It's a big eight days for Huddersfield Town – and it’s not too outlandish to target three wins from the next three games going into the first international break of the season.
The renewal of acquaintance with Bournemouth is followed by the Capital One Cup second round clash at home to Championship rivals Charlton and the derby trip to Barnsley.
Town’s solid performances against Nottingham Forest, Bradford City (in the Capital One first round) and QPR were followed by last Saturday’s first league win at Millwall.
Canalside is a happy camp at the moment, but Mark Robins’ men need to follow up their taming of the Lions by picking three points from the Cherries.
It won’t be simple – many meetings with Bournemouth over the years have been tight and opposing boss Eddie Howe is a canny operator.
And since returning to the second tier, successive wins have been hard to come by (it’s happened just twice since Town won three in a row to raise expectations under Simon Grayson last September).
There’s a new look to Town this season, and while the Millwall performance wasn’t perfect, there are signs that Robins’ tactics are coming together.
There’s something both impressive and reassuring about the manager’s quiet determination to stick to his guns when it comes to his belief in patience, passing and keeping possession, and it was great to see things come together in South London.
James Vaughan – blows to the ribs aside – looks in fine fettle, but it would be great to see Martin Paterson find the net for the first time in Town colours.
The man who played under Howe at Burnley has come pretty close in his last two club games, having struck for Northern Ireland in that fine win over Russia, and you get the feeling one goal would lead to more.
That’s been the case with Bournemouth’s Lewis Grabban, whose output dried up over the second half of last season, when the South coast side won promotion, but who, like Vaughan, has already bagged four this time.
Also worth looking out for is Ryan Fraser, the ex-Aberdeen winger who was a Town target before joining Bournemouth in January after being warned against Huddersfield by former Leeds Road player Joe Harper.
