Huddersfield Town digest: Koroma a doubt v Barnsley as Healey and Ward back in training
Josh Koroma was only passed fit for a place on the bench against Birmingham and will be assessed against ahead of facing Barnsley on Saturday
What’s been said
— Michael Duff, reacting to the 1-0 defeat to Birmingham on Tuesday night:
“I thought we were better team for the 25 minutes, but overall I’ve got no argument with the result. And we've just got to try and take the positives and move on because you're not going to play them every week. They are the best team, there's no doubt about that.”
— Michael Duff, on whether his side can get back into promotion form
“We're in a difficult moment, but the teams that finish in the top six don't always sit there all season.
“We're working through a lot of things at the minute. There's been a lot of change at the football club: lots of players coming in, lots of injuries. So there's been lots of moving parts.
“I'm not going to sit here and be delusional. Like I just said, we need to win a game football first and foremost before we start talking about where we want to finish. Everyone wants to win the league. But talking and doing it two different things. Birmingham are walking the walk at the minute.
“We just need to deliver some better, more consistent performances and try and work hard and get the confidence back in the group, because one thing you can see is a lack of confidence.”
Coming up next
Barnsley at home. Twice in a row. What a great time for everyone involved.
The Tykes have reached the play-offs in each of the past two seasons, including making it to the final under Michael Duff in 2022/23, and will be hoping to have another tilt with a happier ending this season.
Darrell Clarke’s side currently sit 7th in the congested League One table after four wins, three draws and two defeats. Barnsley have looked particularly dangerous away from home, claiming three wins from four on their travels in League One this season.
Adam Phillips has been a particular threat
Matty Pearson, Herbie Kane and Michal Helik all used to call Oakwell home too, of course — not that Helik will be involved — with Jon Russell the lone Barnsley representative in the other direction.
Saturday’s league game is a 12:30 kick-off at the John Smith’s Stadium, then Tuesday’s Bristol Street Motors Trophy encounter kicks off at 7:45pm.
Huddersfield Town injuries and absences
Lee Nicholls had to pull out in the warm-up against Reading after struggling with an elbow ligament issue, which now requires surgery. The goalkeeper is expected to miss 10-12 weeks, putting his expected recovery date around mid-late December.
Josh Koroma didn’t start against Birmingham due to a bad back, but did make it off the bench and trained on Thursday. A decision will be made on his availability for the weekend.
Rhys Healey and Danny Ward are back in full training after hamstring and calf injuries respectively, but Duff has suggested they will not be available to play on Saturday.
Herbie Kane has missed the past couple of games but there is no new issue for him: he simply needed more time to get his fitness up following his recent groin injury. Duff says the midfielder may be back in his thinking for the weekend now.
Michal Helik has been ruled out until the back end of November with a hamstring injury, and Radinio Balker is out until the new year.
Predicted line-up to face Barnsley
3-5-2: Jacob Chapman; Matty Pearson, Tom Lees, Brodie Spencer; Lasse Sorensen, Antony Evans, David Kasumu, Ben Wiles, Mickel Miller; Bojan Radulovic, Callum Marshall.
Substitutes: Chris Maxwell, Nigel Lonwijk, Jaheim Headley, Joe Hodge, Jonathan Hogg, Josh Koroma, Freddie Ladapo.
Huddersfield Town Women
Sixth-placed Town Women will travel to Durham Cestria on Sunday afternoon in a 2pm kick-off. Durham currently sit two places and one point below Town.
And if you really want to complete a trifecta of home games against Barnsley, guess who Town Women have in the FA Women’s Cup the following Sunday?
Our schedule
We’ll have five conclusions on Saturday’s game for our paying backers on Sunday morning at latest, possibly Saturday evening depending on factors.
Those same great backers will then get the podcast first thing Monday morning.
We will then offer some kind of reaction to the EFL Trophy game for our backers, followed by another written piece on or before next weekend. Current thinking is that will probably be an analytical piece looking at the differences between Town’s good and bad performances this season, though that may change if something more pressing comes up.
If you’re not already a paid backer then don’t forget that you can get a seven-day free trial of the full We Are Terriers experience!
Unless something quite dramatic happens, we’re unlikely to have a weekly digest next week as there will be no weekend game or press conference to provide updates on.