The Championship play-off semi-final first legs are complete, but both ties are far from over. Here’s the state of play in both of them…
HUDDERSFIELD (1) v (1) LUTON
If we wanted the play-offs to go off with a bang, Luton v Huddersfield on Friday night certainly delivered. The raucous atmosphere at Kenilworth Road met that lovely summer’s evening play-off backdrop, we got a Huddersfield penalty shout within the first 20 seconds, Luton then took over before Huddersfield broke away to score on 12 minutes through Danel Sinani. Luton as expected piled on the pressure and got their equaliser through Sonny Bradley before having their own penalty shout turned down. Huddersfield grew and Luton flagged somewhat in the second half with the Terriers going in all square ahead of the home game at the John Smiths.
Repeat performance – Sonny Bradley last goalscorer 35/1 (Betfair)
That breakaway Huddersfield goal could turn out to be the key to this whole tie. Going in I had Luton as Deontay Wilder and Huddersfield as Tyson Fury – across the season Huddersfield had been stronger, but Luton possessed a potential knockout punch. My feeling was that knockout punch would’ve most likely been struck in the first half of the home game and as things transpired that was certainly Luton’s strongest period. The fact Huddersfield managed to land a pretty big punch of their own means they’ve set up a one-off ‘winner takes all’ game and they have home advantage. Had Luton really been able to connect with their big shot perhaps we’d have a staggering wounded Huddersfield going into game two with the Hatters ready to see the job through.
Huddersfield managed to bring in Sorba Thomas for the final five minutes of the first leg, Thomas has been a standout for the Terriers this season and Carlos Corberan will I’m sure be considering bringing him back into the starting lineup. Luton’s injured star Elijah Adebayo was nowhere to be seen on Friday and I suspect we’ll…
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