The John Smith’s Stadium will be absolutely rocking for the visit of Newcastle United on Sunday.
Things couldn’t have gone better for Huddersfield Town in their first week as a Premier League club and now they are eagerly-anticipating their first home match.
Town fans who made the trip to Selhurst Park to see the 3-0 victory over Crystal Palace have no doubt already booked their travel tickets and accommodation for the next 18 away games!
They created a wonderful atmosphere down in London and the great thing about the performance was Town were on the front foot from the very first minute.
That’s what was so encouraging from my point of view.
It’s a bit like when Bournemouth were promoted a couple of years ago, they blitzed everyone to start with, and Town showed exactly the same sort of enthusiasm and energy to play.
As David Wagner quite rightly said, you have to ride your luck at times and Palace did have a couple of chances, but they couldn’t handle Town’s vibrant overall play.
And in striker Steve Mounié they look to have a real find.
To get a striker who runs ‘the other way’ and powers down the channels, forcing centre halves to chase him into the corners, is a tremendous option.
And especially when he is big and mobile like Town’s 22-year-old arrival from Montpellier.
When I spoke to people about Mounié and how he played in the French league, they all said how good he was in the air and marked down his aerial prowess as a big plus.
But they never mentioned about how much he works in the corners, and that work was of the highest quality against Crystal Palace.
Hopefully, the season ahead will be an exciting one for Mounié and for Town in general.
When you have started so well, it immediately alerts other clubs as to your ability and threat and they immediately start trying to work you out.
As with Bournemouth, it might take the rest a season with Town to possibly catch up.
But everything is positive and now Newcastle are on the horizon, live on Sky TV.
It’s a huge game.
Newcastle did okay against Tottenham, but when you have a key playmaker (Jonjo Shelvey) sent off minutes into the second half with the scores level at the time, you have no real sense of how competitive Newcastle are going to be this season.
For Town, they couldn’t be going into the game off a better start, not just on the pitch but in the stands as well.
Like I’ve said, the John Smith’s Stadium will be rocking on Sunday afternoon.
Just as Newcastle, over the years, have taken points because of the incredible support of their home fans, Town’s followers have the chance to play their part this weekend – and I have no doubt they will.
And that’s nothing more than the team and the head coach deserve.
You can’t be anything but impressed when you listen to what Wagner has to say.
His clarity and honesty is refreshing – and it’s something which can be said of his fellow German coaches, Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool and Daniel Farke at Norwich City (and I’m not forgetting Uwe Rosler at Fleetwood).
Farke gave a fabulous interview about how everything has to be about the team and the club and not about individuals.
He spoke so clearly and confidently about the task in hand at Norwich, and it was just like listening to Wagner in many ways.
Wagner always talks with intelligence, and it’s that honesty which tends to mark out the Germans as formidable coaches and managers.
I’m just hoping Town can follow their excellent start at Palace with another compelling performance.
There appears no reason why they shouldn’t – and it could well be another very enjoyable afternoon for the home faithful at the John Smith’s.
