By Daniel Wood
Huddersfield Town will host Nottingham Forest in the SkyBet Championship on Friday 25th September at the John Smiths Stadium; 7:45 pm KO.
It’s been a tough start so far, and Carlos Corberan is still hoping to get his first win as the Terriers boss, after losing his first three competitive games in charge.
In their last game, Town lost 3-0 away to Brentford who finished 3rd last season in the SkyBet Championship.
Town will be looking to bounce back and secure their first points of the campaign.
Nottingham Forest
Forest has an identical record as Huddersfield Town coming into this game having lost their opening two fixtures with the same goal difference of -4.
The former European Cup winners narrowly missed out of the play-off places last season after being in them for the majority of the season.
A poor second half of the season saw them drop out of the playoffs on the final day of the 2019/20 season.
Nottingham Forest have not been seen in the Premier League since the 1998/99 season. They dropped down to League One in 2004/05, which is the lowest a European Cup Winner has dropped in the English Divisions.
Their manager, Sabri Lamouchi, joined the club in 2019. He has a 37.74% win rate at the club, which, unfortunately, for Forest, is his worst in his managerial career.
He has previously managed the Ivory Coast national team, El Jaish in the Qatar League, and Stade Rennes in the French Ligue 1. He led Rennes to 5th in Ligue 1.
Ones to Watch
RYAN YATES
The 22-year old spent over a decade at the Club’s youth ranks before a variety of loan spells. He broke into Forest’s first team in 2018/19. The midfielder played a career-high 28 games for Forest last season and signed a new long-term contract in December 2019. He has played every minute in the first two games of the season, alongside the experiences Jack Colback.
JACK COLBACK
The experienced midfielder joined Forest on a permanent deal in the 2020/20 season following his release from Newcastle. He was loaned to Forest for the past two seasons. Colback made over 200 appearances for in the North East for both Newcastle and Sunderland. He has been an ever-present so far for Forest, his first senior minutes since May 2019.
LEWIS GRABBAN
The 32-year old striker will be looking to score Forest’s first goal of the Championship campaign. He has been the club’s top scorer in both seasons he has played at the City Grounds since he moved from Bournemouth in 2018. Last time the sides met, Grabban scored two goals as Forest won 3-1 on home soil.
Team News – Huddersfield Town
Lewis O’Brien is a few weeks off returning having suffered a minor injury.
Prediction
Huddersfield Town leads the head to head record against Nottingham Forest. Since their first meeting in 1911, the Terriers have won on 22 occasions and Forest have won on 18 occasions, there have been 17 draws.
The last time out saw Forest beat Town 3-1 at the City Ground, but in the reverse fixture, last season Town beat Forest 2-1 at the John Smiths Stadium.
Both sides have had an awful start to the season, losing both opening games with both teams looking for the first goals.
The Terriers and Forest both have similar standard of sides and it will be a close encounter in my opinion.
I see both teams scoring goals, as they both have shaky defenses that are bound to concede goals.
Therefore, I predict: