[Lord Snooty]

Huddersfield Town v Exeter City
Sky Bet League One
Sunday January 4th - 15:00 ko
at the Accu Stadium

Huddersfield Town welcome Exeter City to the Nagle Arena on Sunday afternoon for the final festive football match in the Yuletide period of 2025/26.

Match preview on YouTube

All images used in this thread are form Wikipedia.




A brief history of Exeter City: formed in 1901 as Sidwell United, becoming Exeter City three years later when they merged with Exeter United. They have played at St James' Park from the very beginning.

As members of the Southern League, in 1914 they went on a tour of South America and became the first opponents of the newly formed Brazil national team. They were invited to be members of the new Third Division of the Football League in 1920 and obviously were assigned a place in Division Three (South).





They have never made it up to the 2nd tier, the closest they came was in 1932/33 when the came in as runners up to Brentford in a time when only the champions went up. They missed out by a single point, despite winning their final two matches.

At the end of 1957/58, they had to apply for re-election after finishing bottom of the league. They were successful, but this was the year when Divisons 3 North and South were nationalised and so the Grecians became founder members of Division 4.

Things started to inprove and at the end of 1963/64, they won promotion for the first time when they finished 4th, beating 5th placed Bradford City by two points. It wasn't a long stay up though, just a couple of seasons and they were kept down for another eleven seasons.

They went up as runners up to Cambridge United in 1976/77 and stayed up for seven seasons before dropping again. But then in 1989/90 they won their first league title, Fourth Division champions, beating runners up Grimsby Town by a whopping ten points. This was with ex Leeds and England full back, Terry Cooper in charge.

Relegated again though in 1994, they dropped even deeper down the league ladder when at the end of 2002/03, they were relegated to the Conference, despite winning their final three games.

Ex Town player, Paul Tisdale took over the manager's job in 2006 and the rebuid began. They made it to the 2007 Play Off Final but were beaten by Morecambe.

They did win the 2008 Play Offs though, firstly getting revenge on Torquay United in the semi finals, before going on to beat Cambridge United 1-0 at Wembley with a goal from Rob Edwards (no not that one) (or that one either).

Back in the Football League, they won promotion again, finishing as runners up to Brentford in 2008/09. Staying in League One for three seasons, it was downwards again until 2021/22 when they came up again. This time as runners up to Forest Green Rovers, blowing the title on the last day by losing at home to Port Vale.

Before that, they lost three Play Off campaigns. Against Blackpool in the 2017 Final, against Coventry City in the 2018 Final and then hammered 4-0 by Northampton Town in 2020.

Head to Head



Town lead the head to head with 13 wins to Exeter's 9, with 5 draws.

That head to head was 4-0 to Exeter after the first four games. Starting in the 4th Division in 1975'76 after Town had been relegated to the lowest rung on the league ladder, the Grecians won 1-0 at Leeds Road and whupped us 4-1 down at St James. Alan Beer downing a couple in that one. The season after, they did the double again as they went on to win promotion.

When we eventually joined them in the 3rd Division in 80/81, we did the double over them. And in style, 9-1 over the two matches. It was 4-1 down there in my first visit to the ground. A memorable hat trick from big Steve Kindon and one from Brian Stanton. Back up at Leeds Road on Easter Monday, we pumped them 5-0. Stanton scored twice, as did Mark Lillis and that was after Keith Hanvey had opened the scoring.

Fast forward to 2009/10 and a young man called Jordan Rhodes. At the Galpharm Stadium, after Lee Novak had opened the scoring in the 17th minute, young Jordan set about scoring an all headed hat trick. Not just that, but the goals, either side of half time, would be recorded as the quickest headed hat trick in Football League history. His eight minutes beating the ten minutes taken by Everton legend Dixie Dean in 1927/28. His first was in the 44th minute from a cross by Robbie Williams at the near post. The second in the 48th minute came from an Anthony Pilkington crosss and the third supplied by Gary Roberts.

That was a 4-0 win and the scoreline and the Rhodes hat trick was repeated a couple of seasons later down at their place. Alan Lee opened the scoring this time. Jordan took an absolute age to get his three goals in this one though. His first was a flick on over the keeper in the 26th minute. Then a powerful strike from a pass by Novak in the 65th and completed in the 89th, a header from a Danny Ward cross.

Danny has scored the last two hat tricks for Huddersfield Town. Only two hat tricks in over a decade. Any chance of another one in this game, please?

If anybody is likely to get it, it'll be the lad who scored the only goal of the 1-0 win down there in September. The brilliant Leo Castledine.

Highlights of Exeter away






Exeter manager profile: Gary Caldwell: (Composed using Google AI)

Gary Caldwell is a Scottish former professional footballer and current manager of Exeter City FC. Primarily a ball-playing centre-back, he had a distinguished playing career with notable success at both Celtic and Wigan Athletic, earning 55 caps for Scotland.

Playing Career Highlights:

Caldwell began his career at Newcastle United, where he struggled to break into the first team and had several loan spells, including one at Hibernian. He joined Celtic in 2006, winning two Scottish Premier League titles, a Scottish Cup, and a Scottish League Cup during his four-year spell. He was also named the Scottish Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year in the 2008-09 season.

In January 2010, he transferred to English Premier League side Wigan Athletic, where he was appointed captain. He became a key player and famously co-lifted the FA Cup trophy with Emerson Boyce after Wigan's historic 1-0 win over Manchester City in the 2013 final. He retired in February 2015 due to a long-term hip injury.

International Career:

Caldwell made 55 appearances for the Scotland national team, earning a place in the Scottish FA International Roll of Honour. A memorable moment came in a Euro 2008 qualifier where he scored the only goal in a 1-0 victory against France in October 2006.

Managerial Career:

After retiring as a player, Caldwell transitioned into coaching and management. His managerial roles have included:

• Wigan Athletic: He led Wigan to the League One title and promotion back to the Championship in his first full season as manager (2015-16), earning the LMA League One Manager of the Year award.
  
  
• Chesterfield & Partick Thistle: Subsequent spells at these clubs were less successful, both ending in relegation.
  
  
• Exeter City: Appointed manager in October 2022, he has since helped stabilize the club in League One, achieving mid-table finishes in subsequent seasons.
  

Club connections:

Jaden Brown, Kieran Phillips and Pat Jones have all been direct links between the two clubs in recent years.

Marcus Stewart played for both. One of the best players ever to have plyed his trade at the McAlpharm Stadium, a proper Town legend. He was part of Exeter's promotion winning team in 2008/09 and after his retirement, he became a first team coach at the club.

Another Town legend, with a direct link is Ronnie Jepson. Alan Ball signed him for the Grecians in 1992 from Preston North End and he went on to score 25 goals for them, four of them coming in one match against Wrexham. Neil Warnock then signed him for Town in December 1993 and he went on to form a brilliant strike partnership with young Andy Booth, Ronnie now being the elder statesman of the team. He scored 42 times for us in 125 appearances, winning Player of the Season in 94/95 as the Terriers won promotion.

Before retiring though, he won another couple of promotions, with Bury and Burnley. He then embarked on a coaching career, mainly as asssistant to Warnock, with many successes. Most notably their return to Huddersfield in 2022/23 when they saved us from certain relegation, before being dismissed in ridiculous circumstances to facilitate the impending arrival of Darren Moore.

Exeter in popular culture:

• Chris Martin: The lead singer, pianist, and co-founder of the globally acclaimed band Coldplay was born in Exeter in 1977. He attended Exeter Cathedral School in his youth and his family's business, Martin's of Exeter, was a local institution. Coldplay would later perform in Devon at Radio 1's Big Weekend in 2016.
  
  
• Tony Burrows: A prolific British session singer born in Exeter, Burrows provided vocals for a string of global hits for different groups in the 1970s, including Edison Lighthouse's "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)", White Plains' "My Baby Loves Lovin'", and the Pipkins' "Gimme Dat Ding".
  

Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes on YouTube

My Baby Loves Lovin'

Gimme Dat Ding




Recent form - last 6 matches:

Lincoln 1-1 Town
Town 2-0 Northampton
Town 5-0 Port Vale
Rotherham 1-3 Town
Town 1-1 Wigan
Northampton 1-1 Town

Exeter 1-0 Luton
Wimbledon 0-1 Exeter
Cardiff 1-0 Exter
Exter 3-0 Barnsley
Bolton 2-1 Exter
Exeter 1-0 Wimbledon

Town are 5th in the League One table with 38 points. Exeter are 15th with 29.


Leading scorers:

Terriers:
Leo Castledine (12)
Joe Taylor (7)
Bojan Radulović (7)

Greek Urns:
Jayden Wareham (9)
Josh Magennis (6)