[Lord Snooty]

Middlesbrough v Huddersfield Town
The Sky Bet Championship
Boxing Day - 15:00 ko
at the Riverside Stadium

Huddersfield Town travel to play Middlesbrough at the Riverside Stadium on Thursday afternoon, Boxing Day of course. Then it's back home again on Sunday afternoon to play Blackburn Rovers.
We won on Saturday against Nottingham Forest and will have Elias Kachunga down as a serious doubt following the rough house treatment handed out to him by the wooden thugs. He was seen leaving the stadium with one of those hospital boots on. Hopefully Lewis O'Brien or Fraizer Campbell will be available for these fixtures as the injury crisis deepens.

Boro have two players suspended. Marcus Browne and Paddy McNair were both shown red cards in the 1-3 defeat at Swansea and are now halfway through three match bans. Britt Assombalonga is a doubt for this match, having picked up an ankle injury. Last time out, they beat Stoke 2-1 on Friday night with goals from Ashley Fletcher and Lewis Wing-Knutt.

Before you read on, I'd just like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas. Here's the Huddersfield Choral Society for your pleasure. Press play and read on.

Tickets: The Club has received an initial allocation of 2,083 tickets. They are priced as follows:-
£30 - Adults
£20 – Over-65s
£17 – Under-18s

A brief history of Middlesbrough: formed in 1876, following a suggestion at a tripe supper at the Corporation Hotel, by members of a cricket club. Soon after formation, they were split when some members left to form another club Middlesbrough Ironopolis. There were talks to merge the two some years later, which never came off and so it was Middlesbrough FC who were eventually elected into the Football League in 1899. They were promoted to Division 1 in their 2nd season and moved into their new ground Ayresome Park, which was situated right next to the Ironopolis ground, the Paradise Ground. They stayed in the first division, eventually reaching their highest position of 3rd at the end of the 1913/14 season, just as war broke out.

They were relegated in 1924, but came back up again as 2nd Division champions three years later. Straight back down though and straight back up again as champions, they remained in the top flight until 1954. They had gotten a good side together, reaching 4th in the table, once more just as war broke out again and the team were broken up.

That relegation in 1954 was the start of 20 years outside of the top tier and things got worse in 1966 when they went down to the 3rd division.That was just for one season though and by the early 70s they had worked their way back into the top flight and in 1976 they won the Anglo Scottish Cup, beating Fulham 1-0 on aggregate. But they were struggling for the next few years and two relegations later saw them playing once more in division 3 in 1986.

The club were about to be wound up and the gates of Ayresome Park were padlocked, meaning they started the 86/87 season playing home games at Hartlepool. Ten minutes before the club were wound up, they were bought out by Steve Gibson and things started looking better. Two straight promotions and suddenly they were back in the first division again. That promotion to the top flight was via the play offs when it was against one of the bottom teams in the first who were playing to avoid relegation. So Boro went up and Chelsea of all people, went down. Lol! But Boro went down the next season.

Chelsea had their revenge though in 1990. Boro had reached their first ever Wembley final, the Zenith Data Systems Cup (a poxy little competition for English clubs who were banned for Europe at the time), and the Blues beat them 1-0. They went up again though, finishing as runners up in 1992 and so becoming members of the first Premier League and so then became the first team relegated from the Premier League later that season. They were back up again two years later and started life back in the Premier at their new ground, the Riverside Stadium. They had Bryan Robson now in the manager's seat and they went on a massive spending spree, buying big names such as Brazilian international Juninho and Juventus striker Fabrizio Ravanelli. They almost bought instant success, reaching their first League Cup Final, but lost to Leicester City after a replay. Then they reached the FA Cup Final for the first time and lost that as well, this time to their nemesis Chelsea. Despite all this almost cup success, Boro got relegated again. Bounced straight back again though as runners up and got to the League Cup Final again, and got beat by Chelsea again.

Steve McClaren took over from Robson in 2001 and 2004 led them to their first major trophy, the League Cup, beating Bolton Wanderers 2-1 in the final, with goals from Joseph-Désiré Job and a Boudewijn Zenden penalty. This qualified them for the UEFA Cup. They qualified again for the next two seasons, eventually reaching the 2006 final, which they lost 0-4 to Sevilla.

McClaren left to become England manager at the end of the season, to be replaced by the then club captain and now England boss himself, Gareth Southgate. He had them comfortably mid table, but despite a positive start to the 2008/09 season, they got relegated to the Championship. They reached the 2015 Play Offs, losing to Norwich in the final, but then got promoted as runners up the following season under the managership of Aitor Karanka. That was just another one season at the top table of English football and they were relegated just as Huddersfield Town were getting promoted.

Head to Head



Boro lead in the overall head to head with 41 wins to Town's 32, with 20 draws.

The most famous match in the history of this fixture was a 1-1 draw at Ayresome Park in 1970. The significance? Well this was the match that clinched our promotion to the 1st Division. Steve Smith scored the goal, an equaliser if I remember correctly. I wasn't there, but most Town fans of that era will probably tell you they were.

Another famous one was in the League Cup in 1997 when Andy Payton scored a brilliant goal in the 87th minute at the Riverside against the star studded Smoggies of that era. Unfortunately they had already got 5 goals, but that didn't stop us celebrating like it was a win. That was our first visit to the Riverside and it's a ground where we haven't had much luck. Leaving the cup match out, we have visited them there on five occasions and have only taken one league point back with us. That was in 2013 when James Vaughan scored in a 1-1 draw. It's the only league goal we have ever scored there and have conceded 12. This has to be our best chance to actually come back with the three points.

One unique game happened in August 1965 at Leeds Road against the Boro. It was a 6-0 win for Town and marked the only occasion in our history that we had two players scoring a hat trick. Those two were Les Massie and Alan Gilliver. Massie followed that up in the return fixture with another hat trick in a 3-1 win at Ayresome Park.

So what's happening down by de riverside?  Managed nowadays by racist Leeds thug Jonathan Woodgate.

He was born in Middlesbrough 39 years ago and started off in the Boro's youth set up before joining the Champions of Europe down at the big yellow skip in Beeston at the age of 16. He made over a hundred appearances for the Bellenders before financial trouble there saw him sold to Newcastle. After a year at Sid James' Park, he was sold to Real Madrid for over £13m and is widely regarded as the worst player ever to pull on the famous white shirt. In fact his debut was remarkably bad, scoring an own goal and getting sent off.
He only turned out nine times for Real and when they decided to cut their losses, he was sent back to his home town club, who were by this time playing in the Premier League. Only two seasons there before naffing off again, this time to Spurs, then Stoke, then back once more to Boro.
After hanging up his boots at the end of the 2015/16 season, he went into coaching with Boro, but was unceremoniously dumped when Gary Monk got the manager's job. When that arsehole got sacked, Woodgate, who had been coaching with the Academy, was promoted to assistant to new manager Tony Pulis. And then got the main job in June after Pulis left the club.

Club Connections: Adam Clayton started his career as bass guitarist with the Irish rock band U2, but then went on to have a successful football career, taking in lowlight clubs such as Carlisle Utd, Peterborough Utd, Leeds Utd and the MK Dons before things took an upward turn when Simon Grayson signed him for Huddersfield Town.
He played 85 times for us, the last of which he had dyed his big bushy beard blue and white in aid of the Town Foundation. He'd already been voted Player of the Season by then, but unfortunately he was sold in the summer to Boro, in exchange for Jacob Butterfield. As a Boro player, he won promotion to the Premier league, but it was only for one season and he's now back down in the Championship, still with Middlesbrough.

Lukas Jutkiewicz came on loan to us from Everton, but was a waste of space really. One bad game, Town 0-2 down at home to Cheltenham Town, he got subbed in the first half, took his shirt off and threw it at Lee Clark. Didn't get to pull on the famous bright blue and white after that. But his career took off and after a loan at Motherwell and a good stint in Coventry, he signed for Middlesbrough and scored for them in a 3-0 win over us at the Riverside.

Jimmy Lawson played for his home town club Middlesbrough in the mid sixties before joining Town in 1968 and becoming a Town legend in the 2nd Division Championship winning side of 1969/70. Played in both seasons of our 1st Division adventure before relegations saw us dropping down the leagues and he was sold to Halifax Town, who he would later be manager of.

Dean Whitehead came to Town from Boro after playing for Oxford, Sunderland and Stoke. At Sunderland he won the Championship twice. Got an FA Cup runners up medal at Stoke. Won promotion with Town through the Play Offs, but won nowt at Middlesbrough.

Recent form: Town are 19th in the Championship with 25 points, Boro are a place and a point behind in 20th with 24 points.

FOLLOWED BY.........

Huddersfield Town v Blackburn Rovers
The Sky Bet Championship
Sunday 29th December - 15:00 ko
at the John Smith's Stadium

Rovers played out a goalless draw at home to Wigan on Monday night and before we play them, they have another home game, against Birmingham City on Boxing Day.

A brief history of Blackburn Rovers:  founded in 1875 and in 1882 they were the first of the now recognised football clubs to reach the FA Cup Final. The year after, their neighbours Blackburn Olympic won the Cup. But then for the next four years, Rovers won it, beating Scottish club Queen's Park twice and West Bromwich Albion twice.
In 1888 they were founder members of the Football League (Olympic weren't invited to join and went under a year later) and by 1891 they had notched up another two FA Cup wins, beating Sheffield Wednesday and Notts County in the finals.
They were First Division champions in 1911–12 and 1913–14 and then they won their last FA Cup to date in 1928 being the underdogs who beat the invincible Huddersfield Town.

Nothing spectacular in the next few decades until they reached the 1960 FA Cup Final when the lost 3-0 to Wolves. But then in 1990, the club got taken over by local steelworks owner and lifelong supporter Jack Walker. He appointed Kenny Dalglish as manager, poured a pot load of cash into the club and they won the Play Offs, ending a 26 year wait to get back into the top flight of English football.
He used Walker's dosh to fork out a British record transfer fee for Alan Shearer and by 1995 they were Premier League champions. This success didn't last though and four years later they were relegated. Jack Walker died soon after and the club came back up again on an emotional roller coaster, finishing second behind Fulham. Uncle Jack had left them a fortune in his will and again they broke the record fee to buy Andy Cole and went on to win the League Cup for the first and only time to date, beating Spurs in the final.
In 2010 they were bought out by chicken pluckers, Venky's. They saw the club get relegated again to the Championship where they languish now, after a brief visit to League One in 2017/18.

Head to Head



Rovers lead in the overall head to head with 32 wins to Town's 23, with 34 draws.

Back in the 90s when Blackburn were the top bollocks in the Premier League, we almost beat them in a League Cup tie. It was a two legged tie and after drawing 1-1 at Leeds Road with goals from Iffy Onuora and Alan Shearer, 3rd division Town headed over to Lancashire without much expectation, but full of hope. Goals from Simon Ireland, Gary Barnett and a remarkable charge down from the keeper's kick from Iwan Roberts took Town into an unlikely lead, before Shearer won it for the home team in extra time.

There have been 8 draws out of the 11 fixtures since we met up again as Championship clubs in 2012. Our only win in this sequence was in 2015/16, a 2-0 win at Ewood Park with Nahki Wells on target as well as an own goal from Matt Kilgallon.

Back in time there was that FA Cup Final mentioned above in the history section which Rovers won 3-1 in 1928. We were behind in the first minute when Rovers striker Jack Roscamp bundled the Town keeper Billy Mercer and the ball into the back of the net. A perfectly legal move back then, which would probably end up with a red card nowadays. Alex Jackson scored our goal at Wembley, just three weeks after he had scored a hat trick at the same stadium for Scotland in a 5-1 win over England.

Another famous match came after one of the matches mentioned in the Middlesbrough Head to Head section above. That was in the 1969/70 season. We had drawn at Boro to secure promotion and then followed that with a trip to Ewood Park and a 2-0 win, both goals from Frank Worthington, secured the title for the terrific Terriers.

This season, we met at Ewood Park and came back with a point from a 2-2 draw. Karlan Grant scored from the spot, before Lewis Holtby and Bradley Dack put Rovers into a half time lead. Juninho Bacuna then came on and got the equaliser.

So what's happening down Ewood way these days? managed now by Tony Mowbray, who played for and managed our previous opponents Middlesbrough. He also played for Celtic and Ipswich Town. In the management job, he's been boss at Ipswich, Hibs, West Brom (winning the Championship in 2008), half a season at Celtic, Boro, Coventry and has been at Blackburn since February 2017, securing their promotion to the Championship in 2018.

Club Connections:

Jon Stead: came through the Town Academy and made his debut in the disastrous Mick Wadsworth relegation season. He made 42 appearances that season, but it was the next one, in what is now known as League 2, that he made a name for himself. He scored 18 goals in the first half of the season, but then big bollocks Blackburn came sniffing around and the financially embarrassed Huddersfield Town had to sell him to the Premier League club.
He scored 6 goals for them in the Prem and it was his goals in vital wins that kept the Rovers up. They rewarded him by transferring him to Sunderland. That was a struggle for him and after further moves to Sheffield Utd, Ipswich Town and Bristol City, he ended up back at his hometown club, Huddersfield Town. He didn't stay long, but while he was here he did score the winning goal in a 3-2 home win over the Beeston Bellenders.
After a loan spell at Oldham, he went to Bradford City where he famously inspired them to a remarkable FA Cup victory over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. Last season he was at Notts County where his career hit rock bottom by getting relegated out of the Football League and is now playing in the National league with Harrogate Town.



Duncan Shearer: Clachnacuddin's finest started his professional career down in that there London with Chelsea. But it was at Huddersfield Town that he made his name. Scoring a hat trick on his full debut, away at Barnsley in a 3-1 win that went a long way to us avoiding relegation. He was then leading scorer for the next couple of seasons, taking his Town career total to 38 before being transferred to Swindon Town, then managed by Lou Macari.
At Swindon he scored the goal in the Play Off semi final which knocked out Blackburn. And so the following season, Kenny Dalglish had him sign on at Ewood Park. He only played him 6 times and then replaced him with Alan Shearer (no relation).
Rovers sold him for half a million quid to Aberdeen, where he won a Scottish League Cup and gained 7 international caps. Then on to Inverness Caledonian Thistle, where he is now on the coaching staff.



Jordan Rhodes: has a good scoring record with two clubs, Huddersfield Town and Blackburn Rovers. All that stuff about his transfer to Rovers has been gone over before so I'll just post his scoring records for now.
Huddersfield Town: 87 goals from 148 appearances.
Blackburn Rovers: 85 goals from 169 appearances.
So we win that one, although he scored more goals for them against us than he did for us against them.





Recent form: before the Boxing Day games, Town were 19th with 25 points and Rovers were 8th with 35 points.

[jjamez]

Don't forget jocky mcrhodes played for all 3 clubs!

Don't think you'll find many links between all three sides, don't think there's been many managers or coaches that have been involved with all three either

[Was Wereham Owl]

Merry Christmas and a great New Year all Xxxxx

[Amelia Chaffinch]

And to you, Wereham.

[Lord Snooty]

I've watched Carry On Again Doctor loads of times, but today I noticed a Town player getting a mention.
The character Gladstone Screwer, played by Sid James when telling to one of the orderlies to get a move on says; "Kachunga Kachunga. Chop chop."
Can't believe I've never spotted that before.    

Merry Christmas everybody.  

[theo_luddite]

Here's hoping we're laughing all the way to the bank with a haul of points from the Riverside and the McGalphsmiths

---

Happy Christmas to all our readers, and contributors

[WBA-Josh]

It’s a bit late but Merry Christmas Huddersfield fans and all the best for today against Boro.

Boing boing.

[Amelia Chaffinch]

Same to you, Josh, happy new year.

[Lord Snooty]

Unchanged starting line up. O'Brien on the bench.

Town XI: Kamil Grabara; Danny Simpson, Jon Gorenc Stankovic, Christopher Schindler, Florent Hadergjonaj; Elias Kachunga, Trevoh Chalobah, Jonathan Hogg, Juninho Bacuna; Steve Mounie, Karlan Grant

Subs: Joel Coleman, Demeaco Duhaney, Rarmani Edmonds-Green, Jaden Brown, Lewis O’Brien, Matty Daly, Josh Koroma

[Lord Snooty]

Hogg injured on 24 mins. O'Brien on.

---

Bugger! 1-0 to Boro.