Saturday sees the 38th league meeting between Rovers and Huddersfield Town and, at the moment, Rovers have the narrowest of advantages as they have won 13 while Huddersfield have won 12 and there’s also been 12 draws. As far as goals are concerned, Rovers have scored 49, which is two more than their opponents from West Yorkshire.
The sides didn’t meet in the league until 1956/57 when Huddersfield were 3-1 winners at their old Leeds Road ground on 3rd September 1956 while Rovers were 4-0 winners in the return fixture at Eastville just one week later.
Prior to this season, the last time the sides faced each other was in 2010/11 when Rovers were 1-0 winners at what was then the Galpharm Stadium and Huddersfield won by the same score in the return fixture at The Memorial Stadium.
Earlier this season, at what is now known as the John Smith Stadium, Huddersfield were 3-1 winners on 19th October 2024 thanks to goals from Matty Pearson, Callum Marshall and Bojan Radulovic while Isaac Hutchinson scored Rovers’ consolation goal.
Dennis Booth is the only managerial connection I can find between the clubs. He was assistant to John Ward at Rovers for two years (1993 – 19950 and then spent two years in a similar position.
A number of players have turned out for both clubs, including current Rovers defender Jack Hunt, who began his career with the Yorkshire side and made 104 league appearances for them before moving on.
The Huddersfield squad include Antony Evans, who scored 21 goals in 121 league games for Rovers and goalkeeper Lee Nicholls who appeared in 16 league games for us when on loan from Wigan Athletic in 2015/16. Marcus Browning, Colin Dobson, Marcus Stewart, Joe Walter and Steve Yates have also played for both clubs.
Stewart, a Rovers Academy graduate played in 171 league games for Rovers before a move to Huddersfield, for a fee in excess of £1m in July 1996, a year after he’d scored against them for Rovers in a Wembley play off final. There were further big money moves for this incredibly talented goalscorer, to Ipswich and Sunderland during a career in which he was extremely unfortunate not to win full international honours.
If you don’t recognize Walter’s name, it’s probably because it’s over 100 years ago that he played for Rovers! He appeared for the club in their first two seasons in the league, in 1920/21 and 1921/22. He moved to Huddersfield in May 1922 and was a member of the side that won League Championships in 1923/24 and 1924/25, scoring five goals in 55 appearances. He returned to Rovers in 1928 and made another seven appearances to add to 75 he’d made during his first spell with the club.
Only three players have made their Rovers league debut against Huddersfield, namely Dave Staniforth, Carl Heggs and Matt Groves.
Both sides were in action on Tuesday evening and while Rovers were playing out a goalless draw at Shrewsbury there was a 1-0 home defeat for Huddersfield, at the hands of Wrexham.
Those results left Rovers in 20th position in the league standings with 36 points from their 34 games while Huddersfield occupy the final play off place with 58 points from their 35 games.
To date Huddersfield have won nine of their 17 away games while Rovers have won seven of their 16 home games; time for number eight, surely!
Enjoy the game!