[Lord Snooty]

March 29:

Yesterday, I mentioned Charlie Slade scoring his first Town goals in a match against Glossop. He was a defender, but on this date in 1920 he played the full match away at Port Vale, in goal. Sandy Mutch the regular goalkeeper had been injured in the morning and a telegram was sent to Edwin Davis to get to the Old Recreation Ground in Hanley as soon as possible. They didn't move into Vale Park until 1950 and this ground had just seen it's record attendance earlier that month for the visit of Stoke.

So Davis never arrived, in the days when there wasn't a subs bench as we have today and so reserves didn't travel in huge numbers. Davis would've been at Leeds Road expecting to play for the reserves in a Central League match that afternoon had it been a Saturday, but this was a Monday afternoon match after we had been in FA Cup semi final action a couple of days earlier. So the question must be, what was young Edwin up to while the rest of the lads were away?

Charlie may have been there as a travelling reserve as Harry Brough kept the number 4 jersey from the previous league match away at Stockport. Well he would've if they had numbers on shirts back then. That wasn't a thing back then, but the introduction of shirt numbers does have a Huddersfield Town connection. Of course, it was Herbert Chapman who first started off that trend, when at Arsenal in 1928.

Anyway, Brough played, Slade was in goal and Billy Smith returned to the side in place of Percy Tompkin on the left wing, who had just played his one and only match for Town. Slade in goal and Brough in his place were the only changes from the cup match though. And credit to Charlie and his fellow defenders for keeping a clean sheet in a 0-0 draw. The sad thing about the goal less result though is that Sammy Taylor didn't get one. After this match, he went on a run of seven consecutive matches where he scored, equaling the club record set by Walter Smith in 1910 in the Midland League, but a new record for Town in the Football League. Add the three previous games to that, Taylor would've done 11 if he'd scored on this date at Port Vale and would still be the record holder with 11 alongside Dave Mangnall who did 11 in 1932.

Not that it matters. Something else that doesn't matter is that this was game 5 of the 14 match unbeaten run to the end of the season, the club record unbeaten run at 2nd tier level that was just broken by Carlos Corberan and his magnificent team with the 17 match unbeaten run.

There. Didn't expect to write so much about a goal less draw. 

So in 1932, the aforementioned Dave Mangnall had just recently set the consecutive scoring record. On this date, he scored a hat trick against Liverpool in a First Division match at Leeds Road. This was on Easter Tuesday, which used to be a Bank Holiday when I started work in the late 70s, so I assume it was then as this was the third game in four days for Town. They had played on Saturday (not on Good Friday) at home to Portsmouth and won 1-0. Then had travelled to Anfield on Easter Monday and won 3-0. And then this one at home on the Tuesday when Dave got his three, added to one from Wilf Bott.

On this date in 1983, our last automatic promotion season, Town started another unbeaten run that would see them go from 5th to 1st in Division Three. The opponents for this match at Leeds Road were Wrexham and we won it 4-1 with goals from Mark Lillis (his 18th of the season), David Cowling, Keith Hanvey and Brian Stanton.

I'll finish today's piece with a defeat. It was at home to Middlesbrough in 1986. A 3-0 defeat on Easter Saturday. What's the significance? Well it was the only day that fitted in with our families and friends for me and Amelia Chaffinch (not her real name ) to get married. The only significant part of the game was that Duncan Shearer, the new signing from Chelsea, came on a sub for his debut.

So 36 years on........