[Lord Snooty]

July 22:

Having sacked Danny Cowley with one game to go in the truncated post Covid season, Town went down to Millwall on this date in 2020 with Danny Schofield as caretaker manager.

It was a magnificent performance by one particular Huddersfield Town player, scoring once and adding two assists to a man of the match performance. That player was Connor Mahoney and unfortunately, he was playing for the Lions on this day. Let's hope he's as good as this when he lines up for Schofield in next week's opener against Burnley.

He opened the scoring after five minutes, slotting home a left foot shot. Karlan Grant equalised for Town before half time, finishing off from a pin point Alex Pritchard pass.

One all at the break then, but Jake Cooper had the Lions back in front, heading home from Mahoney's cross. Jiri Skalak then pounced on some piss poor play from Richard Stearman to make it 3-1 on the hour and then with ten minutes left Jon Dadi Bodvarsson latched on to a Mahoney pass to make it four.

Not to worry, we had avoided relegation and ended up in 18th on 51 points, with Grant top scoring with 19. Stand in boss, Schoey lad had this to say......

I don't know what's going to happen in the next few days. I don't know if anyone has been appointed.

I think the players will want to get off and reflect and recover. They have put in a lot of effort and it is probably time to come away from football a little and watch Netflix and do what they do.

Obviously the dressing room is flat after a 4-1 defeat, but there were some positives to take with the performances of some of the young players.

Talking of temporary managers. Gerry Murphy, the best caretaker since Hong Kong Phooey, was born on this date in Dublin in 1943, making him 79 today. He had three stints as stand in boss for Huddersfield Town, the first coming in 2007.

He first joined us as a scout in 1988 and worked his way up to be Academy Manager, staying at the club until 2009 when Lee Clark let him go. His first stint as caretaker came in 2007 when Peter Jackson was sacked for the second time, following a 5-1 defeat at the City Ground. It started well for Gerry, beating local rivals Bradford City 2-0 at home. Paul Hayes, on loan from Barnsley getting his only goal for us and then a young lad called Danny Schofield scored the second.

The rest of Gerry's short stint didn't go as well. Draws against Carlisle, Brighton, Port Vale and Oldham, before losing at Blackpool. Andy Ritchie came in the day after the seaside defeat.

When Rich Tea got sacked around twelve months later, Gerry was in again, for the final six games of the season this time. His second stint began with draws against Doncaster and Port Vale, but then he won the last four games of the season, starting off that run with a famous win at home to Leeds Urinals, the one where Andy Holdsworth scored.

That was followed by Andy Booth giving us a 1-0 win at home to Tranmere. Then Boothy and Schoey scored in a 2-0 win at home to Walsall, before Phil Jevons rounded the season off in style scoring in a 1-0 win at Luton.

But it was during his next caretaker stint that he wrote his name in Huddersfield Town legend, by beating Leeds Urinals for a second time, this time at the Big Yellow Skip.

It was 2008/09, the centenary season and Dean Hoyle had just got rid of Stan Ternent, despite getting a solid win at home on the Saturday against Crewe. Gerry had the best part of a fortnight to get his team ready for the trip to Beeston. It didn't get off to a good start when that nurk Robert Snodgrass scored past Matt Glennon in the fourth minute. But then just after half time, up popped young left back, Joe Skarz to score in front of us in the away end.

It was in the 81st minute when Gerry played his master stroke, bringing on Danny Cadamarteri for the ineffective Keigan Parker. As time was running out, Danny got the ball on the right wing and set off towards the Leeds box. He sent a low cross to Michael Collins, who shinned it into the far corner, wrong footing Casper Ankergren in the BellEnd goal.

Absolute limbs!

That was followed by a win down at Brighton, with Collins getting the only goal of the match. Then a surprise defeat at Leyton Orient, followed by a home win against Walsall, with Collins getting another 90th minute winner, after Gary Roberts scored first. And then Gerry's last game in charge, a 1-0 win down at Southend, with yesterday's birthday boy, Ian Craney getting the winner.

Lee Clark took over soon after that and Gerry went back to the Academy. Not for long though. Clark obviously realised that Gerry was the main man who could easily step in if things didn't go well. So he persuaded him it was time to retire.   

Gerry's record though, over three stints reads; Played 17, Won 8, Drew 3, Lost 6.