By Daniel Wood – KLTV Contributor
Huddersfield Town host Luton Town at the John Smiths Stadium in the SkyBet Championship on Saturday 7th November; 3 pm KO.
Huddersfield Town
The Terriers currently sit in 15th place in the Championship, four points below the play-off places and six points ahead of the relegation zone.
Last time out, Huddersfield Town lost 2-1 to Bristol City at home, meaning in their last four games they have lost three of them by a 2-1 scoreline. The other game out of those four was a 3-0 win away from home against Millwall.
They took the lead against Bristol and held most of the possession, however, two second-half goals secured the win for the Robbins and a fifth defeat of the league campaign for Town.
In their last five games, the Terriers have had the most possession. However, it is seeming as if they lack that killer instinct to finish the ball in the back of the net after their passages of play.
Team News & Injury Updates
The Terriers were without Tommy Elphick (knee), Álex Vallejo (quarantine), Danny Ward (hamstring) and Rarmani Edmonds-Green (hip) in their last outing.
Luton Town
The Hatters are currently 9th in the Championship table, which is impressive considering they were one of the relegation favourites at the start of the season.
They are only one point below the play-off places and are comfortably nine points ahead of the relegation places. They are three points above Huddersfield.
Luton Town secured a 1-0 win in their last match, away from home at Rotherham United.
A great escape kept the Hatters in the Championship last season after they looked set to be going down. They fell into a rich vein of form towards the end of the season, as they leaped from bottom of the Championship to above the relegation places.
Their good form seemed to come as they rehired Nathan Jones as manager of the club in May 2020.
In his current spell as manager, Jones has a strong 50%-win rate and in his first spell from 2016 to 2019 he had a slightly better 51.2%-win rate.
He endured a torrid time at Stoke City in between his runs as Luton Town boss (January 2019 to November 2019).
He won only six games out of 38 and almost suffered relegation to League One. This equated to a measly 15.8%-win rate at the club.
There just seems to be something about the Nathan Jones and Luton Town pairing that brings the best out of both parties.
During his playing days, Jones played for a number of English sides and reached his peak division playing for Brighton and Hove Albion in the Championship.
Most of his games came for Yeovil Town in League One (185) and he played a total of 488 games during his playing career.
Ones to Watch
JAMES COLLINS
The striker bagged 14 goals for Luton Town in the Championship last season and helped them survive relegation. Collins is a target man who possesses a real threat in and around the six-yard box, whether that be in the air or on the pitch. His stand out moment last season was scoring a hat-trick against Premier League side Norwich City in the Carabao Cup. He only has one goal to his name this season, but if he is not dealt with effectively, he can be a real threat.
RHYS NORRINGTON-DAVIES
The Sheffield United loanee has impressed in his first few games for Luton Town. The young full-back earned his first call up for Wales after catching the eye of Wales manager, Ryan Giggs. He is already showing a lot of versatility for his age, as he is able to play in a variety of positions including centre midfield.
KEIRNAN DEWBURY-HALL
In the past few games, the Hatters have relied on Leicester City loanee Dewsbury-Hall to play in the heart of their midfield. He has been impressive for Luton this season and looks like a great loan deal for them. He has a short loan deal with Blackpool last season where he had some brilliant performances. Keirnan scored four goals and got one assist in just 10 games for the Seasiders.
Predictions
Luton Town lead the head to head record against the Terriers.
Since their first meeting in 1952, the Hatters have won on 12 occasions, there have been three draws and the Terriers have won on nine occasions.
Huddersfield have not beaten Luton since May 2008 in a League One encounter. The teams have only played twice since then due to Luton suffering relegation to the National League in between that period.
The Hatters won both encounters last season but it was their first time beating the Terriers since March 2003.
Luton are coming into this game on the back of a straightforward 1-0 win, whereas the Terriers are coming into the game fresh off a 2-1 loss to Bristol City.
The feeling is that Huddersfield have been unlucky in some of their results after being somewhat dominant in most of their loses as of late.
Both teams were among the favourites to face the drop-down to the Championship this season, but both of them are playing much better football than what was thought possible at the beginning at the season.
I can see the Terriers getting the victory here in a close contest, as they seem to be controlling games well and are just looking for that killer blow to put teams away.
While Luton Town have impressed so far this season, I do not see them getting another win to push them closer to the play-off places.
Therefore, I predict:
