[themaclad]

Remember the Blackpool game was in Saffron Walden on the way to our promtion day at Colchester the next day we lost 1-0 a bleak shitty day and that was just on the pitch.

[Lord Snooty]

Everybody knows that we should've been awarded a 3-0 win for that game. The EFL in it's wisdom, decided to leave the score at 0-0 with only 45 minutes played.

Utter disgrace!

[themaclad]

Football fans still narked by somethng 7 years ago we really are a strange breed

[Lord Snooty]

[Lord Snooty]

May 3:

On this day in 1924, Huddersfield Town Association Football Club won it's first Football League title. We won it with the smallest margin in FL history. It was on Goal Average and ours was 1.818, but Cardiff City's was only 1.794. Had it been on Goal Difference, as in modern day football, the title would've gone to them, but that's how it was and the history books say we won it.

We both had the same goal difference, but they had scored one goal more. However, goal average favoured the team who had conceded less, rather than the team that scored more, so they changed it in the 1970/80's around about the same time that they introduced three points for a win.

Anyway, Cardiff have only themselves to blame as they were in control of their destiny going into the final round of games. They had to beat Birmingham and the job would be done. They didn't. They drew 0-0 and missed a penalty.

Town though, won 3-0 at home to Nottingham Forest. George Brown scored one of the goals and George Cook scored twice, with Cook scoring the goal late on that altered the course of history and started off the first title for this great club of ours, which would then go on to be the first to win the title three times in a row, a feat that has been equaled but never bettered.

That was our first league title, on this day in 1980 we won our fifth and to date, our last one. This wasn't the First Division though. This was the Fourth Division title, which was grand after our years in the basement league.

This was the final league game of the season and the visitors were Hartlepool United. We had just taken over at the top of the league from Walsall on goal difference. They had to win against Newport and hope that we didn't.

Town had also scored 99 goals in the 45 games played so far, already a club record, we were hoping to become the first team since the 1960s to score a hundred in the Football League. A crowd of 16,807 turned up for this one, second highest behind the visit of Walsall a couple of weeks earlier, but most were disappointed come half time when the Monkey Hangers were leading 1-0, scoring after 38 minutes and 46 seconds.

Mick Buxton gave the lads a proper roasting at half time and the terrific Terriers came out all guns blazing. Ian Robins equalised after 47 minutes and 12 seconds and that was the 100th league goal done. But we also wanted the title and roared on by the crowd, they only went and did it.

It was a bit of a scrappy goal after 79 minutes and 30 seconds, scored in front of the Cowshed, bundled in by Robins to send the crowd wild.

Full time came and Town had won 2-1 and were champions. A draw would've done anyway as news filtered through that Walsall had lost at home to Newport, who had secured their promotion as well. Newport finished 3rd, with Portsmouth in 4th. The team to miss out was Bradford City, who would've gone up with a point, but lost 1-0 at Peterborough.

The triumphant Town team then came out to celebrate and do a lap of honour. Here's a picture of those celebrations and can you see how I knew the goal times?

There were more celebrations on the Leeds Road pitch on this date in 1986. It wasn't our lads though. It was our visitors Wimbledon who were popping the champagne corks after beating us 1-0 with a Lawrie Sanchez goal, to win promotion to the First Division. Remarkable that they had only been in the Football League for nine seasons.

Here's another look at that famous old scoreboard. It's had a lick of paint since the last pic.

There were more away fans celebrating at our place back in 1998. At the McAlpine Stadium this time and it was the Port Vale fans who were cock-a-hoop. We had secured our 2nd Division status a couple of weeks earlier by beating West Brom, completing what became known as the Great Escape. So in effect, our lads had reached the Swiss border and were sat in a cafe next to Lake Geneva, eating chocolate and admiring the cuckoo clocks, when the Vale boys came to Town.

They needed to win and hope that others didn't. Their worries were eased very early on, maybe the first minute if I remember rightly, and they went on to beat us 4-0. Defeat would've sent them down as the others around them all won. One of those others to win was Manchester City. They won 5-2 away at Stoke, but got relegated anyway. That once great football club was relegated to the 3rd Division. Will they ever recover?

Enough of away fans celebrating at ours. Let's finish with us celebrating away. On this date in 2014, Town won 4-1 away at Watford. It was the end of the season and there was nothing at stake, but it was the best performance of a drab season under the management of Mark Robins.

It was goal less at half time, but the second half became memorable for the performances of two players in particular. We had been promised big things from Joe Lolley, who had signed from Kidderminster in January, but this was his first league start. A minute after half time, he got his first Town goal. Not only that, he set up another two. Those two were scored by Danny Ward and he completed his hat trick in the 87th minute to put Town 4-0 up.

That was the last hat trick scored by a Town player before Danny did it again this season down at Reading. He was out of contract, but this earned him another 12 months, which sadly didn't go that well.

And another player out of contract and let go by Robins, was Peter Clarke, who 8 years on, is still playing. He was on the bench but the fans were pleading with the boring bastard of a manager to get him on for one last show. He eventually relented and with chants of "If Clarkey scores, we're on the pitch," on came Captain Fantastic with six minutes left.

He didn't score but the referee decided that that cheating twat Troy Deeney had been tripped by him and so the last thing Peter did in a Town shirt was give away a penalty, which Deeney got up and scored to finish the game at 4-1. The bloke just can't help it. It's instinct. Even with his team 4-0 down in the last minute of a meaningless game, he still can't stop cheating!

Anyway, 4-1 to the Mighty Terriers, sets us up nicely for the next season. 

[themaclad]

Half time scoreboards happy days

[Lord Snooty]

May 4:

It was on this date in 2013 that we had that crazy game at home to Barnsley, which ended with an all Yorkshire love-in.

Wolves and Bristol City had already been relegated from the Championship, but the third and final relegation slot was still undecided, with us, Barnsley, Peterborough, Millwall, Blackburn and Sheffield Wednesday all in with a chance of claiming that unwanted drop to the obscurity of lower league football.

It didn't start well for Town when Chris O'Grady scored for the Tykes in the 14th minute. That was the score at half time, 1-0 to Barnsley. Peterborough were winning at Crystal Palace as well, but right on half time, Palace got a penalty and so with 45 minutes gone, it was the Pish who were in the bottom three.

The second half started and Town were still too close for comfort. Jermaine Beckford eased our worries though in the 54th minute, giving us the equaliser. What a relief!

Wednesday were 2-0 up and safe. Millwall were still goal less at Derby. Then Jordan Rhodes got an equaliser for Blackburn at Birmingham, which would have them safe. That was his 30th goal of the season, two for us and twenty eight for Rovers. And still they were involved in a relegation battle!

That's when it all took a bad turn for the Terriers and got us all in a dither. News came through that Peter-bloody-borough had gone and scored again at Palace. Even worse, Barnsley scored again to go 2-1 up through Jason Scotland.

We were now in the bottom three, because we had the worst goal difference of all the clubs involved!

Don't panic! Here comes James Vaughan with the equaliser. We were only in that drop zone for seven minutes, but it wasn't a very nice seven minutes.

Now with the Pish still leading, that put Barnsley in trouble, so it was all guns blazing towards our goal. Our defence stood strong. Derby then scored. Millwall were now going down and Barnsley were safe.

Then came the twist of fate at Selhurst Park. Not only did Kevin Philips equalise for Palace, they went and took the lead in the 89th minute through Mile Jedinak. That put Peterborough on the trapdoor, with the hangman's hand poised to pull the lever.

However, if Town managed to get a winner in the last minute, Barnsley would still be relegated. What happened next was probably against the spirit of the game, but what the hell. Town knew they were safe with a point. We certainly weren't going to press and look for a winner and Barnsley were happy enough to play keep ball. They took it to the extreme though as their management instructed the keeper, Luke Steele, to just keep it to himself in his own area.

The Town players looked to the bench for instructions. Vaughaney set off to go and intercept their keeper. The crowd yelled at him to stay back. The news was good. Pish were still behind. The ref looked on again at the Reds goalie still fannying about and thought sod it. He blew his whistle and all sides of the John McAlpharm Stadium erupted with delight.

Even more so when confirmation came through that Peterborough were relegated, just a couple of years after beating us in the Play Off Final. What a shame!

The Town fans who had invaded the pitch went over to the Barnsley fans, but there was no aggression, no trouble at all, just chants all round of YORKSHIRE! YORKSHIRE! YORKSHIRE!

So we finished the season in 19th with 58 points. Barnsley in 21st with 55. And poor old Peterborough were relegated with 54 points, probably the biggest points total to go down with.

[HerefordBull]

Football is a funny old game where the same ecstatic feelings can be realised in escaping relegation after a poor season as winning some Cup or title .

[theo_luddite]

What's not to like about Posh getting relegated? Let's hope it happens again soon.

Oh! It has

Shame Barnsalee went down with them but they've been no'but a shadow of last season's side.

Without the deductions, Reading and Brum would be either side of that there trap door on goal difference on 47 points going into the last day. That's 13 more than Posh and 17 more than Barnsalee. One of them, most likely Reading on goal difference, even with £120K/week Danny Drinkwater (in a club docked points for over spending - unbelievable) could have been going down on 50 points.

[Lord Snooty]

May 5:

It's a happy birthday today to Pawel Abbott. Born on this date in 1982, he's 40 years old today. He was born and raised in York, but has a Polish mum, which is why he played for the Polish u21s and why he spent the back end of his career playing in Poland.

The highlight of his playing career though was definitely the three years he had playing for Huddersfield Town. He first came on loan from Preston in 2004 to replace Jon Stead, who had been sold to Premier League Blackburn Rovers.

Pav scored on his debut, coming on as a sub and netting a late equaliser at Bristol Rovers and followed that with goals in the next two matches as well, a couple of home wins against Lincoln and Yeovil. He scored four goals from six games in that loan period, which culminated in Play Off victory over Mansfield in 2004 at the Millennium Stadium. He was subbed at the start of extra time, which is why he didn't get involved in the penalty shoot out.

He signed on permanent at the start of the next season and scored in the opening game, an injury time winner at Stockport. That wasn't a great season, finishing 9th in League One, but it was a good one for Pav, being top scorer with 27, including a hat trick at Port Vale.

It was the next season though, 2005/06 that he set a new club record for scoring in successive matches. No, he didn't beat the Dave Mangnall record of scoring in eleven consecutive matches. This was scoring in consecutive matches at the start of the season. He scored in the opener away at Forest, yes that Forest, the Nottingham one who were in the 3rd Division. I know! They're such a big club, this can't possibly be right.

Anyway, he went and scored in a 1-0 home win over Bristol City, a 3-1 win at home to Swansea, a 1-1 draw at Southend, a League Cup win at Chesterfield and a home win over Hartlepool, a total of six matches.

He only played ten games in the next season. His final Town goals came at Swansea, two of them with the second one coming as a last minute winner. So impressed were the Swans management that they forked out £150,000 to take him there. And that's when his career started stuttering and the Pavalotti goal machine dried up, going to places like Darlington, Oldham and Charlton, before trying his luck in Poland.

We have another birthday, born in 1901 and so celebrating his 121st birthday today........ Sorry! Austen Campbell was born on this date in 1901 in Hamsterley, a pit village in County Durham. He started out his working life darn t' pit, before landing a contract with Blackburn Rovers in 1923.

He played in the 1928 FA Cup Final for them against Town, getting a winners medal. So impressed were the Town management that they signed him on in 1929 to replace Willie Watson who had just retired. He got a runners up medal when he played in the 1930 Final for Town against Arsenal.

During his time with us he formed a formidable half back line with Ken Willingham and Alf Young. Every one of his seasons at Leeds Road finished with the team in the top ten of the First Division, being runners up in 1933/34, before he moved to Hull City in 1935.

Austen played 8 times for England, six of those when he was a Town player.

He died in Blackburn in 1981, aged 80.

On this date in 2019, we had a bit of a bright moment in a terrible Prima Donna League season. It was the last home game of the 2018/19 season and the visitors were Manchester United, who we famously beat in the previous season. Both managers had changed since that day. David Wagner and Jose Mourinho had been replaced with Jan Siewert and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and it was against Town that Ole got his first win as United manager at Christmas. However, he wouldn't get a win here. In fact, Man U are the only team in our PL seasons to come twice to the JSS and not win at least one of them.

They did take the lead though through Scott McTominay, but in the second half the Terriers came back biting and equalised in the 60th minute. It was an assist from the goalkeeper, Jonas Lossl, who's inch perfect pass or hopeful long punt, depending on how well you remember it.

Anyway, it was Isaac Mbenza who was on the end of the pass and he took it on and drilled it into the back of the net, with David de Gea once again beaten at the John Smiths Stadium.