[Lord Snooty]

April 15:

We'll start with a death notice today. It was on this day in Doncaster in 1952, that former Town manager Jack Chaplin died, aged 69. He was born in Dundee and was the first Scot to manage Town. He played for Dundee in two spells, between playing in the Southern League for Tottenham Hotspur, where he was a team mate of Herbert Chapman.

He later became assistant to Chapman at Leeds City and after Herbert's appointment at Leeds Road, became trainer for the bright blue n whites. He was eventually elevated, reluctantly apparently, to manager of Huddersfield Town in 1926 after Cecil Potter resigned following the third successive league title.

He had three seasons in charge. Poor lad must've felt like a failure after what had gone before, but finishing twice as runners up in the First Division, finishing as runners up in the 1928 FA Cup Final and then reaching the semi finals in the next season as well, would be a bloody good CV for any football manager and his win percentage of 43.97% has only been bettered since by Lee Clark.

He resigned his post in 1929 and reverted back to his role as trainer. He stayed with the club until the war started. His manager's job went to Clem Stephenson.

Talking of Clem, he was manager in 1929/30, which was the last time we did the double over Leeds Urinals before we completed another one in 2008/09. The year before that, on this date in 2008, we had our first victory over the twats for 22 years when we beat them at the Galpharm Stadium in League One. That was a 1-0 win with the goal coming with quarter of an hour left, from Andy Holdsworth.

That was a really long 15 minutes! But what a great win it was. Gerry Murphy was in charge that night, following the recent departure of Andy Ritchie, before Ken Davy, in his wisdom, appointed Stan Ternent.

Old Gerry would be back in charge again when we beat them at Bellend Road in the next one, on the way to that double I mentioned.

Another night time game on this date, this time in 1980 at Leeds Road. The opponents were Scunthorpe United and victory would mean that we were all but promoted from the 4th Division, after five years in the basement league. We did win it, 2-0 with two goals from Ian Robins, which left us just about there. Bradford City could still catch us on points, but we were summat like 30 goals better off in the goal difference, so we celebrated.

My dad couldn't go that night, so I went on my own. And for the one and only time in my life, I joined in the pitch invasion. I remember being right close to Mick Buxton. Not sure, but that could be me hiding just behind that copper's shoulder on this iconic photo taken on that great night.

So it's all down to Hereford on Saturday, where a single point will confirm promotion.

I'll close today's thread with a draw in 1922. It was the first of three matches against Preston North End in the month of April. The one on this date, a Saturday, was at Deepdale and was drawn 1-1. Jack Byers scored it. He went on to play for Blackburn Rovers and West Bromwich Albion and this was his only goal of the season.

The next one will be at Leeds Road next Saturday and the third in this series will be played at Stamford Bridge a week after that, the FA Cup Final.