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#288725 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
Not often I feel sorry for Leeds fans, given that they made a moral choice to align themselves with the greatest evil known to man (alongside people who talk at the theatre), but this is an exception.
#288211 2015 Rugby World Cup
terriersmad
For anyone who hasn't seen it. New Zealand v Tonga will happen often enough, but might now get media coverage. Quite something to watch the two war dances go head to head.
#287217 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
Second half: Jesus. Lynch was good. Whitehead was all right. Miller towed his guts out but clearly doesn't have the quality (though it would help him if people tried to give him support). That was it. Goals came from lacksadaisical play. Davidson had a shocker. Scannell needs dropping (and it would be easier to do so if we hadn't loaned Lolley out). Powell didn't help his recent rise in my estimations by going back to early-season faffing about with decisions and looking tactically clueless.
Kudos the the ref on a decent display after two of the softest early yellows ever gave me the idea that he would be card-happy. Unbelievably good decision not to give Wolves a penalty after Le Fondre's dive - I thought it was a nailed on penalty on first viewing, and only on the replay did I notice he was down before contact, via an outreaching boot.
#285334 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
But in the second half we came out and hammered them. 4-1 ended up flattering Bolton, because they just weren't in the game in the second half. Carayol got his man one on one, skipped inside and fired in to put us ahead, Huws got his second of the game bursting into the box to get on the end of a great move, and Lynch scored a cracker on the turn after dispossessing their lad on the edge of the box.
Lennon will moan our third goal had a handball by Miller in the build-up, and he'll be right. But he'll neglect to mention the penalty we should have had at 2-1, and the fact that their lad who was sent off in stoppage time for a second booking should have gone about 25 minutes before for what looked a professional foul on Miller (it was certainly a case of him dragging Miller down when he looked like getting away, and the lad was already on a booking - if it wasn't a straight red, it was a certain second yellow which the ref failed to produce).
Highly satisfying stuff. Roll on Thursday and Nottingham Forest.
#285167 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
#284835 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
Who do you have at the weekend? You're due a bit of luck.
We have Bolton - and a cracking chance of turning a very poor start into a half-decent one. Sounds like Powell decided to go for it last night, and it paid dividends. Bit of luck with the two goals (some fantastic comedy goalkeeping on the first and an awful wall - but a great placed free-kick - for the second), but sounds like we deserved it. And we haven't had the breaks up to now, so a nice change. Reading some comments from Charlton fans who say we should have had more and bullied them. Of course, we didn't capitalise and made it interesting, but we won, and that's the main thing.
#284717 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
#284122 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
Ponderous football with players best suited to fast, attacking running between the lines and hitting sides quickly. He sets us up not to lose with a side that can't defend. We've won 3 of 24 and none in the last 11. Yet he can't see the problem. He doesn't change things until it's too late (I knew a goal was coming today about 10 minutes before it happened, and I was 300 miles away). He lets other teams off the hook, such as against Blackburn when the game was crying out for a change against a poor side to really take the game to them.
And he doesn't trust his squad. Joe Lolley could be one of the best signings we've made in years, but we don't really know. He's started just 4 games in 18 months and made a dozen substitute appearances. He's scored and assisted at a rate of one every 75 minutes or so. But Powell never plays him, presumably because he can't defend. He might genuinely not be good enough for Championship football, but we don't know because he's never had a run. When Lolley's had a chance, he's made things happen. He played Bunn (who can track back) ahead of Carayol today for God only knows what reason. Bunn's a decent player, but he's not got Carayol's pace and directness and is more workmanlike. If our left-back was a left-sided Jack Hunt, I'd understand it, but it was Tommy Smith, who's a right-back covering for the unfit Jason Davidson and who was never likely to wander over the halfway line, so we hardly needed the additional defensive cover.
We need to utilise the pace and direction of the side. Without Butterfield we're not going to thread the perfect pass through a tightly-packed defence, so we've got to keep the ball moving quickly, play out from the back quickly and use the width of the pitch to stretch teams. We've got to attack teams and get them on the back foot because that's how we're going to win points, not by setting up not to lose. If we lose 4-3, then so be it. At least we had a go. Not what we have at the moment. We're six games in. We've scored three goals. We've not won. We're one from bottom. We need a positive, attack-minded manager who will change things if they're needed. If he makes mistakes, then at least he'll make them taking positive action rather than letting things change without his input.
Powell out.
#281687 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
Lolley possibly off to Peterborough.
Three months ago we had the core of a good team. That core has been systematically sold at precisely the wrong time. If Coady, Smithies, Vaughan and Butterfield had gone at the start of July we'd have been able to sign replacements and let them bed in. I have no doubt we'll replace with decent players (Hourihane in for Butterfield, for example), but I worry that it'll be November before we've settled.
Oh, and we're in for yet another winger. Jamie Patterson from Forest. Good player, but YET ANOTHER FUCKING WINGER. WE'VE GOT THE NATIONAL SUPPLY OF THE BLOODY POSITION IN RESERVE WHEN WE NEED TWO STRIKERS, CENTRE-BACK AND VERSATILE FULL-BACK. (If someone at HTFC reads this, I'll happily be Director of Football Operations, seeing as the bloke we've got in to do the job only seems able to spot one fucking position).
#281474 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
Sad. Such a good player, but we can't justify keeping him when he's never fit and on £15k a week. He's also no longer the force he was. Injuries have taken their toll, and he's a shadow of the player he was when he joined. Wish him all the best, but I can't help but think he'd be best off retiring and saving his body.
#281354 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
No way we deserved to lose. No way QPR deserved to win. We dominated, but they stood firm. They created one chance - off a shanked shot which fell to their lad six yards out. To say they've spent hundreds of millions in recent years, they only had Phillips as an outlet who impressed. Austin may as well have not been playing.
We needed a bit more spark, but the result was really unfair on us. We're going through one of those patches where things aren't going our way, and it was the same at the back end of last season. On the other hand, we've only won 3 of our last 23, which is worrying. It's all well and good saying of the last 12 games we SHOULD have won 7 or 8 of them, but should doesn't win points, and we need to start winning games. A win today would have been a bonus, it's true, but we missed chances to win against a dreadful Blackburn side and a Brighton side there for the taking as well as throwing two points away in the dying seconds against Fulham. Frustrating, concerning, call it what you will. Next up: Cardiff away before Charlton away in the midweek.
#281016 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
#280360 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
#279983 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
#279788 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
I don't know what Bristol City's infrastructure is like, but I don't think it helps that it's out in the back of beyond. It's not a London, a Manchester or a Leeds, that's for sure, so for a young man looking to make his football career it's probably not the most attractive spot. That said, Bournemouth attracted players last season, and that's a bit of an outpost in similar terms. Might also be that players don't take to Cotterill - he hits me as someone who you love or loathe on first meeting - and the club itself doesn't have a reputation as a place to go for young talent to develop. Still think they'll have a good season, though the longer they fail to invest for the less likely that prediction is to come through - if they don't make signings soon it'll be a League One squad, and even if they do make signings they might take time to settle.
#279772 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
#279604 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
The owner is a billionaire. Which explains why their colossal wage bill from when they got relegated (c.£30m) didn't put them in major trouble and why they've been able to rebuild the team whilst renovating the stadium.
#279384 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
Don't think it does, but the linesman's got a tough decision to make. Too many bodies and ends up guessing, mind.
Drew with Brighton last night. Fair result. We were awful first half and a goal gown after 18 seconds. God only knows how they didn't add to it, but they didn't. And in the second half we came out, got a deserved equaliser and pushed for a winner. Both sides had good spells, both sides will be disappointed they didn't make more of them.
#279079 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
Football really has gone bananas. Gray is a good player, no one could doubt that. But how can a newly-promoted club justify spending that on him? How could any club in this division justify it? In the same window we've seen Stewart Downing move for £5m (rising to £7m), a mooted £14m transfer for Jordan Rhodes, and Tom Ince move for almost £5m. Last year we saw Ross McCormack move for £11m. This is the second tier of English football. And although there are some big clubs in this division, the amount of money is still utterly obscene.
I enjoy football at this level. It really is a cut above League One. I remember when we played our first home game against Nottingham Forest and thinking that this was something else - Forest should have hammered us that night, but we ended up scraping a draw. After years of being flat-track bullies in League One ("big-spending Huddersfield," to quote Steve Claridge) the quality and the challenge of the Championship was refreshing. But I can't help but feel alienated by the amount of money being thrown around. This isn't the game I grew up with.
This isn't a complaint about how all this money being spent makes it so much harder - Fulham spent more than anyone else in this division last season and still finished below us, proving that it isn't how much you spend that matters but how you spend it, and Burnley got up on free transfers and scrupulous spending in the right places. It is a complaint that as a football fan I find it hard to identify with the modern game. Things like Bristol City - a mid-sized club like Town with no added financial bonuses from Premier League failure - bidding £6m for Dwight Gayle and £9m for Andre Gray are the sort of things that take the clubs away from the fans.
The 6 years of First Division football I watched between 1995 and 2001 are still a high point in my time watching football. I might be looking back through rose-tinted glasses, but it seemed like the clubs themselves connected to fans so much more. The players out there might have had a reasonable fee paid for them (£200k was a common one, I seem to remember), but even that kind of money was something fans could relate to. Players still lived in and among the fans (I remember Marcus Stewart living in Dewsbury). Clubs weren't owned by foreign conglomerates or city yuppie types, but by local businessmen made good.
Football won't go back to how it was, which is a shame in some ways. Clubs used to want old First Division status because it was the top division and it was a chance to play the biggest clubs in the country, but now it all seems to be financial. The desire for riches seems to trump providing a good afternoon's entertainment for the local public. Looking up a level, the Europa League is shunned because it doesn't bring riches with it and is blamed for all sorts of ills, whilst the Champions League - which is just as demanding on a team's schedule - is the holy grail because of the millions in TV money. It's ridiculous.
#278588 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
More worrying is the probability of Alex Smithies going to QPR. Not in the team today, bid officially lodged, and sounds like Powell's planning for life without him without bringing in a direct replacement. That Bentley from Southend would be ideal, but more likely is that we stick with what we have and risk Murphy's dodgy foot flaring up again.
#278294 Capital One Cup 2015/16
terriersmad
#277641 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
Useless stat of the day: this is the tenth season I've seen at this level. We've scored on just two of them, and won only one (2-0 v Charlton, 1996).
#277094 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
Promoted: Middlesbrough, Burnley
Play-offs: Derby, Wolves, Ipswich, Bristol City
Relegated: Blackburn, Rotherham, MK Dons
Town to finish 15th. If we were a bit tighter at the back, I'd go a bit higher. Leeds to get off to a good start, lose three in a row in late September, sack Rosler, enter administration by March and give everyone a laugh. Wednesday to be the most boring side on the planet again (which they will continue to be until they sign a striker who isn't a clogger) and finish 13th. Hull to miss out on the play-offs for exactly the same reason. Fulham will only just fail to get relegated. Last season's surprise package Brentford to suffer a major slump and finish lower mid-table. Charlton to spend most of the season in the play-offs but drop off at the last.
The above is all highly unlikely, but good fun to think of the permutations before a ball's been kicked.
#275817 2015/2016 Kit Thread
terriersmad
It's like the bastard offspring of Coventry and Argentina. Stripes slightly too broad for pin stripes. But the big problem is the black. Huddersfield Town wear two colours: they are blue and white. Black in anything but the most minimal amount is not on. Red wasn't right when we had red pin stripes. Second crap home kit in a row.
A modern day version of this would have been nice, but apparently simplicity just isn't possible:
#275815 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
Huddersfield Town fans owed £50,000 in compensation.
Blackpool as they were. Plus one point.
#274884 2015/16 Pre Season thread
terriersmad
In truth, I'd rather see friendlies played with some real intensity. I remember when we played Newcastle a few years back and there was a real needle to the game. It prepares them for the season better, in my view. Even so, I'm generally still not bothered about results. I'm more worried about injuries, which have been our problem - neither Miller nor Vaughan have played a single minute, so we're desperately lightweight up front. Hogg's only played a few minutes this afternoon. Davidson's buggered off to Australia to reap the rewards of possessing a working penis. Not ideal preparation.
#274447 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
All credit. I actually thought last night would be our toughest game pre-season because your lads will have got about us and it won't just have been a warm-up. And it's no mean feat for a Conference side to beat a Championship side, even in a friendly. Hope you get up this time
#274169 2015/2016 Kit Thread
terriersmad
I like Wednesday's away kit as well. Quite classy
#273681 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
Confirmed - rumoured £150k. Bit of a no-brainer at that price. It is a cracking name as well. Makes a change from Smith, Miller, Davidson, Whitehead, etc.
#273548 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
The biggest bit of Football League transfer business this summer done and dusted. We can all go home now. It didn't exactly come as a shock, but it shows what this division is like when a side can spend £7m on a player of that quality. I'm looking forward to seeing him in action, provided we turn Boro over on the day in November!
For us, it looks like we've signed Jordi Hiwula from Manchester City. Where's our resident Walsall fan? I need to know about him! (Such as how to pronounce his name.)