[Lord Snooty]

January 13th:

So four days ago in 1960, we drew at home with West Ham in the FA Cup. Today was the replay.

The pitch at Upton Park was rock hard and it was a triumph of tactics for caretaker manager, Eddie Boot, which got him the job on a permanent basis shortly after. The Hammers were on top early on and came close twice, but against the run of play, Les Massie headed Town in front after 15 minutes. It got even better as Bill McGarry made it two, three minutes later. Malcolm Musgrove pulled one back for the First Division Hammers, but then Massie made it 3-1 just before half time and Second Division Town had a comfortable lead at the break.

It got silly two minutes into the second half. Town went 4-1 up when Denis Law sent Jack Connor through to score, then the Lawman almost scored himself before Connor scored a brilliant individual goal. It could have been even sillier and equaled yesterday's 1929 scoreline at Chesterfield as Town had the ball in the net twice more but were denied a 6th and 7th by the offside flag.

Since this great win, Huddersfield Town have only won twice away at a top flight club in the FA Cup. One was at Chelsea in 1964. The other was this last weekend at Burnley.

We had another big win in a 3rd round replay, back in 1932. It was against Oldham Athletic and it was a 6-0 win at Leeds Road. This was part of the Dave Mangnall run of scoring in consecutive matches that I mentioned on January the 2nd. This was game 3 in the run and he managed to score 4 in this one. George McClean and Charlie Luke got the others.

We have a birthday. It's Roy Ellam, born in 1943, making him 79 today. He played the early part of his career at Bradford City before coming to Town in 1966. He played 253 times for us, over two spells and was a major part of our incredible 69/70 2nd Division Championship season. He was a regular in our two First Division seasons, but then went and joined Leeds Urinals as cover for the ageing Jack Charlton. He wasn't ageing badly though and Roy only played 11 times for them over two seasons, before finding his way back down the A62 to Huddersfield.

He still comes to Town matches, but as we followed him in the car park recently, he's got a really bad limp now. That's what clattering centre forwards for a living does for you.

Sadly, we have another death to report on this date. That was Town manager for a season in the 70s, Bobby Collins. He was a Scotland international, best known for his successful spells at Celtic, Everton and Leeds U-shite-ed. Looking at his Town record, it was only half a season as we were dropping down the leagues in 1974.

Despite his Leeds allegiance, I personally have a fondness for the chap, even though I never met him. My dad did though. He was a builder and was building some houses at Clifton when the new Town manager came looking around. Dad recognised him and asked for his autograph for me, telling him I was a keen Town supporter, 14 years old at that time. Not only did he sign, but he came back the next day with the autographs of the entire fist team squad. 

He didn't buy the house though and after us he managed Hull City and Barnsley. He died on the 13th of January 2014, aged 82.