[Lord Snooty]

April 12:

HAIL TOWN! THRICE CHAMPIONS!

This is the day. The day we won the third of our Football League titles, the first to win three in succession, by beating Bolton Wanderers 3-0 at Leeds Road, on this date in 1926.

It was a rearranged game, to be played on a Monday teatime. No, not Sky Sports messing around with the fixtures on this occasion. Cecil Potter was Town manager by now, having replaced Herbert Chapman, who left for Arsenal in the summer of 1925. And this win against the Trotters would mean that Chapman's new side couldn't catch his previous side in the league and so the title was ours.

A crowd of 20,829 turned up for this match, with a 5:30 kick off. No floodlights then so the game had to kick off in time for there to be enough daylight to see to the end of 90 minutes. As a result, many fans missed the start of the game, in which Town took an early lead. A perfect defence splitting pass from Sam Wadsworth found George Cook, who squared the ball for Billy Smith to rifle the ball into the roof of the net.

That was in the eleventh minute. Town were 2-0 up in the 15th, in a match where a point would be enough for the title. Smith shot and hit the bar, but Alex Jackson was there to put the rebound away with a diving header.

It was 3-0, done and dusted, just before half time. Smith again involved, crossing the ball for Jackson to nod down for Clem Stephenson to prod the ball into the net.

Sky Sports would've been getting over excited at the prospect of Town going to Highbury on the next Saturday, but the title was already decided by then. Arsenal won that game 3-1, but it was irrelevant in the end.

Six years earlier in 1920, Town took another giant stride towards promotion by beating Stockport County at Leeds Road, also on a Monday teatime. This was a 5-0 win and Frank Mann scored twice, but the prolific Sammy Taylor scored a hat trick, the third of which was his 30th league goal of the season.

The Town were still in second behind Spurs, but were putting some distance between themselves and 3rd placed Birmingham. The Cup run had left a backlog of fixtures though and games were being crammed in all over the place and after this Monday game, we had Wolves coming to town on the Wednesday.

And yet another big game on this date. Nothing as big as a First Division title decider though. This was 1980, the 4th Division and on this date, we played Walsall at Leeds Road. This was before the Play Offs had been introduced and so it was four automatic promotion places up for grabs, with five teams in the reckoning. Walsall were top, with Town in 2nd. The other contenders were Newport County, Portsmouth and Bradford City.

The visit of the Saddlers brought the highest crowd of the season into the old stadium with 17,233 turning up. We could've secured promotion with a win in this, coupled with a Bradford defeat, but it wasn't to be. Brian Stanton gave Town the lead, but late on, Alan Buckley, the Walsall player/manager equalised. And so we will have to wait for Tuesday night and the visit of Scunthorpe.