[WakeyTerrier]

Just shows how crap Man Utd were/are that they couldn't beat us in the Premier League. That's one of 3 games I've attended on this day.

The other two are

1996
Town 0 v 1 Portsmouth
Deon Burton with the only goal at the last game of the season in front of 14091
That goal saved Pompey from Relegation whilst Town ended the season without a win in four which meant we finished a highly respectable 8th

The other game is the FA Cup final from 2012
Chelsea 2 v 1 Liverpool
Ramires giving Chelsea a 11th minute lead that was doubled in the second half by Didier Drogba before Andy Carroll pulled one back for the Scouscers
Att 89,102

[Lord Snooty]

May 6:

On this day in 1933, we played Manchester City at Leeds Road and beat them 1-0 with Jack Smith scoring the goal. It was the last game of the season and we were in 6th position and City were down in a lowly 16th place in the old First Division.

Only 5,440 spectators turned up.

Fast forward to 2018 and Manchester City are the opponents again on this date. Things have changed around a bit and now it's us in that lowly 16th place in what has now become known as the Prima Donna League. City had just won the title with three games to go and would be receiving the trophy at full time. Could Town turn up and piss on their manky chips n gravy?

There was absolutely no chance of us getting anything from this trip to the Emptihad, but somehow, we bloody well did. It was a real hard working performance and although City's millionaire players had slightly taken their eyes off the ball, they could score anytime they wanted, if they felt like it.

It was Town who had the best effort of the game, when the superb Alex Pritchard shot from 25 yards, forcing Ederson to full stretch to tip it around the corner. Ex City man Aaron Mooy was also brilliant in midfield, much better than any of the players who he never really got to know in his two minutes as a Man City employee.

Man of the Match though was the boy known as Zanka. As the BBC report of the match says, "Danish defender Mathias Jorgensen was a rock in a resolute Huddersfield defence, stopping City from playing the style of football that helped them to the Premier League title."

The result left us three points above both Swansea and Southampton, with Chelsea away and Arsenal at home still to come, will the 36 points we have already amassed be enough?

Manager David Wagner, speaking to BBC Radio 5 live:

"In football sometimes the impossible is possible. For sure before the game a clean sheet and getting a point looked impossible, but the players have done it and done it again.

"It makes this even bigger that a club of our size and circumstances, who are with no disrespect more like a League One club more than a Premier League club, can stick together and believe. That makes us special as a football club."

After such a momentous occasion, I'm loathe to mention what happened on this date in 2001. The season had started with Steve Bruce in charge, but he was sacked in October after just one win in the first twelve games. He was replaced by his assistant, Lou Macari, who struggled to turn things around. His first eight games only saw us take two points and by the start of December, we had 8 points from 19 matches and were bottom of the league.

Then came the turnaround. Lou won the Manager of the Month award for December as we won five and drew once in the six games. But it was still a big struggle. By the time the final game came around, a home match with Birmingham City, it looked like we had done enough and only a boat load of bad luck would send us down. Four games elsewhere had to go against us and for us to lose as well, for us to get relegated.

You know, it all went wrong. Portsmouth beat Barnsley, with the Tykes not even bothering to send any first teamers to the game and fielding an entire youth team. They did well really to keep it to 3-0. Grimsby beat Fulham 1-0 to secure their safety. All eyes were now on Edgeley Park where Stockport were playing Crystal Palace.

Town were 2-1 down at half time, with Andy Booth beating Ian Bennett to score an equaliser just before the interval, only for the Bluenoses to go and score again. And that's how the game finished. A point would still be enough, if we could get one, but we didn't. A defeat was still good enough, because Palace and Stockport were still 0-0.We could've overtaken County with a win, but as we were losing they were safe.

It wasn't until the 87th minute that Town actually dropped into the bottom three, alongside already relegated QPR and Tranmere. Stockport had a stonewall, handball penalty turned down, which would've sent Palace down and kept us up. But as their players were surrounding the ref, demanding their award, Palace broke swiftly and scored through Dougie Freedman.

Palace were safe. Stockport were also safe because we had lost. And so it was us who went down the the 3rd tier after six years in the 2nd. Never mind tiers, it was tears all round. We were stunned by the lateness of it all and knew just how those Peterborough fans felt 12 years later when us and Barnsley did it to them. But that's football for you.

There was a bit of trouble on the pitch as both sets of supporters ran on. Birmingham were happy at qualifying for the Play Offs. But you shouldn't take the piss when the home fans are in a state of shock.

Finish on a happy note! On this date in 1922, a week after winning the FA Cup, we concluded our second First Division season with a 2-0 win at home to Chelsea. That moved us up to 14th and it was Clem Stephenson and Frank Mann who scored the goals.

[Lord Snooty]

May 7:

Born on this date in 1961 in Sheffield was our goalkeeper, Brian Cox. Probably the third most famous Brian Cox on the planet, he's 61 today. He will sadly be remembered as the one who let ten goals go past him in a certain unmentionable match in Moss Side. But he was much, much better than that. I can't find a good enough picture of him on the interweb, so here's a picture of a different Brian Cox with a celebrity Town fan.

He helped us get promoted and kept a clean sheet on his 22nd birthday. That was when we beat Newport County at Leeds Road on this date in 1983, to win promotion from the 3rd Division to the 2nd, after a decade of lower league stuff. Newport came here knowing that defeat would end their chances of going up and in the end they finished 4th, four points behind us. We finished 3rd, behind Portsmouth and Cardiff City.

The game itself was a tense affair........... What am I on about? I have to admit, I missed the game. Was on a jolly down to Wembley for the Challenge Cup Final. Never thought when we booked it that this game would be so important in the history of Huddersfield Town.

This was the last time we won automatic promotion. Yes we have won promotion many times since, but all through the Play Offs. Anyway, it was David Cowling, who has a knack of scoring in big matches, doing the business again with a shot to score the only goal of the game.

There were more celebrations at Leeds Road, twelve months on in 1984. It wasn't us celebrating though. It wa' aboot a horf of a million Newcastle fans. They were everywhere that night. We used to go for pre match drinks in the Peacock on Leeds Road back then, but couldn't get anywhere near. The official attendance was 25,101 and there were only about 4 or 5,000 Town fans there.

This was the Newcastle side that had been revived by the arrival of Kevin Keegan, but also had Terry McDermott, Peter Beardsley and Chris Waddle in it. A magnificent attacking line up. They'd beaten us 5-2 earlier in the season, which wasn't the thrashing it looks on paper, probably the best game I've seen Town lose, if that makes sense.

Anyway, they needed a point to win promotion to the First Division. Keegan was out injured for this one and silly old Town went and took a two goal lead early doors. Those mad Geordies were looking madder than ever.

Graham Cooper scored them both, though looking at Wikipedia, his second goal has gone down as an own goal for Stephen Carney. Those mad Geordies got even madder just before half time. Mad celebrating that is when Beardsley pulled one back and then David Mills equalised.

That was the full time result, 2-2. We all made a swift exit and left them to it.

Here's that scoreboard again......

Now I have been banging on about Dave Mangnall all year about his goal scoring magnificence. On this date in 1932, he scored a hat trick at Villa Park to give Town a 3-2 victory and move us above the Villa into a 4th place finish in the Division One final table.

His third goal was his 33rd league goal of the season, but add them to the nine he scored in the FA Cup and that equals the record of 42 goals in a season, set by Sammy Taylor in 1919/20. That's a record that still stands today.

Other games on this day include the one in 1966 at home to Coventry, which I wrote about in the recent match thread and was Town's first ever go on Match Of The Day. We lost 2-0 and missed out on a chance of promotion. If you missed it on the match thread and want to have a look.......

We have more end of season glories against Man City. Twice played them on this date, none in living memory though. Well not mine anyway. We beat them both times 1-0 and both at Leeds Road. England international inside forward, Bobby Barclay scored in 1938 and eleven years later in 1949, it was Arnold Rodgers scoring.


We have played Brentford three times on this date. Firstly, twelve months before we beat them in the Play Offs, we beat them in the league on this date in 1994. Two goals for the cult hero, Iain Dunn in a 2-1 win at Griffin Park.

We played them at the Galpharm in 2011 and it was a right old crackerjack. Danny Ward scored twice and Lee Novak and Benik Afobe got one each in a 4-4 draw.

And they came back in 2016. Jamie Paterson scored for Town, but the Bees scored five. This result gave many a pundit the idea that David Wagner wasn't up to the job and come the start of the next season, many of them were predicting relegation for our lads, not knowing that the Wagner Revolution was well and truly under way.

[HerefordBull]

Old enough to remember......just!.......the old scoreboards or some clubs had the letters and numbers around the sides by the advertising boards. Just love it.

[ritchiebaby]

And the blue invalid (that's INvalid, not inVALid) cars around the pitch. Or was that just Scottish grounds?

[Lord Snooty]

Yes I remember the little blue cars.

[theo_luddite]

Fond memories of those Newcastle games, particularly Towns goals up there. Not so fond memories of being penned in the back of the (S)Lees's End after while rocks and stones were lobbed over the wall.
My mates missus even turned up for the home game. She had a thing about Keegan. She was a tad dischuffed on the day

[Lord Snooty]

Oh yes. Happy days. Riding all the way back from Newcastle with all the coach windows put through.

[Lord Snooty]

May 8:

We've only played five times on this date. One of them was at Cheltenham in 2004.

We were in the bottom tier, the 4th Division, which was called Division Three then and is now known as League Two. It was the season with Peter Jackson in for his second spell as manager after the club had been in administration. Fortunately back then, no points were deducted, so by the time this last game of the season came around, we were still in with a chance of promotion.

We were still in control of our own destiny, despite only taking one point from the last two games, we were still ahead of Torquay in 4th and so all we had to do was to better their result, away at Southend, to claim the 3rd spot and achieve automatic promotion.

Cheltenham, in your beautiful state of Gloss-ester-shyer, were comfortably in mid table with absolutely nothing to play for. Andy Booth, in his second spell at the club, had notched up 99 goals in all competitions. And 16 minutes into the game, he duly went and scored his 100th.

All was looking good, especially as they had a man sent off, striker Damien Spencer, in the 62nd minute. It was just a matter of seeing out the time, in front of a carnival atmosphere amongst the Town fans and the few thousand back at the McAlpine, watching on a big screen.

What could possibly go wrong?

Well Torquay were 2-1 up, down at Roots Hall, so we knew we had to win the game. With a quarter of an hour to go, Pawel Abbott received the ball out on the right wing in an attacking position just past the halfway line. For some unaccountable reason, he decided to dribble in the other direction, looking for a teammate to pass to. Nobody was showing and he just kept going, further and further into his own half. He was running out of room and suddenly his only option was to pass the ball back to Paul Rachubka in the Town goal.

The daft sod under hit it! It was intercepted by Shane Duff who coolly slotted it past the onrushing keeper.

As hard as the lads tried, they couldn't get that winner. A distraught Abbott was subbed and replaced by the returning hero, Iffy Onuora, who had just been released by Tranmere. The Big Iff couldn't magic up a goal though and so the game ended all square.

All eyes turned to Southend-on-Sea, where it was the Devon seasiders who were celebrating. Jacko had a big job on his hands now, picking the lads up after such a downer. He's got a week to do it. We play Lincoln City in the Play Offs next Saturday.

[Lord Snooty]

May 9:

On this date in 2018, we won the solitary point required to ensure our survival for another season in the Premier League. It was a backs to the wall game against last season's champions, who had struggled to retain the title and anything but a win on this night would mean that they wouldn't qualify for a Champions League place for the following season. So they weren't just turning up and letting us have an easy point.

Chelsea dominated the game, but it was Town who took the lead. A brilliant tackle from Christopher Schindler on Willian and a superb long range pass from Aaron Mooy set Laurent Depoitre free. As the Blues keeper Willy Caballero came rushing out to stop the big Belgian tank, he actually shat himself when he caught sight of what was about to hit him.

The keeper couldn't stop in time though as he hit the immovable force and was sent spinning on his back like an upturned turtle as Depoitre walked the ball into the empty net to send the Town fans behind the goal into ecstatic celebrations and the thousands more back in Yorkshire watching on Sky.

Chelsea did pull a goal back shortly after when a clearance from Zanka hit Marcos Alonso on the nose and went in. A freak goal!

But it was an amazing save from Jonas Lössl that kept us in it, saving miraculously from an Andreas Christensen header, tipping the ball onto the post when it had already got past him. Wave after wave of Chelsea attacks were bombarding our area, but Jonas and the boys held on. We even had another chance for Depoitre, but Antonio Rüdiger conned a foul out of the ref.

The clock was running down. Chelsea were getting desperate. All of a sudden, Town sub Scott Malone was on for a one on one with Caballero but was disgracefully blocked by Rüdiger, who should've been booked but wasn't. Free kick to the Terriers on the edge of the Chelsea box. Mooy kicked it towards the corner flag and the final whistle blew.

Mayhem!

The result put us four points ahead of Swansea and condemned them to the Championship.

Go on. Have a watch of this....... 

In 1951, as part of the Festival of Britain, The Football Association organised a series of matches in the fortnight after the season's end. These were mostly against Scottish, Irish and Continental clubs. Town played two matches. The first of which was on this date.

The game was played at Leeds Road and the opponents were the Dutch club, PSV Eindhoven. Looking at the list of games played, it does appear to be a right old random selection of fixtures. One of the reasons given for us playing PSV was that our thrice champion full back of the 1920s, Sam Wadsworth, was at this time the PSV manager.

They brought us a gift as well. They gave us our first scoreboard. Not the one featured recently in the celebrations pictures I've posted, but an electric one. A proper fancy thing it was an all, by all accounts. Sadly though, it got burned down soon after in an arson attack.

Anyway, the game itself was a 4-1 win for Town with two goals from Albert Nightingale (pictured below), one for Jeff Taylor and one for Jimmy Glazzard.

We have a birthday today. Born on this date in 1940 in Eston in Middlesbrough, Colin Dobson is 82 today. He was part of our glorious 2nd division winning team of 1969/70 and was second top scorer that season, scoring nine goals, behind leading scorer Frank Worthington who got 19.

He played for Sheff Weds before us and scored 52 goals for them. By the time he left us to go and play for Bristol Rovers in 1972, he had also scored 52 goals for Town. That now has him in 21st equal in our all time goal scorers chart, level with Ernie Islip.