[Lord Snooty]

January 2nd:

Yesterday we had the start of a run of successes that at the time was questioned and has since been ridiculed by some. That was of course, the unbeaten run of "regular league matches" without defeat.

Starting on this date in 1932 was a run that can't be questioned. That was when we beat Grimsby Town 4-1 at Leeds Road, with two goals each for George McLean and Dave Mangnall.

McLean would finish the season with 9 goals, but Mangnall would score a whopping total of 42 (33 League and 9 Cup). On this day, he started a run of scoring in 11 successive matches, a club record that has never been beaten.

Adding to his two against the Mariners, he scored one against Oldham in a draw in the Cup at Boundary Park, following it with four in the replay on Wednesday (7 in 3 games). Back in the league, first division by the way, he scored one in a home win against Chelsea, then another couple in an FA Cup match at home to QPR (10 in 5).

Then came a hat trick. A spanking 6-1 win at Leeds Road against Sheffield Wednesday to make his tally to 13 in 6 games. That was followed two days later with one in a draw down at West Ham and another one in a 2-1 win at Bolton (15 in 8). On we go to the FA Cup again and this time he scored twice in a 4-0 home win against Preston to make it 17 in 9 and then 18 in 10 when he scored in a 1-1 draw at home to Middlesbrough. The last goal in the run then came in a 2-3 defeat at the Hawthorns against West Brom, finishing the run on 19 goals in 11 matches.

The run came to an end in one of the most famous matches in our history, the 0-1 defeat at Leeds Road against Arsenal in the Cup, with the record 67,037 crowd in attendance.

However, his consecutive run of scoring in League games continued in the next game. He scored in a 2-2 draw at home to Sheffield Utd and then two more in a 3-1 win at Sunderland to make his successive run of scoring in League matches to 13 in 9.

So, which one of our super strikers will score today at Blackburn to start a run that will beat Dave's brilliant achievement?

The closest we've come in recent years is six. Pawel Abbott in 2005 and then Anthony Pilkington in 2010.

Also on this date in 2009, the great Ian Greaves died, aged 76.

We all know him from managing Town to the Second Division title in 1970, but did you know, as a player, he was a League title and FA Cup runners up medal with Manchester United? What's more, an injury probably saved his life. That's because he missed the trip to Belgrade in February 1958 when eight of his team mates died on the way back in the Munich Air Disaster.

Out of tragedy came fortune for Greaves. Roger Byrne was one of those deceased and so he established himself in the side there after and played at left back in the 1958 FA Cup Final.

After playing for Lincoln and Oldham, he then went into coaching and Tom Johnston took him on as assistant, taking over the manager's job when Tom left in 68.

He managed us, Bolton, Oxford, Wolves and Mansfield, winning Div 2 with us, promotion with Bolton, promotion with Mansfield and then also with the Stags, the EFL PaintPot Freight Rover Trophy in 1987.

So we lost one legend on this date, but 49 years ago in 1973, another club legend was born. Chris Billy, scorer of the winning goal in the 1995 Play Off Final. Did you know that he was the last player to score a goal for Huddersfield Town at Wembley (not including penalty shoot outs obviously)?

That game at Wembley though was his last one for Town. Manager Neil Warnock quit and took the job at Plymouth instead and one of his first signings was young Billy. And so the pair of them were back at Wembley 12 months on from our win over Bristol Rovers, as the Pilgrims beat Darlington 1-0.

He went to Notts County after Plymouth and then Warnock signed him again, this time for Bury. After Bury, it was to Carlisle where he suffered relegation, but came straight back up again. He later played for Halifax, Farsley and Ossett Town.