[Lord Snooty]

May 18:

Two League One Play Off semi finals, second legs to report on today, both under the management of Lee Clark, both with very contrasting emotions.

Firstly in 2010, after a dull 0-0 draw at home, we traveled down to the New Den to take on Millwall. I say "we", I mean our brave boys and girls, not including myself, been there once before in the 80s, not going again.

It was a very disappointing night when our lads didn't perform and the defence shredded by our old hero, Danny Schofield. He had been released a couple of years before by Stan Turnip and after a spell at Yeovil, went to Millwall and was voted one of their players of the decade. Wonder where he is now.

Anyway, we lost 2-0 and Steve Morison and Paul Robinson scored for the Lions, who went on to beat Swindon in the Final.

We fared much better in 2011, although we still couldn't win the home leg, against AFC Bournemouth. It was 1-1 after the first leg and it was almost 2-1 to Town in the first minute of the second, when Gary Roberts forced a save out of Cherries keeper Shwan Jalal.

Jalal made another good save from Jordan Rhodes after 26 minutes, parrying the ball behind. From the resulting corner, taken by Roberts, Lee Peltier headed into the net to send the roof flying off the Galpharm Stadium.

Just before half time though, Adam Smith played a neat one/two with Anton Robinson and as he entered the box, he fell over and the ref gave Bournemouth a pen. Danny Ings had had a spot kick saved by Town's Ian Bennett in the first leg and he bottled this one, allowing Steve Lovell the chance to take it. This time the Cherries scored. One all at the break.

Or was it? Hold on a minute. Two minutes into first half added time, up popped Danny Ward to shoot the Terriers back into the lead and we go to the interval happy, but still a bit nervous.

Roberts, Rhodes and Ward all came close in the second half, but then Donal McDermott set up Lovell to score again and level the tie up once more. Roberts came close to scoring again and Benik Afobe should've scored the winner, but didn't and after 90 minutes, the ref blew his whistle to signal extra time.

Roberts and Afobe again came close to giving us the lead again, but it was Ings who put the Cherries in front for the first time in the tie after 104 minutes. The noise from the crowd was now deafening. We were not prepared to just let this go after coming so far and especially after we had been 16 points better off than them in the league.

We got another corner just before the turnaround and it was the brilliant Roberts taking it again. He whipped it in and rising high to power a header into the back of the net was Antony Kay. That roof lifted off again.

That was it for goals but just before full time, Bournemouth had Jason Pearce given a straight red card. Cue penalty mayhem.

Michael Symes took the first to put Bournemouth in front, then Lee Novak (who had come on for Rhodes) equalised. Up stepped Liam Feeney. Saved by Ian Bennett. Advantage Huddersfield.

Danny Ward scored. Up steps Anton Robinson. He crashes the ball off the bar, the crowd go wild. Kevin Kilbane scores, Shaun Cooper scores. Town now have two chances to win it.

Only one was needed as Kay smashed the ball high into the net off the underside of the bar and on come the fans again.

Here's that shoot out......

Next up, Peterborough United at Old Trafford on the 29th.

[Lord Snooty]

May 19:

Only two games on this day. The first one was in 1979. A hot sunny Saturday, two weeks after the rest of the 4th Division had finished. Or the regular fixtures anyway. There was a huge backlog following a bad winter and we couldn't get to play away at York City until now.

There was a very small crowd there, only 2,664, but at least half of them were from Huddersfield. Mick Buxton had been appointed earlier on in the season and had gradually been turning around the attitudes and the way things are done. He'd shifted out the wrong uns and brought in his own players and slowly but surely, the team was putting in the performances.

Not quite there yet, we lost at Hartlepool in the last game, but this game at Bootham Crescent was a sneak preview of what was to come next season. The all conquering 79/80 team, who won the 4th Division championship and scored a hundred and one goals.

We won 3-1 in a scintillating performance, easily the best we had played since relegation to the basement league. Goals came on that day from Ian Holmes, David Cowling and Ian Robins and gave us a final position of 9th in Division 4.

We have never finished that low since.

The other game played on this date was also played in the basement league, called Division 3 though at this time, in 2004. It was our only season back down there, following the promotion in 1980 and this was the second leg of the Play Off semi final at home to Lincoln City.

Town led 2-1 from the first leg but by half time, that lead had gone when Paul Rachubka and Efe Sodje made a right mess of a hopeful punt into the box and left Richard Butcher with a lob over the stranded keeper into the net.

We were behind for the first time in the tie just a minute later when Kevin Ellison stunned the stadium by putting the Imps 2-0 up on the night.

So Peter Jackson had some hard talking to do at half time. The lads came out fighting and we should've had a penalty for handball but stupid boy referee, Mike Pike, turned it down. However, he did give us one on the hour. The ball was played into the box, it was heading straight to Andy Booth, who unlike him, dived headlong onto the ground. Not like Boothy to cheat like that, but the ref gave it as a penalty. The Lincoln players went mad. On the replay though, a great spot from the ref as he spotted Boothy's heel had been clipped, sending him crashing to the floor. Nice one, Pikey boy.

Danny Schofield stepped up and slotted it home and we were once again level on aggregate.

The tie was settled though in the 83rd minute, without the need for extra time and penalties. Good work on the right of the box by Jon Worthington, who squared the ball to sub John McAliskey. He couldn't get his feet sorted in time for a shot and the ball was robbed off him. Thankfully it was his team mate Rob Edwards who stole it. He was in his second spell at the club, a midfield goal scoring machine in his first spell, but playing at left back now for Jacko, he absolutely blasted the ball past everybody in his way, into the back of the net and the crowd went wild.

It was a bloody long last seven minutes, full of tension and nervousness, but eventually the ref blew, cue yet another pitch invasion.

[Lord Snooty]

May 20:

No games played by Huddersfield Town on this date. It took me ages to find anything of significance, but eventually I found one.

Today is the birthday of Graham Carey, the attacking left sided wing back/midfielder who we had on loan from Celtic in 2010/11. He was born in 1989 in Blanchardstown on the outskirts of Dublin and is 33 today.

He signed for us at the start of that 2010/11 season and made his debut in the League Cup at Carlisle, a game we won 1-0 with a young boy called Jordan Rhodes scoring.

Carey scored on his league debut for Town, down at Peterborough. Rhodes got another and then Carey made in 2-0 before half time, before it all fell apart and we ended up losing 4-2. Bloody Peterborough!

He got another one against the Pish, in the Johnson's Paint Trophy, as we built up another lead. Carey scored first and then Anthony Pilkington scored twice as we raced into a 3-0 lead. They came back at us again, but only scored twice.

Anyway, what I remember about him is being stood behind the goal at Hillsborough on a cold November evening as Town got a free kick on the edge of the area. It was midway through the first half and still goal less. Carey stood over the ball and I thought to me sen, why is he taking this when there's better players for the job.

He walloped it over the wall and it sailed into the back of the net. We were right behind it in the lower section of Leppings Lane and went barmy. 

Pilks made it 2-0 before half time and later on, Benik Afobe made his Town debut, coming on as a sub for Joe Garner and it finished 2-0 to the Town.

So those were his three goals in 23 games for us before going back to Celtic in January. He then went to St Mirren, Ross County and Plymouth Argyle and is now playing in Bulgaria for CSKA Sofia, where he's been since 2019.

I can't think of many club connections we have with Celtic, so the question today is, how many can you name? I'll start you off with Lou Macari.

[SHEP_HTAFC]

Chris Hay.
Used to sit behind his mum and dad at games. They both hated Huddersfield, calling it a shitty little town.
Never really liked him cos of his parents.

[Lord Snooty]

Willie McStay, older brother of Paul McStay. McStayed here for a short while. Was on the bench when we lost a certain match at Maine Road that we don't talk about.

[Lord Snooty]

21 May:

Some international games from the era when Huddersfield Town were the powerhouse of English football were played on this date. First up we go back to 1927 and an England match, away at Luxembourg. There were three Town players in the England team in a match played at the Stade de la Frontière, Esch-sur-Alzette.

In defence was 24 year old Roy Goodall, playing the 4th of his 25 caps gained as a HTFC player. Up front there was an absolutely formidable line up. Alongside Everton's goal machine, Dixie Dean, who would go on to score 60 goals in the following season, we had two Town players. They were 23 year old George Brown, playing at inside right and gaining his 5th out of 9 caps. And out on the right wing was Bob Kelly, now a veteran at 33 years old.

Bob was winning his 13th cap, but his first as a Town player. He'd previously played for Burnley and Sunderland when representing the country. So we had three players in the England team, but none in the Luxembourg line up, unlike today when we have no England internationals (apart from once capped Fraizer Campbell), but we do have one Luxembourger in the wonderful Danel Sinani. Ain't nobody, like Sinani.

Anyway, England won 5-2. Kelly got one of the goals and Dixie got a hat trick. The 5th was scored by Sid Bishop of Leicester City.

Now then. Apologies for missing one of the most famous games for England last week. 

Too busy writing about Play Offs on May the 14th, I missed the one where two Town players played in the infamous match in Berlin when the England players were instructed to give the 'infamous' one armed* salute before the match or as The Times put it;

"The English team immediately made a good impression by raising their arms in the German salute while the band, after playing God Save the King, played the German National Anthem."

So, those two Hudders lads were Alf Young and Ken Willingham. There were 105,000 in the Olympic Stadium watching the game and no doubt one of those spectators, a certain Adolf Hitler, would've been furious as England battered the Jerries 6-3.

But that was last week. On this date in 1938, a week after the match in Berlin, England were once more in action on foreign soil. More neutral and friendly soil this time, in Zurich against Switzerland and our two Town players, Young and Willingham were both in the line up.

Ken was 25 years old at the time and this was his 4th cap. Alf was 32 and playing his 7th game for the country. The game was lost 2-1 with Arsenal's Cliff Bastin scoring a penalty, but the crazy thing about this one was the way the game was started. The match ball was dropped from an aeroplane, with by all accounts, the ball falling accurately in the centre of the pitch.

* I couldn't use the word for that salute, the one that starts with an N and ends in I and has an A and a Z in the middle.

We have another birthday today. It's our penalty saving hero of the 2004 Play Offs, Paul Rachubka, who was born in San Luis Obispo, California in 1981 and is 41 today.

He first came to us on loan when Ian Gray got injured and I had it in my head that he was on loan from Man Utd, but no. He had left Old Trafford by then and was actually on loan from Charlton Athletic. All together now. Heeeee's electric...... 

He signed on permanent after his loan and was first choice keeper in the next season after he had helped us win at the Millennium Stadium against Mansfield Town. More of that next week.

Paul has dual nationality, being born in California, but moving to England as a 7 year old, he played for England u20s. After playing for us, he went to Blackpool and won promotion twice with them. So in his career he won promotion from League Two all the way to the Premier League.

He retired in 2018, finishing his career in India and is now working as an accountant in Manchester.

Sadly, we finish with the death of one of the players I watched as a kid. He was Franny Firth, a tricky winger from the 70s Town side and a member of the team that got to the FA Youth Cup Final against Spurs.

He played 27 times for the Town first team before transferring to Halifax Town. His debut was coming on as a sub for Dick Krzywicki in 1974 against Rochdale and his last game for us was against Barnsley, going off on a stretcher with a broken leg.

He was born in Dewsbury in 1956 and died on this date in 2018 in Wakefield, aged 61. He's pictured fifth from the right in this photo of that famous Youth Cup team.

[ritchiebaby]

On this day in 2016 -
"I was drinking as a tourist in a Spanish bar, that much is true". It took me about an hour to find a bar in Salou serving food AND, much more importantly, willing to show the Scottish Cup Final instead of the sideshow that was the FA Cup Final. And what an afternoon that was. I ended up kissing the Cup (via the TV screen) and kissing the 2 barmaids, but not the chef! Totally satisfied and made even better passing dejected Rangers supporters in full club colours on the way back to my hotel.  I did the sensible thing and didn't gloat in their misery.    GGTTH

[Lord Snooty]

May 22:

On this date in 1960, Ray Wilson of 2nd Division Huddersfield Town played for England. He was 25 years old at the time and Town had just finished 6th in the league. Ray played in 41 of the 42 league fixtures, scoring once, away at Brighton.

This was his 4th cap for England after he made his international debut in April against Scotland and he played alongside the likes of Jimmy Armfield and Bobby Robson, but only one of the players who he would play alongside in the 1966 World Cup Final, Bobby Charlton.

The game was a friendly against Hungary in Budapest at the Nepstadion and England lost 2-0 with Flórián Albert scoring them both.

[Lord Snooty]

May 23:

The biggest legend in Huddersfield Town history was born on this date. That's Billy Smith, who was born in the pit village Tantobie in the county of Durham in 1895. He signed for Huddersfield Town at the age of 18 in 1913 and made his debut on Christmas Day at home to Hull City. The following day, the teams met again at Hull and Billy scored his first Town goal in a 1-4 defeat.

He joined the navy during the First World War but was back in a Town shirt for the 1919/20 season, winning promotion to the First Division and making it to the FA Cup Final. he missed that match though through suspension.

He did play in the 1922 Cup Final though  and scored the only goal of the game, from the penalty spot as Town won the Cup for the first time. He followed that by winning the League Championship three times in a row with the club and by the time he left in 1934, he had the record for most appearances, with a total of 574 games for us, scoring 126 goals.

I wrote more about his career when I was bored during lockdown, if you want to read more about this great player...... http://www.sportsbabble.co.uk/showthread...#pid195308

Billy died in 1951 aged 57, so wasn't around when his old team mate David Steele died on this date in 1964 aged 69. He was also a thrice champion, having been signed by Herbert Chapman in 1922 and played 203 games for the club.

He left to join Preston in 1929, but came back to Huddersfield during the 2nd World War when he was appointed manager of the club in 1943 when Ted Magner left. Town struggled after the war though and when they narrowly avoided relegation in 1946/47, he resigned.

And a few years later, another of the Chapman glory team died on this date. This one though, was one that some of us saw. We didn't see him play but we did see him come back to Leeds Road for the Final Whistle game in 1994.

It is of course, Joe Walter, who died in 1995, in Bristol, aged 99. His death occurred just a few days before two of his old clubs, Town and Bristol Rovers, met at Wembley for the Play Off Final. His funeral was attended by the entire Huddersfield Town squad and the manager Neil Warnock.

He played 57 matches for Town, scoring five goals.

And finally, we had a player involved in another infamous match for England on this date. It was 1954 and it was Ron Staniforth playing at right back in the Nepstadion in Budapest against Hungary. This was a friendly, but was a return fixture after the two countries had met at Wembley in the previous November, when Hungary won 6-3.

If that was a shock for the country that gave the beautiful game to the world, this one was off the scale as the Hungarians won 7-1. They were led by their captain, Ferenc Puskás, who became one of the most famous footballers of the era. He scored twice in this game.

Despite this result, Ron kept his place in the squad for the up coming World Cup.

[Lord Snooty]

May 24:

As we approach the trip down Wembley Way once more, here's another reminder that only four players have scored goals for Huddersfield Town at the national stadium. We have had three FA Cup Finals (1928, 1930, 1938), one Football League Trophy (1994) and three Play Off Finals (1995, 2012, 2017). So that's four goals in seven matches. Not a great record. We have won all of those three Play Offs though.

One of those four goalscorers has a birthday today. Not Alex Jackson, who scored in the 1928 Final. Neither Andy Booth or Chris Billy, who scored in the 1995 Final. But it is Richard Logan, who scored the equaliser for us in the Autoglass Trophy Final against Swansea City in 1994.

He was born on this date in 1969 in Barnsley and is 53 today. He signed for Neil Warnock in 1993, at the same time as Darren Bullock. Two non league players, a big gamble. Bully of course, has gone down in club history as the one who scored the winning penalty at Brentford. And Logie also, with being one of the Wembley scorers.

Though Bully is revered with cult hero status, not so much for Logan. He was a hard, tough tackling bricklayer of a player, but didn't have the wacky personality of his team mate. The goal under the Twin Towers was his first Town goal, a bullet header from a corner. He only scored once more, the third goal in a 3-0 win at home to Brighton in the following season, a win which took us to the top of the 3rd Division.

He didn't play against Bristol Rovers in the Play Off Final. Not even on the bench, but that was when there were only three subs sat on it. Warnock hadn't gone off him. On the contrary. When Colin left in the summer to go and manage Plymouth, Logan was one of his first signings, paying Town £20,000 for him.

Having reported yesterday on the death of one of our veteran former players, Joe Walter, today we have the death of our most famous supporter. No not Patrick Stewart, but the Prime Minister, Harold Wilson.

He was born in Cowlersley in 1916 and his death, on this date in 1995 at the age of 79, came just four days before Town played the Play Off Final at Wembley. The club asked the Football League if they could have a minute's silence before the match for our most high profile fan, as well as old Joe, who had died aged 99 the previous day, but the request was turned down.

Mr Wilson was Prime Minister twice, from 1964 to 1970 and then 1974 to 1976 and he always said that he carried with him, a picture of the Huddersfield Town thrice champions.

In 1999, a statue of him was erected in St George's Square and unveiled by young Tony Blair.