Port Vale – Huddersfield, English League One
2004-09-11 16.00 CET
Pick: Port Vale
Stake: 3%
Odds: 1,90
Final reasons
Port Vale is usually a strong home side and so far this has been the case also this year. Huddersfield has been up and down and although winning last week at home to a slow Hull side, we still believe they will be too weak here. We stake 3% on the home win.
General comment about the game
Fourth placed Port Vale welcomes newcomers Huddersfield to a Saturday clash. Port Vale has started the season as expected and as usually they have proved to be a strong home side with three straight wins from three games. Beating Bristol City and Hull are quite impressing since these teams also are expected in the top. The game against Bristol was superbly and Port Vale created a lot of good efforts before getting the fast goals in the end of first half. Since beating Bristol Port Vale has been on the road where they got beaten by highflying Chesterfield with the single goal and then won against Bradford with 2-0. The Chesterfield game was a quite dull affair with the Port Vale side underachieving all over the lines. However, they got quickly over that bad performance since the Bradford win was very fair and Bradford’s coach said that Port Vale was the best side they had played so far this year. The game was quite even until Port Vale scored in the 41st minute and then in the 50th minute. After the goals it was expected that Bradford should push forward but Port Vale kept on playing well and Bradford never threatened. As mentioned, Port Vale was quite a good side also last year especially at home. To this year they have lost some players but also gained some new ones and the strength of the team looks similar. Among the new signings forward Lee Matthews from Bristol City (5(2) apps, 1goal), midfielder Robin Hulbert (7(0) apps, 0 goals) from Telford and defender Dean Smith (5 apps, 0 goals) from Sheffield W have been most used. Also new is on loan defender James O`Connor from Aston Villa who made his debut in the last game. Port Vale only has striker Simon Eldershaw (0 apps, 0 goals) and defender Steve Rowland (5(1) apps, 0 goals) unavailable for the Huddersfield game.
Huddersfield played in the English division three last year and was promoted after a successful play off campaign. The start of the new season has not started in the same successful way although Huddersfield has not played bad. Three wins so far, two at home points towards a place in the middle of the table. On the road Huddersfield has won one game in the first round and then they have lost the two following against Sheffield Wednesday and fellow newcomer Doncaster. Against Doncaster Huddersfield seemed very uninterested in playing football and Doncaster had 2-0 already at halftime. In the last round against the third newcomer Hull; Huddersfield seemed much more inspired and now it was instead the Hull players that were very slow. Huddersfield had 2-0 already at half time and although Hull tried to get back in the game it was Huddersfield who kept on with the scoring business. Hull should have earned a consolation goal in the end of the game when they got a spot kick, but since it was not Hull’s day they missed. Huddersfield has been free from injuries so far and also ahead of this game the squad is fully available.
Recent games for home team
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2004-09-04 |
Bradford-Port Vale |
0-2 |
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2004-08-31 |
Chesterfield-Port Vale |
1-0 |
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2004-08-28 |
Port Vale-Bristol City |
3-0 |
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2004-08-21 |
Wrexham-Port Vale |
1-1 |
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2004-08-14 |
Port Vale-Hull City |
3-2 |
Recent games for away team
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2004-09-05 |
Huddersfield–Hull |
4-0 |
|
2004-08-30 |
Doncaster-Huddersfield |
2-1 |
|
2004-08-28 |
Huddersfield-Peterborough |
2-1 |
|
2004-08-21 |
Sheffield W-Huddersfield |
1-0 |
|
2004-08-16 |
Huddersfield-Hartlepool |
0-2 |
Home table
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Port Vale |
3 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
9-4 |
9 |
Away table
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Huddersfield |
3 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
4-5 |
3 |
Links for this game
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// SportsObserver 040910
