[Lord Snooty]

Huddersfield Town v Swansea City
The Sky Bet Championship
Saturday January 15th - 15:00 ko
at the John McAlpharm Stadium

Huddersfield Town welcome Swansea City to the John Smiths Stadium on Saturday afternoon for the first Saturday three o'clock kick off at home since we played Middlesbrough on November the 27th. We won't have another one in the league until we play Peterborough on March the 5th due to Cup matches, matches postponed due to Cup matches, and of course, good old Sky Sports.

Swansea have only played one match since they were beaten 4-1 at home by Nottingham Forest on December the 11th and that was the 3-2 defeat at the weekend against Southampton in the FA Cup. That was their fourth straight defeat and they haven't won a game since beating Barnsley at Oakwell on November the 24th. Since that Forest defeat, they have had three games postponed, against Millwall, Luton and Fulham.

So we're the team in form for a change. We now stand at seven games unbeaten in all competitions, can we make it eight? Head Coach Carlos Corberán made a few changes last week at Burnley. Will it be changed back again to the side that drew with Blackburn? There were some good performances from those who came in, giving Carlos a few selection headaches. Jon Russell certainly did enough to suggest he wouldn't look out of place and was unlucky not to score on his full debut when his header from a corner hit the post. Josh Ruffells  did well, but almost certainly Harry Toffolo will be recalled. Skipper Jonathan Hogg returned after injury and he will most likely keep his place, which may mean that Scott High may have to sit the match out on the bench again.

Hopefully Lee Nicholls will be fit to play after his bout of sickness kept him out of the victory at Turf Moor. Talking of Nicholls, he may be up against an old colleague in this match. The Swans have signed a new goalkeeper this week. Andy Fisher from the MK Dons and he's the one who ousted Nicholls from the number one position last season. Which was good for us as he's been brilliant since he came here. Fisher will have a job on repeating that with the number one keeper at the Liberty Swansea.com Stadium. That man is the great man himself, the irreplaceable, Ben Hamer.




A brief history of Swansea City: formed in 1912 as Swansea Town, they played at the Vetch Field, so named after the vegetable that grew there. A vetch is a type of legume if you didn't know. What on earth is a legume though? 

They joined the Southern League, which after the war, made up most of the newly formed Football League Division Three South in 1920 and Swansea were one of those teams elected in. They won the Div3(S) title in 1925 and were promoted to the 2nd Division.

They stayed up right up until the first season after the 2nd world war, when they were relegated back down. That was only for a short while though as under the management of Billy McCandless, they won the Div3(S) title again in 1949. That completed a remarkable hat trick of titles for McCandless, who had done it previously with Newport County and Cardiff City.

So they had 15 seasons in the 2nd Division but only came close to promotion once. That was in 1955/56, when they had Ivor Allchurch in the team, their all time leading goalscorer. They led the table for part of the season, but faded badly towards the end. They eventually went down in 1965 to the now nationalised 3rd Division.

Worse was to follow. They were relegated again in 1967 and so were in the 4th Division for the first time. In 1969 Swansea was granted city status to mark the investiture of Prince Charles as the Prince of Wales and so the club also changed it's name from Town to City. Hope Huddersfield never becomes a city. Can't ever imagine shouting "Come on City".

The Swansea fans were shouting it though as they won promotion in their first season with the new name, but that was another short stay as they came back down again in 74. The rot continued and they had to apply for re-election in 75, finishing in the bottom 4 of the 4th Division. That application was successful and soon the club turned their fortunes around.

John Toshack, one of the best strikers in the Football League, who had an amazing strike partnership at Liverpool with Kevin Keegan, suddenly upped and left for Swansea in 1978 to become their player/manager at the young age of just 28. In other words, at the peak of his career, when he could've gone on to win countless more medals and trophies at Anfield, he went and got a job in the 4th Division. The reason for this apparently was a medical that showed he had calcification in some muscle tissue.

Whether he thought it was going to end his career early or not, he played on for another six season as player/manager, in which time he got the club promoted from the 4th Division all the way up to the First. Harry Griffiths was the manager in 1977/78 but he decided to step down, thus facilitating the arrival of Toshack. Griffiths stayed on though as his assistant and despite only joining the club in March, he had led them to promotion by the end of April. However, before the last game of the season, Griffiths had a heart attack and died.

They went up again in 78/79, finishing in 3rd place, with Toshack scoring the goal that secured the promotion. It was mid table in 79/80, but then in 80/81 they won promotion to the First Division for the first time, finishing in 3rd place again, behind West Ham and Notts County.

Their first ever First Division game was played at the Vetch against the BellEnders of Beeston and they only went and beat them, sorry hammered them, 5-1, with Bob Latchford getting a hat trick. They finished in 6th place that season but couldn't match that in the next and were relegated. And worse, they went down again. Now that's some roller coaster!

So back down in the 3rd Div in 84/85, Toshack got sacked, the club got wound up and only just avoided another relegation. They were saved by a local businessman, Doug Sharpe, but relegation did come around in the next season and so they were back down in the 4th, just eight years after the roller coaster had set off.

The Football League introduced the Play Offs in 87/88 and Swansea took advantage. Finishing 6th, seven points off what would've been automatic promotion under the old system, they won promotion through the Play Offs by beating Rotherham in the semis and then Torquay 5-4 on aggregate. The Final hadn't been given a Wembley day out yet.

They got to the Play Offs again in 1993, but were beaten in the semis by West Brom. Frank Burrows was manager of the Swans now and the season after, 1993/94, he did get them to their first ever Wembley Final. Not the Play Offs though, it was the Autoglass Trophy Final, in which they played Huddersfield Town, beating us on penalties.

It didn't do them any good. We went up in the next season and they went down in 1996, back to the 4th tier, at this stage calling itself Division Three. They made the Play Offs twice, losing in the semis to Northampton in 1996 and then Scunthorpe in 1999. They did go up in 2000, as Division Three champions, but came straight back down again.

They almost went down to the Conference in 2003, surviving on the last day of the season. But two years later, with Kenny Jackett as manager, they won promotion, finishing 3rd behind Yeovil and Scunny, in their final season on the Vetch Patch.

In the first season at their new ground, The Liberty Stadium, they reached the Play Offs, but lost in the Final against Barnsley, after beating Brentford in the semis. They did win the PizzaPot Windscreens Rover Trophy again though. It was against Carlisle in the Final at the Millennium Stadium and goals from a scouse git called Lee Trundle and one from the Beeast himself, Adebayo Akinfenwa, gave them a 2-1 win.

Roberto Martinez was sat on the subs bench for that game and when Jackett resigned during the next season, he took over the manager's job. In his second season in charge, he had them almost back to the Trophy Final, but they lost in the area final to MK Dons. That would be their last game in this competition as later that season they won the League One title and have not been back to the 3rd tier since.

So that promotion ended 24 years in the lower leagues and it didn't take them long to get up to the Premier League. In 2011 with Brendan Rodgers in charge, they qualified for the Play Offs and after beating Nottingham Forest in the semis, they faced Reading in the Final at Wembley. Two goals from Scott Sinclair (one from the penalty spot) and one from Stephen Dobbie gave the Swans a 3-0 half time lead. Reading came back in the second half and made it 3-2 but then gave away another penalty and Sinclair completed his hat trick. The Swans saw out the game and they were in the Premier League.

They finished that first season in 11th, but then Rodgers left to manage Liverpool. He was replaced by Michael Laudrup, who got them to their first major Final, the League Cup Final of 2013. And luck was on their side that they had 4th Division opponents Bradford City to play. The Bantams, with Nahki Wells leading the attack, were no match for their Prima Donna League opponents, who stuffed them 5-0. Goals that day coming from Nathan Dyer (2), Michu and Jonathan de Guzmán (2).

That League Cup win qualified them for the Europa League, reaching the round of 32, being beaten by Napoli. By now, Laudrup had been sacked and his replacement was their former captain, a man who's reputation was built on class, humility and respect, Garry Monk.

Monk was sacked after a season and a half, in which time he set in place the downward spiral that successive managers Alan Curtis, Francesco Guidolin, Bob Bradley, Paul Clement, Leon Britton and Carlos Carvalhal couldn't stop. They were relegated in 2018, courtesy of Huddersfield Town's draw at Chelsea, with Carvalhal at the helm. He was sacked at the end of the season.

So Graham Potter got the job, but he had been replaced by Steve Cooper, a man barely awake, who got them to the 2020 Play Offs. They were beaten at the semi stage by Brentford. And it was those Bees who stopped them in the next season (last season), beating them at Wembley, after they had beaten Barnsley in the semis. Following that defeat, Cooper was dismissed.

Head to Head



Town lead the head to head with 25 wins to Swansea's 17, with 17 draws.

The most famous match between the two clubs was a Wembley Final. The 1994 Autoglass Trophy Final. It was our first match at Wembley since the 1938 FA Cup Final. It was Swansea's first ever game there. Andy McFarlane gave the Swans the lead  and they led at half time. On the hour mark, Richard Logan sent a powerful header into the net to equalise, thus becoming the first Town player to score for the club at Wembley Stadium since Alex Jackson scored against Blackburn Rovers in the 1928 FA Cup Final.

The match ended in a draw after extra time and then Swansea won it on penalties. Only Pat Scully managed to score for us in the shoot out, with John Cornforth, Kwame Ampadu and Steve Torpey netting for them.

The first meeting was on Christmas Day 1952 when Town had been relegated for the first time down to the 2nd Division. Can you imagine the stink kicked up if the Football League made Swansea travel up to Huddersfield on Christmas Day now? What about the fans? How would anybody get there? Did the trains run on Christmas Day back then?

Anyway, we beat Swansea Town, as they were called then 3-0 with goals from Willie Davie, Vic Metcalfe and Jimmy Glazzard. Then it was our lads turn to travel down there, to the Vetch Field two days later. Glazzard and Davie scored again as well as Alistair Gunn, but the Swans also got three and so we only left with one point.

Town went up that season, but came back down again in 1956 and the two clubs spent nine seasons together in Div 2. Swansea went down in 65/66 and we beat them 4-0 that season. Also in that season was our only FA Cup meeting, a 4th round match at the Vetch, which we lost 0-1.

The next time we shared a league table was in the 4th Division in the 70s. Three unremarkable seasons together before John Toshack got them up in 78. He took them all the way to the First Division, but they were on their way back down again when we met up again in 1983/84. It was a win at Leeds Road for the Town against the now called City, with a goal from Brian Stanton being the only one of the game. And then down at their place it was a 2-2 draw with Daryl Pugh and Mark Lillis on target.

We both ended up in the 3rd Division in 1988 and then had seven seasons together in that league. The final match in that series came at the McAlpine Stadium towards the back end on 94/95. We won 2-0 with a couple of goals from Gary Crosby, which took us top of the league at the beginning of April. Somehow we managed to lose that position and ended up in 5th, but still went up through the Play Offs.

The next time we met though, both clubs were in the basement league, now called League Two, but then called Division Three, but in all reality it's the 4th Division. They had only just survived relegation to the Conference and we had only just survived from going out of existence. It was 2003/04 and in game 9 we went to the Vetch Field for the very last time. It was a nasty game and we were cheated by the antics of a rotund rat arse of a player called Lee Trundle. He scored one of the goals in a 2-0 scoreline, but he also got Paul Scott and Ian Hughes sent off with his "gamesmanship". We got our own back at our place towards the back end of the season. Danny Schofield scored twice and Anthony Lloyd once in a 3-0 Town victory.

We went up. They went up in the season after, so we met again in League One, as it was and still is known. We had three seasons together there, before they went and left us for higher things. Trundle kept scoring against us. He also got sent off as well, the charmless nurk!

Our first win at their new ground came in 2006, when a Gary Taylor-Fletcher double gave us a 2-1 win. Leon Knight scored theirs in that game. Twatty Trundle had left by the time we went back there in 07/08 and won again. Super Malvin Kamara getting the only goal of that game. They beat us at ours though. Jason Scotland scored in another one niller and current Welsh boss Robert Page got sent off for the Terriers.

Swansea got promoted to the Championship. By the time we reached that level, the Swans had gone up again, so it would be ten seasons between our meetings when we met once more. Now it's in the Premier League. Our first ever meeting at this level, completing a select few, who we have met in all four divisions. How many more can you name that we've done that with?

Anyway, the first game at the Liberty, we came across another player who would always score against us. Tammy Abraham. Twice in this one. The return fixture at the John Smith's was goal less, but it was far from dull. Jordan Ayew got sent off for a foul on Jonathan Hogg in the 11th minute and they shut up shop. We absolutely battered them. Possession stats showed us to have 81%, with 30 shots at goal. They had none. It was a miracle that they survived, but they celebrated at the final whistle so much, with their manager Carlos Carvalhal reacting like they'd won the World Cup. Well it was a bit of sweet revenge for him I suppose. He was boss at the Wendy when we beat them in the Play Offs.

He couldn't keep them up though and he was at the helm as their seven year stay in the Premier League ended. That relegation getting rubber stamped when we had that famous draw at Stamford Bridge.

So we met up again following our relegation and drew at ours and lost at theirs in the first season back in the Championship. Last season though, we did the double over them, even though we were in the relegation dog fight all season and they were up the top end. Harry Toffolo and Josh Koroma scored in a 2-1 win at their place, with Andre Ayew scoring from the spot from one of the softest given penalties ever. But the match at our place, sadly behind closed doors, was one of the best performances since Carlos Corberán came in. We pumped them 4-1 with Duane Holmes scoring the goal of the season. That was his second of the game, with Fraizer Campbell and Lewis O'Brien getting the others.

So what's going on down the Old Vetch Patch? Managed nowadays by Russell Martin, who was at Norwich for most of his playing career. During that career he won promotion with Peterborough, three times with Norwich and once with the MK Dons.

Born in Brighton 36 years ago, he gained 29 caps for his native country, sorry his dad's native country, Bonnie Scotland. He went back up to Scotland to play for Rangers towards the back end of his time at Norwich. Then finished up with Walsall and MK. The day he finished playing for the Dons was the day he'd been appointed as their manager, following the departure of Paul Tisdale.

During his time there, he made them a possession team, a bit like Swansea when they used to bore the pants off everybody. So he seemed the perfect fit for the Swans when he was appointed as their new manager on the 1st of August last year.

Last week's line up at home to Southampton in the Cup:

18 Ben Hamer - Yes, him!
26 Kyle Naughton - Ex Premier League player with Swans, as well as Spurs and Norwich.
2 Ryan Bennett - Also played in the PL with Norwich as well as Wolves and Leicester.
16 Brandon Cooper - Wales u21 defender.
3 Ryan Manning - Ex QPR, Irish international defender.
7 Korey Smith - Ex Norwich and Bristol City midfielder.
4 Flynn Downes - Midfielder signed from Ipswich in the summer.
28 Liam Walsh - Everton lad, signed from Bristol City in the summer.
9 Michael Obafemi - 21 year old Irish striker, signed from Southampton.
17 Joël Piroe - 22 yera old Dutch striker, top scorer.
20 Liam Cullen - 22 year old Welsh striker, came through Swansea Academy.

Subs:
1 Steven Benda - German keeper, can't get in the side ahead of Hamer!
6 Jay Fulton - Scottish u21 international, born in Bolton when his dad (Steven) played there.
8 Matt Grimes - Club captain, had a loan at Bellend Road.
10 Olivier Ntcham - French lad, had 4 years at Celtic.
21 Yan Dhanda - Birmingham born winger.
24 Jake Bidwell - Ex Brentford and QPR defender.
37 Daniel Williams - Young midfielder, yet to make league debut.
46 Rhys Williams - Young defender on loan from Liverpool.
47 Azeem Abdulai - Young midfielder, hasn't got a Wikipedia page yet.


Club connections:

Huddersfield born ex Town player and recent CEO, Julian Winter is now Chairman of Swansea. Jamie Paterson, who we once had on loan from Forest is in their current squad with 8 goals this season.

Town legends Pawel Abbott and Steve Jenkins both played for them and Jacko's Taffy sidekick, Terry Yorath managed them, getting them promoted from the 4th to the 3rd Division in 1988.

Swansea in popular culture: People from Swansea are known as Jacks. Their fans are known as the Jack Army and this is all down to the exploits of a life saving dog called Swansea Jack. Have a read of his Wikipedia page. Who's a good boy? Yes you are. Yes you are. 

Swansea Jack (1930 – October 1937) was a famous Welsh dog who rescued 27 people from the docks and riverbanks of Swansea, Wales.

Swansea Jack was a black retriever with a longish coat. He was similar in appearance to a modern Flat-Coated Retriever, but was instead identified at the time as a Newfoundland dog, despite being considerably smaller and lighter in build than the typical modern Newfoundland dog, possibly because he was reported to have been born in Newfoundland. He lived in the North Dock / River Tawe area of Swansea with his master, William Thomas. Jack would always respond to cries for help from the water, diving into the water and pulling whoever was in difficulty to safety at the dockside.

His first rescue, in June 1931, when he saved a 12-year-old boy, went unreported. A few weeks later, this time in front of a crowd, Jack rescued a swimmer from the docks. His photograph appeared in the local paper and the local council awarded him a silver collar. In 1936 he had the prestigious 'Bravest Dog of the Year' award bestowed upon him by the Star newspaper in London.

He received a silver cup from the Lord Mayor of London and he is still the only dog to have been awarded two bronze medals by the National Canine Defence League (now known as Dogs Trust). Legend has it that in his lifetime he saved 27 people from the Docks / River Tawe. Swansea Jack died in October 1937 after eating rat poison. His death was reported by the press across the UK and the press claimed he had saved 29 lives (for example, Nottingham Journal 5 October 1937).

His burial monument, paid for by public subscription, is located on the Promenade in Swansea near St Helen's Rugby Ground. In 2000, Swansea Jack was named 'Dog of the Century' by NewFound Friends of Bristol who train domestic dogs in aquatic rescue techniques.

[/color]

Famous England Football supporting actor Keith Allen is from Swansea. He memorably performed with John Barnes and New Order on the World In Motion record for the England World Cup song and he was responsible for the Fat Les Vindaloo song, also an England footy song. ENG-ER-LAND!

Other actors from Swansea include from Gavin & Stacey, Joanna Page, who's Stacey and Uncle Bryn himself, the brilliant Rob Brydon.

There's Catherine Zeta-Jones, who got famous in the 90s then buggered off to America. But none of these come anywhere near the terrific Talfryn Thomas who played Private Cheeseman in Dad's Army.

Musically, Swansea has a few you might have heard of. I think theo covered all the Badfinger songs last time out, so here's Swansea's greatest gravel voiced songstress herself, Bonnie Tyler.



And Spencer Davis.....







Recent form - last 6 matches:

Burnley 1-2 Town (FA Cup)
Blackburn 0-0 Town
Forest 0-1 Town
Town 3-2 Blackpool
Bristol C 2-3 Town
Town 1-1 Coventry

Swansea 2-3 Southampton (FA Cup)
Swansea 1-4 Forest
Boro 1-0 Swansea
Swansea 2-3 Reading
Barnsley 0-2 Swansea
Swansea 1-1 Blackpool

Town are 6th in the Championship table with 40 points. Swansea are 17th with 27.

Leading scorers:

Terriers:
Danny Ward (7)
Matty Pearson (4)

Swans:
Joël Piroe (13)
Jamie Paterson (8)


January the 15th down the ages: How did we get on in previous matches played on this date?

1910: Rotherham County (h) Midland League, lost 0-1
1913: Sheffield Utd (h) FA Cup, WON 3-1 (Frank Mann, Thomas Elliott 2)
1916: Notts County (h) Wartime League, WON 2-1 (Frank Mann, Thomas Elliott)
1921: Bradford (Park Avenue) (a) Div 1, drew 1-1 (William Wright)
1927: Bury (h) Div 1, WON 3-1 (William Devlin, George Brown 2)
1930: Bury (h) FA Cup, WON 3-1 (Alex Jackson 3)
1936: Manchester City (a) Div 1, WON 2-1 (Sam Barkas og, Buster Brown)
1938: Brentford (h) Div 1, lost 0-3
1944: Bradford (Park Avenue) (h) Wartime League, drew 1-1 (James Isaac)
1949: Queens Park Rangers (h) FA Cup, WON 5-0 (Jimmy Glazzard 2, Albert Nightingale, Johnny McKenna, Albert Bateman)
1966: Wolverhampton Wanderers (a) Div 2, lost 1-2  (Don Weston)
1972: Burnley (a) FA Cup, WON 1-0 (Dennis Clarke)
1977: Southport (a) Div 4, drew 2-2 (Bobby Campbell 2)
1983: Exeter City (a) Div 3, WON 4-3 (Mark Lillis, Phil Wilson, Brian Stanton, David Cowling)
1994: Barnet (a) Division Two (3rd tier), WON 1-0 (Phil Robinson)
2000: Blackburn Rovers (a) Division One (2nd tier), lost 0-2
2002: Bury (a) Division Two (3rd tier), drew 0-0
2005: Barnsley (a) League One (3rd tier), lost 2-4 (Pawel Abbott pen, Andy Booth)
2011: Walsall (a) League One (3rd tier), WON 4-2 (Kevin Kilbane, Jamie McCombe, Peter Clarke, Jordan Rhodes)


Played 19, WON 10, drew 4, lost 5.

William Devlin, who scored on this date in 1927 against Bury, was signed from Cowdenbeath the year before. He had been the top scorer in Scotland for the previous two seasons, but as a centre forward, he was up against George Brown for a place in the team. He scored 4 goals in 4 games in the 25/26 season, including two in a 5-0 win over Manchester Utd.

Talking of Scotsmen, Alex Jackson, who scored a hat trick against Bury in the Cup in 1930, was the most famous footballer of the time and scored a hat trick for the Scots against England at Wembley. But that's just scratching the surface. If you want to read more, here's an article I did on him during lockdown when I was bored...... https://www.sportsbabble.co.uk/showthread.php?tid=9599

Sam Barkas, the Man City player who scored an own goal for us in 1936, was the brother of Ned Barkas, the former Town player. Ned won the league three times with us. Sam captained England.

Buster Brown, who also scored in that game against City, was a Londoner who came to us from Luton. He was a defender but could also play comfortably in other positions, so was known as a utility player. His goal in this game was his second and last Town goal before transferring to Brentford.

The 1972 FA Cup win against Burnley got covered a lot last week as it was 50 years ago and was the first game in the cup run the last time we made it to the quarter finals.

Bobby Campbell, who scored twice for us at Southport in 1977, was a proper football character, the likes of which we never see these days. He had two spells at Town, but the bulk of his career was playing for Bradford City, including that day when they had the fire. After he retired, he ran a club in Huddersfield, the name of which I've forgotten. He committed suicide in 2016, but obviously he wasn't as high profile as Gary Speed so it doesn't get talked about.


Swansea Anagrams: Some football related, some not.

1. Church or Villa 
   
2. Wet Abba Plot 
   
3. Ewan Jackass 
   
4. Gimme Tarts 
   
5. Bertie Nylon 
   
6. Saturn Millers 
   
7. Rehab Men 
   
8. Busted Military 
   
9. Rory the Tray 
   
10. Seven Ink Jets 
    

[ritchiebaby]

3 is Swansea Jack. Be back later with more. Maybe.

[WakeyTerrier]

I've been to Swansea three times

The Vetch Field, where Town secured a play off spot thanks to a Iwan Roberts goal to win 1-0, followed by a pitch invasion from both sets of supporters and a mini riot on the pitch

At the new ground my first visit was the night Malvin Kamara score the winner, It was Friday night to avoid a clash with the egg chasing the following day and it was freezing cold, never been as cold at the footy. I think the official away attendance was 81 that night.

Finally I returned there in our first season in the Premier League where we lost 2-0 thanks to a Tammy Abraham brace.

[Lord Snooty]

It's one of the places I've never been to.

[theo_luddite]

Nice one Snoots

Been to Swansea, Port Talbot and Llanelli many a time on business but never seen a game at either stadium. My timing was obviously bloody awful. A former work colleague and Swans fan lives down there so there will no doubt be a message or two pinged back and forth on Saturday.

10. Steve Jenkins, I think, forever to be known as an Inkjet Printer from now on
2. Pawel (back pass) Abbott

[Lord Snooty]

Oh that back pass! 

---

Seems like we may have a near full house on Saturday with the cheap tickets.
Rather like taking the piss out of Swansea, who are still playing behind closed doors.

[theo_luddite]

Well I hope they get their act together with the Covid pass checking this time if they are continuing with it. The queues will be halfway back to the town centre if they do the same as last time. 3 numpties stood close together all checking the same passes in one queue instead of having at least 3 queues and that was for the Kilner Bank. Apparently chaos reigned in other areas too.

Not convinced the FM Lower will be open but pleasantly surprised if it is.

---

Swansea fans can pay on the day. Thought we'd canned that. Apparently not.

[WakeyTerrier]

Swansea will bring a few who have taken advantage of the £5 offer but I reckon the amount who pay on one day you could count on two hands

[SHEP_HTAFC]

Cracking thread Snoots
My only visit to the Vetch field was a 3-0 win for us....Eoin Hand was the manager who sat right in front of us in the main stand. Taking notes copiously without hardly ever watching the footy.

[Lord Snooty]

Schofield out for 5 weeks. Nicholls is fine though and plays tomorrow.

Do we need to get an experienced keeper on loan as back up?