[Grimois]

Saturday 20 September 3pm

Elland Road Stadium

It’s that time of the  season again! A visit to our nearest and dearest beckons, and after last year’s poor visit who could blame us Town fans for not fancying this one….however if you can’t get excited over this one, it’s time to give up and go and watch egg-chasing instead.

The Managers

Repeat after me “he’s only two games in…he’s only two games in….”

Powell’s reign has started in gritty, uninspiring fashion. It’s clear that, short-term at least, the footballing philosophy has been overhauled to a much more robust, defensive and unattractive proposition. We have had two home games, taken a point and in both games Town have looked laboured going forwards.  

His playing career may shed some light. A pacey full back, he played 751 games as a professional and scored just 8 goals… .Still, he was capped 5 times by England under Sven..

Town will be hoping he can repeat his Charlton win ratio of 41% (as his Leicester one of 100% is now impossible) and if he recorded his first win as Town manager at the noisy neighbours he’d win over any doubters early doors, surely?

Neil Redfearn is a local lad, having been born in Dewsbury. He was playing for Lincoln against Bradford on Saturday, 11 May 1985 when the horrific fire claimed 56 lives. He played for loads of clubs throughout his career as a player, most notably at Barnsley, where he played over 300 games, scoring at a rate of around 1 in 4 from midfield.

As a manger he has become a “caretaker specialist”, having temporarily taken charge twice at Halifax Town and thrice at Leeds United. In terms of permanent posts, he managed at Scarborough (where I used to be a steward in my student days!) for ¾ of a season, and had 9 games in charge at Northwich Victoria, where he lost 8 and drew 1.

The Owners

Recycled from the Cardiff thread I did last month: Dean Hoyle is the chairman and owner of Huddersfield Town, having joined the board in 2008, and taken over as chairman and majority shareholder in 2009. He’s a local lad cum good, having made a fortune in building up the low-priced greetings card business Card Factory from a business run from the back of a van, to a nationwide empire he sold for c.£350m in 2010.

Since taking control at Huddersfield, he has gained a reputation for being “one of us”, a true blue dyed-in-the-wool lifelong Terrier who balances the passion of a fan with the sensibilities of a successful entrepreneur. He wants Town to be self-sufficient but successful and entertaining, and after 5 years in charge it appears he is realising how difficult it can be to balance those desires. He has also proven ruthless, sacking Lee Clark on the end of a 43 match unbeaten run (although we know how much that run can be misrepresented), and sacking Simon Grayson 7 months after a memorable play-off win. It remains to be seen how he will support Chris Powell – whether he will dip into his bulging pockets in January or not – but in my opinion, he is the best Chairman we could wish for in this modern era....and on the flip-side we have....

Massimo Cellino, who was the owner at Cagliari until the summer, and has previously tried to buy West Ham. He was linked with taking over at Leeds in January 2014, on 7 February Leeds announced contracts had been exchanged, and on 24 March the Football League confirmed he had failed the fit and proper persons test all owners are required to undertake. He appealed, and somehow an independent QC confirmed that his previous convictions for deceiving the Italian Ministry of Agriculture out of £7.5m in 1996 and for false accounting at Cagliari in 2001  did not amount to conduct that would 'reasonably be considered to be dishonest'.

When he first became involved with Leeds, back in January, Leeds were due to host Huddersfield. It was reported, the day before the game, that then manager Brian McDermott had been sacked and would be replaced with Gianluca Festa. It was the alst day of the January transfer window, and star striker Ross McCormack went on Sky sports to explain he wanted to leave. Somehow, he stayed and went on to score a Hat-trick we Town were spanked 5-1. (dark days indeed). By the following week, Brian McDermott was back in charge and remained there until the end of the season. During the summer break Cellino slated McDermott for daring to take a holiday, and brought in Benito Carbone is a mysterious “sporting consultant role”. McDermott was sacked at the end of May, Carbone went at the beginning of August and managerial superstar Dave Hockaday was appointed “Head Coach”, having managed non-league giants Forest Green Rovers previously. In 6 games in charge of Leeds, Hockaday won 2 competitive matches and lost 4, before being sacked by Cellino.

Cellino is superstitious, having a fear of the number 17 and the colour purple. Leeds have now retired the number 17 shirt and released 17-stone purple faced Paddy Kenny.

Likely formations

Leeds United

The Leeds line up I have based on their last game out against Bournemouth:

For Town there are many questions - the fitness of Vaughan, Hammill, Paterson and Gerrard, formation and so on

So I have opted for what I would probably do if I were in charge based on what we know about fitness etc

Town

Leeds' Ones to watch

Souleymane Doukara is an 22 year old striker-cum-winger from France, on a season long loan with an option to buy. Fast, string and able to run with the ball, we’ll need to watch him. 3 goals so far, despite an injury having ruled him out for a spell

Billy Sharp is only 28 but seems to have been around for ages. He made his name at Scunthorpe with 56 goals in 95 games, although he spent time as a youth at Sheffield United, where he later returned to play before spells with Doncaster and Southampton. He is a predatory goal scorer and is admired by many for his charitable work, having set up The Luey Jacob Sharp Foundation in memory of his son who died at just two days old. Sharp memorably played in the games which immediately followed, scoring in games two days and five days later

.

Played for both:

Current Town Skipper Lee Peltier spent a spell at Leeds in between Two spells at Town and a spell at Leicester. He made 72 appearances for Leeds, scoring once, and captained the side in his first season there.

Adam Clayton played 41 times for Leeds, before moving a few junctions along the M62 to Town, where he played 92 games, scoring 12 goals and earning Player of the Year last season, during the “Year of the Beard”.  After much speculation he moved a month ago to Middlesbrough, with a fee rumoured to be around £1.5m plus add-ons, and Jacob Butterfield going the other way.  

Prediction

1-3 Town to get Powell’s first win with goals from Wells, Hudson and Peltier

[Marco4]

Its a funny one for me; obviously, I love Italian football, so there's elements of Leeds' team I like (if it was Rolando rather than Tommaso Bianchi, I'd probably travel up to see the game).

I'm still not unconfident about Town. Powell seems to be as good as his word with the defence and while I don't expect a goal fest, I wouldn't be surprised to see the Terriers get something.

[WakeyTerrier]

Looking forward to the 1st Leg of the WRCF(West Riding Cup Final) of which LUFC are the current holders having won 7-4 on aggregate last season.
Town announced this morning that despite our poor start to the season we've still managed to shift 1600 tickets for the away section even though you need a mortgage to pay for a ticket so way short of selling out.

What do I expect from this weekend, no more than I saw on Tuesday night really which was commitment to the cause. I think Powell may tinker with the formation a little bit, I'm hoping he may well revert to the formation that Grimois has above but I get the feeling we will see Smith at right back and Pelts at holding midfield alongside Coady. I don't have a problem with that as long as the rest of his midfield are a bit more creative.

[theo_luddite]

Nice one Grim.

Smithies to play in a nice new all purple kit and Town to incorporate the number 17 somewhere on everyone's shirt. Leeds 1-7 Town then? - OK maybe not. I'll take any points we get from this one.

[Amelia Chaffinch]

The Town fans who are going should definitely all wear purple!

[Birstall White]

I'm going. Can't wait!. MOT

[WakeyTerrier]

Welcome to the Forum Birstall White, what do you reckon to your season so far and what's your prediction for Saturday

[Amelia Chaffinch]

DAY, Birstall

[WakeyTerrier]

Who's that knocking on the window, who's that knocking on the door....it's Neil Redfearn and his men and they've won f#ck all again and they can't get into Europe anymore!

[Marco4]

Ooh, ooh, I can contribute something worthwhile to a thread about Town.

Leeds midfielder Giuseppe Belluschi is coming in for some high praise this week, being likened to an Italian Roy Keane in German magazine Elf Freunde.