Adeyemi out to impress

Photo: PICTURE by DARREN ROBINSON

TOM ADEYEMI pictured at his first Athletic training session.

On-loan Norwich star poised to face his former mentor

TOM Adeyemi has a special motivation to succeed tomorrow.

The teenage midfielder is in line to make his first start at Boundary Park as Athletic take on cross-Pennine rivals Huddersfield — sworn enemies of the club Adeyemi represented on loan last season, Bradford City.

More than that, the Norwich player will seek to get one over on the Terriers manager, who he knows from their time together at Carrow Road.

"It is a great opportunity for me," said Adeyemi, who is with Athletic on loan until January 3 of next year.

"At Norwich I was training but opportunities in the Premier League would have been limited.

"Here in League One, hopefully I will be more heavily involved.

"I know Lee Clark from when he was assistant manager to Glenn Roeder at Norwich and Huddersfield is a massive game for us."

Both of Athletic's deadline-day signings are set to be involved, with Shefki Kuqi operating in front of Adeyemi. But Nathan Clarke, on loan at Athletic from the Galpharm Stadium, will have to watch the teams do battle from the comfort of the main stand.

After losing 1-0 at Boundary Park in mid-November last year, Huddersfield embarked on a remarkable run which took them to within 90 minutes of a place in the Championship.

Taking cup games and the play-offs out of the equation — Town lost 3-0 to Peterborough at Old Trafford to miss out on promotion — the Terriers have only been beaten three times in 35 fixtures, including in 2011-12, since departing back over the hill with tail between knees after Oumare Tounkara's goal settled the Roses clash.

And with Alan Lee's first two league goals helping Huddersfield to a 3-0 home win over Wycombe last week, the club have not experienced defeat in 30 npower League One matches.

Manager Lee Clark boasts a squad rich in options. But striker Jordan Rhodes, son of former Athletic 'keeper Andy, is out of the equation tomorrow as a result of his place in the Scotland under-21s squad.

Huddersfield are left with two out-and-out strikers in Lee and Lee Novak, who has five goals to his name so far this term.