Huddersfield Town earned what could prove to be another vital point towards their quest for safety in the Championship during the week when they drew 0-0 with struggling Middlesbrough at the John Smith’s Stadium, and another relegation battle looms this Saturday against Barnsley.
Danny Cowley’s side have now put together a 5-match unbeaten run that includes wins against Stoke City and Hull City, but also includes 3 draws with Millwall, Blackburn Rovers and the aforementioned Middlesbrough.
It may not be scintillating stuff, but The Terriers are slowly but surely clawing their way out of relegation trouble after an extremely poor and worrying start to the new Championship season had left them bottom of the pile and resulted in the sacking of former manager, Jan Siewart.
Huddersfield are unbeaten in their last 3 matches at their John Smith’s Stadium and although this includes 2 draws, it’s a marked improvement upon the start of the campaign which saw The Terriers lose their first 4 home matches on the trot with defeats to Derby County, Fulham, Reading and Sheffield Wednesday.
After making a promising start to their return to the Championship following last season’s euphoria of achieving promotion from League One by beating Fulham 1-0 at home on the opening day of this Championship season, things have turned sour for Barnsley.
The Tykes recently sacked former manager, Daniel Stendel, who had guided the south Yorkshire outfit back up to the Championship at the first time of asking, following a subsequent run of 10 matches without a win after the Fulham victory on the first day of the season.
Overall, Barnsley have now endured a miserable 12-match run without a win in the second tier which includes 5 draws and 7 defeats, and it’s now fallen to Adam Murray who has been tasked with the job of keeping The Tykes in the Championship.
The visitors now sit bottom of the division level on 8 points with Stoke City, but the glimmer of hope for Barnsley is that they’ve managed 3 draws out of their last 4 matches and they’ll be hoping they can frustrate this Huddersfield Town outfit who have yet to really fire on all cylinders.
This looks like being another hard-fought relegation battle with an all-important 3 points at stake, but throw in a Yorkshire derby and this could end in stalemate on Saturday.