[Lord Snooty]

February 7th:

On this day in 1981, we had a memorable win against Barnsley in Division Three. Both teams were pushing for promotion and they were on a club record unbeaten run. The crowd on the day was 28,901, which was the biggest attendance at Leeds Road between the First Division hey days of 1970-72 and the old ground closing down. Town won the game 1-0 with a goal from David Cowling and it was on the telly on the Sunday afternoon YTV footy show. Have a watch.....

One of the players playing for the mighty Terriers in that game was celebrating his birthday that day. Brian Stanton, born in 1956, it would've been his 25th birthday then. Today, he's 66. He was an absolutely fantastic player, a right sided midfielder who formed a brilliant partnership with marauding right back, Malcolm Brown. As mentioned on January the first, he holds the record for the fastest ever scored hat trick when he scored three in six minutes against Bradford City in 1983. Signed by Mick Buxton in 1979, he stayed for seven years, totting up 230 (+11 subs) appearances and he is in 20th position in our all time goal scoring chart with 54 goals.

A player who didn't make it into the scoring chart (it stops at 41 with Terry Gray in 41st spot), but definitely would've had he not been sold to Newcastle, was Jack Smith. Born in Batley in 1915, he played for Town from 1932 to 34 and scored his first goal in a 1-0 win at Chelsea in the First Division. He scored 9 goals in that first season and 15 in his second as Town finished as runners up in the League, leaving him with 24 goals from 45 games before being moved on to Sid James' Park.

He had three seasons at Newcastle, finishing as top scorer in each, leaving him with 69 goals in 104 games. He was then sold to Man Utd for a club record £6,500 in February 1938. He only officially scored 15 goals for the Red Mancs, but scored 150 in the Wartime Leagues. Sadly that was his career mainly over by the time war was done and he was sold to Blackburn Rovers.

He later managed Macclesfield Town in the 50s and died in 1975, aged 60.