[Lord Snooty]

May 1:

On this date in 2002, we played the 2nd leg of our Play Off semi final, away at Brentford. Sadly, this wasn't to be a repeat of the glorious night back in 1995. It started out in a similar fashion. A draw in the first leg and then an early goal in the 2nd. It was Town who scored first this time and it was the same Town scorer as from seven years previously.

Andy Booth scored in 95, scored at Wembley, went to the Premier League, came back to Huddersfield and scored once more in a Play Off semi at Griffin Park. This was as early as the second minute of the match, a shot that squirmed through the keeper's hands and gave us all hope of pulling off an unlikely victory. I say unlikely because we weren't all that good really and having finished 6th in the league table, five points behind the Bees, I never expected us to win.

Lou Macari was the manager, having taken over at the back end of last season when Steve Bruce got sacked. The Bees had Steve Coppell in charge and he would've been delighted by his team's response, drawing level in the 37th minute through Darren Powell, heading in from a free kick.

Coppell gave the better half time team talk as his men came out and took the lead in the 46th minute through Lloyd Owusu and as hard as Town tried, they couldn't find the equaliser and so there would be no repeat of that famous penalty shoot out.

Serial Play Off failures Brentford failed again, getting beat by Stoke City in the final.

A year earlier in 2001, we played away against Wimbledon. Not at Plough Lane but at Selhurst Park where they were squatting after being evicted. A win would almost certainly have made us safe from relegation from the 2nd tier, but it was just a draw, a 1-1 draw with a goal from Kevin Gallen.

So we were not quite safe but just about. Even if we lose the final game at home to Birmingham next week, it would take wins for Crystal Palace, Portsmouth and Grimsby all at the same time to send us down. Unlikely!

If you don't know what happened, find out next week, but as I've just written about the 3rd division play offs.........

It got worse. In 2004 we were in the 4th Division, but were well on course to go straight back up again. Victory at home to Mansfield Town would see us there with 3rd place confirmed. Instead we lost with a magnificent performance from the Stags' forward, Junior Mendes, who ran our defence ragged and scored a couple in a 3-1 win for them.

This was after John McAliskey had given us an early lead in front of a crowd of 18,633, the biggest league gate of the season. The defeat meant that destiny was still in our own hands and a win away at Cheltenham next week would still get us promoted.

Did we do it? Or are we destined to see those Stags again?

Well it's been a bit gloomy so far. Let's talk about winning again.......

You may remember a couple of days ago, Town won the FA Cup in 1922. After the celebrations, the players caught the train back to Huddersfield on the Monday to be greeted by thousands of people in St George's Square, where an open top bus took the players to the Town Hall for a civic reception.

The lads couldn't celebrate too much as they had a game to play in the evening. A re-arranged match with Middlesbrough at Leeds Road. An official attendance of 29,000 were in the ground to see the game as a goal from Clem Stephenson and an own goal from Boro centre half Jackie Carr gave the Cup holders a 2-1 win. Throughout the match, the FA Cup sat in pride of place at the front of the Directors Box and was paraded around the pitch at half time.