Huddersfield Town host Watford on Saturday, the Terriers will be hoping to turn the John Smith Stadium into a fortress and prevent the Hornets from stinging them at home. The Yorskhire side will be desperate to take the three points, and edge that extra step closer to Premier League survival.
Watford are sitting in 12th place and the Terriers are 16th, both are on the same number of games. Huddersfield Town need the three points more than Watford and the Yorkshire club cannot overtake the Hertfordshire side as Watford are five points clear and currently not in any danger of being relegated.
Head to Head
The history between the Terriers and the Hornets only goes back to the 1969/1970 season with their first ever meeting ending in a draw. Since then the Terriers have the advantage, having won 13 matches to the Hornets nine, five of the total matches have been draws. The good news for Huddersfield, is that most of the losses have been away from home.
In the last two meetings between the sides, Huddersfield have won both, the last time the pair met in Yorkshire was in 2015 in the Championship, before Watford were promoted to the top flight, the Terriers won 3-1. The visit to Vicarge Road earlier in the season had Watford as favourites for the match, but Huddersfield dominated possession and won 4-1. However, since then Watford have changed their head coach, so it will not be easy to replicate.
A repeat of that scoreline or a repeat of the result would not harm Watford, but would be immensly satisfying for the Terriers . This is seen by many pundits as a must win match for Huddersfield, as their remaining few matches would appear to be more difficult than some of their lower placed rivals.
Team News
Watford are missing midfielder Tom Cleverley who is still recovering from a hamstring injury, this has kept the player unavailable for selection since the 0-0 draw at Stoke at the end of January. Gerard Deulofeu has a broken toe keeping the forward out of the team, and midfielder Nathaniel Chalobah has a fractured kneecap. The Hornets do have some good news regarding defence though as centre back Craig Cathcart and defender Christian Kabasele are both in contention for the squad.
Huddersfield Town are still without Danny Williams and Elias Kachunga, who have both been ruled out for the remainder of the season, Michael Hefele is still recovering from a knee injury and isn't expected to return until around 21st April. Good news for the Terriers though is that Jon Gorenc Stankovic is back in full training with the squad and could feature in the match on Saturday, and Jonathan Hogg is also available, which was a concern after the match against Brighton when the player had to be subbed off after sustaining a tackle that resulted in the opposition player receiving a red card.
Javi Graciaspoke of the problems he'd faced when arriving in Hertfordshire with an injury list and how it looked now, stating that it was good news to have so many more players in contention for places in the squad. Huddersfield Head Coach David Wagner has urged the fans to make the atmosphere one of the best so far, and knows that they are in a fight to survive, with each of the remaining games being increasingly important depending on how the results go.