Huddersfield Town will conclude their pre-season preparations on Friday at the John Smith’s Stadium before launching a bid for an immediate return to the Championship in the coming term, having dropped back into England’s third tier for the first time since 2012 last time around.
Across spells under the management of Neil Warnock, Darren Moore, Jon Worthington and Andre Breitenreiter, the Terriers were unable to steer clear of the Championship’s bottom three, succumbing to a 23rd-placed finish having earned just 45 points from their 46 outings.
The Yorkshire outfit then turned to Michael Duff over the summer, and he has overseen a pleasing build-up to the 2024-25 campaign thus far, with Friday’s hosts having won five of their opening six friendlies, firstly beating Guiseley, Ossett United and Harrogate Town before suffering a 4-2 defeat at the hands of Aris Limassol.
Duff’s men would go on to finish a pre-season tour in Austria in style, though, picking up 2-1 victories over German outfit Hertha Berlin and Serie A side Lecce in their last two outings, with Matty Pearson and Ben Wiles getting on the scoresheet against the former and second-half goals from Josh Koroma and Rhys Healey settling the latter.
Huddersfield Town will now bid to cap off their pre-season run on a positive note with another victory on Friday before kicking off their promotion bid with a tough trip to Peterborough United next Saturday.
Their visitors will also aim to close their preparations with a victory at the John Smith’s Stadium on Friday, having enjoyed a perfect record in pre-season thus far.
Sheffield United turned their focus to the 2024-25 Championship term on the back of a dismal campaign in the Premier League last time around, succumbing to an immediate relegation back to England’s second tier having finished 20th on just 16 points, 16 adrift of safety.
Chris Wilder‘s men have since turned out four times on their travels in friendlies and come out on top on each occasion, firstly visiting York City and Chesterfield and prevailing in 2-1 and 3-0 triumphs respectively.
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The Blades then travelled to Harrogate Town and dished out a 4-1 beating with Andre Brooks, Callum O’Hare, Owen Hampson and Louie Marsh on the scoresheet, before most recently taking on third-tier Rotherham United on Saturday and picking up a narrow 2-1 victory, as Marsh netted a late winner after Vinicius Souza‘s opening goal was cancelled out by a Joseph Hungbo leveller.
With their Championship curtain-raiser away at Preston North End looming next Friday and expectations growing after a busy summer at Bramall Lane, Sheffield United will set out to make it five wins from five to build further confidence
