[Lord Snooty]

December 20:

Simon Trevitt was born on this date in Dewsbury in 1967 and is 55 today. He is one of the club's greatest strikers, having taken up the job of postman after retiring. Oy Oy! A bit of political humour there. Satire is not dead yet!

He wasn't a striker at all really. An accomplished right back who eventually replaced the ageing legs of Malcolm Brown, young Trev was given his debut by Mick Buxton in a home win against Derby in 1986 as a 19 year old. The following season saw him become our youngest Player of the Season and looking at the list of winners, I think he could still have that honour.

That was a relegation season though, so he spent the bulk of his Town career in the 3rd tier. One of his last games for us was the Play Off Final at Wembley against Bristol Rovers. New manager Brian Horton, replaced him with Steve Jenkins early on in the next season and so Simon was sold to Hull City.

Horton had been and gone, replaced by Peter Jackson by the time Town went to play West Bromwich Albion on this date in 1997. It had been a disastrous start to the season, which saw Horton sacked with the team way below everybody else, but by now, Jacko had got things to turn around.

A famous first win, against Stoke, was followed by wins at Man City, home to Reading and Bury, away at Crewe and now a win at the Hawthorns got us out of the bottom three for the first time in the whole season, up to 20th. It was Paul Dalton with both goals, in the second half, to give us a 2-0 win, with debutant keeper Steve Harper, on loan from Newcastle, getting himself a clean sheet.

Up next, the league leaders, Middlesbrough on Boxing Day, who had been relegated from the Premier League, but still had some of their big money signings. Twats like Paul Merson, Andy Townsend and Craig Hignett coming to the McAlpine. I'm not gonna write about that though. We lost 1-0 with a Kevin Gray own goal after outplaying them for most of the game.

But the season had a happy ending when we completed the double over the Baggies in April to complete the Great Escape.