Another weekend of Sky Bet Championship fixtures begins on what could be a defining Friday night for two Yorkshire clubs when Huddersfield Town play host to Barnsley to kick off what looks like a big set of matches.
Huddersfield will kick off at the John Smith’s Stadium knowing a win will at least secure a play-off place. They will also move to within a point of AFC Bournemouth in the race for second. Barnsley start out knowing that only a win will see them maintain their Championship status for a while longer.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Football channels with the build-up beginning at 7pm and kick off coming at 7.45pm.
Huddersfield Town
When Huddersfield Town entered the international break last month having not won in their three matches prior to it there were many who wondered if the Terriers had run their race this season. That clearly came at the right time for them though because they have won three and drawn the other of the four matches since then and a win here will ensure a top six finish, which even though they are in receipt of parachute payments would still be a decent effort.
Over the course of the season Huddersfield haven’t been among the higher scorers in the league so they will be pleased that they have scored seven goals in this four match burst and then though they have played two teams in the top eight in this run they haven’t conceded a goal in the matches they have won. It will take something pretty incredible for Huddersfield not to make the play-offs so their task now is to maintain their form to carry confidence into them.
Barnsley
After giving themselves a chance of remaining in the division with one defeat in six in the latter part of February and into March, Barnsley have faded away and no win in their last five has left relegation inevitable. They performed a miracle to stay up in their first season back at this level but there won’t be a repeat of that this time around and they are just waiting for the last nail to be put into their coffin. When they do go down though they won’t want it to be by going meekly so it would be a surprise if they don’t summon up one last big effort.
Barnsley can’t say they haven’t had the chance to close in on staying up because in their last four matches they have met both Reading and Peterborough but the fact they only came away with one point from those two outings has all but sealed their fate. They will hope they can play with a bit of freedom and score some goals to at least finish this season on a high so that this relegation doesn’t hang over and affect their form next term.
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Team News
Huddersfield Town go into this match without a number of first-team players. Sorba Thomas was withdrawn at half time at Middlesbrough on Monday and the extent of his injury is still being determined so he misses out here as do Danny Ward and Levi Colwill. There is also a doubt over Josh Koroma too.
Barnsley will be without a couple of defenders in Michal Helik and Aapo Hulme and that might be significant to the way they play. Cauley Woodrow could play for the first time in months which would be some sort of boost to their chances.
Betting
This isn’t the easiest match to bet on. I think Huddersfield probably would have been the safest bet had it not been for all their injuries. It might be that they still have enough to get the job done here because Barnsley are in a fair slump but I don’t think we can rely on that. I’m not really in a rush to back Barnsley here either although the fact they have called last orders for them in the last chance saloon might be significant enough to get a rousing response from them here.
Instead I’ll head to the side markets to find a couple of value bets. There is plenty at stake on this match for both sides and when you add in the derby factor as well I wouldn’t be surprised if referee James Linington is quite busy here. He will be anyway because this fella has more cards than Clintons. He was the referee for the Good Friday match I was at when Luton played Nottingham Forest and he showed 11 yellows and a red that day including a card to the Luton keeper for time wasting as early as the 58th minute when he wasn’t even trying it on at that point. He then sent two more off in the League One game he did on Easter Monday. That Friday clash was the third time this season that Linington has produced nine or more yellows in a match and in 14 of his 30 games he’s shown five or more. There won’t be many on the pitch who won’t have their name taken here and two leading protagonists for Huddersfield are midfielder Lewis O’Brien and goalkeeper Lee Nicholls with 10 yellows and seven respectively. Linnington has already booked Nicholls for time wasting this season so the 15/4 and 17/2 on those two to be shown a card look good value to me.
Tips
Back L.O’Brien to be booked for a 1/10 stake at 4.75 with Bet365
Back L.Nicholls to be booked for a 1/10 stake at 9.50 with William Hill
Back him here:
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