Two sides very much in need of three points meet in Yorkshire on Boxing Day as Huddersfield Town take on Blackburn Rovers.
Huddersfield Towncurrently sit 21st in the EFL Championship with four wins, ten draws and nine losses from twenty-three games this season.
The Terriers have, predictably, struggled this season in the Championship and while they came into the season with a squad short on quality things have been made much worse by fairly tumultous circumstances.
Neil Warnock resigned from his post early doors and while his replacement, Darren Moore, has shown promise they’re still looking extremely precarious.
Huddersfield enter this game in rocky form having won just one of their last eleven games.
Their most recent game saw them fall to a 2-0 defeat away at Norwich City with two second-half goals putting the final nail in the coffin for the Terriers.
Their form is poor but they have only lost two of their last seven in the league and with that have shown themselves to be pretty resilient, a quality essential for surviving a relegation battle.
However, unless they can find a way to win games with slightly more consistency none of that will matter because they simply won’t accumulate enough points to avoid the drop.
They’re in dire need of a win here and fortunately for them they’re facing a side out of form themselves so a result is more than attainable in this one.
Blackburn Rovers currently sit 14th in the EFL Championship with ten wins, one draw and twelve losses from twenty-three games this season.
Rovers’ campaign has been both disappointing and frustrating as while they sit much lower in the table than they would have liked they’ve been massively hampered by injury.
Jon Dahl Tomasson’s side are fundamentally very good, and exceptionally entertaining, but they’ve struggled immensely with injury absences having been forced to name a substitutes bench full of kids for what feels like three months now.
They’ve had both impressive wins and embarrassing defeats but they’ve almost never entered a game with all their tools at their disposal and the limitations of that were on full display at the weekend.
Rovers welcome Watford to Ewood Park and took the lead after three minutes through Adam Wharton in what was a very strong first-half display.
However, as the game wore on and with Rovers’ best player (Sammie Szmodics) already rested due to fatigue, Watford freshened up their side with five substitutes while Rovers were simply unable to do the same. As a result, Rovers gradually tired and weariness allowed Watford to turn the game in its head with two late goals in the 83rd and 87th minute.
The loss means it’s now four defeats in five games for Tomasson’s men and given they’re trying their best to keep the pace with the playoff chasers they now come into this one with three points a must.
For our Huddersfield vs. Blackburn prediction, we’re going for a 1-1 draw.
Don’t forget to check out the rest of our previews, tips and offers for this weekend’s action.