Huddersfield have so far struggled to bounce back from a defeat to Nottingham Forest in last season’s playoff final, amassing just 15 points from 16 games, a tally that leaves them inside the relegation zone, in 23rd place.
The new West Bromwich Albion manager Carlos Corberan left the Terriers in the summer after coming so close to promotion to the Premier League, but his replacement, Danny Schofield, did not fare well, and he was sacked less than two months into the Championship season.
Mark Rotheringham was installed as manager at the end of September, and the former Hertha Berlin assistant has picked up eight points from his first seven games in charge, a slight improvement in fortunes for the Terriers, but they remain two points from safety.
Heading into this round of fixtures, Middlesbrough are the side outside the relegation zone closest to the hosts, and Rotheringham’s men ensured that Boro could not pull clear of them in their last away game by drawing 0-0 at the Riverside Stadium.
Following that, Huddersfield recorded a 1-0 victory at home to Millwall, an impressive result considering that the Lions had won their last four matches before the trip to the John Smith’s Stadium, with an early Yuta Nakayama strike proving to be the difference between the two sides.
Sunderland have made a steady start to their first season back in the Championship after a four-year absence, currently in 16th place with 21 points after 17 games.
After leading the charge to promotion, manager Alex Neil opted to leave the club to join Stoke City at the end of August, with the club’s hierarchy acting swiftly to bring in Tony Mowbray as the new boss, and the former Blackburn Rovers manager won two of his first three games in charge.
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However, since a 3-0 win at Reading, the Mackems have won just one of their last eight league games, a 2-1 win at home to Wigan Athletic in the middle of October, with Mowbray not being able to continue his winning start.
In that sequence of games, four matches ended in draws, meaning that Sunderland have been able to get some points on the board, while two of the
defeats came against the teams that will start this week’s round of fixtures in the automatic promotion places, losing 2-0 at Blackburn Rovers and 4-2 at home to Burnley.
Last time out, the Mackems again had to settle for a point in a 1-1 draw away at Luton Town, with Carlton Morris’s strike just before the break being cancelled out by a clinical finish from Elliot Embleton in the 78th minute.
