[Lord Snooty]

July 30:

We have three birthdays today, on the date that ex Town full back Ray Wilson, won a World Cup winners medal in 1966.

First born was William Devlin. He was born in Belshill near Glasgow on this date in 1899 and went on to become a Cowdenbeath legend. The Blue Brazil were relegated from the Scottish League for the first time at the end of last season, after being members since 1905. Back in the 20s, they were a force to be reckoned with and oor Willie played a massive part in that.

Having played for Vale of Clyde, Clyde and 2nd Division new boys King's Park, he signed for Cowdenbeath in 1922 after scoring 21 goals in 16 games for King's Park in the previous season. Cowdenbeath were also a 2nd Division team, but Willie's goals fired them to promotion in 1924.

He then scored 33 goals, top scorer in the league as they finished 5th in the Scottish First Division, just two points behind Celtic in 4th. He followed that next season, again as top scorer, this time with a massive 40, as they finished 7th, two points behind Rangers. That was only from 31 games as towards the back end of that season, he joined the champions of England, Huddersfield Town for a fee of £4,200.

That was our third season as champions and with only eleven places available in the side with no subs back then, he only played four games in that part season. He made his debut in March, replacing George Cook at inside right at Newcastle in a 2-0 win in which George Brown scored both goals.

His next game came a week later, at Leeds Road against Manchester United. Cook came back and Willie played centre forward as Brown missed out. A crowd of 27,842 turned up to watch the mighty Town thrash the Red Devils 5-0 and our blue Devlin got his first Town goals, two of them to add to two for Cook and one for Billy Smith.

He kept his place for the next one, a trip to Anfield and scored again as Liverpool were beaten 2-1. All looking good then for Willie, but injury kept him out for most of the rest of the season, just coming back for one more game and scoring again in a 3-1 defeat away at Arsenal. But by that time, the League had been won and we were the first ever Thrice Champions.

So Willie scored 44 goals that season from 35 games. He scored ten goals in 28 matches in the next season, but was then sold to Liverpool. He scored 15 goals in 19 for them before heading back to Scotland for a short spell with Hearts.

He'd a similar record with the Tarts, 14 goals in 18 games, but then that was his top flight career over at the age of 29. Don't know why, injury perhaps, but he ended up playing in the Cheshire League with Macclesfield before going back for another short stint at Cowdenbeath, getting another six goals to make him their all time leading scorer with 120.

He then went international, turning out for Marseille and then finishing his career at FC Zürich.

Willie died in Glasgow in 1972, aged 72.

Andy Morrison was born on this date in 1970 and is 52 today. He was born in Inverness, but moved to Plymouth at a young age, explaining why a player with a strong west country accent was known as Jock.

He started out at Plymouth, a no nonsense centre back, playing over a hundred league games for them, all in the 2nd Division. He then was transferred to the newly formed Premier League in 1993 when Blackburn Rovers bought him and he played five matches in their side that finished runners up in the PL. He didn't feature at all though in the next one, when Rovers became unlikely Champions of England under Kenny Dalglish.

He then had two season's under the shadow of the Tower as Sam Allardyce bought him for Blackpool. It was almost a successful time, but not quite. His last game for the Seaside Donkeys was a Play Off defeat against Bradford City, which ended with big Sam getting the sack and big Andy getting transferred to Huddersfield Town.

We had just sold Andy Booth to The Wendies for an eye watering amount of cash in the summer of 96 and chairman Malcolm Asquith allowed manager Brian Horton to spend it all on three new players. And so Andy was bought and introduced as a Terrier Incoming at the same time as strikers Andy Payton and Marcus Stewart. And what a brilliant set of signings they turned out to be.

Horton made Andy club captain and he repaid that honour by scoring on his debut, adding a second goal to an earlier one from Darren Bullock in an opening day 2-0 win at home to Charlton. Two proper cult heroes on the score sheet!

He only scored one more though in his two and a half seasons at Town, a consolation goal in a defeat at QPR and most of his time with us was unfortunately spent in the physio's room following a bad knee injury. Horton got sacked and Peter Jackson took over and Andy fell out of favour. Not because of injuries or owt like that. The guy was on a self destruction mode and one of the last straws was when he ended up in a road rage incident and had to go on an anger management course.

He was out of the McAlpine door in 98, turning up at Man City. Not the mega bucks, moneybags Man City we see today. No, they were a 3rd Division club then, playing the likes of Chesterfield, Macclesfield and York City.

It was a 4-0 win at Maine Road against York on the last day of 98/99 that got them into the Play Offs, where Andy skippered them to a famous penalty shoot out win over Gillingham at Wembley. And it was all uphill for Citeh ever since.

City's manager at the time was Joe Royle and he later had this to say about Morrison......

Big clubs in that division are a scalp and everyone wants to beat them. We had that at City and it was hard for us, but we got the hang of it. The catalyst for us was signing Andy Morrison. He was the man for the job and the man for the division. He dragged us up kicking and screaming. We only got him because of his injury record, and because he had had a major fall-out with the manager at Huddersfield. He was as strong as they come and feared nobody – he played a big part in turning things round for us.

He had loans out at Blackpool, Crystal Palace and Sheffield Utd before hanging up his boots in 2002. He had coaching jobs, including being assistant manager at Worcester in 2005 when we beat them in the FA Cup, with a Chris Brandon goal after Danny Schofield had been sent off.

He's now back in management. Earlier this year, he was appointed manager of the Sri Lankan national team. It hasn't started right well, losing three out of three Asia Cup qualifiers.

And the third birthday today is that of young Rodney Rowe, who is 47 today. He was born in Huddersfield on this date in 1975 and signed professional terms with his home town club in 1993. He played only 46 games for Town, scoring five goals. If I hadn't looked that up, I would've said much more, but stats are stats.

He had loans out at Scarborough and Bury before Neil Warnock gave him his debut. Once in the side, he scored three goals in a week, against Cambridge in the league, Rotherham in the Autoglass and then Telford in the FA Cup. But he was up against Phil Starbuck, Iwan Roberts and Iffy Onuora in those days for the forward positions, so he spent a lot of time on the bench.

Brian Horton let him go to York City at the end of 96/97. After there, he went to Halifax, Gillingham and Hull before playing for a few non league clubs.

He now coaches kids in and around the Kirklees area.