[Lord Snooty]

May 11:

It's 1992, Ian Ross has recently taken over from Eoin Hand and we have qualified for the Play Offs for the first time ever. And on this date, we played our very first match in the Play Offs at London Road, the home of Peterborough United.

Town had finished 3rd, four points better off than the 6th placed Posh. So we were the favourites to go through, especially when we had won 7 out of the last 8 games, including a 4-0 win at home to Torquay in the last of the regular league games.

A massive crowd of 11,751 crammed into their pissy little tin shed of a ground and the Town fans there were cheering first when Iffy Onuora gave us the lead in the 28th minute. That was 1-0 at half time, but straight after the break, in true Town fashion, we let them back in. Ken Charlery got the goal to level the scores up.

Town were soon back in front though with former Shayman, David Robinson putting the ball into his own goal. We were well in control and looked to be heading for the 2nd leg with a lead until the 88th minute when we only went and let them equalise again. Mick Halsall scored it and so we go back to Leeds Road all square.

This was a Monday night game. The second leg will be on Thursday the 14th for a chance to play Stoke City or Stockport County at Wembley Stadium.

Fourteen years on from that match, we played another Play Off semi final on this date in 2006. We were in League One now, as opposed to Division Three back then, which of course is still the same thing. Anyway, this one was at Oakwell, against Barnsley.

Peter Jackson was still manager, in his second spell and two years after we had won promotion from the 4th tier. We had finished 9th in the first season back up, but this time we qualified for the Play Offs in 4th position, one point better off than the 5th placed Tykes.

Future Town boss, Andy Richtea was in charge of Barnsley, who were totally out played and out fought by a brilliant performance from Town. Gary Taylor-Fletcher had a header go just wide and Danny Schofield hit the post and it was just a matter of time before Town scored and opened the floodgates.

We did score, but it was far too late in the game. Taylor-Fletcher got it in the 85th minute, bundling the ball over the line after a defensive cock up. Such was the dominance of the terrific Terriers, it was just a matter of turning up for the second leg on Monday night to see us through to the Final against Swansea or Brentford.

What could possibly go wrong? 

It's a happy birthday today to our 4th Division title winning goalkeeper Andy Rankin. Born on this date in 1944 in Bootle, he's 78 today. He was at the back end of his career when he signed for Town in 1979, signed by Mick Buxton to replace Alan Starling, but was the unsung hero as the attackers loaded up 101 league goals in the season. At the back end of the season, he kept 7 consecutive clean sheets, one behind the club record of 8, set by John Oldfield in 64/65.

He had a couple of 3rd Division seasons with us, to add to his First Division stint with Everton at the start of his career and over 300 matches for Watford.