Huddersfield - Rochdale, English Division 3
2004-03-16 20.45 CET
Pick: Huddersfield
Stake: 3%
Odds: 1,50
Final reason for bet
· Huddersfield is in good form.
· Huddersfield can field the same team that beat Macclesfield last Saturday.
· Rochdale is in bad form, especially on the road.
General comment about the game
Promotion chasers Huddersfield welcomes relegation battlers Rochdale for a Tuesday evening clash at the McAlpine Arena. Huddersfield has been one of the best home teams so far this season, and for the moment their recent home results look very good with six wins from the seven last played games. The only loss came surprisingly with 2-0 to Darlington. Last game Huddersfield played at home to Macclesfield, a game ending with a superb 4-0 victory for Huddersfield. The relatively new player, Pawel Abbott (5(1) apps, 4 goals) who has signed a three and the half year contract, was excellent and he seems to a very good weapon now when facing the end of the season. Macclesfield had not really anything to come up with apart of a couple of chances. Huddersfield had a number of chances and this was the second home game in a row when they managed to make more than two goals. The line up for the Rochdale game seems to be the same as for the Macclesfield game. The only players that are missing is centre back Steve Yates (26 apps, 1 goal) and goal keeper Ian Gray (17 apps), who probably will be missing the rest of the season.
Rochdale are on the 22nd place in the table and if they do net get their things together they probably have to take part in the qualification play offs in order to avoid the conference league. In the beginning of the season Rochdale seemed to be a quite good away side but as time has past they have lost the ability to play good football when being on the road and from last seven away games they have only gathered two points. The losses have not only been towards good home teams as Mansfield, but also against teams as Northampton and Darlington. Last weekend Rochdale played at home to Bury in a game ending in a goalless draw; Rochdale missing a penalty shot in the first half. The first half of the game was very aggressive but both teams stood up well so apart from the penalty kick, there was no real problems for the keepers. In the second half both teams seemed reluctant to keep on with the aggressive play and with only a few chances, a very dull game ended in a draw. To this game Rochdale has signed defender Greg Heald from Leyton Orient, where he only has made four appearances this season, and that was back in August and September. Another signing is the 19 year old midfielder Willo Flood from Manchester City. Flood has not made any first team appearances this season. Rochdale has doubts over defender Daryl Burgess (30 apps), defender Danny Livesey (6 apps) and midfielder Gary Jones (15 apps, 2 goals).
We believe that Huddersfield will keep up the good work here and cannot see why a struggling Rochdale will have any chance. We stake 3% on the home team.
Recent games for home team
|
2004-03-13 |
Huddersfield-Macclesfield |
4-0 |
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2004-03-09 |
Carlisle-Huddersfield |
1-0 |
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2004-03-06 |
Oxford-Huddersfield |
0-1 |
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2004-03-02 |
Huddersfield-Yeovil |
3-1 |
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2004-02-21 |
Huddersfield-Lincoln |
2-1 |
Recent games for away team
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2004-03-13 |
Rochdale-Bury |
0-0 |
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2004-03-09 |
Swansea-Rochdale |
1-1 |
|
2004-03-06 |
Boston-Rochdale |
2-0 |
|
2004-02-21 |
Rochdale-Cheltenham |
0-0 |
|
2004-02-14 |
Northampton-Rochdale |
3-1 |
Home table
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Huddersfield |
18 |
13 |
3 |
2 |
33-12 |
42 |
Away table
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Rochdale |
18 |
4 |
4 |
10 |
17-26 |
16 |
Links for this game
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// SportsObserver 040316
