Town welcome Crystal Palace to the John Smiths Stadium on Wednesday night in what could or could not be the start of a new era for us. Simon Grayson was dismissed just last week and it's unknown yet whether or not a new manager will be in place before our game against the Eagles. Most people seem to think Mark Lillis will remain as caretaker manager for a short while yet but could we be seeing Nigel Adkins, Owen Coyle, Paolo Di Canio or someone else in the home dugout on Wednesday night?
Whoever is in charge Town fans will be hoping can build on the impressive performance delivered against Leicester City at the weekend. Town deserved a win from the match but in the end it was that boy Chris Wood again who earned the Foxes a replay. Caretaker manager Mark Lillis surprised a few people by playing a 4-4-2 diamond formation with teenager Jordan Sinnott making his senior debut. The performance was a massive improvement on what we were regularly treated to towards the end of Graysons reign as Town manager.
Jermaine Beckford and Neil Danns will be welcomed back into the matchday squad having been unable to play against their parent club at the weekend. Both could return to the starting eleven but I don't think many people would complain if the same eleven that started against Leicester start again on Wednesday night. If Lillis remains in charge I reckon we'll stick with the same eleven that played against Palace given the effort they put in and how clearly pleased he was with their performances. That would see us line up like this:
-----------Smithies
Hunt Clarke Gerrard Woods
------------Sinnott
---Arfield --------- Norwood
-------------Clayton
---Vaughan -------- Novak
Our opponents for this midweek match come into the game currently sitting in 5th place, just 2 points off the automatic promotion places. Town on the other hand have dropped to 19th in the table and are looking the other way as we're now just 7 points above the relegation zone. Interestingly Town have the longest winless run in the Championship which currently sits at 12 games. That run started on the 17th November, which is the same day Palaces 14 game unbeaten run came to an end, also a Championship record this season.
Neither team come into this game in great form though with Town winless in 12 league matches and Palace having won only 1 of their last 9. Another interesting stat shows that while Town haven't won any of their last 6 home matches, Palace haven't won any of their last 6 away matches. The bookies however have Town as the underdogs at 2/1 while Palace are the favourites at 13/10. Given both teams recent records however the smart money will be on the draw at 12/5 (Skybet).
When it comes to scoring goals Town have struggled this season, with Lee Novak currently being our top goalscorer on 5 goals (Vaughan, Beckford and Clayton have 4 each). Palace on the other hand have had no such problem thanks in large to the form of Glenn Murray who has scored more than our top 4 goalscorer put together with 23 so far. Dikgacio, Moritz and recent £15m Man Utd signing Zaha all have 5 goals apiece.
There are no excuses for Town fans not attending this game as it is £10 for adults and £5 for concessions. Whether you like the fact part-timers are getting these offers makes no difference, the club are making an effort to put bums on seats and we should appreciate that. Get yourselves down on Wednesday night and support either Lillis or whoever is in charge.
HTFC V CPFC - Wed 30.1.13
posted on 30/1/13
Congratulations to Huddersfield, who have deservedly taken four points from us this season. Lots of ex-Palace players in your ranks who will have enjoyed this evening.
As for us- what's going on? Holloway seems to have no idea how to get us out of this sticky patch. No disrespect to Huddersfield, but we have to beat teams below us in the table if we are to sustain our promotion challenge.
I can see us slipping out of the play-offs and into mid-table obscurity quickly if we do not turn things around against Charlton...
posted on 30/1/13
Yes comooon! lillis till t end of season i hope,if it aint broke dont fix it
he,s got buxton dna as our mark
bring on the champions
posted on 30/1/13
we'd settle for mid table obscurity at the moment...vital 3 points for Town...about 17 more points needed for safety...a point a game from now on in.
bring on Derby County !!
posted on 30/1/13
good win..town competed, palace fell over, a lot..
zaha commited 9 fouls in the game, no booking???
murray commits a foul every single time he makes a "challenge"....
its a bit embarrasing for us up north who work with rugby league fans watching "grown men" squeal when challenged and then fall into a big heap...
the ref tried as hard as i have ever seen , not to book a palace player, he simply had to in the end..I suppose he can apologise to them afterwards..
It was a good, hard fought win for us but the lasting memory is of grown men in palace shirts acting like "soft" little kids..
beckford clearly wasnt interested in coming on for a few minutes, shame that deal was done before grayson was sacked..
lillis has got them going and to be honest peter clark and gerrard did fine tonight and we didnt get penned in for long at any time..
palace should have come to play, they didnt and got outfought, clearly the manly side of the game isnt their best option...
4 long "injuries" to palce players in the first half resulted in 2 minutes of stoppage time.. 4 minutes and 40 seconds in the second for one injury to beckford(who at least had the good grace to be substituted)..????
another 3 "officials" who couldnt keep up, guessed a lot of the decisions and spent too much time stopping the game and "talking" to the players..
my advice to the fat lads with the whistles and flags... turn up blow the whistle, book people who deserve it, linos keep up with play, let the ref do the play because you clearly are guessing offsides etc because you are too busy trying to be "assistant refs", your bloody linos get on with that..
To the fat bloke with the whistle tonight, get some "lard" off , it might help you keep up, guessing from a distance or listening for the palace player to "squeal" is not being a ref..
The rain also held off..
posted on 30/1/13
Iam trying to work out if your happy tonight 38 .
posted on 30/1/13
No no no, Lillis can have Saturday, then appoint the man who MOST of us want. Played really well tonight, a lot of unity. Take off the rose tinted glasses though, we shouldn't want Lillis to take it.
posted on 30/1/13
Steven Pressley now HOT favourite at 4/7 Adkins 2nd favourite.
posted on 30/1/13
Loui,
When 38 praises Captain Klutz, you know he's happy, extremely happy.
I can't add much to what's been already said above, although following on from Saturday all the players put in a full shift and as fans, you can't ask for more than that.
I thought Hunt was our best player although Clark and Woods had good games, although the whole team showed plenty of passion and commitment, but you have to ask the player why they didn't show the same desire under Grayson?. As per usual the match officials were absolute garbage and most fans must wonder where the FA continue to dig them up from.
As for Clibbens's 8 minute broadcast, he waffled on and told us next to nowt and finally added "but there will not be an appointment any time soon" - so Nigel, exactly how long is that? - hours, days, weeks, month's?
Anyhow, I'll sleep much better tonight now that we have recorded our first league win since November 10th.
posted on 31/1/13
Great stuff.
Real nice suprise that win.
& 4 points from a side in the top six.
Mirf has already said it for me...
"I can't add much to what's been already said above, although following on from Saturday all the players put in a full shift and as fans, you can't ask for more than that."
& well done & take a pat on the back for Mark Lillis He has done what Grayson couldn't do.
Why are we 'looking' else where ?
Give the guy a go..
Mirf again...
"Waffled on & told us next to nowt"...Just what I was thinking, right lame 'Corporate speak' from the club.
If as they say we are working to a budget...that will no doubt mean we aren't going to pay out big for a 'name'..
Then Certainly for the rest of the season Lillis fits the job description perfectly.
38.
Perfect analysis of that shyster Beckford....
What a waste of fresh air & space..get rid of the Oxygen thief - NOW.
Nothing to worry about on Saturday..It will be a tough fixture, But as things are going we can get a point there .....
I daren't mention the next game..we were unlucky in that fixture at the start of the season..We owe 'em one..
& Lillis will make sure our lads are well aware of that,
I reckon he'll keep picking a regular stable eleven as best he can..injuries & suspensions aside,
Lets give the bloke a go.
No one has reported anything negative about the last two performances. And after that shambles of a run, that in it's self is a huge turnaround.
Plenty to discuss in the Cafe tonight ....
Rock on Town
posted on 31/1/13
I know it was a reduced price game, but I thought 13,500 was a decent turn out considering it was blowing a 60 mph gale and lashing it down with rain all day.
Town attacked the new 'home' end again, a master stroke by Lillis...more ammo for the South Stand ?
(more later).
Everybody happy today...been too long...