[Lord Snooty]

February 6th:

Today in 1968, we played in our one and only League Cup semi final. We were still in the 2nd Division and Arsenal were still Arsenal, one of the big guns. This was the 2nd leg of the semi after we had got a reasonable 2-3 deficit to overcome from the first leg, hopes were high of an upset.

And it started off well with Tony Leighton putting Town ahead early on and level on aggregate. It wasn't to be though as Arsenal won 3-1 on the night with goals from Frank McLintock, Jon Sammells and David Jenkins.

There were 27,312 there at Leeds Road that night, but I wasn't. I was 7 years old at the time and my dad had taken me to my first match three months earlier. I often wondered, looking back, why we never went. Maybe he thought I was too young and he went on his own. I never asked him, but I never even knew about Town getting to the semis until many years later when I started reading about our history.

In more recent history, we had an FA Cup replay victory against Birmingham City in 2018, with us as the Billy Bigbollox Premier League team. We had drawn at home 1-1 and this one was also 1-1 after 90 minutes with Che Adams putting the Bluenoses ahead and Town replying from an own goal by Marc Roberts. Extra time goals though from Steve Mounie, Rajiv van La Parra and Tom Ince gave us a 4-1 victory and the chance to play Man Utd in the next round.

Other Cup matches on this date, in 1996 we beat Peterborough at home 2-0 with Darren Bullock and Andy Booth scoring. And back in 1961 we had a disappointing defeat at Oakwell as Barnsley beat us 1-0 in a 4th round replay.

The most recent league match was last season when Naby Sarr equalised in a 1-1 draw at Luton Town away, Luton Town awaaaaay. And Harry Toffolo got sent off in injury time.

We beat Man City 5-1 at home in 1926 on the way to completing the hat trick of League titles. George Brown scored a hat trick in this one. Roy Goodall scored a pen and Billy Smith got the other. Here's a picture of that team at Leeds Road with the houses visible in the background as the Cowshed roof hadn't been put on yet.

Back row, from left: Harry Cawthorne, Tommy Wilson, Roy Goodall, Ted Taylor, Willie Watson, Billy Smith.
Front, from left: Alex Jackson, George Brown, Willie Devlin, Clem Stephenson, Sam Wadsworth.

So in that picture, is a Town legend who was born on this date in 1890, Clem Stephenson. This is a re-post of what I wrote about him when I was bored during lockdown........

Clem Stephenson: not only skippered Huddersfield Town to become thrice champions, but also went on to become our longest serving manager. Signed by legendary manager Herbert Chapman in 1920 as a 30 year old inside forward, he stayed at Leeds Road until 1942. As a player, he was described as the ideal playmaker, skilful, an outstanding passer, unselfish and consistent.

Clement Stephenson was born to parents James, a blacksmith, and Ann in Seaton Delaval, a village in Northumberland on the Blyth and Tyne Railway, in 1890. He already had three brothers and would end up with two more. The younger two, as well as Clem, would go on to play for Aston Villa. Jimmy was next born and then George, ten years younger than Clem. George would also go on to manage Town.

Clem started his junior footballing career with New Delaval Villa, then West Stanley before joining Blyth Spartans. It was from there he moved to Aston Villa at the age of 20 for the sum of £165. He lived in lodgings in Aston Manor with a couple of other geordies. He was brought into the Villa side to play alongside Harry Hampton, who went on to become their all time goal scoring record holder. By 1913, Clem had his first major piece of silverware in the shape of an FA Cup winners medal as Villa beat League champions Sunderland 1-0 at Crystal Palace.

The first world war started in 1914 and normal league football was suspended in 1915. Clem, who had returned to Blyth to get married to Violet at the Central Methodist Church in July 1914, was now working in a munitions factory and playing as a guest for Leeds City. Now the manager of Leeds City at the time was a certain Mr Chapman, who was also a manager at the Barnbow munitions factory in Leeds. We don't know if they were in the same factory but it was at this time that Chapman was accused of making illegal payments to get players for Leeds City that would eventually lead to them being kicked out of the League and see Chapman himself suspended.

Clem left his job as a shell maker to join the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (Bristol Division) in January 1918 and was posted to the RN depot in Crystal Palace. He spent most of his time there as a physical instructor. He was promoted to leading seaman in October, but fortunately the war was now coming to a close and he was eventually demobbed in January 1919.

And so back to Aston Villa and the 1919/20 season, the one which Huddersfield Town almost went bust, but instead won promotion and reached the FA Cup Final. That final was against Villa and Clem was in the side that beat us 1-0 at Stamford Bridge, his second cup winners medal.

That was his Villa swansong though. In August 1920, Chapman had had his suspension lifted and had taken the manager's job at Huddersfield Town, and would make Clem one of his first signings. He was 30 years old by now, but would play for Town for 9 years and scored his first Town goal in a 5-2 win over Manchester United at Leeds Road. Town were now a First Division club and in the next season reached the FA Cup Final again. This one we won, 1-0 against Preston with a goal from Billy Smith and Clem became the first man in the 20th century to win 3 cup winners medals. He scored 15 goals that season, 6 in the cup run including the 3rd Town goal in the semi final 3-1 win against Notts County.

He only scored twice in the following season but Town finished in 3rd place behind Liverpool and Sunderland. Clem took over as captain from Tommy Wilson and in the following season we of course won the first division title for the first time. He weighed in with 11 goals in the campaign including 2 in a 6-1 win at home to Arsenal. He also gained his one and only England cap in March against Wales in the Home Internationals.

Town retained the title in 24/25 and Clem scored in the opening game of the season a 3-1 win up in the area of his birth at Sid James' Park against Newcastle United. He scored against Sunderland as well in a 4-0 win and he also scored against his old side Aston Villa as Town ran out 4-1 winners at Leeds Road.

The club were rocked when Chapman suddenly and unexpectedly left to join Arsenal at the end of the season. He couldn't win the title for them though as Town, under the leadership now of Cecil Potter, became the first team in the history of the Football League to win the title three times in a row. Arsenal came second, five points behind. Clem scored one of the goals on the 12th of April 1926, a date celebrated now as Huddersfield Town Day, as we beat Bolton Wanderers 3-0 to secure the title of thrice champions.

Clem scored the first goal of the following season in a 2-2 draw at Bury, as Town set about claiming the 4th title. We almost did it, beating Newcastle at home 1-0 with a George Brown goal putting us one point behind them, only for Town to fail to score in the final three games and finish second, five points off. And we came second again next season, once more running out of steam at the end to finish 2 points behind Everton. Clem did make it to his fourth FA Cup Final though, this time skippering the side and introduced his team mates to the King, only for the boys in bright blue and white to lose 1-3 against Blackburn Rovers in our first appearance at Wembley.

Town reached the semis in 28/29, getting beaten by Bolton, and finished in a disappointing 16th position. Clem played only 12 times that season, he was now 39 years old, and scored the last of his 52 Town goals in a 1-2 defeat against Manchester United at Old Trafford. That wasn't the end of his Town career though, as Jack Chaplin stepped down from the manager's job, Clem took over with Chaplin becoming his assistant. We finished 10th in the league but once more made it to the FA Cup Final. This time it would be one of the most famous matches ever.

Clem, in his first season as manager, was to lead his Huddersfield Town team against the man who brought him to the club ten years earlier, Herbert Chapman, now boss at Arsenal. As a mark of respect that the two clubs held mutually, for the first time ever the two teams entered the pitch together, like they do all the time now.  The Gunners won 2-0 but the game is remembered for the 776 foot long German airship, the Graf Zeppelin, passing over Wembley Stadium and dipping in salute to King George V.

He was in charge of the club for the whole of the 1930s and although we didn't win the league again, some club records were set in this decade that still stand today. On the 13th of December 1930, Clem's Town team beat Blackpool 10-1 at Leeds Road with George McLean scoring 4 and Joe Robson 3, with Bob Kelly, Jimmy Smailes and Harry Davies getting the others. The crowd for this momentous event was only 11,932 which was possibly a reflection of the dark economic times the country was going through. Town finished 5th that season and went one place higher in the next. The following season, we finished 4th as Arsenal took the title. There was the record attendance at Leeds Road this year as we played Arsenal in the Cup with 67,037 turning up to see the Gunners win 1-0.

The Gunners retained the title in 33/34 as Clem led Town to be runners up. There were once again some remarkably low crowds to say we were in 2nd place with a great chance of taking the title. Money was obviously tight as just a year on from that record attendance against Arsenal, the last two home games against Everton and Blackburn Rovers attracted less than 5,000 paying spectators. I don't know the figures for our area, but in some places in the north there was 70% unemployment. Such a shame for Clem and his team, but times were hard.

We had another slip down to 15th for the next season before rallying once more to finish 3rd in 35/36. Crowds were getting smaller with just over 3,000 turning out for the Everton game. Arsenal would complete their hat trick, matching our success of a few years earlier, but without Chapman, who had tragically died of pneumonia in January.

In 1938, Clem led Town to our fifth and, to date, final FA Cup Final. He's the only one involved in all five of our FA Cup Finals, albeit for the opposition in the first one. It hadn't been a good season, only avoiding relegation with wins in the last two games with wins over Stoke and Manchester City. But the Cup Final back then was not played after the season was over, so we went down to Wembley still not knowing whether we would be going down or not. The match was played on the 30th of April after Clem's lads had beaten Hull, Notts County, Liverpool, York City (after a replay) and Sunderland. The match itself, like our recent Play Off victories was scoreless after 90 minutes. Unlike those modern matches though, there would be no penalty shoot out (they hadn't been invented yet) and as the tie was heading for a replay, the referee gave PNE a pen, even though the foul clearly took place outside the area. George Mutch buried it and so Clem Stephenson couldn't add a managerial FA Cup winners medal to the three he earned as a player. It was also revenge for Preston, who we had beaten by the same score in 1922.

The next season was another struggle, finishing 19th, but once again having a terrific Cup run to the semi finals, getting beaten by Portsmouth at Highbury. Don't forget, back in those days the Cup was regarded as almost the same status as the league, unlike the reserves competition it has become today, so the season would've been almost regarded as a good one.

Then t' war broke out after three games of the next season. Clem was still in charge but the Football League season was abandoned and a set of regional leagues were set up. Town won the North East Division by 9 points as Clem was able to persuade Sunderland and England superstar Raich Carter to turn out as a guest in the blue and white. Crowds were understandably low and there were only 332 there for a game against York at Leeds Road.

Clem and Violet had a daughter called Violet and a son called Clement. Son Clement and Violet's parents were living with them at Spa Wood Top in Huddersfield when he resigned from the club in June 1942. They remained living in Huddersfield for the foreseeable. Clem died on the 24th of October 1961 aged 71.

So endeth the life of a true Huddersfield Town great. Not just a great player, but a skipper who led us to three league titles. But also achieved a great deal as manager. Whenever people on social media talk about great Town managers, they mention Mick Buxton, Ian Greaves, Neil Warnock, Peter Jackson, David Wagner and of course Herbert Chapman, but very few mention Clem. Alright, he never won the 4th division play offs after a penalty shoot out but he did take us to two FA Cup Finals, finished runners up in the league and consistently in the top half of the top league. I reckon he's second only to Chapman in the Town legendary managership stakes.