Welcome to the official match thread (from a Town perspective anyway) of the big clash of the blue and white that is:
| TTT | TTT | TTT | Huddersfield Town | TTT | TTT | TTT |
Vs.
| TTT | TTT | TTT | Wigan Athletic | TTT | TTT | TTT |
So the second game in the “New New (New?) Era" under Chris Powell and we are up against a club with equally good taste in kit colours! They are a team that did well for so long in the Premier League and punched above their weight with the magnificent Roberto Martinez showing his class as a manager and leading them to a FA Cup trophy in the same season the got relegated. Since then they had a shaky start to their return to tier 2 but since the appointment of Uwe Rosler have looked a stronger side even if their results have been a bit mixed so far this season.
From a Town perspective Saturday was a bit of a bitter pill to swallow with such a late and soft penalty deciding the match. Powell said all the right things afterwards and seems to understand there is a lot of work to do so hopefully he can turn things around for us.
There were positives on Saturday such as a solid performance from Hudson, a good cameo from Ward with a decent assist and goal shy Stead getting a tap in. The obvious negative is once again Vaughan is injured after lunging in and knackering his knee...AGAIN! As Town fans the announcement of Vaughan being subbed is as common as someone using the Pie eater comment about Wigan!
It was recently mentioned that Wigan may get some of the Man City fine for playing in the Europa League and not breaching FFP which is quite a lucky situation for them but shows how unfair it is to not do a similar distribution from a QPR fine.
Head to Head
Town have won 12 of the 26 games, the last being this corresponding fixture last year which we won 1-0, and they have won 8. This obviously means little but current form has Wigan ahead at the moment but they had a big loss to Blackburn on Saturday so we are probably closely matched for form right now with only 3 points separating us.
Team News
Wigan Athletic
Emyr Huws, the lad recently signed from Man City, went off injured against Blackburn and it sounds like he will be out tomorrow. From what I can tell it may mean Adam Forshaw will replace him after they brought him in from being the 2014 League 1 Player of the Year with Brentford. We will once again be seeing McManaman at our ground, hopefully not tearing our defence apart like he did to Jack Hunt in that FA Cup game a few years back. Uwe Rosler has described this as a “must win" game for them which is a bit disrespectful as it points to him thinking we are easy pickings so hopefully that will backfire on him.
Town:
The big question for Town will be who plays up front. Stead supported Wells up front when Vaughan went off and I suspect his goal will get him the nod tomorrow. Harry Bunn was a little anonymous on Saturday and Lolley didn’t do a great deal when he came on so I suspect there will be changes. Ward will have put done his chances for a start no harm and I bet he will be on the left. I do wonder after Smith having a tough time and the penalty if he may be rested for a game and Peltier moved to right back and Dixon back in at left back. Otherwise I doubt we will change too much but as we have a new manager there isn’t the precedent there to judge by. As has been picked up on here where is Adam Hammill and Radoslaw Majewski? We lacked creativity on Saturday and apart from the poor pull down from Vaughan which ended up with his injury we didn’t look like being an attacking threat until Ward came on. For me I would like to see Butterfield in the middle with Coady as he was wasted on the wing.
My Starting 11s
| Huddersfield Town | Wigan Athletic |
| Smithies | Carson |
| Peltier (c) | Kiernan |
| Hudson | Perch |
| Lynch | Taylor |
| Dixon | Boyce (c) |
| Coady | Ramis |
| Butterfield | Cowie |
| Ward | Kvist |
| Hammill | Forshaw |
| Stead | Delort |
| Wells | McManaman |
Social Side
We are on the whole a fairly friendly club with little trouble and Wigan fans should be able to enjoy a pint in town or at the Ropewalk just by the ground. Its an easy walk from the train station and plenty of places to park near the ground.
My Prediction
I think Saturday will have put fire in their bellies and Powell will give them a gentle kick so Im going for 2-1 to Town with Wells and Hudson scoring.