[Lord Snooty]

July 16:

Two Town team mates of the 1930s team shared a birthday, five years apart. Reg Mountford was born on this date in 1908 and Pat Beasley was born five years later in 1913.

Reg was born in Darlington and played full back for his home town team before Clem Stephenson brought him to Leeds Road in 1929. He didn't make the team for the 1930 FA Cup Final, but he was still playing for Town and Clem when we made another Final eight years later and so did play at Wembley in the 1938 Final against Preston.

Pat had joined by this time and he also played in the '38 Final. He was born in Stourbridge and had had six years as an Arsenal left winger when he joined Town in 1936. He was only 17 when Herbert Chapman signed him for the Gunners and won two League titles with them. However, he was out of the team that won the 1936 FA Cup against Sheffield United and signed for Town early in the next season.

He scored the first goal of the semi final victory over Sunderland at Ewood Park that got our brave boys to Wembley, but like many other Town legends before and after him, he didn't score at the national stadium.

He scored another big Cup goal in the following season when Town played Blackburn Rovers in the 6th round, also at Ewood Park. The two teams had drawn 1-1 at Leeds Road and so the replay was also at 1-1 when Pat popped home the winner. Unfortunately we lost the semi final against Portsmouth.

Shortly after that semi final disappointment, Pat gained his one and only England cap when he was selected to play against Scotland at Hampden Park in the Home Championships. His Town team mate Ken Willingham was also in that team, as were famous names like Stanley Matthews, Stan Cullis, Tommy Lawton and Joe Mercer. The Scots had Preston's Bill Shankly and Jimmy Dougal and it was the latter who opened the scoring. Pat scored in the second half, joining a list of one cap wonders who had scored and not been selected again. Lawton got a late winner for the English. Pat did get another couple of unofficial caps during the war. As did Reg. Well actually Reg only once. His only game for the national side was in 1941 against Scotland at Sid James' Park.

Reg had played 255 times for Town, scoring seven goals, but retired after the war. Pat also never returned to League action for Town after the war, though he did turn out for us and Arsenal during the Wartime Leagues. Pat joined Fulham in 1946 after 123 games for Town and 27 goals, whereas Reg went to Denmark.

He managed Boldklubben Frem in Copenhagen and then managed the Danish Olympic Squad in the 1948 London Olympics. They beat Egypt at Selhurst Park, Italy at Highbury, but then lost to Sweden in the semis at Wembley. They did come back to win the Bronze medal though, again at Wembley, beating Great Britain this time 5-3. The manager of Great Britain was the legendary Matt Busby, so one up there for our Reg. Did he win a Bronze medal himself? Don't know. Doubt it though. They didn't hand out medals willy nilly back then.

Pat's playing career continued and he was at Fulham when they won the 2nd Division title in 48/49. He then became player/manager of Bristol City in 1950, finally hanging up his boots in '52. He stayed on as manager though, winning Division Three (South) in 54/55.

In 1958, he became joint manager of Birmingham City, alongside Arthur Turner, before taking full control. In that year, the Brummies qualified for the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, an early European competition which was later superseded by the UEFA Cup and now the Europa League. They beat Cologne, Zagreb and Union Saint-Gilloise of Belgium, before playing Barcelona in the Final.

They drew the first leg 0-0 at St Andrews, but then got walloped 4-1 at the Camp Nou. Harold Hooper got the consolation goal and future Town player, Don Weston was in the line up. Pat resigned his post at the end of the season and went to be a scout for Fulham, later managing non league Dover for a short while.

Reg returned to England, living in Brighton, where he died in 1994, aged 84.

Pat died in Taunton in 1986, aged 72.

Steve Jenkins is still alive though and he was born on this date in 1972 and so it's a happy 50th birthday today to him. He was born in Merthyr Tydfil and came to us in 1995 from Swansea, having earlier played in their victory over us in the Autoglass Trophy Final in 1994.

He was signed for Town by Brian Horton in our first season back in the 2nd Division after Neil Warnock won us promotion and he was the regular right back for seven seasons, scoring his first Town goal in a classic 3-2 home win against Norwich.

He played a huge part in the Great Escape under Peter Jackson and was also a big part of the great half a season under Steve Bruce. He was then sold to Cardiff in 2003 as the club faced financial restraint as we were going bust. When he left, he had played 295 games for the Terriers and now stands in 23rd position in our all time appearances chart.

Since packing in playing, he's done a bit of non league managing, including two spells at Hereford and was last employed by Barnet a couple of years ago.