Huddersfield Town v Middlesbrough
The Sky Bet Championship
Tuesday March 25th - 7:45 ko
at The John Smith's Stadium
Huddersfield Town welcome Middlesbrough to the John Smith's Stadium on Tuesday night.
Team news: Town will still be without central defensive lynch pin, Joel Lynch. Joe Lolley made a comeback from injury in the u21 game last week and could find himself on the bench. Duane Holmes is back from his loan at Yeovil and should walk straight into the side, but won't. The side is in need of a great big shake up as recent performances have, as pundits would say, left a lot to be desired.
For Boro Mustapha Carayol tore his anterior cruciate ligament in the match down at Bournemouth last week, so he won't be playing. Keeper Tomas Mejias, who is on loan from Real Madrid is out with a dislocated finger. Connor Ripley is out on loan and Shay Given, who had been on loan, has gone back to Villa, so it will be between Jason Steele and Dimi Konstantopoulos as to who will be between the sticks.
A brief history of Middlesbrough FC: They were formed in 1876 by members of Middlesbrough Amateur Cricket Club. There was another football club in the town soon after called Middlesbrough Ironopolis, which was formed by members of Middlesbrough FC, hoping to gain professional status and enter the Football League. That club only lasted for five years, but did reach the quarter finals of the FA Cup in it's short existence. They spent one year as a Football League club and following their unsuccessful application for re-election, they were disbanded, leaving the current Middlesbrough FC as the only professional club in the town and they gained entry to the Football League in 1899.
Three years later, they were promoted to Division One and moved into their new ground, Ayresome Park, which was built on the site of Ironopolis's old ground and was designed by Archibald Leitch, the architect who would in the next few years be commissioned to design the new stadium at Leeds Road, Huddersfield.
In 1905 they became the first team to break the £1,000 transfer fee barrier when they bought Alf Common from Sunderland. In 1913/14, Boro finished third in Division One, which is to date, their highest finish in the league. As a common factor with the threads I've done this season (Doncaster, Birmingham, Grimsby and Millwall), the war came, broke the team up and they never regained their pre war glories.
Between the two world wars, Boro bounced between the top two divisions. After the second world war, they were stuck in the second division until 1964 when they were relegated to Division Three for the first time.
They made an immediate return to Division Two and were members of that league in 1969/70 when Huddersfield Town came up to Ayresome Park and secured promotion to Division One for the last time to date, with a 1-1 draw.
Boro were to follow in 1974 under the managership of Jack Charlton and they stayed in the top league for eight years. But as usual, they yoyoed between the two for the next few seasons until 1985/86 when they once more dropped to Division Three.
During that summer, Middlesbrough FC was liquidated and the death of the club was announced, only for it to be revived under a new name soon after. The start of that season though, the players and staff turned up for work to be faced with the gates at Ayresome Park padlocked. They had to move to a temporary home at Hartlepool until the settlement was agreed.
They came back stronger and won successive promotions, the second via the new play offs. Eventually, because of immediate success gained by clubs like Middlesbrough, clubs that went into administration were given points deductions.
They were members of the newly formed Premier League in 1992 and literally minutes after facing liquidation, they were in a brand new stadium, earning millions from Sky TV money and employing foreign mercenaries such as Fabrizio Ravanelli, Juninho, Mikkel Beck and Emerson.
This brand new wealth culminated in 2004 when Middlesbrough FC, after more than a century of winning fook all, won the League Cup, beating Bolton 2-1.
They played in Europe for the first time, without much success, but two years later they reached the final of the UEFA Cup. That wasn't a great day though as they were stuffed 4-0 by Sevilla. This turned out to be the end of Boro's glory days as they were soon relegated again and have been in the Championship since 2009, not showing any signs of a return to the top and playing in a half empty stadium.
The Ayresome Park gates, rebuilt at the Riverside Stadium
Head to Head
Boro lead the overall head to head by 37 wins to 32, with 18 draws. That's in all competitions. In league matches it's 36 Boro wins to Town's 31, with 18 draws.
Only two cup games in all that time. Town won 4-0 at Leeds Road in the FA Cup in 1928 and Boro beat us 5-1 at the Riverside in 1996 in the League Cup with all five goals scored by the four mercenaries mentioned in the history section above, Juninho, Ravanelli, Emerson and Beck. Town were 5-0 down when in the 87th minute, Andy Payton scored to send the 5,000 Town fans in the ground that night absolutely wild. Really, it was like we'd won the cup. Mental! Just what the great spirit of being a Huddersfield Town supporter is all about. Watching the highlights on tv later that night, the commentator was totally baffled by our reaction. Oooh to be a. Oooh to be a Terrier!
That's what watching Town away used to be like. Unlike now when a defeat is met by terrible over reaction and disrespect from fans who should really fook off and watch a glory team if they can't support Town in the proper manner.
The corresponding league fixture last season was played almost exactly 12 months ago. And it was two magical substitutions from new manager, Mark Robins, that won it for us. The Smoggies had taken a 1-0 lead in the 78th minute through former Town player, Scott McDonald. Robins reaction was to bring on Danny Ward and then six minutes later, Alan Lee.
Town had a corner in the 87th minute. It was Peter Clarke who rose to win the header and it landed nicely for Alan Alan Lee to prod the ball home for the equaliser.
The crowd were baying for a winner and it came in style in injury time with a spectacular 25 yard thunderbolt from supersub Ward.
Back in the long distant past, Boro gave Town an 8-0 thrashing in 1950, which was our record defeat up until we lost 10-1 at Man City. We got our own back a few years later, in 1965, when hat-tricks from Alan Gilliver and Les Massie gave Town a 6-0 victory at Leeds Road.
So what have modern day Middlesbrough got?
They come here on the back of a 3-1 defeat at home to QPR, in which the away team scored an equaliser in first half injury time and then scored twice in second half injury time to win it.
Managed these days by Aitor Karanka, the former Real Madrid assistant manager. He replaced Tony Mowbray in November last year and has since turned the side into a boring, negative, unwatchable team, having now drawn 0-0 in five of their last ten games.
Karanka was a centre back in his playing days with Athletico Bilbao and Real. He was capped many times for Spain at under 21 level, but only gained one at full international level, although he did represent his country at the 1996 Olympic Games.
His managerial career started in 2010 as second in command to Jose Morinho at Real Madrid. This ended last year when Carlo Ancelotti got the job and brought in his own backroom staff.
Talking of backroom staff, Karanka recently appointed Craig Hignett as his assistant.
He's a right Karanka
Who has Karanka been playing in his first XI?
His selected first XI in the last match was.....
13 Dimitrios Konstantopoulos: is Greek, believe it or not. Made his name in this country with Hartlepool United.
08 József Varga: is Hungarian and on loan from Debrecen.
03 George Friend: former Doncaster Rovers captain.
22 Ben Gibson: nephew of Boro chairman, Steve Gibson.
25 Kenneth Omeruo: is a Nigerian international on loan from Chelsea.
27 Albert Adomah: born in London but plays internationally for Ghana.
06 Jacob Butterfield: was linked with a move to Town in the summer, went Smoggyside instead.
18 Dean Whitehead: experienced midfielder, played in the 2011 FA Cup Final for Stoke City.
09 Danny Graham: former Carlisle United star, on loan from Sunderland.
24 Nathaniel Chalobah: helped Watford to the Play Off Final last season and is on loan from Chelsea.
29 Kei Kamara: born in Sierra Leone but brought up in America. Signed in the summer from Sporting Kansas City.
Substitutes
01 Jason Steele: was a member of the GB Olympic football squad in 2012.
10 Lee Tomlin: ex Peterborough who played in that match.
11 Emmanuel Ledesma: an Argie who used to play for Walsall.
14 Luke Williams: made his Boro debut as a 16 year old four years ago and has this season been on loan at Hartlepool.
23 Curtis Main: was a colliery in the north-east closed down in the 80s by the Thatcher Government.
28 Bryn Morris: 17 year old midfielder and an England youth international.
36 David Atkinson: 20 year old defender.
Leading scorer - Albert Adomah with 9.
Recent form - Last six games:
Blackpool 1-0 Town
Town 2-4 Blackburn
Charlton 0-0 Town
Doncaster 2-0 Town
Town 5-0 Barnsley
Town 0-2 Sheff Wed
Boro 1-3 QPR
Bournemouth 0-0 Boro
Boro 1-1 N.Forest
Boro 2-0 Ipswich
Sheff Wed 1-0 Boro
Boro 0-0 Leeds
Middlesbrough are 14th in the league with 45 points, that's one more than we have. Town are 16th on 44 points.
Club connections:
Lukas Jutkiewicz played for Town and is currently on the books of Middlesbrough FC. He's out on loan at Bolton though, so won't be playing in this one.
Jonathan Hogg of Huddersfield Town was born and raised in Middlebrough and played his junior football for his hometown club before being snapped up by Aston Villa. He made his debut for them in the Europa League before making his Premier League debut at Villa Park against Manchester United.
Before that he'd had loan spells at Darlington and Portsmouth. And at the start of the 2011/12 season he signed for Watford, becoming their player of the year in his first season. Last season he helped the Hornets all the way to the Play Off Final, playing the assist for that famous goal by Troy Deeney in the semi against Leicester.
Hoggy the Smoggie
Alun Armstrong: was a big money signing for Boro from Stockport County in 1998. Came on loan to us from there, before joining Ipswich as strike partner to Marcus Stewart in the Premier League. Went on to star in ten series' of the BBC's New Tricks.
David Currie: started his career at Middlesbrough. Moved to Barnsley, from where he came on loan to Town in 1994.
Jason Gavin: is an Irish defender who came on loan to us from Boro in 2003. Now plays in Australia with Stirling Lions.
Brian Laws: came to Town from Burnley, played for two seasons before being transferred to Middlesbrough.
Jimmy Lawson: was a member of the famous 2nd division champions side of 1969/70 under Ian Greaves, the last Huddersfield Town side to play in English football's top flight. Signed for Town in 1968 from Boro and paid them back almost immediately for letting him go by scoring twice against them in a 3-0 Town victory at Leeds Road. Left Town for Halifax in 1976, where he later became player-manager.
Scott McDonald: now at Millwall. Came to Town on loan from Southampton. Had spells at Bournemouth, Wimbledon and Motherwell before finding fame at Celtic. Had three good seasons there before moving south to the Riverside to join up again with manager Gordon Strachan.
Andy Payton: joined Boro from Hull City in what was a club record fee at the time. Had spells with Celtic and Barnsley before joining Town as strike partner to Marcus Stewart in 1996.
Alan Walsh: is Darlington's record scorer. Started his career with Middlesbrough and later had a loan spell at Town. He has a famous son in law. The star of Frasier, Kelsey Grammer, who is two years older than him.
Famous fans
Chubby Brown: is a stand up comedian of the blue variety. As such, he very rarely appears on telly. I once went to see him perform in the early days of his career at a club in Dewsbury. The fat bastard never showed up. He got beat up at one of his shows in Bradford, shortly after the Valley Parade fire after coming on stage and his opening line was; "You never invited me to your barbecue, ya bastards!"
Bob Mortimer: is most famous as the voice of Churchill the Dog in the adverts. Aaaw yes. Although he has done some work with the comedian Vic Reeves.
He had a trial for Middlesbrough FC before he embarked on his comedic career. In recent years he has made the finals of Wig Wearer of the Year.
Other Championship fixtures this week:
Tuesday:
Bolton v Blackpool
Bournemouth v Leeds
Burnley v Doncaster
Ipswich v Derby
Leicester v Yeovil
Millwall v Birmingham
Nottm Forest v Charlton
QPR v Wigan
Reading v Barnsley
Sheff Wed v Brighton
Watford v Blackburn
Snooty's prediction: 2-1 to Town.
Quick Quiz on our opponents: (rep point for the best answers)
1. What was the name of the other football club in Middlesbrough who spent one season as a Football League club?
2. How many first team caps did Boro boss Karanka win for Spain?
3. Which England World Cup winner managed Boro in the 1970s?
4. Middlesbrough were the first team to pay £1,000 for a player's transfer fee. For whom did they pay this when buying him from Sunderland in 1905?
5. Who beat Boro in the 2006 UEFA Cup Final?
6. Which former Town player scored for Boro in the match at our ground last season?
7. Which former Boro and Town player is Kelsey Grammar's father in law?
8. Who's the Republic of Ireland international who has been on loan at Boro from Aston Villa this season?
9. Which of the current Town squad was born in Middlesbrough?
10. Who was the Boro manager before Tony Mowbray?
Over to you then:
Some talking points for you;
Who's funniest? Chubby Brown or Bob Mortimer?
What's Town's best formation? 3-5-2? 4-4-2?
Is it time to bring some of the kids into the squad like Phillip Billing, Flo Bojaj or Jake Charles? Boro have a 17 year old on their bench.
Are we safe yet? Are we about to get dragged into that relegation scrap again?