Huddersfield Town vs Sunderland Preview: Team News, Last Meeting, Recent Form, Referee and Opposition View
Sunderland head to the John Smith’s stadium in search of their first win in four games against Huddersfield Town, who currently sit bottom of the Championship.
Last time out, the Black Cats earned a point in a 1-1 draw against Luton Town away, while the Terriers beat Millwall 1-0.
Sunderland have made a steady start in their first season back in the Championship, currently sitting in 16th place on 21 points after 17 games.
Tony Mowbray will see this game as a perfect opportunity to get his team back to winning ways having reached an impressive milestone of 800 games in management at the weekend, but won’t underestimate the home side’s league position.
Mowbray explains: “Huddersfield are a pretty experienced team in the division. They made the play-offs last year, and the manager left.
“We have to be respectful of all the teams in this division. You have to look at Luton at the weekend. They have been there for four or five years and they are building into the Championship. Huddersfield have got good enough quality players to make the play-offs last year.
“I know they’ve had a difficult start to the season with a temporary manager. With a new manager now, he’ll be embedding his own ideas so we have to try and impose our style on them.
“If we can, then we can give them a difficult evening, but I'm sure off the back of a confident 1-0 win against Millwall, they will be looking for back to back wins.
“We’ve got three games now, two of them are away from home, but we have to accrue some points and go into this international break really looking forward to bringing some players back in that two or three week period. Then, we can really get after the second half of the season.
Team News
Huddersfield will be without Jonathan Hogg who has missed the last nine games with a calf injury and is out until late November, which means Michael Helik and Tom Lees will keep their places in central defence after two clean sheets in their last two games.
Yuta Nakayama has started 13 games at left back this season and scored the winning goal on Saturday and is likely to start, although Oliver Turton suffered ankle ligament damage and will be out for a few months, meaning Duane Holmes could start.
The Terries have adopted a 4-2-3-1 formation in their last two matches, with Danny Ward likely to lead the line having started their last six games, although he has only managed one goal.
For Sunderland, Jack Clarke misses this game through suspension after picking up his fifth yellow card of the season against Luton Town.
Patrick Roberts will be pushing to start after playing a 30-minute cameo against Luton at the weekend, while Elliot Embleton will be hoping his goal against the Hatters is enough to restore him to the starting lineup.
Ellis Simms will also play a role in the game as he continues to build up his match fitness after returning from a toe injury.
Last meeting
The last time the two sides played each other was in 2003 at the Stadium of Light in the League Cup, where Huddersfield prevailed 4-2 winners, with the Sunderland goals being scored by Kevin Kyle.
Sunderland team: Ingham, James, McCartney, Bjorklund, Clark, Butler, Oster, Thornton, Whitley, Kyle, Proctor.
Recent form:
Huddersfield: WLLDW
Sunderland: LWLLD
Huddersfield vs Sunderland head-to-head (Last 10 matches)
Huddersfield wins: 3
Draws: 2
Sunderland wins: 5
Referee
Oliver Langford will take charge of this game and has refereed 41 games over the last 12 months and has issued 132 yellow cards.
Langford oversaw Stoke vs Sunderland in August 2022, where Ross Stewart scored the only goal of the game as the Black Cats came back to the Northeast with all three points.
He will be assisted by Sam Lewis and Akil Howson, with Darren Bond acting as the fourth official.
Opposition View
Mark Fotheringham will see this game as an opportunity for his side to seal back-to-back home wins when hosting Sunderland on Wednesday evening.
Fotheringham said: “They’re a very dangerous team with many offensive players. They have a fantastic manager in Tony Mowbray who is very well-respected in the game and was captain at Celtic when I was there as a young man. I’ve never met him too much, but I've heard good things about him. But we know when the whistle goes it becomes competitive and we’ll focus on ourselves.
“Sunderland are a massive club with big tradition and Tony Mowbray is a great coach and a manger I really look up to.
“Our fans were incredible at home on Saturday against Millwall, it makes such a difference when they’re behind us and backing us.”