[Lord Snooty]

July 4:

On this date in 1912, it was the Olympic Games Football Final in Sweden, the Gold Medal match. Huddersfield Town had two players in the Great Britain squad, goalkeeper Ron Brebner and defender William Martin. The opponents were Denmark and the game was played at the Olympic Stadium in Stockholm with a 25,000 crowd.

Both the Town lads were amateurs, as were all the competitors, professionals not being allowed in the Olympics. Ronald was a dentist from Darlington, who had previously played for Sunderland and Chelsea. After just one game for Chelsea, he returned home to Darlington and played in their great FA Cup run, being man of the match when they beat Sheffield United at Bramall Lane, with Ron getting chaired off by the jubilant Darlo fans.

He had just the one season at Leeds Road, playing 23 games, but still keeping his dental practice going at the same time. Martin had five games in the same 1911/12 Second Division season.

The Gold Medal match started brilliantly for GB, going 2-0 up with Harold Walden of Bradford City getting the first, his ninth of the tournament. Gordon Hoare of Glossop got the second. The Danes pulled one back after 27 minutes, beating our Ronald for the first time in the tournament.

Amateur footballers were "gentlemen" and as such, played the game in the true spirit. But goalkeepers were fair game and so when Vivian Woodward, the GB skipper charged into the Danish keeper, he was so badly injured that he had to go off. No subs back then so the Danes played on with ten men.

Great Britain made the most of their advantage, scoring twice more before half time, Hoare getting another and then Arthur Berry of Oxford City got the fourth. Brebner was beaten again late on in the second half, but the GB boys held on to win the Gold Medal.

Ronald didn't return to Leeds Road for the new season, deciding to go and play instead for Leicester Fosse. Like I said, goalies were fair game back then and in a match against Wolverhampton Wanderers, he broke his neck in a perfectly legal challenge. That was his football career over and within fifteen months, so was his life with complications following his injury causing his early demise. He died in November 1914 at the age of 33 and is buried in Darlington's West Cemetery.

As for William Martin, he was born in Norfolk, moved to Ilford and captained the Essex County side. He had played and toured with the England Amateur team prior to this and unfortunately, not playing in any of these games meant he didn't get a Gold Medal.

He only played five games for Town and served with the Westminster Dragoons in the war, which is where his bio ends. So whether he survived the conflict, I don't know.

Now then. Here's a little gem for you. A colourised version of this match from 1912. It might say 1928 on the front, but it's definitely the 1912 one. A bonus for architecture fans as well. A lot of the features of this stadium are still there today. Watching the Diamond League athletics from there last week, the place is basically unchanged. Even the Royal Box with it's canopy is still there.

And notice how quickly the keepers get shut of the ball. I don't reckon Lee Nicholls would've lasted long in this version of the game. 

EDIT: The colourised version didn't work, so here's the black n white one.

From an exciting Olympic Gold Medal match to a really drab goalless affair in 2020. It was the fourth game back after lockdown, Preston at home and it was dire. We had one shot on target, which was one more than they did.

The point gained left us in 20th position, two points above the bottom three. That bottom three as it stood right now were Boro, Barnsley and Luton, none of whom went down.

They're here
They're there
They've every f'kinwhere
Empty seats
Empty seats