Grayson’s plans disrupted by international scheduling

The Terriers travel to Preston North End tonight in the Capital One Cup before making the long trip to Cardiff on Friday in a fixture that will herald the start of the entire Football League season.

International commitments mean Town will be without Jordan Rhodes, Murray Wallace, Sean Scannell, Joel Lynch and Olly Norwood at Deepdale, while Grayson is also concerned about a lack of preparation time ahead of the season’s opener in south Wales.

He told the Yorkshire Post: “I’ve never understood why a friendly has to be played so early. The other side of the coin is that we have international players on our books so this is recognition of that.

“I wouldn’t stop any player going away to play for his country. It is a fantastic accolade and something to relish. But the timing is not great, as two days before our season starts a couple of our players will be in foreign countries.

“Chances are, I won’t get everyone together until Friday morning and we will be playing just a few hours later. That will be only chance to do a session with the team that will face Cardiff. I realise it is the same for Malky (Mackay, Cardiff manager) and a lot of other managers. But that doesn’t make it right.”

The scheduling of tonight’s tie when the majority of first round games were played at the weekend has also annoyed Grayson. The Town manager added: “It is not ideal. I don’t know why it couldn’t be played at the weekend but that is Preston’s call. It is nothing to do with us and we haven’t had a say.

“I wanted to play Saturday but Preston were adamant the game should be played Tuesday. It only got moved to Monday when we were selected as the live game on the Friday.”

North End manager Graham Westley has history with Town after clashing with then manager Lee Clark and his coaching staff last season when in charge of Stevenage.

Grayson, however, insists that has no bearing on relations between the two clubs ahead of tonight’s meeting.

He said: “We played there late last season (when Town lost 1-0) and there was no difference. I wasn’t here when the bench clashed with Graham and Stevenage. He manages in his own style and I don’t have an issue with that. It has been very successful down the years.

“We know what Graeme Westley’s teams are like and it will be a tough game. I have spoken to a couple of people who were at the Leeds friendly and they said Preston played very well.

“So, we are expecting a very tough game. We have to be prepared for that. We won’t have our strongest team out because of the internationals but whoever plays has an opportunity to get into the team.”

Last six games: Preston North End DDWDDL, Huddersfield Town WDWWLD.

Last time: Preston North End 1 Huddersfield Town 0; April 14, 2012; League One.

Referee: R Lewis (Shropshire).