[Lord Snooty]

April 10:

It's a happy birthday today to our first team coach, Danny Schofield, who was born on this date in 1980, making him 42 today. He was playing amateur football when Peter Jackson signed him from Brodsworth Miners Welfare in 1998. And by the time he left in 2008, he'd had a brilliant few years with us, being instrumental in our rise from the foothills of 4th Division football, scoring a penalty at the Millennium Stadium along the way.

He was released by Stan Ternent and went to Yeovil. That left him with a total of 46 goals for Town and that has him in joint 31st in our all time leading goalscorers chart, alongside Jimmy Lawson, Alf Lythgoe and George McLean.

Another goal scorer has a birthday today. That's Craig Maskell, who is 54 today, born in Aldershot in 1968. He came to Town from Southampton in 1988 for our first season back in the 3rd tier following our disastrous relegation. He was signed with the money received for the sale of Duncan Shearer and when he left for Reading two years later, we bought Iwan Roberts with that money.

In those two seasons at Town, he was top scorer, bagging 33 in his first and then 21 in his second. Those 54 goals have him in joint 19th spot in our goalscorers chart, alongside Brain Stanton.

And going a bit further up that chart, we come across Dave Mangnall in 10th with 73 goals. He was born in Wigan in 1905 and signed for Town from Leeds Utd in December 1929 as a replacement for George Brown, who had gone to Aston Villa in the summer.

It was the 1931/32 season when he really made his name. He scored 42 goals that season, joint record holder with Sammy Taylor. In that season he also broke the record for scoring in consecutive matches, eleven in total, which you'll know all about if you've been reading my posts from the beginning. Before that run started though, in November 1931, he scored five goals in a match against Derby County at Leeds Road in a 6-0 win. He was the first Town player to score five in a game, which has since been matched by Alf Lythgoe and Jordan Rhodes.

After Town, he became a Millwall legend, scoring goals that got them to the FA Cup semi finals in 1937. That semi final was played at Leeds Road against Sunderland on this date in 1937 and it was Dave who opened the scoring on his 32nd birthday. A big crowd of 62,813 came to Huddersfield to watch this one, but it was Sunderland who reached the Final, eventually beating the Lions 2-1.

Later in life, he became manager of QPR, getting them their first ever promotion to Division Two in 1948. Then after packing in football altogether, he went down to Cornwall to be a publican. He became landlord of the Navy Inn in Penzance and it was there that he died on this date in 1962, aged 57.

Now while that semi final was being played in 1937 at Leeds Road, Town were away at Charlton. We lost 1-0, so nowt to talk about there. The last game played on this date was in 2021, at home to Rotherham. It was a goal less draw, so nowt to talk about there either.

We had a good win at home to Manchester City in the First Division in 1971. Trevor Cherry scored the only goal of that game.

We had another win in 1920 in that magnificent end to that most distressing season for the club. On this date we beat Barnsley 4-1 at home, with goals from Sammy Taylor, two from Jack Swann and an own goal.

And finally, another win in 1926. This was at home to West Ham with Alex Jackson scoring twice in a 2-1 win. That all meant that victory against Bolton on Monday could mean that we had won the League for the third time in a row.