[Lord Snooty]

January 11th:

We played Wolverhampton Wanderers at home on this date in 1961. Town had recently sold Denis Law to Manchester City for a British record fee of £55,000 and had spent the money on installing the first set of floodlights at Leeds Road. This match would be the first match played under these brand new lights and it became famous as such with the lights becoming known as the Denis Law Floodlights.

Our opponents were the current FA Cup holders, having beaten Blackburn Rovers in the Final of 1960. They were one of the big names of the time and when they played us, they were still in the European Cup Winners Cup, which they eventually lost at the semi final stage to Rangers. At the time of this meeting they were top of the First Division, having finished as runners up to Burnley in the previous season, and would finish this season in 3rd. They had the legendary Stan Cullis as manager.

Town, managed by Eddie Boot, were languishing near the foot of the Second Division and would only just avoid relegation by finishing in 20th place. So when the two sides met at Molineux, it was a major surprise when a Derek Stokes goal earned the brave Blue n Whites a 1-1 draw.

It was a major shock when they came to Leeds Road and got beat 2-1. Stokes scored early on to put us in the lead, but Wolves equalised to make it level at half time. But then with 13 minutes remaining, up popped Mike O'Grady to win it for the Town. He would later play for Wolves.

Typical Town, we lost against Barnsley in the next round.

Eleven years ago, in 2011, we won a game but still got booed off. You may well remember it, it was against Plymouth Argyle, in League One, under the Alfred McAlpine Floodlights. Town were one nil down in the first minute when Joe Mason scored. Things should've improved for us when they had Curtis Nelson sent off for a professional foul and even more so when they had Stephane Zubar dismissed for a second yellow.
Then came the bizarre moment. Argyle were down to eight men while they had a player (Mason) on the sidelines receiving treatment and facing a Town free kick from the halfway line. Instead of sending it into the box where we had a considerable numerical advantage, Kevin Kilbane, in his wisdom played the ball square to a team mate who obviously wasn't expecting it and missed it. The ball went straight to Mason who had just been waved back on. He raced towards goal and slotted it past Alex Smithies.

Kari Arnason started the Town come back by putting the ball into his own net and Jordan Rhodes made it level soon after. By half time the game was won when Peter Clarke scrambled one home from a corner. But the second half against the nine men was dire and despite winning 3-2, the team were booed off at the end, with angry manager Lee Clark declaring that the fans had every right to do so after such a performance.