[Lord Snooty]

October 29:

On this date in 1991, Town legend Duncan Shearer scored twice at Leeds Road in a League Cup 3rd round match that Town played against Swindon Town. This was after the billiant 6-1 aggregate win over Sunderland in the previous round. The sad part about this match though was that big Dunc was playing for Swindon.

Gary Barnett scored our goal in a disappointing 4-1 defeat against a team who were in a higher division than us at the time.

Back in our first ever Football League season, we had the first of our many wins over the years at Molineux against the Wolverhampton Wanderers. It was game no 8 in our FL life and it wasn't just a win, it was a big win, a 3-0 win, setting a new away win record, which would last until next January when we beat Stockport County 4-1.

Henry Hamilton, who scored our first ever FL goal, got the first of these three on this date in 1910. Sandy McCubbin, a striker from Greenock who we signed from Morton, got the second. The third goal was a penalty from William Bartlett, who came from the Wednesday and later went to play for Linfield.

On this date in 1921, in our second season in the First Division, we completed our second league double over Arsenal. We'd beaten them twice by a scoreline of 3-0 both home and away in the season before the war. They were elected into the First Division as a thank you for what the Royal Arsenal had contributed to the war effort, rather than winning promotion. They weren't all that good back then, but they must've noted the name of our manager, Herbert Chapman, after we beat them 3-1 at Highbury, to back up the 2-0 win we'd had at Leeds Road in the previous weekend's game.

Scorers at Highbury were Frank Mann, Colin McKay and a penalty scored by Clem Stephenson.

Eleven years later, Chapman was now the Arsenal manager and we had a fierce rivalry. But we weren't playing them on this date in 1932, today it's Derby County. They had the league's top scorer in Jack Bowers, who would go on to finish with 35. But it was an unfamiliar name who was the Town hero in this match at the Baseball Ground.

Frank Bungay was the name, a Sheffield born striker who had come into the team to replace Ernie Whittam at centre forward. The two of them were both getting a chance because of last season's 42 goal legend, Dave Mangnall being injured for the best part of the season.

Frank took his chance scoring twice in this 3-1 win at Derby, once in the next game in a 2-1 win at home to Sunderland and then in the next one after that, scored both goals in a 2-0 win at Birmingham.

That was his full total of goals for Town though and he eventually lost his place to Jack Smith and was transferred to Southend United. after that he went into the non league scene, having a successful amateur playing career, in particular with Boston United. He had a club scoring record for them in 34/35, scoring in each round of the FA Cup from the preliminary round to the 2nd round proper, scoring in each round, a total of 15 goals in 9 games.

And finally today, one from the current century. This was in the promotion season of 2011/12 when on this date in 2011 we won away at Yeovil Town. It was match 41 of the run of 43 unbeaten regular league matches and was heading for another draw until another unfamiliar name scored.

It was Anton Robinson, scoring in the 80th minute, his first goal for the club after he'd signed from Bournemouth after playing for them against us in the Play Offs of the previous season.

[HerefordBull]

Remember Anton joining Exeter City whilst I was there around 2005 / 6 . Never got into the first team and moved after a very short period.

[Lord Snooty]

October 30:

Dave Hickson was born on this date in 1929 and became an Everton legend who had two spells at Goodison Park sandwiched between a couple of seasons at Leeds Road. The most famous day in his Everton career was in the FA Cup of 1953 when they were in the 2nd division and drawn at home to play Manchester Utd. The game attracted almost 78,000 people to Goodison and Hickson scored the winner, covered from head to toe in his own blood following a clash which gave him a gash above his eyebrow, reports saying that his shirt was as red as the opponents red shirts.

He joined Town for a couple of seasons in 1955 and scored the goal for our last ever win over Everton in 55/56. We got relegated at the end of that season though but in the opening game of the following season he scored in front of the Kop in a Town 3-2 win over Liverpool at Anfield.  

After a couple of seasons with us he moved back to Everton, then a couple of seasons after that he moved across the city to join rivals Liverpool, who weren't much of a rival back then but a struggling 2nd division team about to be revived under the management of Dave's former Town boss Bill Shankly.

When Dave left Anfield, he went to Cambridge City, Bury and then completed the Merseyside triangle ending his playing career at Tranmere Rovers.

Later in life he returned to Goodison Park working in an ambassadorial role on matchdays.

He died in 2013, aged 83. Being such famous personality in the city, his funeral service was held at Liverpool Cathedral.

Dave's Town record was 30 goals from 61 matches.

Another one who had a decent scoring record for the Town was George Brown and he scored a hat trick on this date in 1926, against our dear neighbours, the Leeds Urinals. It was the tenth game in an unbeaten league run of 16 matches as we were trying to add another league title to the three we had just won in a row.

It was played at Leeds Road in front of a crowd of 29,679 and we won it 4-1 to move into 6th place in Division One. Sam Wadsworth scored the other goal for us and George's goals came during a sequence of scoring in six consecutive matches, scoring eleven times. He top scored in the season with 28, but sadly Town didn't win the title, finishing as runners up, five points behind Newcastle United.

Leeds finished 21st and were relegated.

Ninety five years later, another prolific goalscorer was at it again. It was on this date in 2021 that Jonathan Hogg scored his fifth goal in nine years for the club. It was the winner in a 1-0 win against Millwall, a header from a perfectly placed Sorba Thomas corner kick.

[Lord Snooty]

October 31:

What's scarier than ghosts, ghoulies, devils or kids knocking on your door demanding sweets?

Yes, that's right. Millwall!

MIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIWWWWWWWWWW

   

This is really spooky! Three years running now, we've played Millwall on this weekend. We beat them two days ago, 1-0 with a super strike from Yuta Nakayama. Then a year and a day ago, the same score with the prolific Jonathan Hogg scoring. And now on this date in 2020, the sequence began with a wonderful 3-0 win down at the Den during the pandemic.

Josh Koroma opened the scoring with a neat finish from a nicely cushioned headed pass by the eerily invisible Adama Diakhaby. It was 1-0 to the Terriers at the break and still that score in the 89th minute.

Then two subs combined to make it 2-0. First, Juninho Bacuna won the ball in midfield, juggled with it for a while before sending the ball into the path of Pipa who was running strongly into the Millwall half. He just kept on running until when eventaully nobody bothered to tackle him, he had a shot. It stung the hands of keeper Bartosz Bialkowski and he dropped it over his own head. He tried in vain to get back to stop it crossing the line, but on this occasion, the technology was working alright. Two-nil to the Town.

Then in injury time, Fraizer Campbell tackling back on the halfway line, won the ball which fell at Bacuna's feet and he set off into the space where the Millwall defence should've been. By the time he reached the penalty area, they had caught up and so he laid the ball off perfectly for Lewis O'Brien to smash the ball into the corner of the net and we had the game well and truly won at 3-0.

That's not all. We've had them there cock-er-nees coming up here and giving us the willies in the past as well. On this date in 1987, they came to Leeds Road to play a Town side in really, really deep trouble. We had famous England international and legend of Arsenal, Newcastle United and errm, Luton Town, Malcolm Macdonald in charge.

This was only his fourth game in charge after taking over from Steve Smith, the only Huddersfield born man to manage the club. But he'd been unable to stop the downward turn. We'd sunk right to the bottom of the 2nd Division, 23rd out of 23 teams as the league was going under some reconstruction, reducing the First Division to 20 clubs ahead of the proposed formation of the Prima Donna League.

We had 5 points from the first 14 matches and had lost the last six. We'd a debutant playing in this one though. How much difference it made  to the side I can't remember but Steve Walford it was, and he was on loan from Millwall's beloved neighbours West Ham United. He played in defence, ahead of a local born goalkeper, playing only his second first team game, 19 year old Lee Martin, in the team instead of Brian Cox.

Well the new keeper and the new defender worked wonders for Supermac as the losing streak ended and the Terriers proved there was life in the old dog yet by winning our first game of the season. Strikes from Barnsley legend Ian Banks and ex Arsenal striker David Cork gave us a 2-1 victory.

Corky's two goals against Millwall in a 3-0 win in the last game of the previous season had saved us from relegation and here he was again, scoring against the Lions to kick start our season.

So the season is up and running. Who's next?

A couple of tricky away games. Ipswich at Portman Road on Tuesday. And then next Saturday, we've got a trip to Maine Road to take on Manchester City. Can we do it?

In Supermac We Trust! 

Six years earlier, the Lions had left the Den once more to travel up to Huddersfield. This was when we still had Mick Buxton in charge, but on this date in 1981, we got beat by our friends from beautiful down town Bermondsey 2-1.

Ian Robins got our goal and it was their first visit to Leeds Road since the riot in the previous season when they beat us 1-0 to knock us out of the promotion places.

We were nowhere near promotion this time around though and this defeat left us in 18th in the Second Division.

[Lord Snooty]

November 1:

It's a happy birthday today to our former Scottish under 21 international and now Canadian international midfielder, Scott Arfield. He was born in Dechmont, a small village in West Lothian on this date in 1988 and is 34 today.

Signed by Lee Clark from Falkirk in 2010, he was a crucial member of the squad that won promotion to the Championship in 2012 and was one of the successful penalty takers in the shoot out at Wembley, having the bottle to not just be one of the first five, but the actual fifth taker, the crucial one. Not that it was the crucial one in this game as we all know. 

And then at the end of 2012/13, Mark Robins released him. Nobody seemed right bothered either. But it was a terrible decision. Not only did he get a job with Burnley, he was part of their squad that won promotion to the Premier League, twice.

And now he's at Rangers with a Scottish Premiership winners medal and a Scottish Cup winners medal, as well as runners up medals for the Scottish League Cup and the Europa League.

Whaddya reckon? Should we have kept hold of him? Was Robins a charmless nurk? 

On this date in 1997, we were on a terrible run of form that had seen Brian Horton sacked and replaced with Peter Jackson. We hadn't won a league game all season and today's visit of Stoke City would be Match no 15. Jacko had been in charge of the last five games and had only won one point from a draw at home to Portsmouth.

We were rock bottom of what we now call the Championship and as we reached half time of this game against the Potters, we had managed to keep it to 0-0. What followed next was remarkable and set us up for the Great Escape.

Straight after half time, new signing Lee Richardson hit a superb low shot from outside the box, into the back of the net at the South Stand end. Stoke soon equalised though and so it was business as usual trying to hold on for a point. But then in the 80th minute, we got a free kick in their half.

As the big lads were trotting forward, Richardson surprised everybody by playing a quick through ball to Marcus Stewart and quick as a flash, he had it in the onion bag. Two-one to the Town.

It was still 2-1 when they got a corner in the last minute and Carl Muggleton, the Stoke keeper came up for it. He almost got a head on it, but it was headed away towards the touchline, where the Stoke lad who'd taken the corner kick was ready to knock it back in again. However, he slipped and made a right mess of it. The ball fell at the feet of Paul Dalton, who set off on a run towards the unguarded Stoke goal.

Jacko was chasing him up the touchline shouting "SHOOOOT!", which he eventually did. The defenders were desperately trying to get back and almost had done as the ball just about made it and nestled in the back of the net.

Absolute pandemonium! 

Have a gawp at this......

On this date in 1967, we played in the 4th round of the League Cup for the first time. Having beaten Wolves and Norwich, we were drawn at home to play West Ham United, with all their World Cup winners. Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters all played on this Wednesday night.

It was a star of the future who won it for us though, with 18 year old Frank Worthington scoring his first goal for the club to put us 1-0 up. Left back Chris Cattlin scored to make it 2-0 and the World Cup winning whammers were sent packing back darn to that there London.

So we were now into round 5. A round we have never been in since.

Who have we got? Fulham, down at the Cottage. Well, they're bottom of the 1st Division, so our boys will be fancying this one. It's in four weeks time. Can't wait.

Talking of Fulham, we played them on this date in 1919. We beat them 3-0 to move up to 8th in Division Two. Goals came from Sammy Taylor (2) and Frank Mann. However, not all was well at Leeds Road and a crowd of less than 3,000 attended, giving gate receipts of only £90. The club was unsustainable. The fact that Fartown (aka Huddersfield Rugby League Football Club) were playing at the same time didn't help and they banked £1,600 for their County Cup match with Hull.

What's worse was that the Football League President got involved, making a statement that our Football League membership was in serious trouble.

Over the next few days, our club would go from a poorly supported club, to a club in a full blown crisis..........

Meanwhile, here's where everybody else had gone that Saturday afternoon. Fartown.

[HerefordBull]

Watched Scott Arfield up here quite a bit both live and on TV. He has always impressed me as a player, although I hate his "salute" goal celebration.

Mind you , if you play for the big 2 in Scotland then you are probably going to do fairly well and win some silverware during your career. Since he went to Burnley after you and continued doing a job, I would have thought you probably should have kept him for a further 2 to 3 seasons?

[theo_luddite]

As always I'm a day or two behind. That fixture computer doesn't like to work too hard Snoots. In fact I doubt it's a computer, just an Excel Spreadsheet that they copy last seasons tab to start off this years and then swap the 6 teams that have come in with those that have left to better or worse places, whichever way you want to look at that. A little bit of fixture reversing here and there so you aren't playing at home the same day as the next biggest rival in your neighbourhood and Bob's your Uncle. Then give it to Sky and BT Sport to fanny around with.

---

We kept playing him wide when his best place was more central, as you may have noticed Hereford. Burnley certainly did.

Never underestimate the ability of a coach to ignore the bleeding obvious and piss off a player that actually wants to play for you, if only your manager wasn't such a nob. I'm looking at you Leek Lark.

[Lord Snooty]

November 2:

On this date in 2004, we had our second trip in four days to see the illuminations and watch Town play at Bloomfield Road against Blackpool. On the Saturday, we went there and drew 1-1 in the league (3rd tier) and then on Tuesday night, on this date, we went back there for an LDV Vans Trophy match. The crowd for this one was about half the size of the league game, in which Andy Booth had scored for us.

Matt Blinkhorn gave the Seasiders a 1-0 half time lead, but shortly after the break, John McAliskey equalised for the mighty Terriers. A minute later though, we were down to ten men when Efe Sodje got himself sent off. Manager Peter Jackson was so incensed by this that he later stripped Efe of the captaincy and gave it to young Jon Worthington.

So we're a man down, but soon after, we're a goal up. Danny Schofield went and put us 2-1 up. But typical Town, we let them back in with Blinkhorn getting his second of the night.

And that was that, a 2-2 draw. Straight to penalties? No. And this game is a great reason for not going straight to the shoot out and playing the extra 30 minutes instead, because we had five goals in extra time.

Only one of them was for us though. 

Future Town striker, Keigan Parker scored in the 97th minute, Jamie Burns scored in the 100th and Daniel Coid made it 5-2 in the 105th. Were we downbeat? No. Just before the turnaround, Adnan Ahmed got his first goal for us. Two more goals to take it to penalties. Come on!

Nah! Burns got another and we lost the match 6-3.

On this date in 2010, we had another victory over at Hillsborough against the Wendy's. We had just taken Benik Afobe on loan from Arsenal earlier in the day and he went straight into the squad, with a place on the bench. By the time he got on in the second half, we were two goals to the good.

The first one was scored from a direct free kick by Graham Carey, who we had on loan from Celtic. The second one was scored by Anthony Pilkington, which if I remember correctly was one of his long range specials.

Young Benik came on, in place of another loanee in Joe Garner and looked to be a great prospect. Where is he now?

On this date in 2019, Town went down to London to play Brentford at Griffin Park, the ground where we had one of the best moments of the 1990s. Sadly, this was our last visit there, before they moved to a new soul less place with no pubs on any of the four corners.

Danny Cowley had taken over from Jan Siewert as manager and after winning his first game down at Stoke at the beginning of October, things had progressed so well that Danny only went and won the Manager of the Month award. So the next game being this one, did we get the old curse? No way, Pedro. We only went and won it 1-0, with a goal from Karlan Grant that gave us this iconic pose in front of the Town supporters behind the goal.

And finally today, happy 21st birthday to Morley born, Josh Austerfield, who was born on this date in 2001. He's currently playing for the Huddersfield Town C team, aka Harrogate Town.

It's his second season on loan there, having only two appearances in the Terriers' first team, both embarrassing cup defeats. Let's not go there.

Watching him on YouTube for the B team during lockdown, I thought he looked good and will one day make a great player for us. What do you think? Good enough? Better than the lads in his position at the moment?

[Lord Snooty]

November 3:

On this date in 1979, Huddersfield Town, led by manager Mick Buxton went down to the Recreation Ground to play Aldershot in a 4th Division match. If I remember correctly, it's a ground situated in the local park, but one end is a bit of a sheer drop down to the street below.

The match itself was a 2-0 win for the all conquering Terriers with goals from the classic front two, Peter Fletcher and Ian Robins. Fletch would go on to score 18 in the season and Robins would be the top scorer with 27.

It's all downhill from there though today. For on this date in 1971, the dream of winning the Texaco Cup died. And it died in a bad way, losing 5-1 against the Airdrieonians at Broomfield Park. This coming after a 2-1 defeat at home in the first leg.

We were struggling in the league, having just drawn with Man City on the back of four straight defeats. Missing our inspirational captain, Jimmy Nicholson and the midfield enforcer Jimmy McGill didn't help, but we still had most of the team that had won the 2nd Division a couple of seasons before.

One of those, Trevor Cherry scored our goal in front of a 7,707 crowd. Those there that night would be looking forward then to the semi final draw. Would it be Newcastle? Would it be Derby? No, it's Ballymena United.

They beat the Northern Irish team in the semis, before losing on aggregate against Derby County, giving Brian Clough his first trophy.

Here's a picture of the Pavilion at Broomfield Park......

Another day, another releagtion season and on this date in 1987, we went and lost away at Ipswich Town. We'd just had our first win of the season, in the 15th match, against Millwall, but it was back to square one again with another defeat. Brian Cox, who was our goalie in the promotion season, had come back into the side to replace Lee Martin, but was beaten three times in a 3-0 loss. It was getting bleak.

Things will have to improve quickly if we're to get out of this mess. At least we have a winner in the manager's office now, in Malcolm Macdonald and surely he'll be able to turn our fortunes around.

Up next, a trip to Maine Road in front of Martin Tyler and the Granada TV cameras. Might have to hide behind the settee for that one.

[HerefordBull]

Cannot imagine you losing 7 . 2  over 2 legs to Airdrie FC now.........how the game has changed.

Airdrieonians FC went into liquidation in 2002 and got reformed as Airdrie United . Around 2013 they had permission from the SFA to re use the name Airdrieonians..............however they have always been referred to as Airdrie FC up here. Like the name Airdrieonians though.