Leeds have no new problems with injuries or suspensions for the big local derby, but Huddersfield Town haven’t been quite so lucky.
Leeds expect Jermaine Beckford to recover from the ankle knock that forced him to limp off during Tuesday’s win over Port Vale, and although Flo is standing by to replace him if necessary, the big Norweigan will probably have to make do with a place on the bench.
And it’s a good job Beckford had made it, as Leon Constantine will again be out with his broken to and Mark De Vries is still ill. Unfortunately Wise was impressed with Hughes’ performance at left back on Tuesday, so he will continue in that position at the expense of young Ben Parker.
It’s the first league game between the two clubs for over 20 years, but Wisey told the official site that he is refusing to regard it as anything other than a normal league game. "Every game is important to us. I wouldn't put any game on top because they're all important. Every game is like a cup final for everyone else to play against us, and this one won't be any different to that .I'm sure Huddersfield are treating it as a bit more of a special game, but we'll treat it the same as every other game. The big plus is we're going to have a sell-out. There'll be loads there and we're looking forward to that.”
But he is of course demanding that his players maintain the high standards they have set for most of the season. “We'll approach it in a professional manner, try and win the game, and take another step towards what we want to achieve.We could go second for a couple of hours. I'm not getting carried away because we are in a fantastic spot. We've had a kick over the past few weeks, which wasn't nice, and it hurt us all. But that'll happen and it'll happen again”.
Huddersfield have slipped to 15th. in the table after losing their last two games, a 1-0 defeat at home to Leyton Orient and a 4-1 defeat in Wednesday’s trip to Southend. They had two players sent off in the latter game, and will have to put teenager Alex Smithies in goal for his first start tomorrow, after the losing their appeal over keeper Matt Glennon's dismissal. I haven’t seen any pictures from that game, but Glennon sounds unlucky, as Southend striker Leon Clarke told the FA that he slipped, rather than being brought down by the keeper! It’s no great surprise that Frank Sinclair was the other player dismissed, and will he also be serving a suspension tomorrow, so Jon Worthington comes into the squad.
The match is likely to be a sell-out, and rumour has it that plenty of Huddersfield fans have bought tickets for the home areas of Elland Road. They are understandably miffed at getting an allocation of only 1,700 for this game, but Bates has insisted that this was entirely a police decision and nothing to do with him. Huddersfield are staging a beam-back screening at the Galpharm, which is pay on the day. Maybe they’ll open the away end for the benefit of all the Leeds fans who live in Huddersfield.
It’ll certainly be a lively encounter, but I reckon that Huddersfield will be so fired up that they will have worn themselves out after 80 minutes with all that running around. Leeds’ superior fitness will then see us snatch a couple of late goals, so I’ll have Leeds to win by 3 goals to 1.