[Lord Snooty]

Huddersfield Town  v Preston North End
The Sky Bet Championship
Tuesday December 12th - 19:45 ko
at the John Smith's Stadium

Huddersfield Town welcome Preston North End to the John Smith's Stadium on Tuesday evening for what promises to be a feast of free flowing, fast attacking football.

Town go into this match on a roll, unbeaten in four matches, including a superb away win in Sunderland. Preston, on the other hand, haven't won in the last four matches and haven't scored in the last three. Only one winner on paper here then.




Head to Head



Preston lead the head to head with 39 wins to Town's 37, with 24 draws.

We were level pegging in those win, loss, draw statistics at the beginning of last season. But after being drawn against the Lillywhites in both League Cup and FA Cup, both of which we lost and then losing at home in the league, we had a shock victory away at Deepdale.

First up, came the Carabooboo game, early on in the season. It was the third match of the season, when Danny Schofield had been handed the job as manager following the surprise departure of Carlos Corberan. We had lost the opening two league games against Burnley (h) and Birmingham (a) when PNE came here and wallopped us 4-1. They were three up at half time and four up shortly after the break with Troy Parrott, Alistair McCann (2) and Brad Potts scoring before Jordan Rhodes scored a consolation.

Schoey had been sacked before we went to Preston in October. His replacement, a little known Scotsman who had been coaching in Germany alongside some of the biggest names in world football, was four games into his spell as Head Coach. Mark Fotheringham had started with, a defeat at Reading, a draw at Luton, a victory against Hull at home and then a disappointind loss at Rotherham as PNE came back to the John Smith's Stadium and won again. One-nil this time with Greg Cunningham scoring the goal.

Then came the shock of all shocks on Boxing Day. Not an earth shattering shock, but the shock waves for those of us who pretend that statistics somehow matter, were immense. Town hadn't won a match of any description at Deepdale since 1969, but goals from that man Rhodes again, equalising a first half Preston goal from Cunnigham, and a late winner from Kaine Kesler-Hayden gave us that unlikely victory putting the name of Fotheringham next to club legend Ian Greaves in the record books.

Normal service was resumed soon after though when we went back to Deepdale for that FA Cup encounter. Tyreece Simpson had been handed the job of leading the attack in the starting XI, but he was ineffective and hauled off at half time. His replacement was the ex Hibs striker Florian Kamberi, who made such a brilliant impact on his debut, scoring the opening goal of the game after being on the pitch for just 12 minutes. However, a Tom Lees own goal, followed by goals from Bambo Diaby and Alan Browne, meant that this re-playing of the 1922 and 1938 Cup Finals, would not end with the team of renown bringing the Cup back to Huddersfield. 

So what's going on down Sir Tom Finney Way? Managed nowadays by Ryan Löwe, the Bury legend.

He scored well over 200 goals in an 18 year playing career, which never got higher than League One, despite having the massive names of Sheffield Wednesday and Milton Keynes Dons on his CV.

His management career started in the middle of a Town connected managerial roundabout. Having become player/coach at Bury, he became caretaker in October 2017 when the Shakers shook off ex Town boss, Lee Clark. Löwe had six games in charge before ex Town centre back Chris Lucketti took over. And then when luckless Lucketti lost his job, it was Mrs Löwe's lad in again to steady the shaking ship. Didn't quite work though, despite him ending his playing career to concentrate on the job in hand, they got relegated to League Two.

He was offered the full time job though and managed to get them straight back up. However, Bury had been taken over by some numptie who wasn't keen on paying the players and more importantly, the Taxman. And so when Plymouth Argyle came sniffing around, looking for a new manager, Löwe jumped ship.

That was in June 2019 and in his first season at Home Park, he got them promoted from League Two, finishing in 3rd place in the Covid interrupted season. But with Argyle poised for another pip at the promotion race, in December 2021, he quit. This was something of a surprise, but obviously there had been some underhand underhandedness going on as the next day he was unveiled as the new boss of Preston North End.

He has since continued the recent Deepdale tradition of mid table obscurity, neither seriously worrying the top 6 or the bottom three.

Saturday's line up at Norwich:

1 Woodman
44 Potts
14 Storey
26 Whatmough
6 Lindsay
16 Hughes
13 McCann
4 Whiteman
8 Browne
9 Evans
23 Millar

Subs:
3 Cunningham
7 Keane
10 Frökjaer-Jensen
11 Brady
18 Ledson
20 Woodburn
21 Cornell
25 Holmes
33 Best





Recent form - last 6 matches:

Town 1-1 Bristol City
Swansea 1-1 Town
Sunderland 1-2 Town
Town 1-1 Southampton
Hull 1-0 Town
Town 0-0 Watford

Norwich 0-0 PNE
PNE 0-2 QPR
Boro 4-0 PNE
PNE 1-2 Cardiff
Blackburn 1-2 PNE
PNE 3-2 Coventry

Town are 21st in the Championship table with 21 points. Pressed on Both Ends are 9th with 29.

Leading scorers:

Terriers:
Michal Helik (5)
Delano Burgzorg (4)
Jack Rudoni (3)

North Enders:
Duane Holmes (4)
Milutin Osmajic (4)
Will Keane (4)