Huddersfield Town digest: Joe Low blow adds to injury woe as trio nearly ready to go
The centre-back has joined Bojan Radulovic on the sidelines but Liam Manning has three players closing in on returns. Plus match preview and predicted line-up
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Blackpool will visit Accu Stadium in Saturday’s 3:01pm kick-off after a difficult start to the new year has left them just a point clear of the relegation zone in 18th place.
Ian Evatt oversaw an improvement in the struggling side’s form after coming in as Steve Bruce’s successor in October, and Blackpool got into particularly impressive form in December with four wins and a draw in their five league games.
But a 5-1 defeat to Port Vale on New Year’s Day precipitated a recent run of five defeats in six League One games as Bradford, Barnsley, Stockport and Luton all claimed victories. That run was punctuated only by a 2-0 win at home to Northampton.
No other League One team has spent more time in their own third of the pitch than Blackpool this season. Nor has any other side played fewer crosses per game into the opposition box: just one of Blackpool’s goals this season has been a header, a stat not helped by their poor record from on set pieces at both ends of the pitch.
Town will however have to be wary of star man Ashley Fletcher, who has been on a superb run of goalscoring form over the past three months with 11 goals in his past 21 appearances for the club.
We’ll have five conclusions on the game for our paying subscribers first thing on Sunday morning, followed by further reaction in Monday morning’s podcast. Get signed up if you’re not already.
Elsewhere at the top end of League One
Town have the opportunity to overtake fifth-placed Bradford, who will visit seventh-placed Luton Town in a lunchtime kick-off.
Stockport County and Bolton Wanderers are both just slightly beyond Huddersfield at the moment in third and fourth, and both of them will take on home games on Saturday afternoon with Leyton Orient visiting Stockport and Barnsley heading to Bolton.
League leaders Cardiff City visit struggling Rotherham, and second-placed Lincoln City face the long trip to take on Plymouth. Play-off chasers Stevenage will meanwhile visit Northampton.
EFL Trophy
Town are at home to Doncaster Rovers on Tuesday night (7pm KO) in the Vertu Trophy quarter-finals.
Donny are beginning to find a form again after a dismal December and have won four of their past six games in all competitions, including bouncing back from their weekend defeat to Bradford by claiming a 2-1 league win away to Burton on Tuesday night.
The winners on the night will progress to the semi-finals, where the regionalisation of the previous rounds will no longer apply.
The other quarter-finals taking place on Tuesday evening are:
Port Vale vs Stockport
Luton vs Plymouth
Wimbledon vs Northampton
Huddersfield Town injuries and absences
Bojan Radulovic has been ruled out for eight weeks with the hamstring injury he suffered against Luton last week.
Joe Low has been also ruled out for a similar amount of time with the calf injury that forced him off against Peterborough at the weekend.
Alfie May still has another three league games to on on his four-match suspension but is eligible to face Doncaster on Tuesday.
New arrival Ryan Hardie is still recovering from a knee injury he picked up for Wrexham in December but is expected to be fit and available in the next 7-10 days.
Sean Roughan, Antony Evans and Jack Whatmough are all in training in at least some capacity as they work their way back from their respective injuries.
Roughan is the closest of the three to making a return and may be in contention against Doncaster in the Trophy on Tuesday night, with Evans expected back a week or so later.
Whatmough is training with the rest of the group on a modified programme and is ‘headed in the right direction’.
Predicted line-up to face Blackpool
3-4-2-1: Lee Nicholls; Radinio Balker, Josh Feeney, Murray Wallace; Lynden Gooch, Ryan Ledson, Marcus McGuane, Bali Mumba; Marcus Harness, Cameron Humphreys; Dion Charles.
Substitutes: Jak Alnwick, Lasse Sorensen, David Kasumu, Will Alves, Cameron Ashia, Mickel Miller, Bobby Wales.
Huddersfield Town Women
After their January schedule was heavily disrupted by postponements, Town Women return for just their second game since early December with a league trip to York City.
Wythenshawe’s victory over Norton & Stockton at the weekend (when Town did not have a game) means the Terriers have again lost their place at the top of the table thanks to their two-point deduction in December for fielding an ineligible player, subject to an ongoing appeal.
But Town now have a game in hand over the new league leaders and will be aiming to at least have a chance of going back top with a victory over a York side who currently sit just a point outside the relegation zone.
