Huddersfield Town return to Championship action on Saturday with the aim of escaping the relegation zone in the final run-in, having faltered in their survival bid and fallen back into the bottom three recently.
In 43 outings across spells under the tutelage of Neil Warnock, Darren Moore, Jon Worthington and current boss Andre Breitenreiter, the Terriers have earned just 44 points, with the most recent of their nine victories being a crucial one in a true six-pointer at home to Millwall in early April, as Rhys Healey netted the only goal of the game in the fourth minute of injury time.
Aiming to build on that and put daylight between themselves and the drop zone, Breitenreiter’s men then travelled to Deepdale to take on Preston North End and led going into the interval through Josh Koroma, only to succumb to an eventual 4-1 beating, as Milutin Osmajic netted a hat-trick alongside a Will Keane goal, before most recently visiting Bristol City and looking set to take all three points at the weekend.
Koroma again opened the scoring in that encounter at Ashton Gate, giving his side an 81st-minute lead, and they remained ahead until deep into injury time, only to concede a last-gasp penalty which Nahki Wells converted to force a share of the spoils.
Having now fallen behind Birmingham City, who picked up a crucial victory last time out in the relegation dogfight, Huddersfield Town find themselves one point adrift of safety with nine left to fight for and will be desperate to leap back out of the drop zone with a vital return to winning ways on home turf on Saturday.
their way stand a Swansea City side who will bid to continue their upturn in form to end the Championship campaign, having moved well clear of the dogfight in recent games.
Luke Williams arrived in the hot seat in South Wales in January, with the Swans sat on 32 points from 26 matches, and he was unable to inspire an initial improvement in the New Year with their tough season continuing, as back-to-back defeats to Queens Park Rangers and Middlesbrough at the beginning of this month left them in the mix at the bottom end of the division on 47 points from 41 outings.
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They have since bounced back in style to quickly scale the table, though, moving up to 14th spot with back-to-back wins in their last two attempts as they firstly returned to winning ways with a 3-0 beating of Stoke City on home turf thanks to goals from Liam Cullen, Matt Grimes and Josh Key.
Williams’s men then welcomed already-relegated Rotherham United on Saturday, and after the encounter remained goalless for 74 minutes, they were eventually able to prevail and earn a 14th three-point haul of the season as Andy Rinomhota’s own goal made the only difference between the teams.
Having now climbed up to 14th spot with three games to play, nine points clear of the bottom three and three behind 13th-placed Sunderland, Swansea City will bid to make it three wins on the bounce on Saturday to continue their positive end to the term and climb up the division.
