Rotherham embark on a run of 10 fixtures in four weeks, a consequence of two significant coronavirus outbreaks since the start of the year.
On the back of eight defeats in 10 games, Paul Warne may be slightly pessimistic about whether his squad are capable of overcoming the current seven-point deficit to Birmingham City.
On the plus side, four of Rotherham's next five fixtures are against teams who they will regard as relegation rivals, giving them an opportunity to pull clubs closer to the bottom three.
Nevertheless, the first target for this team is to shake off the disappointment of a 3-0 defeat against Wycombe Wanderers earlier this week, a result which puts the Millers at risk of falling to the bottom of the standings.
Having put together a five-match unbeaten streak at a crucial period of the season, Huddersfield appeared to be making significant progress under the guidance of Carlos Corberan.
However, the momentum generated from that improved run of results was wiped out with their demoralising defeat at Carrow Road earlier this week.
Fortunately for the Terriers, they remain clear of the bottom three, but Saturday's fixture will be a test of their character as they bid to avoid a relegation scrap over the next month.
Only Wycombe possess a worse defensive record than Huddersfield, heaping the pressure on an attack which has scored just four goals in eight outings.
Leading marksman Fraizer Campbell has failed to score in four appearances, while Yaya Sanogo has not contributed a goal or assist in 241 minutes of football since his arrival.
Campbell will be recalled to the Huddersfield starting lineup in what is likely to be one of a number of changes.
I'm very rarely optimistic and today's no different. Our away record is reasonable though. I just hope we dont go there and play as though we have to win. It's a time for cool heads.We need the sort of controlled performance we saw at Bristoland at Millwall until the red card changed the game. Fingers crossed.
Not much between the sides. Crooks probably should have scored and Wiles seems to have the beating of their right back. Birmingham are winning again at half time. To be fair to them, they have had what looked like a horrible run of fixtures but taken plenty of points out of them.
we are playing ok but we do seem to panic at the back, lack of confidence I suspect that and the fact we know when we concede first we rarely get anything from the game. Crooks miss was terrible running onto a ball, rolled on the floor the whole goal to hit 7 yards out and he tries to side foot it into a 1 foot gap at the near post, should be head down and blast it. They are stopping our crosses and that is reducing our chances. Long way to go as long as Flo and Hirst stay on the bench we have a chance. Other results at halftime not going our way really, Wycombe seem to be on a great run of wins, Wednesday improving and Birminghams manager change has made a huge difference to them. Let us hope we can grab 3 points.
Very unlucky not to win, easily the best team in the 2nd half, great to have a keeper than comes and catches the ball, overall we are in a better position now than we were at 3pm but....... no goals in 3 games and in front of goal our players look scared to hit the ball, they always try to side foot the ball when a good solid head down blast will do. The miss by Wiles was horrendous yet again trying to squeeze it into the near post, you teach kids to hit across the goal and back where it comes from, a good point a clean sheet but 2 points dropped based on that chance and the amount of play over the 90 mins.
It's been an excellent performance but you've got to put the ball in the net. Wiles was probably our best player but that's a shocking miss at the end. It's a shame for him. At this stage of the season those moments are huge. Great save from their keeper, woodwork hit twice, denied a clear penalty, but in the final analysis only one point. Other results ok apart from Birmingham.
How did we not win that game? Hit the post, hit the bar, nailed on pen, disallowed goal and two open goals missed. Great performance though and other results favourable in the main. MoM - Wiles or Wood - take your pick!
we could forget Birmingham when they changed their manager, they got rid of one of the most overrated managers on the manager merry-go-round and brought in someone that drives his team hard and knows the English style, they have a decent squad and realistically with a decent manager were always going to have enough to scrape the points. Our hope is now Coventry, we have to beat them and win two of the games in hand we have on them. That would put us 3 points clear of them with 5 games to go and a superior goal difference (assuming we lose the other game in hand on them), they have to take 4 more points than us then to beat us. It is doable but we have to start scoring again and believe in ourselves in front of goal like we did against Derby at home.
Don’t know about anyone else but getting a bit fed up with the hard luck stories let’s just put the ball in the net play crap 1-0 wins will do! Sorry to state the obvious
Looking at the replays, the Crooks shot took a slight deflection onto the post. The Wiles miss was just a lack of composure in the moment. It's two crucial points dropped that should have been ours, and almost the story of our season in one game. We look like a Championship side but just cant quite ac***ulate the points we need because of one thing or another not quite going for us and just not quite having that bit of extra quality often enough when it really matters. So near but yet so far. Still in there battling away though and reasons to be optimistic.
