[Lord Snooty]

November 22:

So the other day, I mentioned playing Mansfield Town in the FA Cup and that somebody I knew was hoping for a draw. Well that was because Field Mill was the only one of the 92 Football League grounds (at the time) that he hadn't seen Town play at. Getting to the replay, played on this date in 1976, would get him his entry into the 92 Club, which didn't actually exist in those days. The Club itself was only started in 1978.

So Joe, who we used to sit with on the 201 bus to the games, used to tell us loads of stories from the olden days, he was much older than us. And we got to see him at the match. We'd gone on the special from Batley Bus Station. I assume Joe went on the official Supporters Club coach and it turned out later that he was one of four Town fans who had completed the 92 on that Monday night, all while watching Huddersfield Town.

It would be almost impossible to do that nowadays with all the new grounds and teams being promoted and relegated between the FL and the National League. At the last count, I think I'd done around 72 of them in my time, but with different grounds, it's closer to a hundred.

Just had a quick count, it's now 71 of the current clubs I've been to (including Huddersfield). I don't think I'll be adding many more to that list. It costs too much and I've lost the enthusiasm.

How many have you done?

So anyway, back to the game at Mansfield. Arnold Sidebottom, the ex Man Utd player, who also played for Yorkshire at cricket, scored our goal in a 2-1 defeat.

On this date in 1919, Town won their fourth game in a row to go up to 4th in the 2nd Division. It was a 1-0 win at home to Bristol City, with Billy Smith grabbing the goal. Following the campaign of trying to get more people to Leeds Road, the crowd was a rather encouraging 7,897, almost three times the size of the attendance against Fulham when the alarm bells were rung about the club not being financially viable.

After the game, another meeting of supporters was gathered on the pitch in front of the main stand, where once again a Board member spoke to the crowd. This time it was WL Hardcastle and club captain Fred Bullock, announcing that he would be holding another meeting at the Palace Theatre on the next evening.

The campaign was going well.

We have some international games to report on. Two Town players played for England on this date in 1930. They were Roy Goodall, who was also the captain, and Austen Campbell. It was against Wales at the Racecourse Ground, Wrexham and England won the game 4-0. Jimmy Hampson of Blackpool scored twice, Liverpool's Gordon Hodgson got one and Joe Bradford of Birmingham got the other.

On this date in 1961, England played Northern Ireland at Wembley. It was a 1-1 draw, with Bobby Charlton scoring for England. Ray Wilson of Huddersfield Town played in this match, gaining the 7th of his total of 63 caps, playing alongside legends of the game like Charlton, Bobby Robson and Jimmy Armfield.

In the Irish line up was an 18 year old Jimmy Nicholson of Manchester United. Six years later, on this date in 1967, he was the captain of Huddersfield Town and played for his country again against England, again at the Empire Stadium at Wembley. England were by now the World Champions and Wilson, having won a World Cup winners medal, was now playing for Everton and was getting his 57th cap in this one.

Jimmy Nick's boys, including the likes of Pat Jennings in goal and Terry Neill in defence couldn't stop two of the Three Lions' World Cup winners scoring. That man Charlton got another, his 43rd England goal. Geoff Hurst got the other in a 2-0 win for England.