[talkSAFT]

"I'd written articles about him in Hanging On The Telephone which were very derogatory and by now I'd made my own personal claim to fame by coming up with the anagram of his name which went into common football speak or what they now call "viral". Even Gary Lineker referred to him as Colin on MOTD. Big Grin"


Nobody who follows Football has not laughed at that anagram, Snoots. I bet even Colin (himself) chuckled when he 1st heard it.

[HerefordBull]

I've looked at the penalty incident using VAR rules and can say it was intentional leaning back into the defender who then had no choice but to put his arm around Pritchards neck................

Seriously you wonder sometimes what refs and linesmen are looking at.

Loved the anagram by the way. 

[SHEP_HTAFC]

People who know the inner workings of Town more than me might be able to confirm or deny this......
but I did hear a rumour that Colin was told to leave, after he got us promoted, cos he was having an affair with the kitmans wife.
Or maybe even physio's wife.
Anyone heard this before?

[Lord Snooty]

December 2:

Peter Fletcher was born on this date in 1953 and is 69 today. He was born in Manchester and started out his career with Manchester United. Playing mostly reserve games, he did make seven first team appearances in 1973/74, the season they got relegated.

Tommy Docherty, the United manager had a big rebuilding job to do and one of the first things he did was to sign Stuart Pearson from Hull City. As part of the deal, Fletch went in the other direction. He had a couple of seasons at Boothferry Park, scoring five times for the Tiggers before moving on again. He went to Stockport County in 1976.

After a couple of seasons there, Tom Johnston signed him for Town, who were at a real low point now, starting our fourth season in the fourth division. He made his debut in a League Cup defeat at home to Preston, playing up front on his own. Old Tom retired soon after and Mick Buxton took over. Mick signed Ian Robins from Bury and soon the Robins/Fletcher partnership got going.

Fletch got 12 goals that season and his partnership with Robins really took off in the next season and he scored 17 goals in the promotion season of 79/80.

Injury forced him out of the entire next season and sadly, after a brief come back, he was forced to retire in 1982 at the age of just 29.

On this date in 1936, Alf Young the Huddersfield Town centre half played for England against Hungary at Arsenal's Highbury stadium. It was the second of Alf's nine caps, with this one coming four years after his debut. He replaced Everton's Charles Gee in the line up and must've done alright as he retained his place for the next international in the new year.

His defence let in a couple of goals but luckily the strike force was in good form, scoring six up the other end. Ted Drake, the Arsenal legend got three of them. He holds the record for the number of goals scored in a match in the English top flight when he scored seven in a game against Aston Villa, twelve months prior to this match. So the crowd of 36,000 on a cold Wedenesday afternoon would've been well pleased with their boy.

Eric Brook of Man City, Cliff Britton of Everton and Raich Carter who I mentioned the other day when he scored at Leeds Road for England, got the other.

[Lord Snooty]

People who know the inner workings of Town more than me might be able to confirm or deny this......
but I did hear a rumour that Colin was told to leave, after he got us promoted, cos he was having an affair with the kitmans wife.
Or maybe even physio's wife.
Anyone heard this before?

There were rumours, Shep. I don't think there was any substance to those rumours though. Same as when they made excuses for Marcus Stewart leaving. Make up a rumour to deflect from what's really going on behind the scenes.

Classic management distraction tactic, the likes of which have been perfected by the government in recent years.

[Lord Snooty]

December 3:

Don McEvoy was born in Golcar on this date in 1928. Originally a centre forward, he was converted to centre half soon after signing for Huddersfield Town in 1947 and formed a great half back line with Bill McGarry and Len Quested.

He didn't make his first team debut until 50/51 when he played away at Sunderland, but later in that season he made the number 5 shirt his own and kept it for the next few seasons. He was part of the unchanged defensive line up that played in every league match of the promotion season in 52/53 and played 35 times in the next season when we finished 3rd in Division One.

Early in the next season though, he was sold to Sheffield Wednesday, where he skippered t'Owls to the Second Division title in 55/56. After Hillsborough, he went to Lincoln, then Barrow, before hanging up his boots and becoming manager of Halifax Town.

He left the Shay to go back to Barrow as manager. In 1967, he became the only manager in their history to win promotion up to the 3rd Division. He then went to manage Grimsby and Southport before going back to Barrow to try and get them back up again. He couldn't and so left football for good, turning his attention instead to running the Crown pub in Brighouse.

He didn't turn his back completely of football. He was the expert summariser on Radio Leeds for a few years.

Don died in 2004, aged 75.

After winning the league three times in a row, Town then finished as runners up in 1926/27 to Newcastle. The following season, 27/28 started out in terrible form, losing the first three games leaving us bottom of the league. But by the time this date came around in 1927, we had moved up to 11th, nicely poised for a tilt at another title chase.

By the end of the day, our brave lads would be up to 7th. That was after Herbert Chapman brought his Arsenal team up to Leeds Road to see if he could get one over his old Huddersfield team. Town had recently beaten Cardiff 8-2 and Sheffield United 7-1, but the crowd of 15,140 had to settle for a 2-1 win today.

Many of the starting XI had been signed for the club by Chapman, but it was an old hero, now aged 32, Billy Smith who got both of our goals.

By the end of the season, we'd got up to 2nd again, finishing runners up this time to Everton. Chapman's Gunners still hadn't reached their potential and finished the season in 10th.

[Lord Snooty]

December 4:

On this date in 2005, Huddersfield Town were 2nd in League One under the management of Peter Jackson. The previous Saturday, we had beaten Nottingham Forest at home, but today was the distraction of the FA Cup. This was the Sunday lunchtime game, chosen by the BBC for live coverage and it was an away game at Worcester City.

It was, and still is, our only ever game against Worcester and the game was played at their old St George's Lane ground. They were in the Conference North and were very excited about the prospect of playing in the 3rd round. We all knew already who our opponents would be as the draw had been made the night before. The prize for today's winners would be a trip to Stamford Bridge to play Chelsea.

Worcester had one of our old players on their bench. That was Andy Morrison who was assistant manager to ex Bury and Blackpool striker Andy Preece, who was still playing and named himself amongst the subs.

We sat at home watching on the Beeb, cursing the bias of the commentator, Jonathan Pearce. The ref was biased as well. Danny Schofield had already been booked when he was bundled over in the penalty area in the 44th minute. Penalty ref!

Once again, a stonewall pen was turned down and to make things worse, Iain Williamson from Berkshire on the advice of his guide dog gave Danny a second yellow and so we had to play the whole of the second half with ten men. Absolutely shocking decision!

We weren't gonna give up our go at giving Chelsea a good seeing to and against the wishes of the BBC, we went and scored in the 61st minute. It was a cracker from Chris Brandon from the edge of the area, giving the keeper no chance. And that was the only goal of the game.

Did we win at Chelsea? No, but we gave them a scare, before losing 2-1.

Here's that Brandon goal......

[Lord Snooty]

December 5:

The year is 1925, Huddersfield Town have won the league twice in a row and are well in contention to make it three in a row. Cecil Potter is now the manager following the shock resignation of Herbert Chapman in the summer and it was on this date that Chapman made his first return to Leeds Road, bringing his Arsenal team to play the mighty blue n whites.

Attendances were still up and down despite the glorious happenings on the pitch. Only 7,285 turned up for the midweek draw with Liverpool, but today, Chapman's Gunners attracted three times that amount with 22,115 in the ground. Was it because of the returning hero or was it just because it was on a Saturday afternoon rather that a Wednesday afternoon? I don't know, still waiting for somebody to explain the strange variations in crowd numbers. Of course, that attendance would treble again for the FA Cup quarter final match in 1932.

Anyway, the match ended in a 2-2 draw, moving Town up to 4th in the league table, with goals from Alex Jackson, Chapman's last signing for us and George Brown, one of his first.

Moving on 73 years to 1998 and we have another of the great Town managers in charge, Peter Jackson. This is the season that followed the Great Escape season and after being top of the 2nd tier table 12 months on from Jacko's appointment, things had slipped slightly. We had dropped down to 7th last week with a humiliating 7-1 loss at Barnsley, but on this date we returned to form, giving Crystal Palace a damn jolly good spanking. No, not the 7-1 win. That was in the next season.

This was just a 4-0 win, with a hat trick from the brilliant Marcus Stewart. Delroy Facey added the fourth in the last minute. The win moved us back up into the top 6, but by the end of the season we'd settled for mid table mediocrity.

Oh how we would love some mid table mediocrity now.

[talkSAFT]

".......Only 7,285 turned up for the midweek draw with Liverpool, but today, Chapman's Gunners attracted three times that amount with 22,115 in the ground. Was it because of the returning hero or was it just because it was on a Saturday afternoon rather that a Wednesday afternoon? I don't know, still waiting for somebody to explain the strange variations in crowd numbers. Of course, that attendance would treble again for the FA Cup quarter final match in 1932."

The 1st Floodlit matches were not until the early 50s. So workers/schoolkids weren't able to attend midweek games, generally.

[Lord Snooty]

Yes, that one's understandable. There were some Saturday games in the 30s though that would attract 3,000s for 1st Division games around the same time as we were pulling 50,000+ for FA Cup matches.