Huddersfield Town digest: Team news and predicted line-up with two back in training
Your round-up of all the latest at Huddersfield Town ahead of Saturday's meeting with Stockport
What’s been said
“I think we fell short of our standards. My main feeling is disappointment that regardless of competition or lots of young players making debuts, we fall short out our level.
“It’s disappointing because we’ve not done that with application and intensity and hunger to get a result. We showed plenty of spirit towards the end of the game but just not enough quality.
… “Not being up to our level tonight is probably somewhat my doing, because we make so many changes. We have to reflect individually, collectively, and myself first and foremost on whether we did enough this evening. My overall feeling is no, we did not."
— Lee Grant, immediately following Tuesday’s 1-0 defeat to Harrogate in the Vertu Trophy
Luton trip postponed
In all likelihood you already know by now, but just in case you hadn’t seen: Luton have had the required number of international call-ups and so next weekend’s trip to Kenilworth Road has been postponed to an as-yet-undetermined date.
Coming up next
Huddersfield Town host Stockport County in Saturday’s 3pm kick-off with just three points separating the sides in the League One table.
Eighth-placed Stockport are three positions behind the Terriers and have proven to be hard to beat this season, with just two defeats to their name in all competitions (at home to Bradford and away to Plymouth).
Big centre-forward Kyle Wootton and former Huddersfield midfielder Ollie Norwood have been particularly influential for Dave Challinor’s side this season, sharing eight goals and six assists between them in the league.
Stockport are almost the polar opposite to Town this season in that their first-half record is very strong but their record after the break leaves something to be desired.
That trend means Stockport have held a lead in nine out of their ten League One games, the highest in the division — but they have also dropped more points from winning positions than anyone else (11).
We’ll have five conclusions first thing Sunday morning and the podcast reaction to that game and Town’s defeat at Harrogate first thing Monday morning.
Apologies that the podcast was a few hours late this week, by the way. Some idiot whose name rhymes with Even Dicken didn’t wait for his audio to upload to the cloud before shutting his laptop on Sunday morning, then went out until midnight, so our lovely podcast editor Chris Nee was unable to put it together until Monday morning.
Huddersfield Town injuries and absences
Lynden Gooch made his return from injury with a brief cameo at Exeter then played close to an hour at Harrogate on Tuesday night.
Jacob Chapman is back in training after his ankle injury but is not quite yet match-ready.
Mickel Miller has been back training with the rest of the group this week following his hamstring injury.
Antony Evans is slightly behind Miller but is starting to get involved with some training with the rest of the squad again.
Both Miller and Evans are unlikely to feature this weekend, however.
Jack Whatmough is making progress with his recovery from a calf injury and is likely to be the next in line for a return after Miller and Evans.
Marcus McGuane is still no closer to making a return from his ongoing groin injury. Town have consulted with a specialist to help determine the best training load to help him get fit again.
Radinio Balker has been out with an ankle injury since the last international break and is currently rehabbing that injury.
Zepiqueno Redmond (knee), Will Alves (foot) and Herbie Kane (groin) are all expected to be out for ‘months’.
Predicted line-up to face Stockport County
4-2-3-1/3-4-1-2: Lee Nicholls; Lasse Sorensen, Josh Feeney, Joe Low, Ruben Roosken; Ryan Ledson, David Kasumu; Marcus Harness, Ben Wiles, Leo Castledine; Alfie May.
Substitutes: Owen Goodman, Sean Roughan, Murray Wallace, Dan Vost, Cameron Ashia, Lynden Gooch, Joe Taylor.
Huddersfield Town Women
Town Women’s upcoming FA WNL derby against Leeds United on Sunday 12th October (a week on Sunday) will now be hosted at Accu Stadium.
Prices are as follows, and pay on the day will be available:
Adults - £6
Concessions - £4
Under 14s - £1
Details on how to get tickets are available here.
Before then, though, Town Women will host lower-league Spennymoor Town in the third qualifying round of the FA Cup on Sunday afternoon at the Stafflex Arena at Storthes Hall.
The County Durham-based side play in the fifth tier — a division below the Terriers — and have started the season in mixed form with one win, two draws and one defeat in the league as well as beating Birtley Town to reach this stage of the cup.
The winning side will go through to the first round proper, with teams from the third tier entering the competition at that stage.