By Nathan Findlay –
It’s been a fantastic summer for sport, between the Euro’s, The Olympics, and the Hundred.
But now as we head towards August the Championship season is nearly back for another year of goals and emotion.
First, however, we have the Carabao Cup. Huddersfield Town will be facing off against recently relegated side Sheffield Wednesday on Sunday the first of August. 1 pm Kick-off.
Team News
This is going to be the first real competitive game the Terriers will have played since the end of last season and I also think that this is a great chance for them to get into the swing of things and hit the ground running.
Huddersfield has had a decent record so far in their pre-season friendlies. Looking over the results it is clear that there are certain things that need improving but when the squad is changing so many times it is hard to give a fair opinion on what should be changed.
Previous Game
The Terriers’ previous game was against Fleetwood Town on Tuesday 27 July. The final score resulted in a 2-1 loss for Huddersfield but there are certainly positives to pull out of this game.
As with most pre-season games, the starting lineup was very much youth-focused, trying to give some of the younger players from Huddersfield Town some game time and some experience.
Huddersfield did go 2-0 down unfortunately but when your playing a younger team this is expected to happen.
Substitutions were then made to try and bring Huddersfield back into the game. Town did get a goal back but just couldn’t find the net for a second one.
Overall I think that this was a good game for Town and one that the youth players are going to be able to look back on.
Sheffield Wednesday
A difficult season made all the worse thanks to a point deduction saw Sheffield Wednesday relegated to league one before the start of summer.
This is a game for Sheffield to try and prove that they don’t deserve to be in League One and that they are coming right back for a spot in the Championship as soon as possible.
The Owls have had very mixed results from their pre-season games so far but again it is very hard to comment on these games as 90% of the time it isn’t the main squad that is playing.
Sheffield’s previous game was against Port Vale, where they managed to beat them 2-1. This is obviously going to be a nice confidence booster for them as they progress into their next game against the Terriers.
One to Watch
One player to watch for Sheffield is Lewis Wing. This player is an extremely tricky one and when he gets himself near the goal, getting the ball off of him in the box is certainly a task.
He previously was on loan to Middlesbrough but returned to Manchester City and now has been sent on loan at Sheffield Wednesday.
Prediction
I think that this is going to be a really good game at the weekend and I feel that both teams are going to be putting out a strong team to try and make an impact early on.
No matter what the result is for either team this is going to be a great team experience to get players out into a competitive game for the first time since last season.
The overall record between Huddersfield and Sheffield is very close. Huddersfield have won a total of 26 games compared to Sheffield’s 21 with a total of 15 draws.
We have seen many different changes for both teams over the years so it will be interesting to see where things fall this year, as this may be the only time they meet this season.
To conclude I don’t think that this game is going to be a walk in the park for either team and I think that both will have to really work for a result out of this one.
Although I think this will be a close game I have confidence that Huddersfield will be able to take it home and make a positive start to the cup campaign.
My prediction: