[Lord Snooty]

May 31:

Another Play Off Final. Another penalty shoot out!

This one was the one played on this date in 2004, at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff against Mansfield Town. It was played there due to Wembley being rebuilt and we got there by beating Lincoln City in the semi finals and Mansfield got there by beating Northampton Town.

The Stags, managed by Keith Curle, had finished in 5th place, a place and a point behind the Terriers and had had to go through a penalty shoot out to see off the Cobblers. They scored all five of their spot kicks, so would definitely be confident should this one go the distance.

Another thing to give Mansfield the edge was the fact that they had us well beaten in the league, just a couple of weeks before the end of the season, when Junior Mendes ran our defence ragged.

It was the first of our dreary goal less finals, but Mansfield almost won it in the 90th minute. Never mind Mansfield, we all thought they had won it as well. It looked a perfectly legitimate goal, but the liner, thankfully, had his flag up. Why? No way was it offside. It wasn't til much later that we found out the reason. Turned out that the original cross had swung out of play before being struck into the net. Phew!

So penalties it was then and up first was the hero of the semi final, Rob Edwards. No problem. Then first for Mansfield, who remember, had scored all five in their previous shoot out, was taken by Wayne Corden. Saved by Paul Rachubka!

Next up, Danny Schofield. Two nil to Town. That brought Liam Lawrence to the spot. He was their regular penalty taker and had scored all twelve of the penalties he'd taken this season. No way was he going to miss, but miss he did.

He didn't just miss, he tried to Panenka it and the ball landed on the roof of the net. 

So up stepped Tony Carrs and made it 3-0 to us, before Neil MacKenzie finally got the Stags up and running. Which meant that if Town scored the next one, we would be promoted.

When I saw Lee Fowler walking up with the ball in his hands, I feared the worst. For some reason that I can't remember why now, I just thought he was going to miss, but he didn't. He sent the keeper the wrong way and we had won with only four penalties taken. Manager Peter Jackson later revealed that Steve Yates was next in line, but thankfully, he wasn't needed.

The celebrations began, but skipper Efe Sodje wasn't there to lift the trophy. He was in the back of an ambulance after sustaining a serious head injury in extra time, leaving the team to finish the match with ten men. So it was a joint effort between Andy Booth and Jacko to lift the cup and bring it back to Huddersfield.

On this date in 1962, the World Cup in Chile had started and Ray Wilson of 2nd Division Huddersfield Town was in the England team that played against Hungary in the first group match at the Estadio El Teniente-Codelco in Rancagua.

England had been drawn in the same group as Argentina and Bulgaria and the Argies had won their encounter the day before on the same ground. It was Hungary who won this won though. Lajos Tichy, the most prolific goal scorer of all time (according to his Wiki page), scored first.

Ron Flowers of Wolves equalised with a penalty, but the Hungarians won the match 2-1 when Flórián Albert snatched the winner late on.

Ray is second from the right on the back row. How many more can you name?