[Lord Snooty]

December 13:

On this date in 1930, we had our record league win when we beat Blackpool 10-1 at Leeds Road in a First Division match. They had just been promoted as Second Division champions, but were struggling with only 11 points from the first 18 games. Town weren't exactly bang in form and were on a run of nine games without a win, so this scoreline must've come as a bit of a shock.

A crowd of 11,932 turned up and saw our lads get off to the best possible start when Joe Robson scored in the first minute. Blackpool equalised soon after though in the 18th minute with Bill Upton scoring, but Town forged ahead with two more before half time through George McLean and Bob Kelly.

In the 2nd half, Scotsman McLean made it 4-1 and completed his hat trick in the 59th minute for Town's fifth. Jimmy Smailes made it six, six minutes later and it was 7-1 when Harry Davies slotted home from a Smailes cross. And it was Smailes again who laid on the chance for McLean to get his fourth and Town's 8th in the 79th.

These were McLean's first goals in a Town shirt following his transfer in the previous month from Bradford Park Avenue. He had scored well over a hundred goals for them and would finish with 46 for us before returning north of the border to his first club, Forfar Athletic.

Our rampant forwards weren't finished yet and in the last ten minutes, Robson added two more to complete his own hat trick and make it a 10-1 win for the Town.

Another landmark occasion happened on this date in 1988. We played our first ever game in the Football League Trophy (known then as the Associate Members Cup and also known as the Sherpa Van Trophy, but nowadays known as the Papa Johns Pizza Pisspot Trophy ).

In those days the first round of the competition was a group stage with three teams per group, with the top two going through. We had Scunthorpe United and Halifax Town in ours, both from the 4th Division, so we were favourites to get through.

A bumper crowd of 2,216 came out on a cold Tuesday evening to see Town, managed by ex Republic of Ireland boss Eoin Hand, play at home to Scunny. They had played the Shaymen already in the first group game and lost, so a defeat for them tonight would see them eliminated. And that's just what happened. Another Irishman, Mick Byrne, recently signed from Shamrock Rovers, scored for us in a 1-0 win and so both us and Halifax went through.

This was ample revenge for them beating us 5-4 on aggregate in the first round of the League Cup earlier in the season.

The game aginst Halifax in the following week still went ahead even though we both had qualified and was a feast of free flowing football in a 1-1 draw at the Shay. We then beat Grimsby in the next round before going out to Scarborough.

Town legend Malcolm Brown played his next to last game for Huddersfield Town in the second leg of the aforementioned Scunthorpe League Cup encounter, before bowing out in a 3-0 defeat to Cardiff at Ninian Park on the following Saturday afternoon. That brought an end to his Town career over two spells, with an unfortunate stint up at Newcastle in between.

And today, Malcolm is celebrating his 66th birthday having been born on this date in 1956 in Salford. He was without question, the best wing back we ever had at the club. And that was before wing backs were an actual thing. He was just known as a right back, but watching him flying down that right wing in front of the large Leeds Road terrace, was a magnificent sight to see.

He chipped in with a lot of goals for a full back as well, 23 in total. He won promotion twice under the leadership of Mick Buxton, before earning himself a crack at the big time by signing for that great Newcastle United team of the mid 80s, the one with Kevin Keegan and all that lot. Sadly, he did his cruciate ligament in during pre season and missed the whole of his first season there. He did get some games in the second season, but he wasn't the same player.

He came back to us and was unfortunate enough to play in that match at Maine Road. Shh, we don't mention that. 

Malcolm holds some Town records. He has the record for most consecutive games, playing in 259 games on the trot, a figure which will never be beaten given the modern tactic of squad rotation. That figure includes the record of consecutive league appearances as well, obviously. That figure is 226. He also played in an era when we did alright in the League Cup so he and David Cowling are level at the top of the list of League Cup appearances with 27 each. By contast to how we perform in that competition now, Jonathan Hogg only has 6 League Cup apps.

Mally's total appearances stopped at 403 and has only since been overtaken by Andy Booth, he's in 6th in the chart.

A great player. One of my all time favourites. Happy birthday, Mally.