This piece was written by Lee Pasquariello on Saturday 17th January just after 11pm, after hearing that Lee Grant had been sacked by Huddersfield Town, Bradford City’s next opponents in League One. Here are a few late night thoughts and a preview of next weeks game.

The build up to a tasty local derby

The build up to any West Yorkshire derby is always tense, but the sacking of Huddersfield Town manager Lee Grant has turned this one into absolute chaos. Written this late into the evening of Saturday’s matches, this post looks at how tonight’s news, combined with City’s decent second half performance today, sets the scene for a fiery encounter at the Accu Stadium next Saturday.  

In today’s match, City pushed the league leaders Cardiff City massively in a close 2-1 defeat. They showed a great effort and a lot of fight in the second half against them, and proved that with attacking intent they can compete against anyone in League One.  

As for Huddersfield Town, Lee Grant’s time as manager ended with a terrible 3-1 loss against Burton Albion, a result that at the time of writing leaves them managerless and quite frankly in a total mess, just a week before the Bantams come to town.  

The focus for this game now shifts to the potential of a new manager bounce under a likely caretaker manager. However, on this late Saturday evening, tonight’s Huddersfield Town club statement has officially not confirmed yet who will take charge for this match. The stage is set for a huge clash for both teams that are currently sitting in the playoffs, and it will provide massive drama and entertaining action, but hopefully bragging rights for the Bantams.   

Bradford City- Aiming for the league double 

City can head into this fixture with their heads held high despite our narrow 2-1 defeat against likely League One champions Cardiff City. Despite a poor first half performance where we found ourselves 2-0 down inside half an hour, the second half performance showed resilience and good fight, and on another day we probably end the day with a point. This shows that City are definitely capable of competing against anyone in this league.  

The last fixture against Huddersfield Town is still very much fresh in the memory for probably most City fans, (or definitely for me anyway!), the match ended 3-1 to City in mid September. Bobby Pointon put the Bantams in front relatively early on, and then right on half time we had an amazing two minutes, where Pointon netted another before Josh Neufville did immediately after. Truly brilliant scenes at Valley Parade when that went in. 3-0 at half time, against Huddersfield with two of them scored by a Bradford lad, was absolutely unbelievable.

I remember on the day and a bit of time afterwards there was a bit of a debate as to who got the final touch for the third goal.  Was it Pointon for the hat trick or Neufville? but Neufville was the man who it was eventually credited to. 

Also in the reverse fixture at Valley Parade, City could have made it 4-0 early on in the second half through Will Swan, but unfortunately his effort hit the crossbar, and even though we conceded a really scrappy goal from a corner we looked very comfortable all throughout the second half and saw the game out with ease. Overall the day highlighted the confidence between the two clubs at that point in the season, and the City fans will be hoping for the same when we face them in a week’s time to secure the double over them.  

Huddersfield Town- A club in absolute turmoil and the sacking of Lee Grant

Despite them being somehow still in the playoffs, it seems that from the outside the situation at Huddersfield is toxic and volatile, especially online. Their league form of late has been very inconsistent, with poor results and performances, and massive fan unrest directed to manager Lee Grant, who tonight at the time of writing this piece has been sacked as manager.  

From the outside, it’s no wonder he’s been sacked. Like the club statement says, Town have won three in twelve games under him. In this day and age, a record like that will always lead to the board making a decision regarding the manager’s future.  

Grant’s time as manager ended tonight as a result of the loss against Burton Albion. His presence has been a massive talking point from what I’ve seen online, with the fans demanding new tactics and criticising their clear lack of identity and direction on the pitch.  

Even as a City fan, I’ve been seeing posts from some of the Town fan-base calling for his head since at least the start of November, so you definitely get the feeling that this has been brewing between the management team and supporters for a long time. Also, I even felt at the time of his appointment last summer that it was always going to be a huge risk for Town, given that Grant had no experience managing a club whatsoever.

Town are now scrambling to stabilise the club within the next week after this sacking, and it changes the dynamic completely. Will they be able to bounce back, or will the rot continue and City face a side that are currently in a massive slump? Whatever happens, next week’s fixture at the Accu Stadium will be a very interesting one.

Finally, it’s also worth noting that a similar change happened last season with Michael Duff. He was sacked in March 2025, after a run of poor results that saw them drop out of the playoffs to seventh, which they never recovered from. They actually finished the season in tenth place, so it makes you wonder will history repeat itself or will the board make the right decision this time around?

Either way, it’s a crucial time for Huddersfield Town, and the next managerial appointment must be the right one if they are to salvage anything from the season.