Huddersfield Town - A Team We Know Well
Brighton & Hove Albion have played no side more times in the last 12 years than Huddersfield Town, with the teams meeting 22 times across the Premier League, Championship and League One since 2006. Other than the 2011/12 campaign, which saw the Seagulls play their first season in the Amex Stadium after securing promotion from League One, the Terriers have joined Albion in the same league for every other season. The clubs have taken a similar journey over the last decade, leading into their first seasons in the Premier League, following promotions out of the second and third tiers of English football. The Terriers narrowly lead the stats over the previous 12 seasons, with seven victories to Albion’s five, while a further ten games have ended all square - across matches at the Withdean Stadium, Amex Stadium and John Smith’s Stadium. In the first of those 22 matches, a 20-year-old Jake Robinson scored a hat-trick for the Seagulls to seal an impressive 3-0 victory at the John Smith’s Stadium. But the Seagulls went the next nine games without recording a win over the Terriers, in a streak that included a 7-1 defeat away from home, after Michel Kuipers saw red in the 34th minute. That run also saw a 2-2 draw between the sides in April 2009, and the point - secured after goals from Calvin Andrew and Lloyd Owusu - proved pivotal as Russell Slade’s team pulled off the great escape. Huddersfield were Albion's final opponents at the Withdean Stadium in 2011, and despite the Seagulls lifting the League One trophy after the game, Danny Ward's late goal won the match 3-2 for the visitors. Albion triggered their own unbeaten run of nine games following a 2-1 victory at the John Smith’s Stadium in 2012, when Will Buckley secured a brace to prevent the Terriers from stretching theirs to ten matches. Leonardo Ulloa scored the first-ever Albion hat-trick at the Amex in the reverse fixture, as Gus Poyet’s team ran out 4-1 winners after David Lopez added a late penalty. Five consecutive draws then followed - including three 1-1 draws and two goalless matches - before the Seagulls sealed back-to-back victories on home soil in 2016. Just like Albion did, the Terriers ended the nine-game unbeaten run with victory in Yorkshire, winning 3-1 on a disappointing evening for Chris Hughton’s men, who equalised through Tomer Hemed during the 2016/17 campaign. But the defeat meant little to Albion’s hopes of reaching the Premier League, as they secured promotion with three games remaining, while Huddersfield achieved success through the play-offs. The Terriers claimed a 2-0 victory in the first-ever top-flight meeting between the teams last season, before a 1-1 draw was played out at the Amex later in the season. Albion will go in search of their first victory at the John Smith's Stadium since 2012 when they visit on Saturday afternoon, a win that would take the Seagulls eight points clear of their opponents in the Premier League table.