Huddersfield Town digest: Radinio Balker injury blow but three in contention to return
The Terriers will visit Port Vale on Saturday before hosting league leaders Lincoln on Tuesday night
What’s been said
You can read our selected highlights and listen along to the entirety of Liam Manning’s press conference — as well as Antony Evans’ thoughts— right here on We Are Terriers shortly.
Coming up next
Town visit Port Vale on Saturday expecting a very different challenge from the side that lost 5-0 at Accu Stadium on Boxing Day thanks to a Leo Castledine brace bookending strikes from Ryan Ledson, Bojan Radulovic and Alfie May.
That result cost Darren Moore his job at Vale, who remain rooted to the bottom of the table but have enjoyed a notable improvement in form under former Northampton boss Jon Brady in recent weeks.
Port Vale have taken five points from their past three league games, including a pair of 1-1 draws at home to Reading and Luton. But it is their FA Cup run that has really captured the imagination, with victories over Maldon & Tiptree, Bristol Rovers, Fleetwood, and — over the past week — Bristol City and Sunderland earning them a place in the quarter-finals, where they will meet Chelsea.
Port Vale are 11 points adrift of safety but have three or four games in hand over their relegation rivals ahead of hosting Bradford tonight, and will be desperate to at least give themselves a fighting chance of avoiding the drop into League Two…despite facing a very challenging run of fixtures through to the end of the season.
Their defensive record has been particularly improved over the past few games, even if they are still only scoring once per game; Port Vale have conceded just two goals in their past five games in all competitions, including clean sheets against Championship and Premier League opposition.
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.
Town will then host table-topping Lincoln City in Tuesday night’s 7:45pm kick-off.
The Imps are in phenomenal form at the moment having won their past five games — all with clean sheets — to extend their run of 19 games without defeat as they close in on automatic promotion.
That run includes a 1-1 draw against Town in the reverse fixture on New Year’s Day, with Leo Castledine opening the scoring just after the hour only for Adam Reach to respond with an equaliser eight minutes later.
Elsewhere in League One
Tuesday night’s results worked out nicely for Town, with Reading and Stevenage both missing the chance to leapfrog the Terriers into sixth place as they made up games in hand.
Bradford City will go away to Port Vale tonight hoping to strengthen their own play-off credentials.
This Saturday’s games in the top half of League One are as follows (3pm unless noted otherwise):
Lincoln vs Stockport (12:30pm)
Rotherham vs Bolton (12:30pm)
Exeter vs Cardiff
Mansfield vs Barnsley
Reading vs Plymouth
Stevenage vs Wimbledon
Wigan vs Bradford
Wycombe vs Luton
There’s a full round of games to be had on Tuesday night, too, with the fixtures in the top half looking like this (7:45pm kick-offs unless noted otherwise):
Bolton vs Doncater
Bradford vs Mansfield
Burton vs Reading
Cardiff vs Wycombe
Luton vs Exter
Plymouth vs Stevenage
Stockport vs Northampton
Barnsley vs Wigan (8pm)
Huddersfield Town injuries and absences
Saturday will mark Town’s final cut-off for ten yellow cards accumulating into suspensions. Ryan Ledson is the only player who will need to walk the tight rope against Port Vale having already picked up nine league bookings this season. If he gets another one at the weekend, he will be hit with a two-match ban.
Radinio Balker went off with an adductor injury just before half time against Rotherham on Saturday and is likely to miss the next four weeks.
Alfie May missed the Rotherham game having been unwell in the week leading up to it, but he has been back in training all week this week and should be able to retun against Port Vale.
Marcus McGuane played 65 minutes for the under-21s on Tuesday night and will now join Jack Whatmough in contention for a squad place at the weekend.
Bojan Radulovic (hamstring) and Joe Low (calf) are still likely to be a couple of weeks away from returning to action, with Lynden Gooch (groin) ‘moving in the right direction’.
Predicted line-up to face Port Vale
4-2-3-1: Lee Nicholls; Bali Mumba, Josh Feeney, Murray Wallace, Sean Roughan; Ryan Ledson, Antony Evans; Marcus Harness, Alfie May, Cameron Ashia; Ryan Hardie.
Substitutes: Jak Alnwick, Jack Whatmough, Lasse Sorensen, David Kasumu, Marcus McGuane, Will Alves, Bobby Wales.
Huddersfield Town Women
Town Women remain top the table despite their 0-0 draw with Norton & Stockton at the weekend, though they are now only ahead of Leeds United on goal difference with seven league games left to play thanks to the Terriers’ two-point deduction.
Town will be in County Cup semi-final action this weekend as they host lower-division Barnsley Women at 2pm on Sunday at the Graham Leslie Arena at Storthes Hall.
Thrice Champions night at H Town
Huddersfield Town are hosting an event celebrating the centenary of the club becoming the first in English football to win three league titles in a row with a special evening at H Town at Accu Stadium next Thursday, 19th March from 7pm onwards.
Dave Hartrick and I will be part of a wider panel who will look back on that feat, alongside member of the players’ families and other guests. There will also be memorabilia from the era on show. It should be a lovely old time.
Tickets are available here for £5 and include a free drink on arrival.