[Lord Snooty]

March 15:

On this date in 2005, legendary Town right half (defensive midfielder), Bill McGarry died in South Africa, aged 77.

Born in Stoke, he joined Town in 1951 from Port Vale and stayed for ten years. At the end of those ten years, when he transferred to Bournemouth, he had clocked up 381 appearances. That left him in 6th place in our all time appearances chart, but he has since been overtaken by Andy Booth, Malcolm Brown and David Cowling, so he's now down to 9th, equal with Steve Smith.

Manager George Stephenson paid Vale £12,000 for him and he forged a defensive midfield partnership with Laurie Kelly. Unfortunately, Town got relegated in his first full season, but under new manager Andy Beattie, they bounced straight back in a record breaking season. That record being that Bill was one of seven players who played in every minute of every league game. A Football League record that will never be beaten. The defence was solid and only 33 goals were conceded and it was upon this solidity that the next campaign led the Town to finish 3rd in the First Division, the best post war final position.

That didn't last though and after relegation, Bill played under Bill Shankly and then Eddie Boot before leaving for the south coast.

He wasn't just a star player in Huddersfield though. He represented England as well, gaining 4 caps. Two of those were at the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland. He played against the hosts and also Uruguay. His team mate Ron Staniforth also played in those two. Two Huddersfield Town players playing for England at the World Cup!

Anyway, after hanging up his boots, he became quite a famous manager. best remembered for his 8 seasons at Wolves where he got them to the UEFA Cup Final, beaten on aggregate by Spurs in 1972. He did win a major trophy for them though when in 1974 they won the League Cup, beating Man City 2-1 at Wembley.

He then had a less successful spell in charge of Newcastle and eventually emigrated to South Africa.

Born on this date in Church Gresley, Derbyshire in 1887 was Leslie Knighton. Not one of the names that jumps out of the page as a stand out name in Huddersfield Town history, but he was at the club for seven years. He came in 1912 as assistant to Dick Pudan and had one match as caretaker at the end of 1911/12 in between Pudan leaving and Arthur Fairclough arriving. That one game was a 4-0 win at home to Blackpool.

He was only 25 years old then and so could well be our youngest ever manager, if only as a caretaker. His playing career had been cut short by injury. After the war, The Arsenal had been given (by a vote) promotion to Division One and were looking out for a new manager. Knighton was appointed in the post in 1919 and would stay at Highbury for six unproductive years. Eventually, he was replaced in 1925 when the Gunners directors went back to Huddersfield and poached Herbert Chapman.

Knighton went on to manage Bournemouth, Birmingham (taking them to the 1931 FA Cup Final), Chelsea and Shrewsbury Town. After Shrewsbury, he went back down to Bournemouth and got a job as secretary in a Golf Club. He died in 1959, aged 72.

As for games on this day, not many stand out ones to talk about. There was a 5-3 defeat at Villa Park in 1930. A goal less draw in 1980 against Peterborough in the 4th Division championship winning season. That was part of a 13 match unbeaten run to the end of the season. Thirteen? Pah! We laugh in the face of a 13 match unbeaten run.

I had my one and only visit to Ninian Park on this date in 1983. Another promotion winning season and another ground where we nearly got our f***ing heads kicked in It was a midweek game and a lad I know was arranging a mini bus trip. He and some of his pals had taken their wives along for the game and me, Wack and Ingleby tagged along. I think it was the lasses first away game and so we all decided to go and sit in the main stand, away from any potential trouble spots.

Wrong! There was a paddock, a standing terrace, in front of the stand and when we all jumped up to celebrate when David Cowling bagged the equaliser in what ended up a 1-1 draw, they were climbing the wall into the stand to clobber us. Happy days!