This evening the team travel to the Etihad Stadium along with around 8,000 Town fans, most of which travel there with hope rather than expectancy. In the first game, both teams fielded rotated squads and played out a 0-0 draw with not much incident.
The way that Town's rotated squad coped with their more illustrious opponents was highly commendable, and had it not been for a mistimed wander from Van La Parra we may just have emerged victorious. The replay, for me, is a hard one to judge.
Obviously if we had of got this tie in recent years, I would have been brimming with excitement, barely able to contain myself and hoping that we give a good account of ourselves and sing our hearts out. Now though, my concerns are not suffering any injuries and not been on the wrong end of a confidence draining defeat. The ideal situation is of course a Huddersfield win in 90 minutes, but if we leave with a 0-1, 0-2 defeat with a rotated team then I'll be happy and ready to move on to Newcastle.
Make no mistake about it, the game against Rafa's men at the weekend will be the biggest game of the season, at time of writing (I generally do these the night before) 'The Toon' are losing 1-0 at the AMEX. If the result stays the same and we win at the weekend we'll have our metaphorical foot fully on Newcastle's neck.
Right enough of the hyperbole for now, let's get on to the match at the Etihad itself. Pep perhaps dropped a reference that he could use this match as an opportunity to blood a few younger players, in his pre-match preview challenging the youngster's, "Show me what you can do".
We know already that Wagner will favour a weakened starting eleven, and some players, such as Kachunga and Van La Parra seem in need of a bit of a rest. We can only hope that City do give a chance to more of their academy players; the last time they did this in the cup they were on the end of a hiding away at Stamford Bridge.
Amongst his joking about his touchline ban, Brexit and fines in his pre-match preview, Terriers chief Wagner said that Huddersfield will go to the Etihad and "play with total freedom" and "show their identity". Town's identity has been clear for all to see this season and if we show it this evening then there is absolutely no doubt we will make everyone associated with Huddersfield Town proud.
Mark Hudson, Stankovic and Coleman are all likely to be recalled to the squad and will need to be in fine fettle to repel a rampant City. Their players come into this game on the back of a 5-3 hammering of Monaco in the Champions League and a break in Abu Dhabi. Whilst the 5-3 might be ominous, we all remember what happened last time City took a mid-season break before an FA Cup tie. Let's hope we benefit in the same way as Bamford, Karanka and co did that day.
Until next time UTT
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