[Lord Snooty]

April 24:

Two Cup Finals on this date. Both ending in defeat though.

The first one was in 1920, the FA Cup Final. Town had just sealed promotion from Division Two and our opponents were the mighty Aston Villa, who had already won the Cup five times. However, current form had Town in the ascendancy with the team being on a fifteen match unbeaten run, in league and cup. Villa had only taken nine points from their previous twelve games.

This was the first Cup Final after the war and was also the first to be played at Stamford Bridge. Wembley didn't come into use until 1923.

Town had gone to Whitley Bay for their pre match training camp and goalkeeper Sandy Mutch and skipper Fred Bullock, had both overcome injury scares and were passed fit to play. However, bad news arrived via telegram from the FA Head Office on the day before the big match. That bad news was that star winger, Billy Smith would be suspended for getting sent off against Stoke, three weeks earlier. No such thing as an immediate ban back then. These things had to go through a mountain of red tape and obviously back then, as now, things stack up against the smaller clubs and so Smith was banned just in time to miss the biggest game, instead of a dead rubber next week. His ban lasted for the rest of the season and all he'd done was punch an opponent.

Anyway, one man's misfortune meant that another got his big break. That man was Ernie Islip, who came in to play left wing after only playing four games all season and whose great grandson and great great grandson, did the half time draw at the Barnsley game on Friday night.

As for the game itself, it started a tradition that still stands today as the Huddersfield Town way, that is for the match to be a boring scoreless draw that goes to extra time. This then was the first ever FA Cup Final to go to extra time, but it was Villa who snatched the winner in the first half of the extra thirty minutes.

It was a cross into the box from winger Arthur Dorrell, that appeared to miss everybody and go straight into the net. The referee's report though said that Billy Kirton had got the last touch. So Villa won the Cup for a sixth time and future Town captain and manager, Clem Stephenson, had his second winners medal.

Town were managed by Ambrose Langley and the line up was; Sandy Mutch, James Wood, Fred Bullock ©, Charlie Slade, Tom Wilson, Billy Watson, George Richardson, Frank Mann, Sammy Taylor, Jack Swann and Ernie Islip.

Fast forward now 74 years to this date in 1994 and Town are at Wembley for the Autoglass Trophy Final against Swansea City. This was the first season with Neil Warnock in charge and was Town's first match at Wembley since the 1938 FA Cup Final.

Town's route to the final started in a group stage in September with a win against Doncaster and a draw with Rotherham. The next round was at home to Preston and the game ended 0-0 after extra time. Town won it on penalties, in true Huddersfield Town fashion. That was followed by wins against Crewe at home, Stockport away and a two legged aggregate victory over Carlisle United in the Area Final.

This was Town's fourth visit to Wembley, but it was Swansea's first. Town had lost the previous three, against Blackburn, Arsenal and Preston. And this was the 11th Football League Trophy Final, which started out being known as the Associate Members Cup. It is of course now known mockingly as the PissPotPizza Trophy.

The Swans took an early lead in the match through Andy McFarlane in the 8th minute, but on the hour mark, Richard Logan sent a bullet header from a Phil Starbuck corner, into the net to equalise, thus becoming only the second Town player to score a goal at Wembley  and the first since Alex Jackson in the 1928 FA Cup Final.

And so, once again in true Huddersfield Town tradition, it went to extra time and penalties. We lost this one though. Graham Mitchell and Starbuck hit the woodwork, but then Tom Cowan sent a feeble shot, probably the worst penalty ever taken by a Town player, straight to the keeper, Roger Freestone, who just knelt down and picked it up.

John Cornforth, Kwame Ampadu and Steve Torpey had netted for the Swans and only Pat Scully had been on target for us and so Swansea won 3-1 on penalties and lifted the Football League Trophy.

We had a tremendous win away at Stockport County in 2010 as we were heading towards the League One Play Offs. It was a 6-0 win against opponents who were on their way down and soon after sadly, out of the league. They do appear to be on their way back though, twelve years later.

This win meant that we were securely into the Play Offs and Southampton in 7th couldn't catch us. It was played on a warm, sunny day with a carnival atmosphere and the six goals on the day came from six different players. Anthony Pilkington scored in the second minute against the team from which we had signed him in the previous season. Theo Robinson made it 2-0 at half time before Jordan Rhodes got his 23rd goal of the season in the 68th minute to make it 3-0. Danny Drinkwater made it 4-0 in the 85th, then two goals in added on time, one from Gary Roberts and a penalty from Lee Novak wrapped it all up at 6-0.