[SHEP_HTAFC]

DERBY COUNTY v HUDDERSFIELD TOWN
TUE 4th NOVEMBER.....K.O 19:45

SEASON SO FAR

After playing Forest off the park on Saturday, Town now play the other East Midlands team in this division.
Town come into this game after a fantastic run of form that has seen them unbeaten in the last 7 games, with 4 wins.
Our last loss was that horrible defeat to Dirty L666s. Since then we have played 4 teams in the top half and won 2, Wolves and Forest..... and drawn 2 against Ipswich and Blackburn.
Our front players seem to playing with lots of confidence. Nahki Wells is our leading scorer with 6 league goals, with Harry Bunn on 5. Surprisingly Butterfield has 3, with Holt on 2.



We seem to be better at defending also....with only 7 goals conceded in our unbeaten 7 game run (scoring 15).
We are joint 7th best in the scoring charts for the division....however we are 5th worst for conceding. So a clean sheet on Saturday should have given everyone a massive confidence boost for this game.

At the start of the season Derby were by far and away the bookies favourites for outright promotion...some quoting as low as 2/1.
Town in comparison were 150/1. Town were also 5th in the betting for relegation at a general 3/1.

Derby County come into this game after a slight bump in their promotion bid. They were top of the table before Saturday's games....however a 94th minute goal from Brentford condemned them to a 2-1 defeat...and their second league loss in a row.
Their previous league home game had seen them lose 2-1 to Wigan, with the home game before that saw them draw 0-0 with Millwall...meaning they haven't won at home for the last 2 games.

So a shock is on the cards then? A team unbeaten in 7 against a team who've lost their last 2 league games and not won at home in 2.
Sounds just the sort of game Town end up losing.

PREVIOUS HISTORY

These 2 teams have played each other 87 times before......with Derby doing better with 35 wins. Town have 28 wins with 24 of them drawn.
At Derby, the picture is much much worse....Town have only ever won there 4 times out of 43 times played. Once in the 1920's, twice in the 30's....with our last ever win there coming in November 1957...near on 57 years ago !!!
That 4-2 win came courtesy of a Denis Law double, and the team was managed by a certain Bill Shankly.

Last year we lost 3-1 at Derby, after first taking the lead through Nahki Wells. Unfortunately Russell then equalised, and then Lynch got himself sent off.
It got worse when Smithies scored an own goal, before Captain Fantastic Peter Clarke was also sent off.
Chris Martin, taking a break from Coldplay and Gwyneth, consciously uncoupled our chances of a point when he finished us off with the 3rd from the penalty spot.

HISTORY, FACTS & FIGURES

Derby County F.C. was founded in 1884 as an offshoot of Derbyshire County Cricket Club.
Notable for being one of the twelve founder members of the Football League in 1888, it is one of only ten clubs to have competed in every season of the English football league system.
They have spent all but four seasons (1955/1956/1984/1985) in the top two divisions of English football.
They have won the league title twice - in 1972 and 1975. They won the F.A Cup in 1946.

LINKED TO BOTH

Current Town manager Chris Powell played 91 times for Derby...scoring once. He was also Derby's player of the year in 1996/7.







All the footballers above now want to play for Huddersfield Town

TRAVEL AND SUPPIN'

There's a "Harvester" about five minutes walk away from the stadium...however they don't always allow visiting supporters.
'The Navigation Inn' on London Road, is ok for away supporters. It has free street parking outside, is on the A6 (so an easy get away after the game) and it is just a ten minute walk away from the stadium. Home fans also frequent the pub, but is apparently friendly enough.
There are a couple of pubs opposite the train station, such as the Merry Widows, that tend to be the favourite haunts of away supporters.  
Or turn right out of the station and make your way down to The Brunswick or Alexandra Hotel. They both have bouncers on the doors but away fans are normally let in as long as there is no singing.

CAR
From the M1, exit at Junction 25 and take the A52 towards Derby. The ground is signposted off the A52 after about seven miles. There are a couple of fair sized parks at the new Velodrome which is situated next to Pride Park and is convenient for the away supporters entrance, being at that end of the stadium. The cost of parking is £8 per car, or £6 if the car has four or more people in it.

TRAIN
The ground is about a 10 minute walk away from Derby railway station and is signposted. A new exit has been opened at the station which leads directly onto the retail park. Go up the stairs from the platform, turn right and walk to the end of the bridge. Go down the stairs, exit and turn right down Roundhouse Road. Bear left at the roundabout, go straight down Riverside Road or turn right and go down Pride Parkway.  

SHEP's TEAM

SMITHIES

SMITH LYNCH  HUDSON  ROBINSON

SCANNELL   COADY  BUTTERFIELD  BUNN

WELLS  HOLT

[theo_luddite]

Nice one Shep (where's the mobile like button AmChaff?). Wonderful stats to read about our performance at theirs after I booked my train ticket about an hour ago. What the hey, it's an away trip in Middle England and a good excuse for a couple of mid-week beers. Might have to sneak out early though to catch the the 22:12 home so no moaning if you see someone leaving with a few mins to go.

[Denners]

£8 to park your car!!!! Jeez!!!
Can't wait for the game.

[Lord Snooty]

Denis Law and Bill Shankly last time we won there? Chuffin' hell, that will be a right scalp for Chrissy Powell's barmy army.

COME ON TOWN!!!

[Amelia Chaffinch]

We paid £10 to park at Middlesbrough, denners!

[theo_luddite]

Park at the East Midlands airport or the train station between Nottm and Derby (East Midlands parkway or som'at like that) Denners and get the free bus into town. Only joshing but there's got to be cheaper or even free parking not a million miles away. It's only £18 and bits on the train for me from Wolvo. More realistic try the car park at the back of Derby railway station or the pub/hotel car park near by. About 10-15 minutes walk from the ground. Might be a few bob and you may need some loose change but got to be way less than that rip-off price at the ground for a couple of hours or so. Otherwise drive to Wolvo and join me on the train. happen as not. I won't get home 'til midnight and it''s still a 2 hour drive back nooerth.

[Lord Snooty]

Another player linked to both clubs. Played for both and caretaker managed both, Mr Mark Lillis.

[Amelia Chaffinch]

Nice one Shep (where's the mobile like button AmChaff?). Wonderful stats to read about our performance at theirs after I booked my train ticket about an hour ago. What the hey, it's an away trip in Middle England and a good excuse for a couple of mid-week beers. Might have to sneak out early though to catch the the 22:12 home so no moaning if you see someone leaving with a few mins to go.

They're working on the mobile version still, theo. They knew it was flawed when they installed it but thought that a less than perfect mobile version was better than none at all. Sorry for the lack of features.

[theo_luddite]

Think I can live with that

[EastLondonTerrier]

6 weeks ago I would have expected a tonking from a game like this. Now I genuinely believe we can get at least a point from this. Think we have more than enough players to give them problems on tuesday, powell will probably play a different formation depending on how confident he is that we can hold out and compete with them in midfield but I expect us to give it a real go of it. Midfield battle will decide this game, they have arguably the best in the championship. Hughes, Bryson, Hendrick, Dawkins, Martin. All plenty of firepower in them. Expect Lynch to be in charge of tieing down martin. He is a real handful for any defence.