[jjamez]

This game could almost be a disney story, surely they need to do one about a dog and a fox?    Even then, that's not even touching on the two sides making history in their own different ways, one being vastly more impressive than the other too...! Obviously I am on about them upsetting the apple cart and winning the Premier League, but the vastly more impressive story is that of little old Huddersfield getting promoted to the big league on a small budget. Disney should consider making both into movies, especially if Huddersfields actually amounts to something.


oh, so they did

Anyways, Saturday sees Huddersfield welcome Leicester City to the John Smiths Stadium, or Kirklees stadium as FIFA believes it is called, stupid EA, they dont even have Schindler as an 80 rated player...thats going to go over the top of some of your heads isn't it?

Huddersfield come in to the game on the back of a disappointing performance away at West Ham, I went and didnt get in until rather late/early depending on life choices. It was a bit of a throwback what with West Ham taking a direct route, which we struggled to deal with, but we also struggled with the pace that Antonio possessed and never really got onto the front foot or really into the game for much of the first half. Bilic has admitted that he changed their gameplan to counter our pressing game and lets be honest it worked and we should expect to see more teams do it to us, especially when we are playing at home. The first half we were lucky to weather the storm and they should have been well out of sight before half time but for poor finishing we reverted to pumping the ball long and seeing it come straight back, I dont think we got out of our half much in the that 45. The second half we got our foot on the ball a little more, but still lacked that drive and incisiveness, we were rather pedestrian and we were never allowed to really take the game by the scruff of the neck. Their opening goal came through a wicked deflection/poor defending leaving lossl stranded, the second came from poor marking and a few rick o'shea's but we got what we deserved. If I was to rate the players, I would say that only Schindler would have scored decently, he would have probably got a 7 from me, the rest, a few 4's, a couple of 5's and maybe a 6 in there. The truth is though, they weren't massively better than us, we just didnt get anywhere near to being up and running, thats what makes the first 20 minutes on saturday key, if we start poorly or slowly they will capitalise, if we start quickly, it could make for a very good game to come 4th on match of the day...



Leicester come into the game on the back of a difficult start both on and off the pitch. After a farcical end to the transfer window, which saw Rihyad Mahrez go awol from international duty in order to try and find a new club, Danny Drinkwater made a last minute dash to Chelsea, whilst Leicester managed to get a loan deal for Aleksandr Dragovic over line, but made complete hash over the deal to bring Adrien Silva from Sporting Lisbon. Their league campaign began with a goal glut away at Arsenal, the Gooners running out 4-3 winners in the end, Vardy netting twice with Okazaki netting the other. They managed to their first points on the board at home to our fellow newly promoted side Brighton, Okazaki and new signing Harry Maguire easing them past the new boys. A reserve side breezed by Sheffield United before they travelled to Manchester United, where a resoulte Leicester side lost 2-0 thanks to goals from Marcus Rashford and Maouranne Fellaini. Last time out the Foxes lost 2-1 at home to Chelsea, Vardy netted a penalty in response to Alvaro Morata's goal and a strike from old boy N'golo Kante.

Team news

As for team news, the early stuff in is that Kasey Palmer is out for a couple of months with a hamstring injury again...whilst Mounie has been out of training due to a knock but should be back in time for Saturday, but panic not, super Colin Quaner is back training on grass along with Jonathon Hogg and Martin Cranie.


For Leicester, midfielder Matty James has an achilles injury but could be fit for saturday and full back Christian no Fuchs given has had a run in with a pole, I know the feeling on that one, but I think we may be talking about different types of poles anyway, he's seeing a specialist about it, I dont.


Steady on fella, they're crafty them poles..

Manager's Spiel.

Craig Shakespeare
"Kelechi Ian Nacho has a clean bill of health, as does Vicente Iborra.  Matty James picked up an Achilles injury against Chelsea. We’ll see how he is tomorrow morning. He’ll have every opportunity. Christian picked up a freak eye injury in training. It was nasty but it has cleared up. Until he sees the specialist, I would like to wait. He’ll be touch and go for Saturday."

"They haven’t surprised me. It will be difficult for them to stay up. What I’ve seen so far, they have great spirit and they’ll be difficult to play against."

"We’ve looked at attacking play and attacking movement. We are a very solid team defensively. We need to be aware of how to break teams down."

"It’s always about being positive. You can never get away from the facts, which are the points. We need to turn performances into results."


Heir Wagner
"The players know what they did wrong against West Ham, now we would like to show a reaction."

"I am totally over the West Ham defeat now because we knew what we did wrong. The mistakes we made we can avoid."

"We have the chance to show we are capable and our aim is to make it as uncomfortable as possible for Leicester"

"We know what we have to avoid to stop Leicester showing their strengths and we have to find ways of hurting them."

"Of course I like the story of Leicester but that doesn't change the fact we would like to be successful against them."

It seems the Leicester site has a better system of letting fans know what has been said in press conferences.


Last meetings.

In the last 6 meetings, Huddersfield have only won once and that was in an FA Cup replay. Otherwise, the Foxes have won 4 with one draw.

Back in October 2012, two vastly different sides met at the John Smiths Stadium, with frequent Town tormentor Anthony Knockaert scoring twice in a 2-0 win for the Foxes, if I remember correctly, it might have been the game were he scored a back heel volley. The next meeting that season saw Town thrashed on new years day 6-1, with Knockaert scoring twice again along with a brace for Chris Wood, with the other goas coming from Martyn Waghorn and Ritchie De Laet, Towns solitary reply came from Scott Arfield.


The same season saw the two sides meet in the FA cup, the first tie ws a 1-1 draw at the Galpharm stadium, Lee Novak scored from the penalty spot, whilst Chris Wood equalised for the visitors. The replay saw managerless town win 2-1 thanks to goals from Adam Clayton and Sean Scannell either side of a Michael Keane goal.

The next season was the one where Leicester achieved promotion, the first game that season was at the King Power Stadium, where the Foxes ran out 2-1 winners thanks to goals from Jamie Vardy and an own goal from Anthony Gerrard, Towns reply came also from an own goal by Paul Konchesky, James Vaughan also saw red that game. The return tie finished 2-0 to Leicester with former Town man Gary Taylor Fletcher scoring along with Wes Morgan.

So what has changed?

Well quite a bit in terms of fortune on the pitch, Town have had a couple of managers and a large turnover in players, with the likes of Clayton, Vaughan and Smithies all leaving but we know what has replaced them since then.


Town remained largely in a bottom of the league battle until last season where everything really did change
As for Leicester, the first season in the Premier League was a battle as I am sure we will really find out, this led to Nigel Pearson having a bit of a breakdown, including the Ostrich fiasco in a press conference.

U wut bruv?

He was then surprisingly replaced by the Tinkerman, with many thinking Pearson was unlucky after keeping the side in the league. It was thought that some off the field incidents had led to his sacking, with ranieri being a bit of a publicity stunt by the owners, with not much thought going into it

Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Sacked?

Pundits felt that Ranieri was going to be a failure after his then recent managerial endeavors and be the first manager sacked, guess what, the pundits were wrong, who knew that could happen?


Thats right, the man led the side to the title at 5000/1 with a lot being said about their team togetherness and their counter attacking football. Jamie Vardy had a breakthrough season, banging in goals for fun, whilst Mahrez had defenders in knots with his trickery, with Kante ticking the side over and breaking down oppositions attacks. With added pizza.
The season after, Kante left, and the side struggled, with key players failing to live up to the previous seasons standards, the addition of Champions League also affected them with players struggling to keep up their levels. Ranieri was eventually sacked and replaced with Shakespeare, who eventually was named as their full time manager.

Played for both

Gary Taylor Fletcher- The well built winger featured for Town back in their league one days and will be remembered for scoring the football leagues 500,000th goal. He left to join Blackpool where he stayed for 6 years, featuring in the premier league for the tangerines, before moving on to Leicester, where he achieved promotion to the top division. He is now player manager of Bangor.


Danny Drinkwater- had a loan spell early in his career at a town managed by Lee Clark. It was Clark's first full season in charge, you know, the one where we played fast attacking football, only to be beaten and bullied by Miwaw and see Clark become a lump it merchant. Drinkwater had another couple of loans here and there before settling at Leicester and building a solid career for himself, earning international recognition in the process. He left this summer to join Chelsea in a 40 million pound deal. Making himself the most valuable player to have featured for Town...


Ben Chilwell- Had a loan spell the other season at town where he impressed with his technical ability, he only made 8 appearances in that time and has made a couple more for the Foxes, but if Fuchs is missing, he will likely be starting on Saturday.


Jermaine Beckford- The striker joined Town on loan from Leicester after Town sold Jordan Rhodes to Blackburn. He had an injury hit season but scored some vital goals to help town stay in the championship. He scored only one more goal for Leicester than he did for town in double the games. He didnt really fit at the foxes and moved on to Bolton.


Big Frank- Frank Worthington started his career at Town scoring 41 in 171 and I cant really say much as I never got to watch him, he moved in 1972 to join Leicester scoring 72 in 210. He won 8 caps for England. His daughter has said that he is suffering with Alzheimers, but he has denied that claim.


Team Selection.

Now I dont know what Leicester will line up with, but they will have hustle and bustle up top in the form of Vardy and most likely Okazaki, but after Monday, they may be tempted to put Slimani up top with Vardy. Town's backline will be in for another battle either way with Vardy'd pace being the main problem. Out wide Mahrez will cause problems on either flank, whilst at the back Maguire and Wes Morgan can be expected to marshall Mounie or Depoitre if we try to go longer like we did on Monday, I would hope that we try to attack with pace and on the floor as we could win the midfield battle with Mooy ticking us over.

As for Town, I would expect one maybe two changes if fully fit with Williams possibly coming in for Billing and maybe Sabiri and Malone coming in for Kachunga and Lowe, but I wouldnt expect sweeping changes, just a big telling off and a chance to go and put things right in front of a home crowd.