[Lord Snooty]

21 May:

Some international games from the era when Huddersfield Town were the powerhouse of English football were played on this date. First up we go back to 1927 and an England match, away at Luxembourg. There were three Town players in the England team in a match played at the Stade de la Frontière, Esch-sur-Alzette.

In defence was 24 year old Roy Goodall, playing the 4th of his 25 caps gained as a HTFC player. Up front there was an absolutely formidable line up. Alongside Everton's goal machine, Dixie Dean, who would go on to score 60 goals in the following season, we had two Town players. They were 23 year old George Brown, playing at inside right and gaining his 5th out of 9 caps. And out on the right wing was Bob Kelly, now a veteran at 33 years old.

Bob was winning his 13th cap, but his first as a Town player. He'd previously played for Burnley and Sunderland when representing the country. So we had three players in the England team, but none in the Luxembourg line up, unlike today when we have no England internationals (apart from once capped Fraizer Campbell), but we do have one Luxembourger in the wonderful Danel Sinani. Ain't nobody, like Sinani.

Anyway, England won 5-2. Kelly got one of the goals and Dixie got a hat trick. The 5th was scored by Sid Bishop of Leicester City.

Now then. Apologies for missing one of the most famous games for England last week. 

Too busy writing about Play Offs on May the 14th, I missed the one where two Town players played in the infamous match in Berlin when the England players were instructed to give the 'infamous' one armed* salute before the match or as The Times put it;

"The English team immediately made a good impression by raising their arms in the German salute while the band, after playing God Save the King, played the German National Anthem."

So, those two Hudders lads were Alf Young and Ken Willingham. There were 105,000 in the Olympic Stadium watching the game and no doubt one of those spectators, a certain Adolf Hitler, would've been furious as England battered the Jerries 6-3.

But that was last week. On this date in 1938, a week after the match in Berlin, England were once more in action on foreign soil. More neutral and friendly soil this time, in Zurich against Switzerland and our two Town players, Young and Willingham were both in the line up.

Ken was 25 years old at the time and this was his 4th cap. Alf was 32 and playing his 7th game for the country. The game was lost 2-1 with Arsenal's Cliff Bastin scoring a penalty, but the crazy thing about this one was the way the game was started. The match ball was dropped from an aeroplane, with by all accounts, the ball falling accurately in the centre of the pitch.

* I couldn't use the word for that salute, the one that starts with an N and ends in I and has an A and a Z in the middle.

We have another birthday today. It's our penalty saving hero of the 2004 Play Offs, Paul Rachubka, who was born in San Luis Obispo, California in 1981 and is 41 today.

He first came to us on loan when Ian Gray got injured and I had it in my head that he was on loan from Man Utd, but no. He had left Old Trafford by then and was actually on loan from Charlton Athletic. All together now. Heeeee's electric...... 

He signed on permanent after his loan and was first choice keeper in the next season after he had helped us win at the Millennium Stadium against Mansfield Town. More of that next week.

Paul has dual nationality, being born in California, but moving to England as a 7 year old, he played for England u20s. After playing for us, he went to Blackpool and won promotion twice with them. So in his career he won promotion from League Two all the way to the Premier League.

He retired in 2018, finishing his career in India and is now working as an accountant in Manchester.

Sadly, we finish with the death of one of the players I watched as a kid. He was Franny Firth, a tricky winger from the 70s Town side and a member of the team that got to the FA Youth Cup Final against Spurs.

He played 27 times for the Town first team before transferring to Halifax Town. His debut was coming on as a sub for Dick Krzywicki in 1974 against Rochdale and his last game for us was against Barnsley, going off on a stretcher with a broken leg.

He was born in Dewsbury in 1956 and died on this date in 2018 in Wakefield, aged 61. He's pictured fifth from the right in this photo of that famous Youth Cup team.