Even though you would have thought televised coverage of League One and Two clubs would be restricted to the Second Round of the FA Cup this weekend, Sky have seized upon the rearrangement of Saturday’s home game with Huddersfield, which was postponed because of the November international window, to give viewers some action from the lower divisions to watch, hence the match has been switched to a 12.30 kick off.
Like City, Huddersfield appointed a youngish man whose reputation post their playing career was based on what they’d done as a coach. The former Sheffield Wednesday, Burnley and Derby, among others, goalkeeper Lee Grant was appointed as the Terriers’ boss based on the work he had done as a coach at Ipswich Town.
These days, with Directors of Football or some similar titled overseer installed at most clubs, you cannot just say that the manager was given a lot of money to spend in the transfer market, but, whether it was Lee Grant or someone else who took charge of transfer business, they had one of the division’s largest budgets to work with – in fact, I would guess that only Luton’s exceeded it.
However, despite all of the money spent and the fact that Huddersfield were right up there among the pre season favourites for promotion, the season has been an underwhelming affair for them so far and Grant has been a manager under pressure for weeks, if not months.
Only Leyton Orient, with twenty nine, can better Huddersfield’s twenty eight league goals scored so far, but the Londoners are one of only three teams who have conceded more than their twenty five. Therefore, you can see where Huddersfield’s problems have been over the past four months.
In saying that, the compressed nature of League One this season means that Huddersfield are only six points behind us (we have played a game less than them mind) and just two points outside the Play Off places, so it would not need much of an improvement in results for them to be in the sort of position that was being predicted for them back in the summer.
Here are the usual seven questions about our next opponents and the answers will be posted on here on Sunday.
60s. This Geordie defender began and ended his career wearing stripes. In between times he wore what I always think of as one the domestic game’s more distinctive kits for a total of sixteen years. Huddersfield were his first club and it was a testimony to the impact he made with them that he was barely out of his teens when he was sold for what was a record fee at the time for a player in his position. Goalscoring was not a strong suit of his – he only scored seven league goals in a nineteen year career and I would guess that more than half of them were penalties. Who am I describing?
70s. Born in a place with a reputation for producing good players in his position, he was released by Manchester United without playing a game for them and ended up at Huddersfield. I recall him being part of a Huddersfield side that won down here on their way to promotion to the old First Division and he stayed with them all of the way through their subsequent descent into the Fourth tier. When he moved, it was across the Pennines to play for a team that wore white, but he was mainly used as cover during his four years with them and was loaned to a Yorkshire club with a future manager of a country in South America on their way to relegation from the second tier before retiring from the game in 1981, but can you name him?
80s. Violent storm in a hollow?
90s. Co-ed has yearly faculty head check for a striker. (6,5)
00s. Capped once by Sierra Leone, Cardiff and Huddersfield were among the fifteen clubs (only the first six were in the Football League) he played for. He scored once for us and three times for Huddersfield and used to ease his pre match nerves by watching the film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory apparently. Who is he?
10s. One of these Huddersfield players from this decade who have the same name has played for us, while the other one is a Welsh international, what is the name they share?
20s. Which first team regular for Huddersfield this season was shown a straight red card just nine minutes into his debut for the club last January?
Answers:
60s. The £80,000 Wolves paid Huddersfield for Derek Parkin in 1968 was a record for a full back at the time. After more than five hundred league games with Wolves, he ended his career with a couple of seasons playing for Stoke City.
70s. Terry Poole was born in Chesterfield (the birthplace of Gordon Banks) and played in goal for Huddersfield in their 1-0 win at Ninian Park in March 1970 on their way to winning the Second Division title that season. Poole left for Bolton in 1977 and spent a short while at future Argentina manager Alx Sabella’s Sheffield United on loan in 1979.
80s. Dale Tempest.
90s. Delroy Facey.
00s. Malvin Kamara.
10s. Danny Ward.
20s.Ruben Roosken.
