[Lord Snooty]

October 3:

Born in Eastbourne in 1987, it's a happy 35th birthday today to Joel Lynch. He was brought to the club by Simon Grayson just after promotion in 2012 and made his Town debut in the opening league game of 2012/13 away at Cardiff.

He wasn't the best ever defender we've had at Town but he was reliable enough. What his time with us is noted for was the spectacular goals he scored. He only got nine in 121 (+7 subs) apps, but two of his goals will be in a top ten of the best goals ever scored at the John McAlpharm Stadium.

Just have a look at these beauties and tell us which one you think's the best........

He was still playing last season, down at Crawley. Not sure if he still is. He has no appearances for this season.


So Grayson signed Joel from Nottingham Forest and they were our opponents in a League Cup 2nd round 2nd leg match at Leeds Road, on this date in 1989. They were still managed by Leeds reject Brian Clough and were the League Cup holders, not the shower of shite they are nowadays.

Town were still in the 3rd Division, managed by ex Republic of Ireland manager Eoin Hand (pictured below) and we earned ourselves a decent chance of winning the tie with the giant tree trunks by drawing the first leg at the City Ground with Ken O'Doherty scoring.

Forest scored first through Tommy Gaynor, but then Craig Maskell equalised just before half time. Future Town player Gary Crosby, gave Forest the lead after the break and then Nigel Clough, who had been taunted by the Town fans throughout the first half, scored an absolute screamer to shut them up and surely close the match at 4-2 on aggregate.

But no! Back came Hand's heroes. First Maskell netted direct from a 20 yard free kick and then Mike Cecere unbelievably levelled it up at 3-3 slotting home in front of the Cowshed after Maskell had set him up. The game went to extra time, but we couldn't get the winner and sadly, the rules of the competition at the time had Forest going through on the away goals rule instead of the excitement of a penalty shoot out. 

The Football League double champions Huddersfield Town, under the new management of Cecil Potter, were on an unbeaten run at the start of the new season in pursuit of that third title. We had gone seven unbeaten and on this date in 1925, made it eight with a 3-2 away win against Everton. George Brown was the hero, with a hat trick.


On this date in 1936, we had another win against Leeds Urinals. This was a routine 3-0 win at home against them with goals from Len Butt and two from Duncan Ogilvie. He was a new signing from Motherwell and he was to return back up there soon afterwards, in exchange for Willie MacFadyen, after only 18 games for us.


Back in Division One after promotion, we played Aston Villa at home on this date in 1953. Vic Metcalfe got one of the goals in a fantastic 4-0 win, but it was Jimmy Glazzard who was on fire, scoring a hat trick to take his tally to eight in three matches after a hat trick against Sheffield Utd and two against Middlesbrough.


And finally today, a 6-3 win. It was at Leeds Road against Portsmouth on this date in 1959. Jack Connor scored a couple, as did Les Massie. Kevin McHale scored just two days after his 20th birthday. And the sixth goal came form Ken Taylor, returning to the team when the cricket season had finished, having just starred in a successful County Championship title winning season with Yorkshire.

[Lord Snooty]

October 4:

Billy Price was born on this date in 1917, in a village in Shropshire called Wrockwardine. He had ten years at Huddersfield Town, as a centre forward, but only scored 31 goals. Not much of a return.

Well that's not strictly true. His career was interrupted by the war, seriously interrupted. He was 19 years old when he came to Leeds Road and made his debut in an Easter Monday match at the Baseball Ground against Derby County when the mighty Blue n Whites slammed the Rams 4-0. Billy scored. He scored again on the next day when Derby came up to ours and Billy got one in a 2-0 win.

He had taken the place of Willie McFadyen in those two games, but Willie was back for the next game, the FA Cup Final of 1938 at Wembley against Preston North End. As we learned the other day when the Diaries of Robert Gordon were posted on the HTAFC Heritage Site, the reserves had an away game at Bury on the same day, so I'm guessing Billy would be on the coach to Gigg Lane instead of the Twin Towers.

Billy scored 24 goals in the next season, including seven goals in the FA Cup run that went all the way to the semis. The next season, 1939/40, started but only lasted three matches before being abandoned because the country was now at war. Billy was the only Town player to register a goal in those three abandoned games and so was the only one who had a goal chalked off of his tally.

Football was soon back again though as the authorities decided it would be good for morale on the home front to keep the game going and so regional leagues were started. Robert Gordon, Graham Bailey and Harold Wood all got jobs at Brook Motors for the war effort. I don't know what Billy did, but he probably did something similar because he was playing for Town throughout the whole of the wartime.

And what a few seasons of goal scoring he had. The opposition at times must've been a bit low on standard as many of the top players joined up and none of these games count in official stats, but I've just totted up Billy's totals and he scored 190 goals during the war.

He scored a hat trick in an 11-0 win over Rochdale in 1940 and scored seven in an 8-0 win against Crewe in 1943. How strong a line up those two had, we'll not know, which is another reason these stats don't count. Which is a shame for Billy, because if they did, he would be well out in front of our goal scoring chart. George Brown, Jimmy Glazzard and Andy Booth are the top three with 159, 154 and 150 goals.

Adding up Billy's goals, 31 officially in the League and FA Cup, 190 wartime goals and the one he had chalked off in 1939, makes a grand total of 222.

In 1947 he was transferred to Reading. Then on to Hull City, Bradford City and finishing his career in the non league with Winsford United.

He died in 1995, aged 77.

Bill Shankly was the greatest man ever to manage Liverpool. So much so that he has gates dedicated to him at Anfield. But on this date in 1958, he was still manager of Huddersfield Town and Liverpool were the visitors for a 2nd Division match at Leeds Road.

The Reds left with red faces as Town hammered them 5-0. Ex Sheffield Utd winger Derek Hawksworth scored twice and Les Massie, cricket star Ken Taylor and future World Cup winner Ray Wilson, all scored one each.

On this date in 1983, we had a League Cup 2nd round 1st leg match with 1st Division high flyers Watford. They were a proper club back then, managed by Graham Taylor and owned by pop star Elton John and were runners up in Division One in the season just gone. We were in Division Two, having just won promotion under the management of Mick Buxton.

So we were very much the underdog as the Hornets came up to Leeds Road. But Buxton's boys had other ideas. David Cowling gave us the lead. I think we went two nil up before they pulled one back, but I'm not sure. Doesn't matter. The Town goal was an own goal, but the Watford goal was one of the best goals I ever saw at Leeds Road. I've never seen a replay of it, so my memory could be wrong, but it was scored by their young left winger, John Barnes, who would go on to be one of the best players in the world.

The 2nd leg is in three weeks time down at Vicarage Road. Can't wait!

[HerefordBull]

I do know, but always forget that Bill Shankly was the Terriers manager prior to Liverpool. The Reds were no great shakes in those days so I wonder what would have happened if he had stayed at Leeds Road?? ........it would still be three years till Liverpool got to the top flight in 1962 so it was not like he was parachuted into a top club at the time.

Hibernian fans fondly remember his older brother Bob who was the guy in the hot seat at Easter Road during the late 60.s after taking over when Jock Stein left. Both brothers died within a year of each other with heart problems in the early 80's.

[Lord Snooty]

I've been told in the past by those who were around at the time, that Shanks wanted to buy Ian St John and Ron Yeats but the Board wouldn't part with the dosh.

So when he left, they were the first two name's to come in at Anfield.

Don't know how true that is, but it sounds like some things will never change. This would've been around the time that the minimum wage was scrapped so the clubs with more money coming through the turnstiles could attract the better players.

[HerefordBull]

Aye Snoots, think it was removed around 1961 and once it went Clubs like Liverpool started to "improve" as they were able to attract the better players, plus TV was starting to improve its coverage along with associated payments. As you said, the more fans coming through the turnstile equated to more money for players wages in those days.

Shankly had been at Liverpool for a couple of years before St John and Yeats arrived so probably proves that losing the minimum wage in 1961 sparked the input of better players.

Fast forward to the modern gravy train where the media and Euro payments have ballooned so much ( more important than turnstile footfall) that top players are on stupid money.

[Lord Snooty]

October 5:

Two Town players from the current squad have birthdays today and they are two players who used to be team mates at MK Dons. It's Lee Nicholls and David Kasumu.

Lee was born in Huyton on Merseyside on this date in 1992 and so is 30 today. As England's number 1, he should be celebrating his birthday with a call up to the England World Cup squad.

David is 23 today. He was born in Lambeth on this date in 1999, but identifies as Nigerian. Hope the poor lad can get celebrate properly and not have the sulks after getting a different kind of card from an over fussy ref last night.

In the 90s, we had back to back League Cup exits on this date. One going down in a blaze of glory and one, quite frankly, outclassed. Both with Neil Warnock in charge.

On this date in 1993, we went to Highbury to play Arsenal in a 2nd round 2nd leg game with a 5-0 deficit from the first leg. We set off like a team who thought they could overturn this impossible scoreline and took a 1-0 half time lead with a goal from Iain Dunn.

Only another four goals needed to force extra time. Could the greatest comeback in football history really be on?

No. Sky commentator, Alan Smith, equalised on the night and the match sort of fizzled out. But a draw down at Arsenal. Not bad, eh?

Twelve months on, on this date in 1994, we were much better than the team who got hammered 5-1 on aggregate by the Gunners and surely we will not suffer the same fate against Southampton, who at the time were really a one man team.

That one man was called Matt le Tissier, a lad from the Channel Islands, who grew up to be a bit of a dick. He had given the Saints a 1-0 lead from the first leg at Leeds Road. Surely we'll just kick him off the park and stroll it past the other ten donkeys.

The plan didn't work as we went down to play them at the Dell and lost 4-0 on the night, 5-0 on aggregate. That prick, le Tiss, took the piss, scoring all four on the night and therefore all five in the tie. I'm fairly sure that nobody else has scored five in a League Cup tie against us.

The Dell was one of the grounds I never got to. It always looked weird on telly. Did you ever go and what was it really like?

[Lord Snooty]

October 6:

So, on this date in 1992, we went to Ewood Park to take on Premier League giants, Blackburn Rovers, in the 2nd round 2nd leg of the League Cup. We'd drawn the first leg 1-1 at Leeds Road, in a match we more than equaled our new Prima Donna League opponents, who would be champions a couple of seasons later.

They scored first on the night to go 2-1 up on aggregate, an unmarked Alan Shearer heading past Tony Elliott in the Town goal. Roy Wegerle fired the Rovers second goal, early in the second half, but then the tie was turned on it's head.

Firstly, an excellent run down the left wing by young Simon Ireland and a pass to Gary Barnett to score, to pull one back for the men in the black and red electric hoops Gola kit. And then Bobby Mimms in the Blackburn goal cocked up a back pass by kicking it straight at the onrushing Iwan Roberts and the ball came off his heel into the back of the net. All square again. Absolute limbs!

Blimey. Can we take this to extra time? Hold on. A minute later, a long punt from Elliott is nodded on by Iwan, the ball drops nicely for Ireland who volleys past Mimms into the far corner. All this in front of the Town fans who by now are going totally ape shit! 

But then, just as we thought we'd weathered the storm after getting battered by Blackburn's multi million pound strikers, one of them went and equalised. It was Shearer, heading in from a cross in injury time.

Bugger!

So it did go to extra time. Could we hold out for another thirty minutes and win on away goals?

Nah! Mike Newell scored soon after the restart and the game sort of fizzled out.

On this date in 2009, we did get penalties, but no extra time. It was a Johnstone Paints Trophy match at Saltergate against those Twisted Spirestarters of Chesterfield.

After a goal less first half, things got going after 57 minutes when Drew Talbot put the home side ahead. Anthony Pilkington drew Town level, only for the boy named Drew to do it again. Two-one to the Spireboys.

It was three-one in the 90th minute, when Jordan Bowery scored to wrap things up and see the mass exodus of the Town fans in a crowd of 3,003, amassed behind the goal in the pouring rain.

Those who stayed saw a remarkable come back. Two goals for the Terriers in injury time, one from Pilks and then Nathan Clarke scrambling one in from a corner as the ref was ready to get off for his nice hot cup of tea.

The tea urn can wait. We have a shoot out to see out first. And as we all know, Town always win penalties.

Well, on this rare occasion, we didn't. From the moment Pilks sent his shot high over the bar and out of the ground, we were beat. Chesterfield scored all theirs, they only needed four. Robbie Williams scored, Antony Kay scored. Jim Goodwin had his saved and so it was a future Town player who took the winning shot. A young lad on loan from Man City, Donal McDermott.

So that's two losses so far today. Finish with a big win.

When World War Two finished and they had VE Day an' all that, it was considered too late to organise a proper Football League season and so they carried on with regional football until things went back to normal for the 46/47 season.

Town might have been organised alright, but our opponents on this day in 1945, Middlesbrough, certainly weren't. How many players they had missing, still away on military service, I don't know, but they certainly were struggling on the pitch as we won this game 8-2 at Ayresome Park.

Lewis Brook, a defender form Halifax, scored a hat trick. Jimmy Glazzard scored a couple. I said the other day that Billy Price would've outscored Glazzard if all his wartime goals had counted. Jim scored quite a few in the war as well. I might tot them up when I've finished writing this up.*

Ex Arsenal striker, Eddie Carr (pictured below) scored twice. He had spent his war service darn t' pit, back up at his north-east home. This was his only season with us before going to Newport County and then Bradford City and Darlington.

The eighth Town goal is just recorded as scored by Watson. We had two brothers, Willie Watson and Albert Watson at the club at the time, so it could've been either. They were the sons of Town twenties legend, Billy Watson. Our Willie of course was a famous cricketer, who I've mentioned before and he went on to play for Sunderland as well. Albert had the lesser successful career and after us, went to Oldham but then ran his brother's sports shop in Sunderland.

Boro still hadn't got their act together by the next Saturday when they came to Leeds Road and we stuffed them again, 7-0 this time.

*Just totted Gentlemen Jim's goals in wartime. He got 33, taking his total to 187, still behind Pricey's 222. 

[SHEP_HTAFC]

I was behind the goal for that Blackburn game. One of the best times I ever had watching Town, if ultimately, we ended up going out.
I don't think I've ever seen a better performance from a Town player than Simon Ireland that night. He was unplayable.
So much so that Blackburn bought him shortly after that I believe.

[Lord Snooty]

October 7:

On this date in 1916, ex Town goalkeeper Leigh Richmond Roose was killed on the 99th day of the Battle of the Somme.

Leigh only played 5 games for us, all in 1911. One of them was our record victory at the time, a 7-1 win at Leeds Road against Birmingham. Before that, he had had two spells as Stoke's goalkeeper and was widely regarded as the most famous footballer at the turn of the Edwardian era. He was an amateur, in a time when most footballers were professional, but was widely regarded as the best goalkeeper around. He was also football's first ever celebrity, the George Best or David Beckham of his generation. A real coup for a team in the 2nd Division, in it's first season in the Football League.

In a game much different to today's, keepers were allowed to elbow opposing forwards and vice versa keepers being bundled into the back of the net whilst holding the ball was all well within the laws of the game. They were also allowed to handle the ball anywhere in their own half, a rule which Roose used to dribble the ball, basketball style out of his area all the way to the halfway line to set up the attacks. All within the rules, but nobody else was ever brave enough to do the same, which was one of the things that made him a crowd puller.

He was born in 1877, the son of the local Presbyterian Minister in Holt near Wrexham and was taught at school by the novelist HG Wells among others at a school that preferred football to rugby. After school he went to the University of Aberystwyth and studied medicine. He joined the university footy team and became a bit of a celebrity with his ability to punch the ball further than most could kick it and his interactions with the crowd, which were unheard of back then. He was signed on by Aberystwyth Town and then earned his first call up to the Welsh national team in 1900.

He wanted to be a doctor though and left Wales for London and a place at King’s College Hospital, joining London Welsh FC to keep his hand in. His name as a keeper though was getting around and when Stoke approached him, he agreed to join them, with them paying all his expenses, meaning he was a professional in all but name.

The people of Stoke had never seen owt like it. He entertained them by swinging on the crossbar and would interact with them during play. He also used to do the old jelly legs when facing penalties, but most of all, results on the pitch improved. He was so popular that fans would follow his hansom cab all the way from the station to the Victoria Ground when he traveled up from London for games.

Things weren't going well for Stoke off the pitch though and his extravagant expenses were a bit too much for the board of directors and they reneged on the deal, which saw him return to London and announce his retirement from the game at the age of 26. In London he got his Bachelor of Medicine and continued to live the London playboy life, but missed the footballing life and when Everton approached him in 1904, he was back. The Toffees were in contention for a league and cup double but ended up runners up in the league and lost in the cup semis.

In 1906, Mitchell & Kenyon filmed a Wales v Ireland match in the British Championships, in which Leigh played in goal for the home side at Wrexham. This is the only surviving film of him in action.....

After a half season on Merseyside, Leigh returned for a second spell at Stoke. He received a 14 day ban for beating up and hospitalising a Sunderland director, who had been taunting him and his Stoke team mates at a post match meal. Fourteen days? He would be imprisoned and banned for life if he did that now!

Despite this, his next move was actually up to Sunderland. I don't know if that mocking director was still there or not. His time at Roker Park was relatively successful, as in, he helped them avoid relegation. But more than anything for the Sunderland fans, he played in the team that won away at Newcastle in a league game in 1908. Not just a win, but a 9-1 win, a record victory for them and a record defeat for Newcastle. Both records still stand today.

His antics were getting crazy now, including one instance where he climbed onto the crossbar when facing a corner and his name would appear in the gossip columns when he started a relationship with music hall star Marie Lloyd.

He was the Welsh number 1 and helped his country win the British Championships for the first time in 1907. He won a total of 24 caps for Wales, but a broken wrist kept him out injured for a while. He was still at Sunderland when he got injured and while he was recovering, being an amateur, he was eligible to play for other teams.

He had one game up in Scotland for Celtic as a guest player. It was a Scottish Cup semi final against Clyde and his eccentricities were on show again as he chased the Clyde goal scorer to the halfway line, just to congratulate him. Celtic lost the match and he wasn't invited back after he had a blazing row with their fans afterwards.

So he went back to the calmer waters of the Potteries and played for Stoke's rivals Port Vale. He played against Stoke when Vale beat them 2-0 in a Staffordshire Cup Final, a game in which Vale also had Herbert Chapman playing as a guest. Leigh had been winding the Stoke fans up all the game, still annoyed that the club had gone back on his expenses deal a few years ago. The Stoke fans invaded the pitch after his winding up went a bit too far for them and poor ole Leigh ran out of the ground (the Port Vale ground wasn't a proper stadium back then) and he jumped into the river to escape.

He moved to the West Riding of Yorkshire and played those five games for Huddersfield Town in what was our first season in the Football League, whilst still on the books of Sunderland. They were the final five games of the season and after draws against Lincoln City and away at Hull, we beat Chelsea 3-1, then that 7-1 win against Birmingham before finishing the season with a 1-0 defeat at West Brom. The crowd for that Chelsea game at Leeds Road was treble the average attendance, like I said, he was a crowd puller.

Typical Town though, they cocked it all up. Having one of the great entertainers of the time in the team, a misunderstanding with chairman John Hilton Crowther led to Leigh eventually signing for Aston Villa in the summer of 1911, when he should've been staying with us. It turned out that Crowther hadn't met Leigh's expenses, which like in his Stoke days, were rather extravagant.

After an unhappy time with Villa, he signed for Woolwich Arsenal and then retired soon afterwards in 1912. The FA had by now changed the rules on keepers handling the ball outside the area, which was definitely down to curbing the antics of a certain Mr Roose, another thing which made him decide to retire.

During the next couple of years, Leigh set about trying to get the money he was owed from Huddersfield Town, claiming we owed him £2,000. He pursued Crowther and even Mrs Crowther, sending derogatory postcards in what would now be called trolling. This all came to a head in court in 1914. Leigh claiming his expenses money and Crowther counter claiming with a case of libel.

By now though the war had broke out and LR Roose served with the YMCA in association with the Royal Army Medical Corps, serving in Gallipoli. While he was away, the court case was heard in his absence and without him having any representation. And so Huddersfield Town became the villain in the piece, winning the case unanswered. They would've been the villain had it ever got reported. The newspapers were full of other quite important news going on.

Leigh was then listed as dead due to an administrative cock up as he had been wrongly recorded as LR Rouse by some Captain Darling style clerk, no doubt jealous of this handsome, popular sportsman in his regiment. His family though had been told he was dead and so knew nothing about the final chapter of his life.

After Gallipoli he joined the Royal Fusiliers and went off to France where he became a father figure to his much younger comrades. He used his goalkeeping skills and in particular his strong throwing arm to rain grenades down on the enemy and he was awarded the Military Medal for gallantry.

Sadly though, just a few days later, he and most of his regiment, the 9th Royal Fusiliers, were killed on the 99th day of the Battle of the Somme on this day in 1916, near the village of Gueudecourt. His body was never found and he was 38 years old.

In 1919, Leigh's sister met one of his old team mates at a rugby match. She was telling him how he had disappeared, believed dead in Gallipoli. However, the old comrade told her that he hadn't died there and that he had played cricket with him in Egypt some weeks after the retreat.

Due to the spelling mistake, the Royal Fusiliers told her that no such person of that name had ever joined up and that her information was incorrect.

That administrative cock up meant that he was also listed as LR Rouse on the Thiepval Memorial monument in northern France and the truth would remain uncovered for 87 years until a Welsh football historian discovered the mistake. That spelling error was eventually corrected and then in 2016, 100 years after his death, a plaque was unveiled at Wrexham's ground, his local club but one he never played for, to celebrate his life.

There's a book written about him as well, from 2016, if you want to read more. there's a few still available on Amazon.

On this date in 1974, we had the second replay of our League Cup second round match against Leeds United. After a 1-1 draw at Leeds Road and another 1-1 draw at Bellend Road, we met up again on the Monday night of the scheduled third round matches. The winners of this tie, will get the pleasure of traveling to Gigg Lane to play Bury on the Wednesday night.

We couldn't play Leeds last week, because the so called Champions of Europe were actually playing in the European Cup. And losing away at FC Zurich (but won on aggregate).

Town made two changes from the last game with Steve Smith dropping to the bench and Billy McGinley starting. Graeme McGifford took the place of Geoff Hutt in defence.

Now this game for me, was a bit of an experience. My dad had stopped going. I was 14 by now and had started going to games with a mate from school. He couldn't go, so I went with some other mates, who were Leeds fans. Living in Batley at the time, most people I knew were actual BellEnders.

We stood in the Kop with all the neanderthals and I never dared speak never mind cheer when McGinley scored for Town.

Everybody around us was bawling; "You're gonna get your f***ing heads kicked in!"

Mick Bates and Peter Lorimer scored for Leeds though and we lost 2-1. They went to Bury and won later in the week. But not all bad news. That led to them playing Fourth Division Chester City in the fourth round, which became one of the famously embarrassing results for them, losing 3-0 away at Sealand Road, in a match that has been described as the biggest shock in League Cup history.

BellEnders

[talkSAFT]

Great read - would make a good film.