[Lord Snooty]

October 23:

On this date in 1982, Mark Lillis scored four goals in a game against Cardiff City at Leeds Road. It was the first time a Town player had done this for absolutely ages. I can't think of one in the time I'd been watching. But then we went and had one three months later when Brian Stanton scored four against the Billy Bantams.

This was a Division Three match and was the second game in a sequence of seven straight wins in the league. It was also the first four goals in a sequence of nine goals in four games for Mark as well. Not bad for an emergency striker, who only went up front because Terry Austin had been sold and new strikers Maurice Cox and Roy Greenwood turned out to be flops.

He got partnered with Colin Russell and the two of them fired us all the way to promotion and that run of seven wins took us from 14th to 2nd in the table.

Those Lillis goals were bad luck for local butcher and Town fan Harry Hancock, who had promised him a t-bone steak for every goal he scored in the season. Or maybe good luck, a small price to pay for getting us promoted.

Anyway, I just found it. It was 1957 when a Town player scored four goals in a game before. That was Ken Taylor in a game against West Ham.

On this date in 1920, our war hero, club captain and a man who played a great part in the survival of the club in the 1919 crisis, Fred Bullock won his one and only England cap in a Home International match against Ireland at Roker Park. It was a 2-0 win for England and Fred wasn't the only player to get an only one cap in this game. Man Utd goalie Jack Mew and Everton's Dickie Downs did the same.

Burnley's Bob Kelly got the first goal. He of course would later come and play for us. Didn't I write that yesterday? Seems a bit like deja vu. Villa's Billy Walker got the second. Sounds very much like deja vu.

There were some rather old players in the team, following most of them losing the peaks of their careers to the war. Bullock was 34, as was Downs. Mew was 31, Villa's Andy Ducat at right half and Preston's Joe McCall at centre half were also both 34 years old.

Two birthdays to finish with today. Josh Ruffels of the current Huddersfield Town squad is 29 today, having been born in Oxford in 1993. He signed for us from his home town club last year and when he came on as a sub against Blackburn, it meant that he was the 1,000th player to play for the club.

And Andy Payton is 55 today. He was born in Whalley in Lancashire in 1967 and signed for Town in 1996 from Barnsley. He was leading scorer in his first season with us, scoring 19 times, but struggled in his second season and was sold to Burnley, who were a league below us at the time.

He scored an absolute pot load for them!