[Lord Snooty]

May 17:

A great date in the history of Huddersfield Town. Especially fans of penalty shoot outs.

First up, it's the 1995, 3rd Tier (called Div 2 at the time) Play Off semi final second leg at Griffin Park against Brentford. The first leg had been drawn 1-1 and the away goals rule was still in use back then, so all the Bees had to do was keep a clean sheet and they would be through.

They were well on the front foot when they got a penalty in the 18th minute. A soft looking one, but it was put away by Martin Grainger. Town were only behind for twelve minutes though. A free kick from half way was lobbed into the box by skipper Lee Sinnott, but Bees keeper Kevin Dearden dropped it at the feet of Andy Booth, who happily stroked it into the back of the net.

One all, and that's how it stayed at full time. Extra time came and went with no more goals and so we went to penalties.

Brentford went first and Grainger again beat Steve Francis. Ronnie Jepson stepped up and coolly made it 1-1. Bob Taylor next, sending Francis the wrong way, 2-1 to the Bees.

Next to go was Pat Scully, who was the only one to score in the shoot out at Wembley in the previous season's shoot out against Swansea in the Autoglass, but this time his shot was saved. Advantage Brentford.

Denny Mundee was next to go. Saved by Francis. Back on terms and the scores were level when captain Sinnott blasted an unstoppable shot high into the net. 2-2.

Simon Ratcliffe and Lee Duxbury took it to 3-3 and then it was club legend and skipper Jamie Bates to take Brentford's fifth. His shot went down the middle but Francis, who had dived to his left, saved it with his feet.

So that just left Darren Bullock, already a Town cult hero, with a chance to write his name into Huddersfield Town legend. His shot was similar to the Bates one. Down the middle. Did dear old Dearden do the same and stop it?

Nah! There was a good half second delay before the Town fans and players realised it was in the net and as Bully turned to run towards his team mates, the fans went wild.

Here you go. Have a watch of this......

In the other semi between Crewe and Bristol Rovers, it was goal less after two sets of 90 minutes and so they had extra time. There was one goal each scored and it finished 1-1. Nowadays there would be a penalty shoot out, but back then the rules were set so that Rovers went through on the away goals ruling, even though they had had an extra 30 minutes to score that away goal. Thankfully that rule was dropped soon after. Thankfully, because if away goals still counted today, this next penalty shoot out wouldn't have happened and we would've been denied this next exciting installment of penalty drama.........


On this date in 2017, we won at Sheffield Wednesday, also on penalties. Steven Fletcher had given the Owls the lead just after half time. The Wendy fans gave us the old mobile phone light show, but then David Wagner played his masterstroke and brought on Collin Quaner. Big Coll got involved straight away and set up the equaliser for Nahki Wells, although it went down as a Tom Lees own goal.

So it went to penalties and the names of Danny Ward, Chris Löwe, Michael Hefele, Nahki Wells, Aaron Mooy and of course Fernando Forestieri went down as Town Play Off heroes.

Here you go. another one to watch and enjoy......

The other semi was between Reading and Fulham. None of us fancied playing the Cottage Pies, who had hammered us twice in the league and so we were all a bit relieved when Reading beat them the night before.

Bring it on!