24-08-2020, 19:54
(This post was last modified: 22-05-2022, 17:48 by Lord Snooty.)
Back in 1934, a big name in Huddersfield Town history, left the club to take up the manager's job at Rochdale. Behind him was the record for most appearances, with a total of 574 games for us, scoring 126 goals. A career that brought him three League Championships, an FA Cup winners medal for which he scored the winning goal, and three England caps. He was of course, Billy Smith.
![[Image: be5d47a314fb3253848d0b6cb3d293a4.jpg]](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/be/5d/47/be5d47a314fb3253848d0b6cb3d293a4.jpg)
He was born in the pit village Tantobie in the county of Durham in 1895, which is four miles away from where now stands the Beamish Museum. If you've never been, it's a recreated village from the 1800's, so it's very much reminiscent of what Tantobie was like when young Billy were a lad. He signed for Huddersfield Town at the age of 18 in 1913 and made his debut on Christmas Day at home to Hull City. The following day, the teams met again at Hull and Billy scored his first Town goal in a 1-4 defeat. Those were two of only four matches he played that season. The next season he turned out 24 times, scoring four goals. By now though the First World War had started and unlike WWII, they completed the football season. He stayed around for a while, playing in the Wartime League that had been set up to keep up morales, but he did join the Navy and didn't reappear in a Town shirt after 1916 until the 1919/20 season started.
That season was a funny old season for Town, as we nearly went bust, nearly got merged with Leeds, nearly won the FA Cup, but did get promoted to the First Division. He played 39 league games for us and all the FA Cup games right up to the Final. He didn't play in the Final. He had been sent off for fighting in a match against Stoke City a couple of weeks before and was suspended. Now bearing in mind that in those days you had to kill somebody to warrant being sent off, it must've been a right old scrap or a very fussy ref thinking he's reffing a 21st century Premier League game. Anyway, we lost the Final 0-1 against Aston Villa.
He had also missed a couple of league games due to making his international debut. He played twice for England, against Wales and Scotland. The game against Wales was a 1-0 win at Anfield with a goal from his future team mate Bob Kelly, who was playing for Burnley then. The Scotland match was a 0-1 defeat at Villa Park. He only played once more.
He scored 7 goals in the promotion push and then 3 in his first First Division season, but then bagged 12 in 1921/22, including 4 FA Cup goals as Town went one better this time and actually went and won the Cup for the one and only time so far in our history. He scored 2 in a 3rd round replay 5-0 victory at home to Blackburn Rovers, one in the semi final at Turf Moor, a 3-1 win over Notts County. And then in the Final, against Preston North End, he got the only goal of the game from the penalty spot after his own trickery in the area had won the awarded spot kick.
That was the first full season under the management of Herbert Chapman and it was completed in May by us winning the Charity Shield against champions Liverpool at Old Trafford. Billy played in the match that we won 1-0 with a Tom Wilson goal. The second one saw us finish in 3rd behind Liverpool and Sunderland when Billy score 9 times.
![[Image: fa-cup-final-huddersfield-town-v-preston...565015.jpg]](https://www.mediastorehouse.com/p/142/fa-cup-final-huddersfield-town-v-preston-north-4565015.jpg)
Then in 1923/24, we became champions for the first time, finishing level on 57 points with Cardiff City but with a better Goal Average. Now that was the rule back then and nobody can backtrack and take that away from us, but if they had today's rule, Cardiff would've won. We both had a Goal Difference of +27 and Cardiff had scored one goal more than us. Goal Average however favoured the team that had conceded fewer and so we were the champions. So Billy scored 13 goals in the season, the last of which was a consolation goal in the penultimate game, a 1-3 defeat at Villa Park. Turned out to be quite crucial, although it wouldn't have been known by then. We won our last match 3-0 against Nottingham Forest, whereas Cardiff drew 0-0 with Len Davies missing a penalty and the deal was sealed.
So next season, 1924/25, we decided not to leave it too tight and had the luxury of drawing the final two matches and still win the title by two points over West Bromwich Albion. Billy bagged 9 goals this season. One of them was a historic moment. the rules concerning corner kicks had been tinkered with in the close season, making it possible to score directly from a corner kick. And in a home 4-0 win against Arsenal on October 11th 1924, Billy became the first player in the world to do so.
He scored just six in the next one, missing the first half of the season as we claimed the title for the third time in a row. We topped the table by 5 points from Chapman's Arsenal (he'd moved there in the summer) and it was a 3-0 home win against Bolton Wanderers that won us the title with a couple of games to spare. Billy scored the first goal of the match, with Alex Jackson and Clem Stephenson getting the others on the 12th of April 1926, a date celebrated each year as Huddersfield Town Day.
The next season we finished runners up, five points behind Newcastle. Billy scored eight. He managed 17 though in the next one as we again finished in second, this time behind Everton. And it was against Everton in a 4-1 win at Leeds Road that Billy scored his first Town hat trick. He also scored 4 times in the FA Cup run all the way to Wembley, which we lost 1-3 against Blackburn Rovers. Two of his goals were in a brilliant quarter final win in March at home to Spurs as we smashed them 6-1 with George Brown getting the other 4.
Later that month, he gained his third and final England cap. It was at Wembley against Scotland and although he hit the post with a shot in the first minute, it was his Town team mate Alex Jackson who came out smiling as he scored a hat trick as the Scots trounced England 5-1, the famous Wembley Wizards. As with Billy's first cap, it was Bob Kelly who got the England goal, a last minute consolation this time and he was now a Huddersfield Town player. Tom Wilson and Roy Goodall were also in the England team, the only time we've had four players in one international team.
In the following season 1928/29, Town struggled, finishing 16th, a great disappointment after the glories of the previous years, but did get as far as the FA Cup semis, with Billy bagging a couple of goals in the cup run. The first of his Cup goals, the first in a 3-0 4th round win at home to Leeds Utd was his 100th Huddersfield Town goal.
Up to tenth in 1929/30 and one better in the Cup, reaching another Wembley Final, which unfortunately we lost to Arsenal 0-2. Billy scored one of the goals in the cup run, the first one in a 2-1 quarter final win away at Aston Villa.
A better finish in the next season, ending up 5th, with Billy scoring 4 times in 30 appearances. One of the games he missed, replaced on the left wing by Jimmy Smailes shortly before his transfer to Spurs, was the club record 10-1 win at home to Blackpool. He did score in the return fixture at Bloomfield Road though, a 1-1 draw.
In 1931/32 we went one place higher than before, finishing 4th, eight points behind the champions Everton. Billy scored 7 goals but ably assisted Dave Mangnall in his club record scoring 42 goals in a season. He also played in front of the Leeds Road record attendance this season when Arsenal came to Town and left with a 1-0 FA Cup 6th round win in front of 67,037 spectators.
Just three goals for Billy in the next season, including two in a 4-0 win at Newcastle, who finished a place above us as we ended the season in 6th. He only played 17 games this season, but he was 37 years old by now and coming towards the end of his career. Also in this season, he had his fourth benefit match, on November 11th, a home league match against Sheffield Wednesday, which we won 3-2 with two goals from George McLean and one from Mangnall.
![[Image: 1933-wh-smith-benefit-brochure.jpg?w=1086]](https://huddersfieldtowncollection.files.wordpress.com/2019/06/1933-wh-smith-benefit-brochure.jpg?w=1086)
He had one more season at Leeds Road before leaving for Rochdale. He scored 5 goals from 19 matches as Town finished runners up behind Arsenal. His last goal was in his last match, a 4-1 win away at Sheffield United on February the tenth 1934, three months before his 39th birthday.
After Town, he had one season managing Rochdale, as player/manager, which they finished 20th out of 22 teams in the 3rd Division (North), the highlight of which was a 6-1 win at home to Gateshead, with a downside being a 0-5 home defeat by Stockport County.
His son Conway Smith also became a Town player. Not quite the medal haul of his dad but he did score over a hundred league goals, becoming the first father and son to do so. He scored 5 for Town but then hit 81 for QPR before coming back to Yorkshire and scoring 73 for Halifax Town.
T'owd lad had a leg amputated later in life, caused by an untreated footballing injury and sadly Billy Smith died in Huddersfield, of cancer in 1951, aged just 57.
![[Image: 3b14fa5d267ec3a2cd536e389b874a0b.jpg]](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/3b/14/fa/3b14fa5d267ec3a2cd536e389b874a0b.jpg)
He was born in the pit village Tantobie in the county of Durham in 1895, which is four miles away from where now stands the Beamish Museum. If you've never been, it's a recreated village from the 1800's, so it's very much reminiscent of what Tantobie was like when young Billy were a lad. He signed for Huddersfield Town at the age of 18 in 1913 and made his debut on Christmas Day at home to Hull City. The following day, the teams met again at Hull and Billy scored his first Town goal in a 1-4 defeat. Those were two of only four matches he played that season. The next season he turned out 24 times, scoring four goals. By now though the First World War had started and unlike WWII, they completed the football season. He stayed around for a while, playing in the Wartime League that had been set up to keep up morales, but he did join the Navy and didn't reappear in a Town shirt after 1916 until the 1919/20 season started.
That season was a funny old season for Town, as we nearly went bust, nearly got merged with Leeds, nearly won the FA Cup, but did get promoted to the First Division. He played 39 league games for us and all the FA Cup games right up to the Final. He didn't play in the Final. He had been sent off for fighting in a match against Stoke City a couple of weeks before and was suspended. Now bearing in mind that in those days you had to kill somebody to warrant being sent off, it must've been a right old scrap or a very fussy ref thinking he's reffing a 21st century Premier League game. Anyway, we lost the Final 0-1 against Aston Villa.
He had also missed a couple of league games due to making his international debut. He played twice for England, against Wales and Scotland. The game against Wales was a 1-0 win at Anfield with a goal from his future team mate Bob Kelly, who was playing for Burnley then. The Scotland match was a 0-1 defeat at Villa Park. He only played once more.
He scored 7 goals in the promotion push and then 3 in his first First Division season, but then bagged 12 in 1921/22, including 4 FA Cup goals as Town went one better this time and actually went and won the Cup for the one and only time so far in our history. He scored 2 in a 3rd round replay 5-0 victory at home to Blackburn Rovers, one in the semi final at Turf Moor, a 3-1 win over Notts County. And then in the Final, against Preston North End, he got the only goal of the game from the penalty spot after his own trickery in the area had won the awarded spot kick.
That was the first full season under the management of Herbert Chapman and it was completed in May by us winning the Charity Shield against champions Liverpool at Old Trafford. Billy played in the match that we won 1-0 with a Tom Wilson goal. The second one saw us finish in 3rd behind Liverpool and Sunderland when Billy score 9 times.
Then in 1923/24, we became champions for the first time, finishing level on 57 points with Cardiff City but with a better Goal Average. Now that was the rule back then and nobody can backtrack and take that away from us, but if they had today's rule, Cardiff would've won. We both had a Goal Difference of +27 and Cardiff had scored one goal more than us. Goal Average however favoured the team that had conceded fewer and so we were the champions. So Billy scored 13 goals in the season, the last of which was a consolation goal in the penultimate game, a 1-3 defeat at Villa Park. Turned out to be quite crucial, although it wouldn't have been known by then. We won our last match 3-0 against Nottingham Forest, whereas Cardiff drew 0-0 with Len Davies missing a penalty and the deal was sealed.
So next season, 1924/25, we decided not to leave it too tight and had the luxury of drawing the final two matches and still win the title by two points over West Bromwich Albion. Billy bagged 9 goals this season. One of them was a historic moment. the rules concerning corner kicks had been tinkered with in the close season, making it possible to score directly from a corner kick. And in a home 4-0 win against Arsenal on October 11th 1924, Billy became the first player in the world to do so.
He scored just six in the next one, missing the first half of the season as we claimed the title for the third time in a row. We topped the table by 5 points from Chapman's Arsenal (he'd moved there in the summer) and it was a 3-0 home win against Bolton Wanderers that won us the title with a couple of games to spare. Billy scored the first goal of the match, with Alex Jackson and Clem Stephenson getting the others on the 12th of April 1926, a date celebrated each year as Huddersfield Town Day.
The next season we finished runners up, five points behind Newcastle. Billy scored eight. He managed 17 though in the next one as we again finished in second, this time behind Everton. And it was against Everton in a 4-1 win at Leeds Road that Billy scored his first Town hat trick. He also scored 4 times in the FA Cup run all the way to Wembley, which we lost 1-3 against Blackburn Rovers. Two of his goals were in a brilliant quarter final win in March at home to Spurs as we smashed them 6-1 with George Brown getting the other 4.
Later that month, he gained his third and final England cap. It was at Wembley against Scotland and although he hit the post with a shot in the first minute, it was his Town team mate Alex Jackson who came out smiling as he scored a hat trick as the Scots trounced England 5-1, the famous Wembley Wizards. As with Billy's first cap, it was Bob Kelly who got the England goal, a last minute consolation this time and he was now a Huddersfield Town player. Tom Wilson and Roy Goodall were also in the England team, the only time we've had four players in one international team.
In the following season 1928/29, Town struggled, finishing 16th, a great disappointment after the glories of the previous years, but did get as far as the FA Cup semis, with Billy bagging a couple of goals in the cup run. The first of his Cup goals, the first in a 3-0 4th round win at home to Leeds Utd was his 100th Huddersfield Town goal.
Up to tenth in 1929/30 and one better in the Cup, reaching another Wembley Final, which unfortunately we lost to Arsenal 0-2. Billy scored one of the goals in the cup run, the first one in a 2-1 quarter final win away at Aston Villa.
A better finish in the next season, ending up 5th, with Billy scoring 4 times in 30 appearances. One of the games he missed, replaced on the left wing by Jimmy Smailes shortly before his transfer to Spurs, was the club record 10-1 win at home to Blackpool. He did score in the return fixture at Bloomfield Road though, a 1-1 draw.
In 1931/32 we went one place higher than before, finishing 4th, eight points behind the champions Everton. Billy scored 7 goals but ably assisted Dave Mangnall in his club record scoring 42 goals in a season. He also played in front of the Leeds Road record attendance this season when Arsenal came to Town and left with a 1-0 FA Cup 6th round win in front of 67,037 spectators.
Just three goals for Billy in the next season, including two in a 4-0 win at Newcastle, who finished a place above us as we ended the season in 6th. He only played 17 games this season, but he was 37 years old by now and coming towards the end of his career. Also in this season, he had his fourth benefit match, on November 11th, a home league match against Sheffield Wednesday, which we won 3-2 with two goals from George McLean and one from Mangnall.
He had one more season at Leeds Road before leaving for Rochdale. He scored 5 goals from 19 matches as Town finished runners up behind Arsenal. His last goal was in his last match, a 4-1 win away at Sheffield United on February the tenth 1934, three months before his 39th birthday.
After Town, he had one season managing Rochdale, as player/manager, which they finished 20th out of 22 teams in the 3rd Division (North), the highlight of which was a 6-1 win at home to Gateshead, with a downside being a 0-5 home defeat by Stockport County.
His son Conway Smith also became a Town player. Not quite the medal haul of his dad but he did score over a hundred league goals, becoming the first father and son to do so. He scored 5 for Town but then hit 81 for QPR before coming back to Yorkshire and scoring 73 for Halifax Town.
T'owd lad had a leg amputated later in life, caused by an untreated footballing injury and sadly Billy Smith died in Huddersfield, of cancer in 1951, aged just 57.
![[Image: 2ZJuVRk.gif]](https://i.imgur.com/2ZJuVRk.gif)
![[Image: aO7W3pZ.png]](https://i.imgur.com/aO7W3pZ.png)