Andy Booth says Huddersfield Town are more than capable of beating Sheffield Wednesday – but has warned his old side will be tough opponents despite their struggles so far this season.
Dave Jones’ third-bottom team have won just once in 14 Championship outings going into Saturday’s Sky-televised lunchtime derby at Hillsborough (12.15).
It’s a fixture which has a recent history of producing goals and incident, with Town winning 3-1 in the steel city last season, when Joel Lynch and Wednesday’s Joel Mattock were sent off. The campaign before that, when both sides won promotion from League I, it was 4-4 at Hillsborough, withJordan Rhodes scoring all Town’s goals.
Click here for the 4-4 game match report
In 2010-11, Town’s travelling fans were singing in the South Yorkshire rain as their side scored a memorable 2-0 victory.
Booth has seen the Hillsborough derby from both sides, losing 1-0 with Town in 2004-05 (League I) and going down 3-2 with Wednesday in 2000-01 (Championship).
“It’s a good derby at a good stadium, and it certainly seems to produce talking points,” said Town ambassador and 150-goal man Booth, who netted 34 goals for the Owls.
“The 4-4 game was a real cracker, with us leading 2-0, then trailing 4-2, before Jordan grabbed an equaliser in injury time.
“We had a great win over there last season, and something similar would be fantastic as we go into another busy spell before Christmas.”
Click here to see our match report on Town's 3-1 win at Hillsborough last season
Town are 15th, and have lost their last two, but Booth added: “We’ve been competitive in pretty much every match and we are well capable of winning there. But Wednesday will be gunning for the points as well, and while they aren’t where they want to be, they won their last home game (5-2 against Reading) and will be keen to build on that.
“The season we both went up, they looked a really strong, sharp side, and I thought they would make a real Championship challenge.
“That’s not happened yet, but they have some good, experienced players, and we will have to be on our guard.”
