[Amelia Chaffinch]

We've never said we'd rather have gone to the match so must have been a good decision. 

[Lord Snooty]

A proper wise decision.

[Lord Snooty]

March 30:

We've almost got a Hugh Grant film today. Four Birthdays and a Funeral.

In chronological order, the first birthday is from 1895 and that's Charlie Wilson, the centre forward who currently stands at no 17 in our all time goal scorers chart. He scored 62 in total between 1922 and 1925 after signing for us from Spurs. According to his Wikipedia page, he was known as "the clot from the midlands" as for some reason, he tried to disguise his identity whilst playing for them in the Wartime League.

Anyway, he signed for them after the war, having been at Coventry just before it all started. He won two League titles with Town, but got injured and sold to Stoke before the third title was won. He won promotion with Stoke and became the first Stoke player to notch up 100 goals.

After football, he became landlord of the Noah's Ark pub in Stafford. He died in May 1971 at the age of 76.

Next birthday. Born in 1946 in Dublin, it's Eoin Hand. He was Town manager from May 1988 to March 1992, taking over the job when the club was in a dire state having just been relegated to the 3rd Division following a disastrous season.

Most of his playing career was down south with Portsmouth, earning himself 20 caps for the Republic as well. His most high profile job was when he managed his country and almost got them to the 1982 World Cup, but they were cheated out of it by bad refereeing and a late goal for Belgium, which saw them miss out on goal difference.

He was replaced by Jack Charlton, who did manage to get them to the World Cup, while Eoin went off to manage in Saudi, then got the job at Town, having been brought in as assistant to Malcolm MacDonald earlier on.

He's now retired, living in County Kerry and is 76 today.

And the next one, born on this date is Mark Hudson. It's his 40th birthday today, born in 1982 in Guildford. I don't know why, but I always thought he was Welsh. Probably because I always associate him with Cardiff City. That's where he made his name, winning two promotions to the Premier League with them. He did however, also win promotion to the Premier League with us, lifting the Play Off trophy at Wembley in 2017.

He's now back at Cardiff as a first team coach. Before leaving Town, he had four games in caretaker charge, over two spells, when David Wagner left and also when Jan Siewert left. We lost all four of them.

And finally, we have a player starting out on what hopefully will be a distinguished career is Etienne Camara, who is 19 today. He was born in 2003 in Noisy-le-Grand, a suburb of Paris and signed for Town in 2020. His only first team appearance so far was in that FA Cup defeat at home to Plymouth last season, when he came on as a second half sub for Matt Daly.

The funeral? Sadly John Haselden died two years ago today in 2020. He was physio and assistant to Mick Buxton during the glory days of the early 80s and had actually been manager before when Tom Johnston left the club a few years earlier. He had 14 matches in charge in the dark days of 4th Division football.

As for the action on the pitch. The most recent game was in 2019, a defeat away at Crystal Palace in the Premier League. Me and Amelia were just arriving in Edinburgh for our anniversary weekend, when the news came through on 5Live that the defeat at Selhurst Park meant that Huddersfield Town had been relegated from the Prima Donna League, before the end of March! 

And now we're going to Luton Town. Luton Town awaaaaaaaay!

On a happier note, we got to see the show with Aljaž Škorjanec and Janette Manrara on their Remembering The Movies tour.

[HerefordBull]

Hope you were both able to replicate the move Aliaz and Janette are demonstrating on the poster?

[Amelia Chaffinch]

[Lord Snooty]

March 31:

On this date in 1928, Huddersfield Town won 3-2 away at Bury in the First Division. Goals were scored by George Wilson (a Scotsman scoring in his only 1st team game for the club), Harry Raw and Johnny Dent. The result left us top of the league, with a semi final 2nd replay just around the corner. Nothing out of the ordinary there then.

The thing is, in those days there were no international breaks and on this date, England were playing Scotland at Wembley in the British Home Championship (often referred to as the Home Internationals). The reason why Wilson got a game, as well as Bill Pickering, Willie Campbell, Jimmy Smailes, Bon Spence and Laurie Cumming all making first appearances of the season, was that there were five Town players involved in the match at Wembley. So the victory at Gigg Lane was all the more remarkable.

Those five missing players were Roy Goodall, who captained the England side, Tom Wilson, Bob Kelly and Billy Smith for the home team. And Alex Jackson was playing for the Scots.

There was nothing but pride at stake as the Welsh had already secured the title, leaving these two to fight for the wooden spoon, but this is an England/Scotland game so there's always something there. Billy Smith had hit the post in the first minute, but from then until the last minute, it was all Scotland in a game that had them going down in Scottish legend as the Wembley Wizards. And it was Town's Alex Jackson who stole the show, scoring a hat trick in a 5-1 win. Town's Bob Kelly got the last minute consolation, scoring direct from a free kick.

This was on the Saturday. All five of them would play a couple of days later in the FA Cup semi final 2nd replay against Sheffield United on the Monday.

It's been another good date for Town wins over the years with 14 wins from the 23 played. We beat the likes of Newcastle Utd in 1923, Manchester City in 1934 and Liverpool in 1951. But the best one in living memory was the win at Barnsley in 1986, two days after me and Amelia had gotten wed. This was the one where Duncan Shearer, another Huddersfield Town Scottish international, scored a hat trick on his full debut in a 3-1 win at Oakwell and just about secured our place in the 2nd Division for another season.

[WakeyTerrier]

My all time favourite Town striker is Duncan Shearer. In fact when the AHTTC podcast were asking for our best XI players last week but they had to be from eleven different countries I put Duncan Shearer in as one of my forwards.

[SHEP_HTAFC]

Shearer is also one of my all time faves......but him over Tom Cowan? I would have to pick Cowan I think.

[WakeyTerrier]

Shearer is also one of my all time faves......but him over Tom Cowan? I would have to pick Cowan I think.

That's the beauty of the debate, I don't recall any XI being exactly the same.

4 games that I have been to on this day according to my Futbology app

Starting with that game at Barnsley way back in 1986

My next game is 2001
Town 4 v 1 Portsmouth
Booth,Facey, Gorre and Baldrey with four second half goals in front of 13,199 fans to leave us 22nd in Division One

Fast forward now to 2012
Carlisle 2 v 1 Town
Lee Novak equalising for Town after ex Town Player James Berrett had given Carlisle the lead.
It was all over though when Miller scored in the 95th minute to give Carlisle the three points.
Att: 7530

and finally 2018
Newcastle 1 v 0 Town
Perez with a 80th minute winner for the Toon
Att 52,261

[Lord Snooty]

April 1:

Now I know it's April Fools Day, but this really did happen. In 1989, Town won 6-0 away at Bury. This was the season when Craig Maskell scored 33 goals for us and he scored a hat trick in this one. Mike Cecere, Mark Smith and Mick Byrne got the others for the team managed in those days by Eoin Hand.

This was the season after the disastrous relegation season and Maskell was bought from Southampton with the money that Lou Macari paid to take Duncan Shearer to Swindon. Maskell's 33 goals beat the post war record of 32 goals, held by Jimmy Glazzard.

We have a couple of birthdays today. Arnold Sidebottom was born on this date in 1954, making him 68 today. He was one of the many Town players to have played football for Town and also cricket for Yorkshire. He played for England as well. One test match in 1985, against the Aussies at Trent Bridge, taking 1 for 65.

He was born in Barnsley but started his playing career with Man Utd and Yorkshire at the same time. He signed for Town in 1976 and left in 78 to go to Halifax. He played for 18 years for Yorkshire but was banned from playing for England for taking part in the rebel tour of South Africa.

Arnie only had that one game for England. His lad, Ryan Sidebottom, played loads of times and is listed as one of our celebrity supporters.

The other birthday today is the balding hero, Iain Dunn. He was born in York in 1970 and so is 52 today. He started his playing career at Bootham Crescent with York City, but had dropped out of league football by the time Ian Ross signed him for Town in 1992 from Goole.

He became an instant hero with the Town fans, scoring about ten minutes into his debut, an FA Cup win away at Bradford City and it wasn't long after that he got that famous song sung at him. The following week, he scored a hat trick in an Autoglass Trophy match against Halifax and finished that first half season with 9 goals.

He became a bit of a Cup competition specialist, scoring the goal in the League Cup draw away at Arsenal in the next season. His total goals tally for Town was 29, but only 14 of those were in the league. His most famous goal was probably the one in extra time against Lincoln City in the Trophy at the McAlpine. It was the first ever goal scored under the new Golden Goal rule, in the 94/95 season.

Later that season, he came on as a sub in the Play Off Final at Wembley against Bristol Rovers. he'd barely been on a minute when he set up the winning goal, sending in a perfect cross for Ronnie Jepson to head down to Chris Billy to fire home.

He didn't get much game time in the next season and was eventually sold to Chesterfield. At Saltergate, he played 18 games but was part of probably their most famous squad, the one that reached the FA Cup semi finals. He played in the quarter final match against Wrexham but didn't get on in the semi against Middlesbrough, a match that they were robbed of a place in the final by the lack of goalmouth technology.

He now works for York City Council and also as a summariser for Radio York, sometimes coming back to the club that still loves him as a cult hero to summarise for Radio Leeds at Town matches when the barber's shop is busy.