Blackburn Rovers hosts Huddersfield Town on Saturday afternoon, despite suffering an eighth defeat of the season in midweek with kickoff at 6 pm.
Blackburn’s 4-1 win at home to Blackpool last weekend was their fourth consecutive victory, and the side seems ready to shed its inconsistency tag.
However, a 1-0 loss at lowly Coventry City on Tuesday night showed that Blackburn is far from the finished article and cannot afford any complacency at this stage of the season.
While Blackburn deserves credit for winning 11 of their 19 league games this season, losing eight times suggests they remain vulnerable. Manager Jon Dahl Tomasson needs a big push from his team in the two matches before the international break.
Although Huddersfield has picked up eight points from five matches since Mark Fotheringham took charge, the Terriers remain a work in progress.
In their last two games, Huddersfield kept clean sheets against Middlesbrough and Millwall, but the Black Cats outfought them at home on Saturday.
As well as missing out on another shutout, Huddersfield has failed to score in four matches—their only goal coming from questionable whether it was intentional or not.
Although the Yorkshire outfit still possesses a game in hand on many of the teams above them, they face an urgency to close a five-point gap to safety over their upcoming three-game stretch.
Blackburn vs Huddersfield Head to Head
Both sides have 16 games against each other, with the hosts taking three wins while the visitors with four wins. Here is a look at their previous encounters:
Home
- Coventry 1-0 Blackburn
- Hull 0-1 Blackburn
- Blackburn 2-1 Birmingham
- Blackburn 2-0 Sunderland
Away
- Huddersfield 0-2 Sunderland
- Huddersfield 1-0 Millwall
- Middlesbrough 0-0 Huddersfield
- Huddersfield 0-1 Preston
Blackburn Team News
Jack Vale, Tyrhys Dolan, and George Hirst compete for a starting role against Walsall. Harry Pickering could return as a left wing-back, allowing Callum Brittain to return to the opposite flank. Youngster Jake Garrett will sit out this contest after collecting a late red card soon after being introduced as a substitute at Coventry.
Huddersfield Team News
With Nakayama and Ben Jackson joining the list of unavailable players after picking up injuries against Sunderland, Huddersfield has huge defence issues. Luke Mbete and William Boyle are both in contention for an opportunity at centre-back, while Fotheringham must decide whether he wishes to recall Jonathan Russell or Danny Ward.
Prediction and Odds
We predict a hard-fought victory by the odd goal in three, as we cannot look past our opponents at their home ground.
- Home Win
- Goals Over 2.5
- Both Teams to Score
