[Lord Snooty]

February 19th:

Odd one to start with. In 2008 Town beat Millwall at the McAlpharm 1-0 with a goal scored by Luke Beckett from the penalty spot. I remember it was a really foggy night and there was no way it was visible enough to play on. But play on they did. From our halfway line vantage point, it was bad enough. Millwall almost scored up at the Panasonic End, but there was no noise from the away fans up the other end. They couldn't see a bloomin' fing, guv'nor. The weather was that bad that only 6,326 turned up for it.

Anyway, the reason I remember all this is because I had to rack my brains to see if I could remember anything about the day and night as it was reported the next day that a girl had gone missing, suspected kidnapped, from the Dewsbury Moor area earlier that day. And we had been there in the afternoon for our Brian's birthday.

The girl's name was Shannon. You might remember the story. 

Well that was a low crowd. Not as low as this day in 1936 when only 4,366 people came to Leeds Road for a First Division match against Middlesbrough. It was a midweek game, played in the afternoon, before we had floodlights, which would explain the empty spaces in the massive Leeds Road ground,that had 67,000 in a few years earlier. It wasn't a one off low crowd though. There were under 4,000 for the visits of Everton and Blackburn Rovers. And this is in a season where we were still one of the top teams in the country and finished the season in 3rd place. But times were hard and football would be seen as a bit of a luxury.

Anyway, we won 4-1 and Jimmy Richardson, who I mentioned a few days ago setting up a famously controversial Cup Final goal for Newcastle at Wembley, scored a hat trick. And Frank Chivers got the other and I've mentioned him before because he got killed in a mining accident.

Jimmy Richardson

We did have a massive crowd though back in 1921 when 60,627 came to see the 'Udders play at Villa Park in an FA Cup 3rd round (5th nowadays) match. It was a repeat of the previous season's Cup Final, which the Villa won 1-0 and it was they who won again, 2-0 this time.

And there was another big turn out in the FA Cup at a famous club to see the brilliant 'Udders. This was at Anfield in 1955 for a 5th round match and we beat Liverpool 2-0 in front of 57,115 spectators. Not a bad turn out for the 2nd Division club against the 1st Division Town. Yes kids, Liverpool in the 2nd Division.

Anyway, goalscorers in this win? Obviously Jimmy Glazzard got one, but the other one is a name I haven't heard of before. Albert Hobson is the name and it was the only goal he got for us in the 14 matches he played. We signed him from Blackpool and he went to York City after us.

Jimmy Glazzard