[Lord Snooty]

April 28:

Lots happening today, let's start with a birthday. Steve Smith was born on this date in 1946, making him 76 today. Sadly, he's suffering with Alzheimer's Disease nowadays, so let's talk about happier times.

He was born in Huddersfield and is the only Huddersfield born man to manage Huddersfield Town, which he did between Mick Buxton getting sacked in Dec 86 and his resignation in the following October. Before that though, he played for the Town in all four divisions. He started out at the club as a 15 year old kid and made his first team debut in 1964 at home to Newcastle.

He only played 19 times in the 69/70 season, when the team won the 2nd Division championship, but it was he who scored the goal in the 1-1 draw at Middlesbrough, that clinched promotion. Manager Ian Greaves called him the perfect professional.

He did play more regularly in our two 1st Division seasons, missing only three games and scoring twice in our first game back up in 1970 when we beat Blackpool 3-0 at Leeds Road.

After that though, it was all downhill. Down, down down, to the 4th Division. He eventually left for Halifax Town in 1977, but returned as a coach a few years later after hanging up his boots. He got his boots down again off the hanger in 1981 when during an injury crisis he came out of retirement for one match, playing left back in an FA Cup game away at Workington.

His stint as Town manager wasn't very good, compared to the Buxton glory days and he quit the top job to go back to coaching the kids. But worse was to come after he resigned as the club went down to the 3rd Division. After he was sacked, alongside Jimmy Robson, in a cost cutting exercise, he went and worked for Bradford City and had another caretaker spell as manager there. He finished up back at Town as Head of Academy Recruitment.

In 2002, we had a Play Off semi final on this date. It was in the 3rd division, at that time calling itself the Nationwide Football League Division 2 Play Offs. The opponents were Brentford, who we had beaten in the 1995 Play Offs. Town, managed by Lou Macari, had finished 6th, with the Bees in 3rd, five points better off and so we played the home leg first.

We had a cracking forward line then with Andy Booth, Danny Schofield and a young lad on loan from Chelsea. Do all our play off campaigns have a lad on loan from Chelsea? Well this one didn't, because the young hot head, his name was Leon Knight, went and got himself sent off and suspended, so missing both legs. The match ended 0-0 and the second leg will take place at Griffin Park on the 1st of May.

On this date in 2018, we were fighting valiantly to keep our hard earned place in the Premier League. With four games still to go, Everton came to the John Smith's Stadium. Their team included the likes of Wayne Rooney and Theo Walcott, but their fans were protesting about the manager, ex Town centre back Sam Allardyce. Apparently they weren't happy that Big Sam had them in a lowly 8th position in the Premier League. If it's not Leeds, I do hope these entitled twats get relegated this season.

Anyway, Cenk Tosun and Idrissa Gueye scored as the Toffenoses won 2-0, leaving Town just three points clear of the drop zone. And with no prospect of picking up any more points with Man City, Chelsea and Arsenal still to play, it wasn't looking too promising.

We had a great win in 1984 at home to Cardiff. It was our first season back in the 2nd Division after ten years in the lower leagues and we had reached our objective of mid table obscurity. This was a 4-0 win and the unusual thing occurring here was a hat trick for a centre back. That was Paul Jones, the ex Bolton player and father in law of a lass I used to work with. Two of his goals were penalties, but they all count, don't they.

Back in 1934, Huddersfield Town and Arsenal were once again rivals for the title. Town had former captain Clem Stephenson in the manager's hot seat, but Herbert Chapman, his old manager and the man who signed him for Town, was no longer manager of the Gunners. That's because he tragically died in January of this year and so Joe Shaw and George Allison were in a joint caretaker managing role. And they did it alright, completing the job of winning the hat trick of league titles.

They became champions on this day, despite Town winning on the day, we couldn't now catch them with only one more game left. On this day we beat Blackburn Rovers at Leeds Road in a high scoring match. It was a 5-3 win with former Wolves striker Billy Bottrill opening the scoring with his only goal for Town. Wing half Billy Carr then scored his only goal for the club, before Batley lad Jack Smith got on the score sheet. Welshman Jackie Williams then scored a couple to send the huge crowd home happy.

Huge crowd? This was a staggeringly low crowd. It's one of the mysteries about our club that I haven't worked out yet. I know times were hard and it was a midweek game, but we were second in the First Division. Why was the crowd for this game only 4,214?

Answers on a postcard please...........