Huddersfield Town must be wary not to pack the flip flops just yet with the Terriers still yet to secure survival

Fresh from a humiliating 7-0 defeat to champions-elect Norwich City, Huddersfield Town will look to all but secure safety when they host South Yorkshire rivals Rotherham United on Saturday afternoon.

The Terriers were victim to a numbing defeat in East Anglia on Tuesday night, as the top-of-the-table Canaries spread their wings with elegance, totally out-playing Carlos Corberán’s side, scoring five before the interval at Carrow Road.

With an eight-point cushion over 22nd-placed and Saturday’s opponent Rotherham, survival should be achieved with just seven games to go. However, the Huddersfield players must see the job through before their thoughts drift towards summer plans.

One win in eight suggests that Corberán’s players have slightly lost focus on the task at hand, however, they could still be dragged into a nail-biting conclusion to the campaign with Championship football for next season not yet a guarantee.

What makes the second-tier relegation battle even more engrossing is the Millers’ significant chunk of games in hand on their rivals towards the foot of the table. Paul Warne’s side still boast four games in hand on 21st-place Birmingham City, with a seven point gap separating the two outfits. To have ten games left to play in under a month is simply absurd.

Warne’s team have seen a mixed bag of results lately with the intention clear that the South Yorkshire side are looking to escape the gloomy grasp of the relegation zone as soon as possible.

Recent away wins at Sheffield Wednesday and Bristol City were key with the former firmly in the relegation scrap and the latter still yet to confirm their safety. However, the hectic Easter weekend proved an opportunity missed.

A 1-0 defeat away to Millwall, a game in which Rotherham missed a penalty, wasn’t a humiliating result with Gary Rowett’s Lions hunting a late play-off push. On the other hand, a 3-0 scoreline in favour of bottom-side Wycombe Wanderers at the New York Stadium was.

Gareth Ainsworth’s side look all but set for relegation back to League One after promotion last summer, providing the Millers with a golden opportunity to close the gap on themselves and Birmingham, who picked up four impressive points against promotion-chasing sides in Swansea and Brentford respectively. It was another chance that slipped through Rotherham’s fingers.

Whilst results of late have been inconsistent for Rotherham, goal-scoring tallies haven’t; they’ve struggled to score goals for a while now.

Six goals in ten Championship outings isn’t a tally worth boasting whilst in a relegation scrap, with forwards Michael Smith and Freddie Ladapo scoring five of those goals combined.

The hosts have also seen a drop in their goal tally, with five scored in the last eight since Corberán’s team put four past Swansea City in February.

Two sides that are struggling to score and are devoid of confidence…I’m not a betting man but expecting a stalemate certainly wouldn’t be naïve.

Draws are a rarity though for these two sides, with a combined 15 in 75 league games this season; Rotherham with just five.

What is a certainty though, is that three points for either outfit could prove vital in their respective bids to remain in the Championship. A win for Huddersfield would all but secure survival whilst if Rotherham can get the better of their South Yorkshire rivals, they’ll give themselves a much stronger chance of avoiding an instant return to League One for the third consecutive time.

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