[Lord Snooty]

November 13:

On this date in 1954, Town were 6th in the First Division and went down to London to play the Arsenal at Highbury. We had finished the previous season in 3rd place and were in contention again for a crack at the title. Andy Beattie was still the manager and we had lost just once in the last nine games prior to this trip to the capital.

Arsenal's manager was Tom Whittaker and he was part of the regime that built up a fierce rivalry with Huddersfield Town in the 20s and 30s. He played his whole career with the Gunners, which was cut short by a broken knee cap. He became assistant to Herbert Chapman and stayed with the club after Chapman's death in 1934. He then became a Squadron Leader in the RAF during the war, receiving the MBE for his work on D-Day. Under his management, Arsenal had won the league twice and the FA Cup once.

So when a crowd of 42,950 came out to see this one, many would still have memories of the rivalry between the two clubs. Most of them went home disappointed as Town won a high scoring match 5-3. I've looked all over the place for the Arsenal scorers, but can't find owt. I know ours though.

Bill McGarry, who had played for England in the World Cup in the summer got the first. Former Motherwell striker, Jimmy Watson got the second. The other three came from the dynamic duo, Jimmy Glazzard and Vic Metcalfe, with Gentleman Jim scoring twice.

The win took us up to 4th in the table, but a mid season slump meant we ended up in a disappointing 12th.

The season after that though, we got relegated and didn't get back up again until 69/70. In our second season back up, we struggled and eventually got relegated. We were doing reasonably though when on this date in 1971, West Ham United came to Leeds Road.

The Hammers came back later in the season and famously got stuffed by the Terriers in the FA Cup and we beat them in this one as well. Dave Smith was the scorer in a 1-0 win. He also scored in the Cup match. Those two were two of only four he scored in the season.

Can't find any pictures of him on t'internet, only Steve Smith comes up when you type in his name and Huddersfield Town 1971. Here's a picture of manager Ian Greaves, on the blower to Google telling them to get their bloody act together.

Dave and Steve were a couple of Smiths in the 71/72 team and over the years we've had 19 Smiths playing for Huddersfield Town, Twenty if you want to count Emile Smith Rowe.

One of those 19 has a birthday today. That's Martin Smith who played 85 times for us between 2000 and 2003. He was born on this date in 1974 and is 48 today. Born in Sunderland, he started out his playing career with his home town club, but when he signed for us, it was from Sheffield United.

He had the dubious task of replacing fans' favourite Marcus Stewart, who had controversially been sold to Ipswich. He did alright, scoring four times in ten games in the back end of the 99/00 season, including both goals in a 2-0 win at home against Wolves.

Sadly, his Town career was ravaged by injury and he never lived up to the mantle of the man to replace Marcus and dropped down the leagues after leaving us, playing for Northampton Town and Darlington.

Here he is in the classic Panasonic away kit, playing against West Brom in 2000.