Huddersfield Town digest: Will Alves injury blow ahead of Exeter trip
All you need to know ahead of this weekend's long away trip and Tuesday evening's Vertu Trophy visit to Harrogate
What’s been said
Jake Edwards, Huddersfield Town chief executive, on what taking over Accu Stadium means for Huddersfield Town:
“We’ve got a long list, and, short, medium and long term, and that might be not just in the stadium, but obviously in the wider site that we have. And we’re doing work on the art of the possible and what this site truly can become, and what the town needs over the next decade and beyond.
“The chairman’s spoken about some of those plans, not necessarily specifically, but creating a real lifestyle, concert and events destination, sporting campus down here, [and] that this becomes an integral part of people’s experience living and working in and around the town here — so a real destination, not just on matchday, but certainly non-matchday.”
Paying We Are Terriers backers can get access to the full interview here.
Coming up next
Huddersfield Town make the long trip to Exeter City for this weekend’s League One fixture.
The Grecians have had a mixed start to the new campaign, claiming three wins and suffering six defeats to put them 16th in the table. Exeter have lost their past four games in all competitions and have struggled to create tonnes of chances on goal despite enjoying the lion’s share of the possession in their games this season.
Big veteran striker Josh Magennis leads Exeter’s goalscoring tally with four league strikes to his name this season, two of them headers, with his most recent strike drawing Exeter level away to Stevenage before they fell to a late 2-1 defeat.
That highlights an area where Town will particularly need to be on their guard: no League One side had scored more goals from set pieces than Exeter this season (five, plus a penalty), while only Blackpool have conceded more than Huddersfield (also five).
Town will then visit Harrogate Town in the Vertu Trophy on Tuesday evening, where a victory could mean the Terriers book early passage to the knockout stage.
A win would put Town through with a game to spare if Mansfield and Newcastle U21s draw with one another in a couple of weeks’ time; or failing that, leave Town needing just a point at home to Mansfield in November to absolutely guarantee their progress.
Harrogate currently sit 16th in League Two following Saturday’s victory over struggling Shrewsbury. They won their first Trophy fixture 1-0 away to Mansfield earlier this month.
Huddersfield Town injuries and absences
Will Alves has suffered a foot injury and is now set to be out for ‘months’.
Herbie Kane faces a long spell on the sidelines — “months rather than weeks” after seeing a specialist about the groin injury he suffered against Bradford City.
Owen Goodman has completed his three-match suspension and is now available for selection again this weekend should Lee Grant wish to restore him to the side — though the manager did not wish to show his hand as to which keeper he will prefer to weeked. The goalkeeper deputised for Lee Nicholls in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday evening.
Ruben Roosken took a blow to the face against Burton and missed Manchester City’s midweek visit, but has no concussion to add to his black eyes and could return to action this weekend.
Lynden Gooch and Jack Whatmough are both back in training and will be assessed ahead of the trip to Exeter.
Town are expected to be without Mickel Miller and Antony Evans for at least another week or two, but both players are back in individual training.
Marcus McGuane’s groin injury continues to be assessed on a week-to-week basis.
Predicted line-up to face Exeter
4-2-3-1/3-4-2-1: Owen Goodman; Lasse Sorensen, Josh Feeney, Joe Low, Sean Roughan; Ryan Ledson, David Kasumu; Alfie May, Leo Castledine, Zepiqueno Redmond; Joe Taylor.
Substitutes: Lee Nicholls, Murray Wallace, Ruben Roosken, Marcus Harness, Ben Wiles, Dion Charles, Bojan Radulovic
Huddersfield Town Women
Town Women will take on their final WNL Cup group stage game as they host Chorley at the Stafflex Arena in Sunday’s 2pm kick-off.
The Terriers won their opening game of the competition away to Blackburn before losing to Burnley, and now need to beat Chorley to stand a chance of making it through to the knockout stage as one of the ten best runners-up out of the 22 groups.
Should Town miss out on that basis, they still have a good chance of making it into the knockout stages of the National League Plate as one of the other runners-up or one of the 20 best third-placed teams. A draw would be enough to guarantee progress down that route and a defeat might still suffice.
