[Lord Snooty]

November 8:

Marcus Stewart is 50 today. One of the greatest players we have had in modern times. He was born on this date in 1972 in Bristol. He is currently Head of Player Development at Yeovil Town.

A year after playing for Bristol Rovers and scoring against us in the 1995 Play Off Final, he signed for Town and became an instant fans' favourite. He played under three managers for the Terriers. Brian Horton, with whom he started his Town career and performed brilliantly in his first season, scoring 11 goals before injury curtailed his season, meaning the team struggled and only just avoided relegation.

The next season, he top scored with 16 as the team did the Great Escape under Peter Jackson and top scored again in the next season after that with 26 goals, as Jacko's heroes went top of the league before tailing off.

He never won promotion with us, but we were well under way to doing so when Steve Bruce became manager. However, that all went off the rails when Bruce, Barry Rubery and Iain Ayre conspired between them (each one eventually blaming the others) to sell Marcus to our promotion rivals, Ipswich Town.

That's when he did get to the Premier League, with the other Town. And he went on to be a legend at their club, being the second top scorer in the PL in 2000/01, playing in the UEFA Cup with them and getting calls from everybody up and down the country to be picked for England, calls which were shamefully never acted upon.

After Ipswich, his goals got Sunderland promoted to the PL. Then went back home to play for Bristol City, Yeovil and finished up at Exeter. He has coached at Exeter, Bristol Rovers, Walsall and Yeovil.

But then in September this year came the news that shocked us all. He had been diagnosed as having motor neurone disease following twelve months of testing. His wife, Louise has set up a Just Giving page for the Darby Rimmer charity and this is her statement and the link to the page......

Thanks for taking the time to visit our JustGiving page.

It seems like yesterday I was setting up a just giving page for Marcus and I to run the London Marathon. Now it’s for a cause even closer to our hearts. After Marcus’s diagnosis our family and friends were all in agreement on one thing, making this a positive situation. We’ve received some invaluable support and advice from Stephen Darby,  co founder of the Darby Rimmer charity, so there was no other charity we would all like to support more. Raising awareness, support and inevitably helping find a cure for this disease is key. We have several fundraising events already set up. Marcus’s sons are running the Manchester Marathon. Myself, family and friends are taking part in one of the ultra challenges, the London winter marathon walk and we have more in the pipeline. I will update the page with further events in due course. If you would like to run your own fundraising event or join us in the ones we are doing. Please email me at : louisestewart28@yahoo.com.

Please donate no matter how big or small. It will all help in the battle to #attackMND

Your support is invaluable. Thank you in helping support the fight ??and showing your support for Marcus.

Lou Stewart xx

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/l...stewart254

Marcus scored 67 goals for Huddersfield Town and is now 14= in our all time goal scorers chart, level with Ian Robins.

Another young man celebrating a birthday today is Josh Koroma. He has more than likely played his last game for us, scoring 13 times. He was born in 1998 in Southwark and is 24 today.

Happy birthday, Josh.

On the field of play, following yesterday's headline "TOWN CLUB DEAD", we had our first ever meeting with Coventry City on this date in 1919. First apart from the two matches we had in the final Wartime League season. They had just been elected into the Football League and were getting much bigger crowds than us, even though they were struggling to get any points, losing their first ten games.

They lost this one as well, but attracted a crowd of 15,000 into Highfield Road as the Town won 2-0 with a Frank Mann penalty and a goal from Sammy Taylor to move the poorly supported team up into 5th.

The two teams meet again in a week's time when the club will be hoping for a crowd the size of something similar to what Coventry got. A meeting is being planned for full time to discuss what to do next.