[jjamez]

Love is in the air as Huddersfield welcome Sunderland to the John Smiths Stadium. Although, will that love spread between the fans and will Sunderland show how much they care for us by gifting us 3 points? nah I somewhat doubt they will be feeling that charitable, the ref meanwhile may decide to sent a few anonymous cards to players, especially a lovely red one.

Town come into the game after letting a 2-0 lead slip away at much fancied Southampton, it was a shock to the system to me, let alone anyone else when i saw not only had we scored, but twice. The shock wasn't as apparent when the Saints pulled it back after halftime, but it soon came back when we grabbed a third of the game, by the time it got to 5-3, I had run out of shock and was just accepting that we had actually given it a good go, something that we seem to have struggled in doing all season on the road. But hey ho, plenty of positives moving forward for Worthington or whoever takes the hot seat, and plenty of things to build on too. Will the new man be in place by Wednesday, highly unlikely, the club seem to be peddling Worthington in charge, the odds list is underwhelming and the prices don't seem to be moving any more. Michael Duff is still unfortunately the favourite, whilst Paul Heckingbottom is still on the list. Paolo Bianco is also still on the list, despite a fan admitting that they randomly made it up, journalist Alan Nixon is also still running with it despite being given that information, I suppose you hardly want to lose face in these matters. Other merry go round managers are also on the list, but the longer this goes on the more it seems like it is someone who wont be on the betting list and someone we have had to do more due diligence and put hard yards in to get them into the dugout. Lets hope it is worth it in the end.

Having caught up on the highlights through the new Unrestricted series that Town are doing on Youtube, I am actually looking forward to Wednesdays game, now one swallow doesn't make a summer, but as mentioned the positive aspects of play will soon bring feet through the turnstiles and bums back on seats, although you'd hope there would be more jumping off them than under Moore.



As for opponents, there has been a bit of change since we last met on a Wednesday night back in November. As Town registered one of their few wins under Moore with goals coming from Michal Helik and Delano Burgzorg, it also saw the end of Tony Mowbrays reign as Sunderland boss. He wouldn't be out of the game for too long, with many Town fans being open to him replacing Moore on many occasions, however, it is back to the Midlands he went and rocked up at Birmingham. Replacing him at the Stadium of Light is Michael Beale, who joined fresh off of a ill fated stint in Bonny Scotland at the Ranger of Glasgow. Its fair to say his current job is going a tad bit better as they currently sit just outside of the play off places and have registered wins against the likes of Leeds, Hull and West Brom. The former QPR boss as won two, lost two and drawn one in his last five games, which puts them fairly stable in the form charts. Looking at the form charts, Millwall, Stoke, Swansea and Birmingham are the ones to look out for as they continue to sink down the league, one would say that Rotherham are as good as gone, but those four teams will be looking perilously over their shoulders, especially if they continue in similar vein over the next few weeks. At the other end, outside of the top three, Coventry, Sunderland and Norwich are possibly the ones to look out for, whilst Coventry currently hold a play off place, the other two will be hoping to continue and come round the outside to finish in the the shootout, and we all know one American/German manager who has fond experiences of the playoffs!



Going back to Sunderland and the one to really look out for is former Leeds man Jack Clarke. The winger joined Sunderland originally on loan from Tottingham Hotspurs before making the permanent switch to the North East. He had endured a torturous few years where form abandoned him and he really did look like dropping down the leagues, but he found his feet as a Black Cat and this season has so far scored 14 goals and notched 4 assists, even having to be deployed as an auxiliary striker at times, this has lead to a number of Premier League teams and Italian side Lazio casting envious glances in his direction. Also acting as a bright star for the Black Cats is young Jobe Bellingham, who's elder brother, Jude, had his shirt retired at Brum after moving to German side Borussia Dortmund, Jude now plays his football in Spain for minnows Madrid. Jobe, is tipped to go to a similar level as his brother and it came as a real shock when Birmingham allowed him to leave. After a bit of a settling period in the North East, he has since started to look the part, grabbing 5 goals and 1 assist. It is thought that one of the brothers' parents lives with each of them to make sure that their feet stay firmly grounded away from the football pitch. Oh how some other footballers could have done with that eh?



Moving on to team news, Town will be without Rhys Healey, his groin injury picked up against Sheffield Wednesday is worse than first thought and he will be out for a longer time frame. Michal Helik should be back with the squad, although a start may be too soon for him, the same could be said about Danny Ward and Delano Burgzorg who have both returned to the training pitch. Jaheim Headley remains out along with the other long term absentees. Brodie Spencer should be fit to start having come off at the weekend with cramp.

Sunderland have a relatively fit squad to pick from and it wouldn't surprise if there is few changes made to their starting xi with maybe Bellingham coming back into the side after scoring at the weekend, he's likely to operate behind lone striker Nazarii Rusyn. He joined the club in the Summer from Zorya of Ukraine and has taken a while to fully settle into English football, having only played 16 games this season so far. January was a rather quiet transfer window for the new manager, with only a handful of new signings coming through the door. Hungarian international Callum Styles joined on loan from Barnsley, whilst defender Leo Hjelde joined from fellow Yorkshire side Leeds, Romaine Mundle was the final signing as he joined the club from Belgian side Standard Liege, the young winger began his career in London at Spurs before moving to the continent, he came in to replace the outgoing Alex Pritchard who downed tools in order to force through a move to Birmingham. Elsewhere, Jewison Bennette moved on loan to Greek side Aris, whilst Jay Matete moved on loan to Oxford.



When it comes to head to heads, I was surprised at how often the two sides had actually met over the years, although a lot of those were before I was born, with only 10 coming after JJ. Town have 25 of the meetings with 27 draws and 38 Sunderland wins. Last season Town lost at the John Smiths 2-0, whilst they managed to nab a point with a 1-1 draw in the return fixture. Prior to that, the last meeting between the two sides was back in 2003 when Town traveled to the North East and won 4-2 in the league cup, a number of home grown players scored that night, including future Black Cat Jon Stead. Stead spent 2 years at Sunderland and only managed 2 goals for the club as his scoring touch deserted him, before he moved back to Yorkshire to play for Neil Warnocks Sheffield United.



Other players to have shared the love of the shirt of both clubs, include luminaries such as the poison dwarf, keeper Steve Harper, striker Fraizer Campbell, former captain Dean Whitehead, ex Town stopper and goalkeeping coach Nick Colgan and Tommy Miller. Danny Simpson also played for both clubs as did fellow full back Dan Smith, he had a loan spell at the start of his career at Town, just like Kevin Kyle, both came to Town for short spells from Sunderland. We seem to have a fair few keepers in common, as Joe Murphy also enjoyed spells at both clubs, I say that, he only made 9 appearances combined, all 9 at Town... As for the dug out, well Lee Clark famously played for Sunderland and managed Town, whilst Steve Bruce lists Sunderland as one of his many clubs, as does Simon Grayson.

[theo_luddite]

A good read that jjamez

I see Sarfamptons bubble finally burst last night after we ran the legs off them on Saturday.

[Lord Snooty]

Nice one jjamez.

Looking forward to tonight. Not said that for a while.

[theo_luddite]

Ward on the bench tonight, Worthy kept that quiet. Can post the teams if you wish jjamez.

[Lord Snooty]

Burgerz on the bench as well.

[theo_luddite]

At the risk of stealing his thunder again

[Lord Snooty]

The noise in the stadium is excruciating. It's making my ears bleed. Like being in a bloody night club.

[theo_luddite]

A Pair of Drunks Fighting on the Dance Floor? Sophie Ellis-Bexter?

[Lord Snooty]

Great first half. Proper football.

[Lord Snooty]

Well that were blooming marvellous.