[Lord Snooty]

Best football I think I've ever seen from a Town team under Bruce.
But like Wakey said, we sold Stewart and it went downhill very, very rapidly.
Still can't understand why that one player leaving made such a difference.

[Lord Snooty]

March 5:

First up, it's a happy birthday to our penalty saving/penalty scoring Wembley hero, Alex Smithies. Born on this date in 1990, he's 32 today. He'll be celebrating his birthday in that there London and let's hope he's proper celebrating with a win for Cardiff at QPR, one of his old clubs. He was the Hoops' Player of the Season back in 2016/17.

Here you go, Alex. Your career defining moment.

Back in 1938, we had an FA Cup quarter final played on this date. It was against York City of Division 3 North at Bootham Crescent and the crowd of 28,123 was a record for that ground at the time and still was when the Minstermen moved out last year.

They had already beaten 1st Division teams West Bromwich Albion and Middlesbrough and so must've fancied their chances against the Town. They had every right to as well, earning themselves a replay after a 0-0 draw. That replay will be back at ours on the 9th, a Wednesday afternoon.

Here's a picture of young Alf Ventriss trying to keep the excited young boys off the pitch.

[Lord Snooty]

March 6:

More FA Cup games from the past to report on as we count down the hours to our much anticipated 5th round match at the City Ground for the right to play Liverpool in the quarter finals. First up, a quarter final match from 1920 at Leeds Road against............ oooh, Liverpool.

Town were 3rd in the 2nd Division and would finish the season getting promoted. Liverpool were at the top end of the 1st Division and would end 1919/20 in 4th place. We, of course, had just avoided going bankrupt and stolen lock, stock and barrel by the newly formed Leeds United. There was much excitement around and after the season started with a crowd of 5,000 in Leeds Road for the visit of Clapton Orient, there was a new stadium record of 47,527 in there for this one.

Did our brave boys win? Of course they did, with goals from Jack Swann and Sammy Taylor earning a 2-1 victory and a first ever FA Cup semi final for the club. That's to be played on the 27th of March at Stamford Bridge against Bristol City.

Jack Swann

At the back end of the decade, in 1929, we were once again in FA Cup quarter final action. This was the replay for the match we had the other day, against West Brom. Having drawn 1-1, they came up to Leeds Road on the Wednesday afternoon and Town beat them 2-1. Goal scorers on this occasion were Alex Jackson and Bob Kelly, taking Town through to our fourth semi final.

That semi will be on the 23rd of March, at Anfield, against Bolton Wanderers.

If you want some more good omens for tomorrow night, in 1971 we won away at Nottingham Forest. This was in the 1st Division and was a 3-1 win with Frank Worthington, Jimmy Nicholson and Brian Mahoney on target. A repeat scoreline would be very nice indeed.

[Lord Snooty]

March 7:

Born on this date in 1887 in Liverpool, was Town goalkeeper Ted Taylor. He started his career with Oldham Athletic and spent ten years at Boundary Park before transferring to Town in 1922. He was signed to replace Sandy Mutch who had been at the club since we were elected into the Football League in 1910, but had transferred to Newcastle.

Ted became the regular number 1, winning the League championship in 1924, but then breaking a leg in a match at Maine Road against Man City early on in the 24/25 season. He was back though for the 3rd championship season. He also won 8 caps for England whilst he was at Huddersfield.

So he only played ten games in the middle championship season. Did he receive a medal? Not sure, I think the criteria back then was 15 games, but I couldn't say for sure. The book Huddersfield Town - A Complete Collection says he didn't get one, but Wikipedia has him down as a thrice champion.

He did get another League Champions medal when he left us in 1927 to join Everton, when they beat us to the title by two points in 27/28.

Ted played 129 matches for the mighty Blue n White Stripes and died in Golcar at the age of 69 in 1956.

After losing the unbeaten run three days ago against Newcastle, David Wagner had his boys back to winning ways on this date in 2017. The opponents were Aston Villa, who having been relegated from the Premier League, were hot favourites to make an instant return. That failed spectacularly as they finished the season in 13th. Along the way, they lost at the John Smith's Stadium to a well worked corner routine with Tommy Smith scoring the goal.

The most recent game was played in 2020 and was the final game played before the country went into lockdown for the Coronavirus. Well not the whole country obviously. #partygate

Anyway, the game was masterminded by an unknown coach, masquerading as an assistant coach to a bucket sitting Argentinian idiot. That man was Carlos Corberán, who's team beat Town 2-0 at Bellend Road. So impressed was Town chairman, potless Phil Hodgkinson, that he brought the fast talking Spaniard to Huddersfield at the end of the season after he had led the Beestoners to promotion and sat back allowing the bespectacled, bumbling Bielsabub take all the credit.

Carlos is now on a journey with the rightful Kings of West Yorkshire football, all the way to the Prima Donna League.

[WakeyTerrier]

On this day in 2000 we played Swindon Town away in the old First Division
Swindon were 19 without a win in the League and were firmly rooted to the bottom of the League
Town were 6th in the League and looking good for at least a play off spot
19.45 ko, what could possibly go wrong?
90 minutes later
Swindon 2 v 0 Town
Collins and Hay for Swindon
From memory we had 2 players sent off, I think one was Steve Jenkins, not sure of the other.
Truly dismal performance but a game that will always stay in my mind. I can even remember laughing at the Swindon players who couldn't even pass the ball to each other from the kick off.

[Lord Snooty]

That'll be the prolific Chris Hay who we signed on later.

Wasn't very prolific for us.

[Lord Snooty]

March 8:

It's a happy birthday today to our former midfielder, Danny Williams or Big Willy Williams as he became known as.

Born on this date in 1989 in Karlsruhe, which was then West Germany, he's 33 years old today. He had four seasons at Reading and played 47 times in their 2016/17 campaign which ended in a penalty shoot out defeat at Wembley against...... ooh it was us wasn't it. 

Forty seven games. What a shame then that his two seasons with us were injury ravaged, because he was man of the match in that pulsating 0-0 draw at the national stadium and the games he did play in for us, he looked awesome. Particularly that famous win at home against Man Utd.

Sadly, he's without a club now and there's nothing on Wikipedia about whether he's been forced to pack in, but after leaving us in 2019, he's only played 11 times for Cypriot club Pafos FC.

As for matches on this day, we have a big match in the Autoglass Trophy to report on. Following a magnificent away win at Stockport County in the previous round, our boys under the management of Neil Warnock, on this date in 1994, played the Northern Area Final First Leg at Leeds Road against Carlisle United.

Excitement was at fever pitch in the town as we were just 180 minutes of action away from our first visit to Wembley since the 1938 FA Cup Final and as so, a massive crowd of 10,552 crammed into Leeds Road.

Doesn't sound a lot in a ground that once held 67,000 inside. But these weren't great times, the ground was crumbling and the skeleton of a new stadium was appearing across the other side of the car park. The 10,000 for this one was double the attendance for the last home league match against Brighton.

So are we going to Wembley or not. Well, a 4-1 win in this 1st leg has put us in a good position. Goals from Peter Jackson, Darren Bullock, Phil Starbuck and Iain Dunn will send us up to Brunton Park full of confidence. That game is in a fortnight's time on March 22nd.

Ooh Phil Starbuck

[HerefordBull]

Always thought Starbuck would go onto bigger and better things after seeing him in half a dozen games for us.

[Lord Snooty]

March 9:

A couple of FA Cup games for you today. In 1938 on this date, we had the replay for the quarter final tie against York City. It was on a Wednesday afternoon following the previous Saturday's goal less draw at Bootham Crescent and schools and factories reported many absences in the area as 58,066 people turned up to watch this one.

Town won it 2-1 and would go on to face Sunderland in the semi finals. But the goals for the Town on that day were scored by two men who would lose their lives in service of the country during the 2nd World War. The second goal was by Frank Chivers, who I mentioned recently for being killed in a mining accident, having been conscripted into doing mining work. The first goal scored was this player's only goal for Town. His name was Edwin Watson and here's what is written on Wikipedia about him.......

Edwin Watson (28 May 1914 – 12 June 1944) was a professional footballer, who played for Partick Thistle, Huddersfield Town and Bradford Park Avenue. He was killed in the Second World War. He was born in Pittenweem, Fife, Scotland.

Military service and death:

Watson served as a flight sergeant in No. 201 Squadron RAF of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve during the Second World War. He is known to have served on two missions as an air gunner on a Short Sunderland III conducting anti-submarine sweeps from RAF Pembroke Dock over the Bay of Biscay. On 7 June 1944, Watson's Sunderland located U-955 off Cape Ortegal, Spain and sunk it with depth charges, killing all 50 crew on board the U-boat.

Five days later, on 12 June 1944, the Sunderland encountered U-333, and conducted depth charge raids on it. The Sunderland is thought to have been shot down by flak from the submarine's anti-aircraft guns during the attack, killing everybody on board, including Watson. His body was not recovered from the wreckage, and he is remembered on the Runnymede Memorial. In 2021, he was added to the Huddersfield Town 'roll of honour'.

Anyway, the semi final has been scheduled for March 26th and the venue will be Ewood Park in Blackburn.


Talking of Blackburn. The next FA Cup game on this date was in the next season in 1939 against Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park, another quarter final replay in midweek. And another big crowd came to see it, with 54,400 being present. The first game ended in a 1-1 draw, but it was the mighty Town who won the replay. It was 2-1 again and this time both scorers survived the war and lived long enough to draw the old age pension.

Ex Leeds and West Brom winger, Jack Mahon got the first. This was his only goal for us. The other was from Pat Beasley, who later in life would manage Birmingham City and take them all the way to the Final of the Inter Cities Fairs Cup.

And so we have another semi final to look forward to. This one will be at Highbury against Portsmouth on the 25th of March.

[Lord Snooty]

March 10:

We had a very frustrating game on this day in 2018. It was the one at home to Swansea in the Premier League when we absolutely stuffed them 0-0.

They had Jordan Ayew shown a straight red card by referee Michael Oliver after only 11 minutes for a studs up tackle on Jonathan Hogg and from then on, it was all Town. Attack, after attack, after attack. But could we score? Could we knickers!

The stats are ridiculous. Town possession 81%. Shots 30, only 4 on target though. Woodwork hit 4 times. Their manager, Carlos Carvalhal, who had been the Wendy boss when we beat them in the Play Offs less that 12 months earlier, celebrated at the final whistle as though he had just won the Champions League.

We had the last laugh though. We stayed up and they went down.


The manager who was in charge when we won our first promotion in 1920 from the 2nd to the 1st Division was Ambrose Langley and he was born on this date in 1870. He took on the job when Arthur Fairclough had gone to Leeds in December 1919. By the end of the season, he had guided the club to it's first FA Cup Final (beaten by Villa) and our first promotion (runners up to Spurs).

He was the one who persuaded Herbert Chapman to come to the club as his assistant and it was Chapman who took over the managers job when Langley resigned in March 1921. His record as Town manager is one of the best. In terms of games won, his win percentage of 50.77% is second only to Cecil Potter, the manager who took over when Chapman left for Arsenal.

One more record that Langley still holds is the longest run of consecutive league victories. That stands at eleven. The final eight matches of 1919/20 and the first three of 1920/21.

Before all that though, he played over 300 games for The Wednesday, winning an FA Cup winners medal in 1896 and two League titles in 1903 and 1904.

And finally, a happy 21st birthday today to Matty Daly. Born in Stockport in 2001, he is currently out on loan at Bradford City. Poor lad!

He made his debut in the Premier League for Town as an 18 year old, coming on as a sub for Hoggy against Watford at the JSS and I remember shouting "you greedy twat" at Steve Mounie when instead of passing to the unmarked Daly in a great position to score, he turned back the other way and made a complete arse of himself.

Anyway, he did score his first goal for us a while later, back down in the Championship in a crucial win away at Charltion, scoring in injury time to give us the three points.