[Lord Snooty]

March 11:

A good win in the previous promotion campaign on this date in 2017. It was the one at Griffin Park when we beat Brentford 1-0 with Rajiv van La Parra getting the goal. Was it a shot? Was it a cross? Was it an own goal? How did it end up in the net?

Whatever! It was a win and it was now 8 wins out of the last 10.

We had a big win in the promotion campaign of 1995 on this date when we beat Chester City in what was their only visit to the McAlpine Stadium. We were second in the table and this 5-1 win was the start of four straight wins which would see us on top of the table.

Scorers in this game were Tom Cowan, Ronnie Jepson and a hat trick from Andy Booth.

---

The win at Brentford by the way, was Wagner breaking the curse of the Manager of the Month award.

[Lord Snooty]

March 12:

Since we made the semi finals of the FA Cup in 1939, we haven't been that far since. We have made the quarter finals only twice since. One was in 1972, the other was in 1955 and was played on this date.

The opponents were Newcastle United and it was played at Leeds Road. Having beaten Liverpool in the 5th round, excitement was high in the town again and 54,960 turned up at the old ground to see Jimmy Glazzard give Town the lead.

We had one foot in the semi as time was running down, but in the last minute, future Town striker, Len White, scored the equaliser.

The replay will be on the 16th at Sid James'Park.

[Lord Snooty]

March 13:

On this date in 1926, Huddersfield Town were well on the way to completing the hat trick of Football League titles, the first team ever to do so. The team was already on top of the First Division table and had been since mid February, when Manchester United came to Leeds Road.

This would be the 6th game in what would be an 8 game unbeaten run and it was a walloping 5-0 win for the boys in the bright blue n white. George Cook got a couple. Billy Smith got one. And there were two goals for our new signing from Cowdenbeath, William Devlin. He had already scored 40 goals in the season for the Miners in the Scottish First Division (the top league before they got a Premier League) and he played this match in place of George Brown at centre forward. He scored 4 in 4 for Town in this season. He ended up with 14 in 32 for us before transferring to Liverpool in the next season.

We had another big win in 2004, in our last ever season in the 4th tier of English Football. It was at the Alfred McAlpine Stadium against Macclesfield Town and we won it 4-0 with goals from Andy Booth, Pawel Abbott, Efe Sodje and John McAliskey.

And the most recent match on this date was a 1-0 win at QPR in 2021, with Juninho Bacuna getting the goal.

[HerefordBull]

Just looked up William Devlins stats and he is another of these guys with an incredible goals per game ratio. The Blue Brazil........118 in 135 games , The Terriers......14 in 32, Liverpool........15 in 19, the Jam Tarts........12 in 15  etc etc ( for Kings Park in the second tier he scored 19 goals in 13 games )

[Lord Snooty]

March 14:

On this date in 1925, Huddersfield Town were on track to successfully defend their first Football League title. Already top of the league again, our brave lads travelled down to play Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane.

We won it 2-1 and it was game number 8 in an unbeaten run of 17 to the end of the season. Goal scorers at Spurs on this occasion were Clem Stephenson and George Brown.


In 1928, we were top again. Blackburn Rovers came to Leeds Road and were beaten 3-1. Goals in this one from a Roy Goodall penalty, one from Alex Jackson and that man George Brown again.

Unfortunately we didn't stay top and ended the season in 2nd place, two points behind Everton. And Blackburn got their own back a few weeks later, beating us 3-1 in the FA Cup Final.

[Lord Snooty]

March 15:

On this date in 2005, legendary Town right half (defensive midfielder), Bill McGarry died in South Africa, aged 77.

Born in Stoke, he joined Town in 1951 from Port Vale and stayed for ten years. At the end of those ten years, when he transferred to Bournemouth, he had clocked up 381 appearances. That left him in 6th place in our all time appearances chart, but he has since been overtaken by Andy Booth, Malcolm Brown and David Cowling, so he's now down to 9th, equal with Steve Smith.

Manager George Stephenson paid Vale £12,000 for him and he forged a defensive midfield partnership with Laurie Kelly. Unfortunately, Town got relegated in his first full season, but under new manager Andy Beattie, they bounced straight back in a record breaking season. That record being that Bill was one of seven players who played in every minute of every league game. A Football League record that will never be beaten. The defence was solid and only 33 goals were conceded and it was upon this solidity that the next campaign led the Town to finish 3rd in the First Division, the best post war final position.

That didn't last though and after relegation, Bill played under Bill Shankly and then Eddie Boot before leaving for the south coast.

He wasn't just a star player in Huddersfield though. He represented England as well, gaining 4 caps. Two of those were at the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland. He played against the hosts and also Uruguay. His team mate Ron Staniforth also played in those two. Two Huddersfield Town players playing for England at the World Cup!

Anyway, after hanging up his boots, he became quite a famous manager. best remembered for his 8 seasons at Wolves where he got them to the UEFA Cup Final, beaten on aggregate by Spurs in 1972. He did win a major trophy for them though when in 1974 they won the League Cup, beating Man City 2-1 at Wembley.

He then had a less successful spell in charge of Newcastle and eventually emigrated to South Africa.

Born on this date in Church Gresley, Derbyshire in 1887 was Leslie Knighton. Not one of the names that jumps out of the page as a stand out name in Huddersfield Town history, but he was at the club for seven years. He came in 1912 as assistant to Dick Pudan and had one match as caretaker at the end of 1911/12 in between Pudan leaving and Arthur Fairclough arriving. That one game was a 4-0 win at home to Blackpool.

He was only 25 years old then and so could well be our youngest ever manager, if only as a caretaker. His playing career had been cut short by injury. After the war, The Arsenal had been given (by a vote) promotion to Division One and were looking out for a new manager. Knighton was appointed in the post in 1919 and would stay at Highbury for six unproductive years. Eventually, he was replaced in 1925 when the Gunners directors went back to Huddersfield and poached Herbert Chapman.

Knighton went on to manage Bournemouth, Birmingham (taking them to the 1931 FA Cup Final), Chelsea and Shrewsbury Town. After Shrewsbury, he went back down to Bournemouth and got a job as secretary in a Golf Club. He died in 1959, aged 72.

As for games on this day, not many stand out ones to talk about. There was a 5-3 defeat at Villa Park in 1930. A goal less draw in 1980 against Peterborough in the 4th Division championship winning season. That was part of a 13 match unbeaten run to the end of the season. Thirteen? Pah! We laugh in the face of a 13 match unbeaten run.

I had my one and only visit to Ninian Park on this date in 1983. Another promotion winning season and another ground where we nearly got our f***ing heads kicked in It was a midweek game and a lad I know was arranging a mini bus trip. He and some of his pals had taken their wives along for the game and me, Wack and Ingleby tagged along. I think it was the lasses first away game and so we all decided to go and sit in the main stand, away from any potential trouble spots.

Wrong! There was a paddock, a standing terrace, in front of the stand and when we all jumped up to celebrate when David Cowling bagged the equaliser in what ended up a 1-1 draw, they were climbing the wall into the stand to clobber us. Happy days!

[Lord Snooty]

March 16:

Not one, not two, but three of our famous strikers were born on this date. All three of them are in our all time goal scorers chart. Their names, Charlie Luke, Alf Lythgoe and Alan Gowling.

Mrs Gowling's boy was born in 1949 and is 73 today. He was born in Stockport and was such a clever boy, he went to Manchester University and played for the Man Utd youth team at the same time. He made it into the first XI in an era of strikers that included the famous Best, Law and Charlton, playing 71 games and scoring 18 goals, the first of which was on his debut against Stoke.

He came to Town in 1972 for £65,000 just after we had been relegated. A replacement for Frank Worthington, he top scored in every season he was at Leeds Road, but sadly, nobody else joined in. We got relegated twice while he was there and he left after we had been dumped into Division 4. He went to Newcastle, forming a strike partnership with Malcolm Macdonald, and scored in the League Cup Final of 1976.

Later he played for Bolton and then Preston before retiring to go manage a chemicals company in Buxton.

His Town goals record stands at 61 and he is 18th in the list.

The other two were team mates in the 1930s.  Charlie was born in County Durham in 1909. Alf was born in Nantwich in 1907. Charlie was nobbut a wee lad, playing as an inside forward, he stood at only five foot three, one of the smallest players ever to turn out for Town, making Duane Holmes look lie a giant.

Alf was a centre forward and I may have mentioned it before, he scored five goals in a match for Town. That was in 1935 in a 6-0 win at home to Blackburn Rovers. Both of them were on target earlier on in that season when Town inflicted Liverpool's record league defeat, beating them 8-0 at Leeds Road.

Charlie ended up with 47 goals for Town, leaving him now in 29th spot, equal with Phil Starbuck. Alf scored 46, but in about half as many games as Charlie. He is 31st in the chart, level with Jimmy Lawson, George McLean and Danny Schofield.

Games on this day. The most recent one was very memorable, but in the end disappointing. After leading 3-1 through a goal by Juninho Bacuna and two from Karlan Grant, we lost 4-3 at West Ham in the Premier League on this date in 2019.

In 2013 we had another victory at Bellend Road, beating Leeds Urinals 2-1. Neil Danns gave us the lead shortly after half time, before the twats equalised. But we weren't giving up on this one and four minutes from time, it was the corner flag getting kicked over in celebration as James Vaughan slotted the ball home.

And in 1955 we had that FA Cup quarter final replay at Sid James' Park against Newcastle. After we had been denied a semi final place by a last minute equaliser on the previous Saturday, 52,449 spectators turned up to see the Pies beat us 2-0.

I wasn't born then, but my dad always told me about a match he went to at Newcastle when the crowd was massive. I'm fairly sure it would've been this one.

[Lord Snooty]

March 17:

Five years ago, in 2017, me and Amelia had a lovely weekend in Bristol. We had planned to drive down on the Friday and watch Town play at Ashton Gate on the Saturday, with a leisurely stroll back home on the Sunday. Of course, Sky cocked that one up by moving the match to Friday night. So we didn't have much time on Friday, but had all day Saturday to explore. Had a look round an old boat and a walk over an old bridge.........

Oh the match? Bristol City were in the bottom three, we were in the top three. You know what happened. We lost 4-0 and almost lost Jonathan Hogg. He appeared to have broken his neck, but thankfully he hadn't. The Robins were 1-0 up when that incident happened and when Tammy Abraham made it 2-0 in the 14th minute of first half added on time, it didn't look like it was going to be our night.

The injury shook our lads up and the second half was probably the worst of the season and we ended up getting stuffed. And it was wet and bloody freezing as well.

Twelve months on from that, in 2018, we were bloody freezing again. We were in the Premier League by now and having hammered Crystal Palace 3-0 at Selhurst Park on the opening day of the season, hopes were high of a repeat scoreline when they came to ours. No such luck. They beat us 2-0 in a disappointing game, with James Tomkins and a penalty from Luka Milivojević, made worse by the weather. It was snowing quite heavy during the game, but by the time we were on the way home it was terrible. Trying to get up Wakefield Road towards Lepton was an absolute nightmare.

Strangely, by the time we got home to Barnsley, there was no snow at all.

Born on this date in 1891, was half back Frank Mann. He was born in Nottingham and started his playing career with Aston Villa. But he came to Town in 1912 and stayed until 1923, with obviously a big chunk of his career interrupted by the war. His first two seasons with Town he was leading scorer and was still banging 'em in when the league started up again in 1919, scoring 18 time as Town won promotion and reached the FA Cup Final.

He was a regular in the First Division and was on target 4 times in the 1922 FA Cup campaign, for which he got himself a Winners Medal. He scored the first goal of the semi final against Notts County, which Town won 3-1.

His last Town goal was in a 3-5 defeat at Villa Park, when he went and dropped down a division to play for Second Division Manchester United. I'll say that again..... Second Division Manchester United.

Frank was instrumental in getting the Red Devils promoted in 1926 and actually stayed with them until he was 39 years old. This made him Man Utd's oldest ever player for a very long time, only losing that tag recently to Ryan Giggs and then Edwin van der Sar.

On retirement, he took on the license of Zetland Hotel in Huddersfield. His 75 goals in the bright blue n white has him in the top ten of our all time goal scorers chart. He's in 9th place, in between Jordan Rhodes and Dave Manganall.

He died in 1966, aged 75.

[Lord Snooty]

March 18:

It's a happy 38th birthday today to Gary Roberts. Born in Liverpool in 1984, he is currently out of work, having been given the boot from his coaching role at Ipswich in December when manager Paul Cook was sacked.

In his first spell at Ipswich, he was part of the team that relegated Leeds Utd down to League One. It was his corner kick that Alan Lee headed home and sparked a pitch invasion, in which Gary was assaulted. Strange that Leeds never got a ground closure or anything for that. Scum!

Anyway, he had signed for the Tractorz from Accrington Stanley and then in 2008, he signed for us. He cost a quarter of a million, but was well worth the money. Probably the best signing made by Stan Ternent in his short time in charge.

He had four seasons with us and was part of a great League One side. His time with us culminated in Play Off success and the game at Wembley against the Blunts was his last one in the bright blue n white as Simon Grayson, for some reason, never offered him a new contract and he ended up at Swindon.

It's 50 years ago today that we last played in the FA Cup quarter finals. That was in 1972 at Birmingham City's St Andrews ground. We were in the First Division, they were in the Second, but it was they who won.

We had beaten them on the same ground in the competition in the previous season, so optimism was high once again of reaching the semi finals for the first time since 1939. Some odd bits of history repeating took place though. In the previous game, Bob Latchford had injured our keeper, Terry Poole. He had to go off and in the days before substitute keepers, Terry Dolan went in goal.

In the game on this day, Latchford again injured our keeper, David Lawson this time, but it was Dolan who again went in the nets. He'd kept a clean sheet last time, but Lawson's injury was a major factor in this defeat. It was a 3-1 loss, with Latchford getting one of them. Malcolm Page and Bob Hatton getting the others, with Trevor Cherry getting ours.

Back in the 1920 promotion charge, we played the 3rd game of the 14 match unbeaten run to the end of the season. That's the 2nd tier unbeaten run that our present squad has just beaten. Anyway, this was at Anlaby Road against Hull City, who we had just beaten 2-0 at Leeds Road a few days earlier. Sammy Taylor scored twice in the home win. He got a hat trick in the one on this date, as Town won 4-1, with Jack Swann getting the other.

[HerefordBull]

Was at the Birmingham game in '72 with my mate in the Spion Kop......mental!

Although following Villa in those days I had a sneaking admiration for Bob Latchford who certainly knew where the net was, especially in his later Everton days. In the modern game I'm not sure he would do as well with certainly more protection given to keepers however some of the hard men defenders he came up against ( Hunter, Harris et al) may have balanced that out a little!!