[Lord Snooty]

January 21st:

So after much speculation and false sightings, Martin from Wakefield Jan Siewert was appointed as the new Town manager to succeed David Wagner on this date in 2019. Big shoes to fill. Will he be able to? We'll see.

Well, we all know how it went, don't we? Let's not dwell on it.

We have two birthdays. Town legends of the Mick Buxton era. First one up is Dave Sutton, who was born in 1957 and so is 65 today. Buxton rated him as as one of his best ever signings, although Tom Johnston was manager when he actually signed. Mick was at the club though, in a coaching role, so maybe it was he who recommended him. Don't know what it was about Huddersfield that attracted him. He and his wife had to live in the small flat above the Supporters Club shop on Leeds Road when they first arrived.

Anyway, he won promotion twice with us, after his transfer from Plymouth, making 284 appearances for the club, scoring 15 goals. Not a bad scoring record for a centre back.

The other birthday is for Colin Russell. Born in Liverpool in 1961, he is 61 today. As noted a few days ago, his goals alongside Mark Lillis helped us to win promotion in 1982/83, with Colin bagging 16. He scored 25 in total for us, but fell out with Buxton and was sent out on loan. A strange loan really. Not to a 4th Division club as a punishment, but to First Division Stoke City. He made 11 appearances for the Potters, famously scoring a goal in a 2-0 win against his boyhood team, Liverpool, the team we signed him from.

As for matches. We have played Leeds three times on this date. A win, a draw and a loss. Let's talk about the win. It was in 1939 at Bellend Road, an FA Cup fourth round match and we won it 4-2 on a cup run that went as far as the semi finals. Billy Price score 7 goals in that run and he got three of them in this match against Leeds.

We have a penalty shoot out to report on. Did we win it? Of course we did.

It was in 1992 at Leeds Road, in the Autoglass Trophy against Blackpool. It was actually the second attempt to play the game. We had been there a week earlier, but with Town 1-0 up, the match was abandoned at half time due to fog. I was there. It really was thick.

Anyway, Iwan Roberts had scored in the previous week and he scored again in this as the match finished at 1-1. But then he went and missed his penalty. That was the first kick. Graham Mitchell, Kieran O'Regan and Mark Wright scored theirs, but the hero of the night was Tim Clarke, a clown of a keeper who earned himself the nickname Coco, but it was his night tonight as he saved two penalties and when Andy Garner missed his kick, Town had won the shoot out 3-1.