FAN’S VIEW  2026/27  – HUDDERSFIELD AWAY

I had intended to curb my instincts because I thought this FV by necessity was going to have to be a much shorter one but no, even though I had plenty of other things I should have been doing, I just couldn’t leave it alone. OUFC is in my bones and dictates so much of what I do.

With no match on Saturday Mrs FV and I made a mini break of it visiting a relation in Otley then onto Ripon for a couple of nights to take in the racing before an overnight stay in Huddersfield after this match. Headed home on Wednesday which doesn’t give much time before we’re off to Leicester.

Huddersfield is one of quite a few clubs that get very little publicity. Just ticking along doing nothing good or bad to make the press sit up and pay attention? I’ve written that without having a clue who owns them and what their financial situation is.

They had two seasons in the Premier League from 2017 to 2019 which was their first appearance in the top flight since 1972. They only got 16 points when relegated to the Championship. Only Derby, Southampton and Sunderland have fared worse when going down.

The Terriers next relegation came in the 2023/24 season when their leading scorer was Michal Helik with nine goals.

Are they too big for L1? They finished 9^th last season and missed out on the play-offs by eight points with an average home gate of 16,182. They have started this campaign well.

We’ve not played them away since December 2003. That was in the bottom flight. I was there along with Mrs FV and our son. I remember the day well but not the match. Living between southern and northern based family we were on Christmas present delivery and pick up duties.

That game ended 1-1. They went on to get promoted via the play-offs. We finished 9th.

But before I get onto the 2026/27 version of this fixture there are a few departures which merit comment.

Stan Mills.

Could have been a hero and remembered fondly. He was our best player last season. Was supposed to stay until January to help us out. What a fine thing that is to say given he had signed a contract to play for us anyway. But hey ho, we’d understand. Don’t blame players for wanting to better themselves and their wallets. Leave in the right way, not as he did. Was it all down to his dad? Some seem totally convinced that it was. It appeared he’d just about downed tools and it is no good trying to keep a want away player. Bad for the morale of the genuine guys who are trying to do their best (even if it is not as good as Mills’s best) for our football club as well as themselves.

What did we pay for Mills? Undisclosed fee of course but estimates are approx. £1m. What did we sell him for? Again undisclosed but estimated at £2.5m plus add-ons. Anyone can guess what those add-ons are. Hope they include a sell-on clause. Everton inserted one into the contract when they sold the winger to us. They get 20% of the profit we have made. As if they need that extra half a million quid or whatever but it could make quite a difference to us. I’ve been critical of the recruitment team on many an occasion but I’ll give them some decent marks on this one and overlook the temperament, type of character issues they are supposed to consider alongside playing ability and fitness. Yes, let’s just say he had his head turned. Do I wish him well? Only to earn us more through those add-ons. Otherwise no, why should I? I don’t wish ill but hard to not think sod him. Even though I’ve got a mate who supports North End I really do have to chuckle. Bottom of the league with no points after four games – and Stan played 89 minutes of their latest home defeat.

Brian De Keersmaeker      

He joined us in July 2025. Goes without saying the fee we paid was undisclosed but it was reported as having broken our record. So at least £1.5m. My recollection of him was that he was always injured but looking at his number of starts last season – 25 – that’s not quite the case. Nevertheless there’s 46 games. He wasn’t purchased as a goal scorer but to only get one is disappointing. I had great hopes. Always willing to think he could come good. He appeared to have that little bit of craft and ability to play intelligently just behind the striker. It never happened. Did he have the graft to go with the craft? Long before this loan deal to Bristol City with an option for them to buy I heard it said “he doesn’t want to play for us”. And certainly not in L1. Terrible value for money. On the face of it the recruitment guys didn’t get this right.

But in all this, whoever the player may be, we have to remember they are human beings and we don’t know what is going on in their lives. Some clubs suit and some don’t. There are family influences and concerns as we know, but we rarely know the full story.  

And there are others who have left the club, non-playing departures.

Tim Williams

Joined the club in September 2022 as Chief Executive. I recall having a brief chat with him not long after his arrival and he came over as a decent guy in the Fans’ Forums. TW commented that  it had “been a privilege to lead this club for the last four years, but now it’s time to rest a little and decide what the future brings.” The club confirmed Tim’s decision on the official site and the briefest of summaries of the period whilst he was at the club but the rest of the article is nothing other than quotes from him. I couldn’t spot anything thanking the man for his contribution.

Perhaps I’m reading something into this where nothing exists. Is there any blame being apportioned for us ending up with a transfer embargo? As I’ve noted before it was a perfect storm, relegation and no ground of our own. Couldn’t get out of that other than not getting into it in the first place by playing better than we did in 25/26. But the signing of the now crocked Frankie Kent was absolutely illogical. The buck has to stop somewhere.

And to repeat – our owner Erick Thohir is continuing to finance the club. We’re, what is it, over £50m in debt and that’s without considering the cost of the new stadium which hopefully will start to appear in the very near future. For crying out loud there can’t be any more delays can there? Give us that green light that has been earned over and over.

The Shorts

Craig and Chris have gone. It was known they were no longer with us before any official announcement was made. That came on 26 August. From the official site: “Everyone at Oxford United would like to thank Craig and Chris for their years of dedication and professionalism. They depart with our sincerest gratitude and our very best wishes for whatever comes next.”

I find this a little sad but we move on. Nothing is forever.

I’ve got great sympathy for Craig and what he is going through regarding HMRC having no sympathy when he, along with many others, have been scammed. Heartless. He’s one I will genuinely wish well for the future.

That’s the “outs” done but there are “ins” too and they’re players.

Ins

Looks like great work by the club. Recruitment team, well done. Where there’s a will there’s a way.

The transfer embargo isn’t intended to be a punishment per se and to make us less competitive, which it obviously does. It is designed to stop clubs going further and further into debt and getting close to oblivion. Whether the current rules are fit for purpose is open to debate. But as our two loan signings will cost us nothing in either fees or wages there will be no negative impact on our financial situation hence the deals being ratified by the EFL.

Thanks to Coventry and Villa for these young lads. My only slight concern is if we have to give them a certain amount of game time. But considering how light our squad is that shouldn’t be the biggest of issues.

As ever though, the proof of the pudding etc. Luka Lynch comes really highly rated. A Villa supporting mate said “he looked good in pre-season games”. Hope he’s raring to go.

Huddersfield Town 3 Oxford United 1

Not much time to visit hostelries but what better way to do it than take in two that were within a few seconds walk of each other and with exactly the same façade. They’re basically bookends either side of the railway station. On the left is the Head of Steam. Good choice of ales in here. Osset White Rat for me. Failed to claim my CAMRA discount. Plenty of Oxford fans on the premises. Nice place. On the right is the Kings Head. Again a good beer choice and again good quality. Very different inside though. With a much higher ceiling it had noise bouncing around the place. We weren’t the only Yellows to have moved the few yards.

My first thoughts on how this game would go was that we’d be gallant losers, give it our all but come up just short. When I saw the starting XI that changed and I contemplated that it could be a hammering. Aaron Ramsey has not got a lot to work with. He’s not spoilt for choice is he? Me though, I’d always like to see Michal Helik in the team and perhaps Louie Sibley should be given more of a chance. Jamie McDonnell hadn’t impressed me thus far. Early days. Surprise surprise, undisclosed fee. But widely reported at approx. £1m. Um! Of the outfield subs the only two that were not summoned to perform were the two I’ve mentioned here.

I felt what I’d term realistic pessimism but I didn’t detect that amongst the fellow travelling fans. Our numbers were announced over the Tannoy as over 600 which, given the distance, it being a night game and televised too was quite reasonable even if the pull of “new ground” for some got them there. The support given to the side was commendable too.

The total attendance figure was announced as 14k plus yet for some reason the BBC has recorded it as 7,031. The stadium’s capacity is 24,500 and whilst it had sparsely populated sections no way was it that empty.

Not having had a game for 10 days I was raring to go even though I was expecting the worst. That we’d had such a gap was down to Thames Valley Police. Having the Reading Festival on their doorstep they felt they couldn’t cope with the Yellows v the Royals at the same time.

Up north on the same dates the Leeds Festival took place. On Sunday 30 August Leeds United hosted Brentford with 35,974 looking on. Make of that what you will. West Yorkshire police better than TVP? Much greater risk attached to our postponed game than the Premier League fixture that went ahead?

At the final whistle I had no complaints about the score. We’d got what we deserved. I wasn’t a happy chap. Last season in the Championship we had the joint 12^th best defensive record. That equates to mid-table comfort and just 1.28 goals conceded on average. Three games into this campaign we’ve already let in six and this is at a lower level. Something is not right. We’ve gone backwards.

The Terriers were the first team we’ve encountered that played football and were not obsessed in banging it long to the big fellas. A different challenge for us. At half time with the game scoreless I thought we were coping quite well but looked about as likely to get one ourselves as Donald Trump is to admit that he wears a wig.

The stats of this game are really telling (but do I believe the BBC?). We had 62.2% possession. Our passing accuracy was better than the oppositions, 84% to 77%. But here’s the thing, they had 25 shots and 11 of those were on target. Allowing your opponent to achieve this says loud and clear, you’ve got big problems. Those in front of the back four should be helping to stop this happening.

Our shooting was pitiful in comparison. Five shots with only two on target. And while we’re at it, touches in the opposition’s box, we lost out 32 to 11.

The home side’s opener came about with neat incisive football. Pace down the right, the ball was moved quickly, superb movement from Bojan Radulovic as he ran between our less alert centre-halves and a quality finish giving Simon Eastwood no chance. We had none of what they’d produced here.

That goal came in the 56^th minute and Ramsey responded a few minutes later by taking off McDonnell, Tyler Goodrham and Brodie Spencer. Their replacements were Kai Andrews, Gatlin O’Donkor and Leo Snowden. Aged 20, 21 and 18 respectively.

No experience there but we saw an immediate improvement and at last a threat, which was coming down the right.

You can’t judge a player based on a few minutes but I have to say I took to Andrews in an instant. He immediately wanted the ball, not just once but what seemed like all the time. And when it was at his feet, he appeared to know what to do with it.

Again O’Donkor looked way more likely to find the back of the net than Mark Harris. He’d not been on the pitch 10 minutes when he did so, the assist provided by Snowden. This was neat football and had as much quality about it as the Huddersfield strike. Andrews, Snowden and Spencer worked the ball well in a very tight space. The cut back from our teenager was finished in true striker fashion from close in. GO’D is a very different player to that of a couple of years back. Excluding added time he’s been given 79 minutes of game time so far in our three league games and has already scored twice. That’s some strike rate.

I now got all excited thinking that we might be ready to pounce.

Silly boy. Four minutes later we were behind again. A corner was headed in at the far post. Routine stuff, a poor goal to concede. Flicked on then easily headed in.

Game over four minutes later. Sam Long gave the ball away and they just went through our centre which got exposed for lack of pace big time. Love Longy to bits but I think it’s fair to say he had one of his worst ever games for us.

Huddersfield are now top so perhaps they’ll still be right up there come the end of the season. We’ll play worse teams. In Joe Taylor they have someone who is a serious contender for the title of top scorer in L1.

Maybe then not quite as bad as I’ve made out. And as per usual the referee did us no favours. Should have had a penalty for a foul on Siriki Dembele and there were other clear fouls that Ben Speedie ignored.

I didn’t think Dembele was our worst player by any means but he does frustrate.

Others worth a mention before I sign off. McDonnell again I didn’t think did much. When I said so a reply I received was “well he was better than he has been”.

Mo Massinga showed a bit of trickery and clearly has some talent. Tyler Goodrham though disappointed again. Come on Ty you’re better than what you are currently coming up with.

Our captain has come in for some mild criticism but I think when he’s got better players around him who can play football he can get back on it moving the ball around first time with purpose as he did on a couple of occasions when the circumstances were right. And he hit one excellent defence splitting pass. We need more of that.

So, onto Leicester. I can’t lie. I’m not expecting us to get anything out of the game. But I can but hope.