Leeds United v Huddersfield Town - Danny Cowley happy to embrace underdogs tag once again

He has a natural interest and affinity, given his ‘previous’ at non-league minnows Concord Rangers with one of his first post-match Saturday tea-time jobs after he has finished debriefing his Terriers players in the dressing room revolving around checking on the result of his old club, who he took from the Essex Senior Football League to the fifth rung of English football.

His history-making achievements at Lincoln City, who became the first non-league side in 103 years to reach the FA Cup quarter-finals following a last-minute win over Premier League side Burnley at Turf Moor in February 2017, further add to his propensity to dispense with footballing convention and delight in doing so.

Victory today at Elland Road would not be quite as seismic, but it would represent a surprise all the same.

Huddersfield face a Leeds side who are back on the straight and narrow after their early new year wobble, courtesy of four successive victories to reassert their top-two credentials.

Cowley is the first to admit that plenty must go right for Town to stun their neighbours in their own citadel today against the side who he believes are the best in the Championship.

But strange things sometimes happen. As he should know.

“We are respectful that we are playing a Leeds team who are at the top of this division and the best team in this division in my opinion,” Cowley said.

“But we are really looking forward to the challenge that Saturday brings. We are proud people and this is a proud football club.

“We know what this game means in our season and also know what this means to our supporters. And they have not had enough good times and enough fun in recent months and years.

“We are desperately looking forward to putting a performance together which makes them proud.

“We go in as underdogs and that is never a bad thing in a derby. We will embrace the occasion. They play with an energy and intensity that tries to suffocate the opposition, but we are looking forward to that and to see how far we have come as a group.”

Like Leeds, Town should not be short of brio either ahead of what has the makings of a fascinating contest.

Successive league victories against Charlton and Bristol City have fortified their belief that they can achieve their declared aim of survival, but it is the options that Cowley is able to pick from which is his major source of current satisfaction.

That was self-evident by his bench in last weekend’s 4-0 win over the Addicks, when scorers Steve Mounie and Juninho Bacuna and Alex Pritchard made contributions, with Elias Kachunga and Collin Quaner representing other options.

It is a far cry from the game in Huddersfield just before Christmas when Cowley’s options, with the greatest respect, ensured that his side came into the fixture with the equivalent of one arm tied behind their backs.

“I think we feel in a much better place than we would have done on the last occasion we played Leeds for sure,” Cowley added.

“Last time, we played with 11 right-footers and Flo (Hadergjonaj) had to play left-back and young (Demeaco) Dehaney came in and played at right-back.

“We had to play a 4-4-2 due to the number of senior players unavailable to us and the shape kind of picked itself. It was a really tough time and since then we have been able to evolve.

“We are more together and further on as a group and more mature in terms of the time we have spent together and the team is very different and the style we are playing in.”

One of those players who Cowley had to make do without back in mid-December – and whose absence he had cause to bemoan – is relishing his first experience of this particular West Yorkshire derby and with good reason in Lewis O’Brien.

Town’s shining light in another testing season missed the game in Huddersfield due to injury, much to his disappointment.

He may have been brought up in Rochdale, but his lengthy association at schoolboy level with the Terriers ensures that he knows more than most what this fixture means.

The midfielder has his own special memory of this particular derby, from one famous winter’s day in early 2017 when drama arrived by the bucketload on a day when former Town chief David Wagner and ex-Leeds boss Garry Monk indulged in a little set-to after a late winner from Terriers cult hero Michael Hefele.

O’Brien, whose brilliant long-range strike was the only highlight of Town’s last derby involvement – in their 2-1 loss at Oakwell in January – said: “I have been around this club for nearly 11 years now and seen a lot of derbies.

“This one has always been a massive fixture, for the clubs, fans and community.

“If we can take away a positive result, it would be massive.

“I remember I was a ball-boy in the 2-1 (win) when Heff scored and did that knee-slide with his hands out!

“I was too far away to celebrate and at the other end of the pitch. But to see the way the players and fans celebrated was massive.

“Sometimes, derbies are quite slow with not many chances. But in this derby, there is always excitement in every game and hopefully there will be more.

“I missed the first game this season. I don’t really mention when I feel sore in my legs; I just get over it and carry on.

“But I felt a different kind of pain and mentioned it and obviously when they told me the time-frame I was out, I looked at the games and found I was missing Leeds which was a massive disappointment.”