National Final at Loftus Road on Wednesday night
Huddersfield Town’s Under-18 side will look to finish a good season on a high on Wednesday evening when they travel to Loftus Road to take on Queens Park Rangers in the Professional Development League 2 Final.
The game, which kicks-off at 7pm, is free to watch if any Town fans can make it to London, but can alternatively be watched LIVE for free via the live stream on htafc.com.
The young Terriers have already excelled in competition this season, reaching the Fifth Round of the FA Youth Cup for the first time in 13 years before a narrow defeat at Nottingham Forest, adding to a second place finish in the inaugural Professional Development League 2 North table thanks to a run of five wins and a draw in their final six games.
A dramatic semi-final penalty shootout win at Southern League winners Charlton Athletic has setup the final at QPR, who defeated Northern winners Leeds United in the other semi-final. The Rs are the reigning Youth Alliance League winners from last season and conceded fewer goals than any other side in the Professional Development League this season – just 15.
Town’s form
Charlton Athletic (A) – PDL2 semi-final – 2-2 (won on penalties)
Sheffield Wednesday (H) – PDL2 – 4-0 (W)
Derby County (A) – PDL2 – 3-2 (W)
Sheffield United (H) – PDL2 – 1-1 (D)
Wigan Athletic (H) – PDL2 – 4-1 (W)
QPR’s form
Leeds United (A) – PDL2 semi-final – 1-0 (W)
Swansea City (H) – PDL2 – 4-0 (W)
Bristol City (A) – PDL2 – 1-0 (W)
Millwall (H) – PDL2 – 0-1 (L)
Colchester United (H) – PDL2 – 1-0 (W)
Town’s pre-match comments:
Professional Development Coach Tony Carss:
“The players’ work ethic, discipline and attitude have been unbelievable.
“We had to work hard at those things during the early stages of the season to get it to how myself, Frankie (Bunn) and Mark (Lillis) wanted it. Everyone has bought into it and it has helped us massively.
“The players have all developed over the course of the season and some of them have been fantastic.
“We do a lot of research ahead of every game that we play. Our analyst Emyr Humphreys does a lot of work with videos to help the lads understand our opponents. As coaches we will work on the game plan on the back of the research and put the work in on the training ground. Loftus Road will be a fantastic place to football and we will be positive in our approach.”
QPR’s pre-match comments:
Professional Development Coach Steve Gallen:
“For all of us it’s magnificent. For me, personally and the lads, to play at Loftus Road, it’s brilliant.
“It’s going to be a fantastic experience to play at Loftus Road in a final. Hopefully we can get a few fans there and the club get a bit of a feel-good factor about it.
“The lads deserve to have a night like that and hopefully they’ll get it on that evening.”
Officials
Referee: Constantine Hatzidakis
Assistant Referees: Simon Finnigan & Timothy Burman
Fourth Official: Christopher O’Donnell
You can also follow the game and the pre-match build-up via Town’s official twitter feed, @htafcdotcom!
