A record for Leeds Road. Reports at the time reckon there were another 10,000 outside who couldn't get in.



Henry Baird, who scored in the Wartime League match in 1943, had signed for Town from Man Utd in the season before the war. He signed up for the RAF and played football at the same time, guesting for a few different clubs, including Ipswich Town, who he signed for after the war and went on to have a decent career with.

Denis Law, who scored on this day in 1960 against Rotherham, was a brilliant footballer and went on to become a legend of the game. He came back to Huddersfield in the early 90s to ceremoniously cut the first sod at the start of the building of the McAlpine Stadium.

Billy Legg was still only 16 when he scored on his Town debut on this day in 1965 against Man City. He started on the left wing but made the left back slot his own before sadly, injury ended his career before he was 21. He played 56 times for Town in his short career, scoring four goals.

Kevin Johnson was the current Town Player of the Year when he scored in the 1978 match against Stockport. He was a player who never reached his potential. Kevin Keegan revealed that Johnson was the player who kept him out of the Doncaster Boys team and we all know how far Keegan went in the game.

Our last win on this particular date, back in 1979 at Doncaster, was one of the first games of the Mick Buxton era. It was a midweek game at Belle Vue and was our first away win of the season. I can remember stood freezing cold on the open terrace that night, going absolutely mad when we scored the second goal. We had finally turned that oil tanker around and this was the start of the climb back up the Football League. Happier times were ahead.

Preston related anagrams:

1. Comet Hugger  
   
2. Lena Lexi  
   
3. Orgy Mansions  
   
4. Sick Alfred Dicker  
   
5. Non Mystifier  
   

Well that's my take on things. If you'd like to go and troll our friends in the North End, click the link to read themaclad's match thread on the Preston forum. https://www.sportsbabble.co.uk/showthread.php?tid=10220

[themaclad]

Impressive sadly mine doesn't match that hard word when you are playing 60 matches a week to keep the creative juices flowing, a phrase I used as a chat up line got me nowhere

[Lord Snooty]

Aye well you're on your own there. We've got four of us doing these.

[jjamez]

Well done el snootio

I'll say anagram numero deux is Alex Neil for now

[ritchiebaby]

Numero quattro - Dick Kerr Ladies FC

[Lord Snooty]

Campbell fit to play. Hogg out for another fortnight.

[theo_luddite]

Ey up themaclad, one of the worst at home v one of the worst away. A made for TV classic if ever there was one. So where are they? Derby v Forest ??????
It could last almost as long as the last Test, India v England before either side passes a ball to a team mate.
If the corrugated iron salesman that helped to install the track for that last Test knows your ground staff, owt could happen.

Otherwise, another typically well researched job from His Nibs ,

His archives must go way beyond the foot of AmChaff's stairs.

[Lord Snooty]

---

On the eve of Preston away, after 15 months out injured following a horror tackle in last season's Preston away game, Tommy Elphick is back. He's played 45 minutes for the B team this afternoon.

[Lord Snooty]

[themaclad]

Theo
They always have Direby v Trees on massive clubs cobblers with the added excitement of fat Wayne, only surprised they don't show all Direby's 46 games like they did with Marching All Together FC