The latest weekend of action in the Sky Bet Championship begins on Friday night when two sides with their eyes on getting promoted this term meet at the John Smith’s Stadium as Huddersfield Town host Stoke City.
Huddersfield are in the position of being hunted as they begin the weekend in sixth place with a queue of sides hoping they will slip up. Stoke have faded down towards the middle of the table and need a turnaround soon if they are to justify their promotion claims.
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 to the contest beginning at 7pm and kick off in Yorkshire coming at 7.45pm.
Huddersfield Town
After a couple of seasons where there has been the slightest threat of relegation, Huddersfield Town are very much looking at exiting the division at the correct end this term. A run of eight matches without defeat has seen them enter the top six once again and if they can put another win onto their ledger here they will finish the evening in fifth place in the table, and more importantly hold off the chasing pack for another week at least.
This eight game unbeaten run for the Terriers has seen them win four and draw four and while the majority of them have been low scoring, they have won two matches 3-2 and another 4-3 so they can win all sorts of matches, which in this division is certainly no bad thing. Huddersfield will be pleased to be on home soil here as only Middlesbrough have been to this part of Yorkshire since September and claimed all three points.
Stoke City
Just at a time when Stoke City will have been wanting to push on and stake a strong claim for a promotion place their form has taken a bit of a nosedive. They have lost four of their last five matches and only have one win in seven and while injuries have accounted for a lot of the drop off in form, a side who have the resources they do and spent the money they do really need to be able to overcome that without too much damage.
Goals have been a bit of a problem for Stoke this term. Only Middlesbrough have scored fewer goals than them of those in the top half of the table and given how they have dropped away from the pack you sense they are going to need to find a number of them over the second half of the campaign if they are going to propel themselves back into the top six. The one good thing though is they have remained defensively strong throughout that time so if they can sort things out at the other end a good run might not be far away.
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Team News
Huddersfield Town boss Carlos Corberan has confirmed that he will have Duane Holmes with his squad for this match after he has completed his isolation period for Covid. The Terriers will be without Levi Colwill once again though.
Stoke manager Michael O’Neill has delivered a positive outlook on the injury front with Sam Surridge and Ben Wilmot expected to play while Steven Fletcher is also back in the mix. The game comes too soon for Joe Bursik but Nick Powell will be hoping to start after returning in midweek.
Betting
This is a pretty tough game to bet on. My suspicion is that Stoke City will find their backs against the wall to the extent that they will come good again soon but Huddersfield Town, while not always convincing in this recent good run of theirs, are on a decent run unlike their visitors. I do believe a lot of the issues Stoke have are injury based though and while you would never get me paying to watch them, they are getting players back which might be significant.
I’m prepared to head to the side markets for this match and take over 30 booking points in this one. Gavin Ward is the arbiter in charge for this encounter and he is a referee who takes on nonsense and certainly knows where his cards are. He has flashed 89 of them in just 23 matches this season which follows on from campaigns of 112 cards in 31 games and 113 in 32. It is fair to say Mr Ward likes being the centre of attention and in a match between two very physical sides, both of whom are among the worst in the league for time-wasting, which could yield some cheap cards, I expect four cards to be flashed here. If we happen to get the line covered with a yellow and a red, as happened when Mr Ward refereed this fixture last term, then happy days. I like the over.
Tips
WON – Back Over 30 bookings points for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Betfair
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