[Lord Snooty]

June 25:

Today's the day! On this date in 1908, Huddersfield Town Association Football Club was official founded. This was done at a meeting at the Albert Hotel, a few days after the proposed club had already been entered into the North-Eastern League.

A proposal to raise £2,000 in shares was passed and a paid player/manager would be employed, as well as a company secretary. The Board of Directors was elected, with John Hilton Crowther as Chairman. Others elected at that meeting included woolen manufacturer James Cotton, local schoolmaster Llywelyn Bath Jones, billiards professional Fred Ibbotson and solicitor Amos Brook Hirst. Amos would be on the board for many years to come (with a few years off in between) and would be Chairman during the 1920s glory years, as well as Chairman of the FA for a few years. Here he is in the 1940s, making the FA Cup draw.

On this date in 2018, our new signing Ramadan Sobhi had his third and final game at the Russia World Cup. The match was against Saudi Arabia at the Volgograd Arena and he came on in the 64th minute, his third substitute appearance.

Mo Salah gave the Egyptians the lead in the first half, but two goals in injury time, one at the end of the first half and one in the 90+6th minute, saw Sobhi and his team mates whimper out without a single point.

And that rather summed up his Town career. Never really got going and was never really missed. But still, he was at the World Cup as a representative of Premier League Huddersfield Town.

On this date in 1974, Ian Greaves left the club. It was a sad end to what had been a glorious, but short lived glorious era at Leeds Road. By that I mean, he got us promoted as Second Division champions, but by the time he left, we had had two relegations and were in Division Three.

He resigned, rather than got sacked, but the question is, should he have been sacked? By modern standards, he had long over stayed his time and probably would've gone before the second relegation, but he hung around and steadied the ship. That first season in the third, had us finishing tenth and looked like we may be ready for another crack at getting back up. But instead, Bobby Collins got the job and we ended up going down again.

Greavesie went on to get Bolton promoted and then Mansfield, so he had more managerial success than failure. And of course, he will long be remembered for that 69/70 season and the following one in the First Division, a bit like how David Wagner is fondly remembered.

On this date in 2021, Levi Colwill signed on for us on a season long loan from Chelsea. He had a brilliant season for us, scoring a memorable winner at Bramall Lane.

Sadly, his season ended with an own goal at Wembley, but what do you think of his prospects? He's still only 19. Should we try and get him back for another year? Or will he be in Chelsea's first team this next season? Surely he's a better player than Trevoh Chalobah?

[theo_luddite]

He's more than ready for Prima Donna League football. He'd be welcomed back with open arms but I reckon he'll be playing for Chelsea or someone else upstairs.

[Lord Snooty]

June 26:

On this date in 1954, Huddersfield Town had two players playing for England in the World Cup in Switzerland. They were, as you probably know by now, Ron Staniforth and Bill McGarry.

This was the quarter finals and sadly, England went out, losing 4-2 to Uruguay at St. Jakob-Park, in Basle. The South Americans scored early on, but Nat Lofthouse equalised. Uruguay then took the lead again to go to half time 2-1 up. They made it 3-1, before the Preston Plumber, Tom Finney pulled one back. But it was game over after 79 minutes as Uruguay went 4-2 up.

Meanwhile on the same day, the highest scoring World Cup match was being played. The hosts Switzerland, lost 7-5 against Austria.

Here's highlights of the England game. Ron is no 2 and Bill no 14.

Moving forward to 2018, we have Town players in action at the Russia World Cup on this date. Mathias Jorgensen played the full match against France, while Jonas Lossl took up his customary position on the bench. The Danes only needed a point to qualify for the next stage, which they did, drawing 0-0.

And that result would've been a disappointment to Town's Aaron Mooy and his Aussie mates, who needed to win and hope the Danes lose. But despite Mooy playing the full game, on the back of playing a fantastic season in the blue n white of Huddersfield Town, the Australians lost 2-0 to Peru and finished bottom of the group.

Legendary Welsh goal machine, Iwan Roberts was born on this date in 1968 in Bangor, so today is his 54th birthday.

He signed for Town at the start of the 1990/91 season, brought in by Eoin Hand to replace Craig Maskell. We paid a record fee for him as well, but it was just the money we had received for Maskell from Reading. We bought him from Watford, where he had been given his debut by Graham Taylor, by which time he had already had his two front teeth knocked out. He scored his first professional goal in a First Division match against Manchester Utd at Vicarage Road, the only goal of a 1-0 win. Taylor left though for Aston Villa and the Hornets got relegated. Iwan took the plunge, dropping yet another league to join us in the 3rd division, in order to get regular first team football.

His first Town goal came at Leeds Road against Bolton Wanderers, a 4-0 win in which Keith Edwards scored the other three. As well as Edwards, Iwan had plenty of striking experience alongside him in Peter Withe and then Frank Stapleton which helped develop his ruthless streak in front of goal.

He finished that first season as joint top scorer with 14, joint with Kieran O'Regan. But the next season, playing alongside Phil Starbuck and Iffy Onuora, he slammed home a post war record of 34 as we made it to the Play Offs for the first time. It would've been 35 but had one chalked off after the one he scored against Blackpool in the Autoglass Trophy got fogged off at half time. He also scored twice in a famous League Cup victory over first division Sunderland, beating them 4-0 at home and 6-1 on aggregate.

Sunderland got their revenge though, stealing our management team. Legendary Town boss Mick Buxton had come out of retirement to assist Ian Ross, but at the end of the season, after Iwan had once again top scored with 15, the Mackem's lured Buxton back to the north-east and he took Ross with him.

Neil Warnock came in and for some reason didn't fancy Iwan. He was sold to 2nd division Leicester City in November and replaced with Exeter's Ronnie Jepson. Iwan left Leeds Road having scored 68 goals in a Town shirt, putting him 12th= in our all time goal scoring charts, level with Kevin McHale.

He had already been capped for Wales when we signed him from Watford and he played five times for them as a Huddersfield Town player. He wore the red shirt against Austria, Argentina, Japan (getting sent off), Albania and Moldova.

He had good times with Leicester, not so good with Wolves, but then became a legend at Norwich.

[Lord Snooty]

June 27:

In 2003, Huddersfield Town were £20 million pounds in debt and in administration, following relegation at the end of the 02/03 season. Most of the squad had gone. Only eight players were left under contract. We were up the creek without a paddle.

On this date though, we had left admin, Peter Jackson was appointed as manager and he brought a paddle with him. 

He was appointed by new owner, Ken Davy from the Huddersfield Giants and started turning the ship around, taking on a solid, experienced defence with ex player Rob Edwards returning as well as Steve Yates, Ian Hughes and Efe Sodje, with Ian Gray as the goalkeeper.

I went down to renew my season ticket, it must've been the day after his appointment. He was there waiting by the ticket office door. There was a couple of others there renewing, but when Jacko saw me, he rushed over like we were long lost friends. He gave me such a firm handshake that my hand was numb for weeks after.

I can't remember what I said to him, but he was all "thanks for coming down, thanks for renewing, thanks for showing faith in me". I love the bloke!    

Anyway, he brought his old pal Terry Yorath back as well but by the beginning of September, it wasn't going well. We were 18th in Division 4 or whatever it was called then. But then four wins in a row, topped off by Tony Carss scoring the Goal of the Century against Torquay United, saw Jacko's boys in the top 6.

There was no looking back. We ended the season by winning promotion through the Play Offs.

[Lord Snooty]

June 28:

On this day in 2020, we played our second game after the Covid lockdown. It was away at the City Ground against "Yoooooouuuu Reds!"

Yes, those arseholes!

It didn't go well. Danny Cowley suffered the third defeat in a row for the first time in his managerial career, although these three defeats had been strung out over nearly four months. To make matters worse, this was live on Sky, seen by more people than would usually see it as we were all still stuck indoors.

The defeat put us into the bottom three and would've left Phil Hodgkinson wondering whether he was right to appoint Mrs Cowley's lads in the first place. But surely he wouldn't sack them yet. They've only been in the job two minutes and their remit was to avoid relegation, which with seven games left, was still looking likely despite the three losses.

The match itself was not too bad, despite the 3-1 scoreline. Not for the last time, we had a stonewall penalty turned down against the Trees, this time David Webb turning away appeals after Alex Pritchard was scythed down by Ben Watson.

Lewis Grabban, who seems to score against us every time, scored twice in this one. One just before half time and one just after. Andy King hit the post for the Terriers, but then Ryan Yates made it 3-0 in the 85th minute.

Three nil down, how could it get any worse? Well dozy prick, Juninho Bacuna, who'd just come on as a sub, got red carded for kicking out petulantly at one of the Tree stumps.

But then we got a lifeline. In the seventh minute of injury time, three nil down with a minute left, the referee finally decided we should be allowed a penalty when Fraizer Campbell fell over in the box. Cheers, ref!

Karlan Grant tucked it away and we all left the ground cursing our luck. No not really. Nobody was there, obviously.

[Lord Snooty]

June 29:

David Steele was born on this date (though the book Huddersfield Town - a Complete Record by Terry Frost, has him down as July 29th) in Carluke, Lanarkshire in 1894.

He played for St Mirren and Bristol Rovers before coming to Leeds Road in 1922. He was signed by Herbert Chapman on the advice of his assistant Jack Chaplin, who had coached both him and Joe Walter at Bristol, both arriving in the West Riding at the same time. The Town directors forked out two and a half grand for the pair of them.

Steele was a wing half and scored his first Town goal just before Christmas 1922 in a 4-0 home win over the Arsenal. He was a regular over the next few seasons, winning three Championship medals as Town became the first ever Thrice Champions, but his goal against the Gunners was the only league goal he ever scored for Town. His only other two came in the FA Cup run of 1928, scoring in a 3rd round 4-2 win over Lincoln City and the first goal in the 4-0, 5th round win at home to Middlesborough. He then won a runners up medal as we lost 3-1 to Blackburn Rovers at Wembley.

He formed a formidable half back line up with Tom Wilson and Billy Watson in his seven year stint at Leeds Road, before his transfer to Preston in 1929. That was at the age of 35 and after one season at Deepdale, he retired.

He turned up again in 1936 as manager of Bradford Park Avenue after coaching abroad, taking control up to the start of the war and he got his boots on again, playing three times for them in the Wartime League. Whilst there, he helped develop the career of Len Shackleton, who would become one of the game's great entertainers.

He was appointed as Huddersfield Town manager in September 1943, following the departure of Ted Mangner, but kept on the day to day running of Park Avenue, doing both jobs simultaneously. And he won the Town a trophy, if trophies were being awarded, winning the Football League (North) First Championship of 1944, which ran from August to December, with a wartime record crowd of 17,253 turning up for the final game just before Christmas at Leeds Road as Town beat Newcastle 4-1. Willie Watson, son of Steele's former team mate Billy, scored one of those goals, as did Eddie Boot, Billy Price and Jimmy Glazzard, all famous Huddersfield Town names. There's more to read about Willie tomorrow.

When the war ended, David was still in charge of Town, but not Park Avenue, and the club was struggling. Despite him signing the famous Peter Doherty from Derby, Town struggled and when they only avoided relegation by one place (though 8 points clear), he resigned and went to work on his family's farm.

He wasn't out of the game for long though, becoming manager of that other Bradford team that plays at the Manningham Tip from 1948 to 1952. He became a pub landlord as well as a scout for the Town.

He died in 1964, aged 69.

Around about the time that Steele was packing in at Bradford City, Town signed Tommy Cavanagh, an inside forward, from Stockport County. He came to the club with new manager Andy Beattie from Edgeley Park in 1952.

Tommy was born on this date in 1928 in Liverpool and played for Preston during the war, being a team mate of Tommy Docherty, who he teamed up with later on at Man Utd. Like Tommy Doc, Tommy Cav was described as a colourful character.

He played 21 games for Town in 1952/53 as Town bounced straight back from relegation, scoring ten goals and sharing the inside forward slots with Willie Davie and Jimmy Watson. He scored his first goal against Southampton away and followed that by scoring a hat trick against Barnsley in a 4-2 victory at Oakwell.

He played throughout the three First Division seasons, but after relegation in 1956, he was transferred to Doncaster Rovers. That was followed by spells at Bristol City and Carlisle Utd, before his first stint in management at Cheltenham Town.

That colourful character got him into trouble at Cheltenham when he was sacked for swearing after complaints from some fans. Blummin' snowflakes!

He then had a stint as boss of Brentford and then a bit of coaching Nottingham Forest, before teaming up with the Doc at Hull City. Docherty landed the plum job of managing Man Utd in 1972 and he took Cavanagh with him as assistant.

They stayed up in that first season, but then got relegated by Denis Law. 

Our Tommy was still there though when they won promotion straight back and was also there when United won the FA Cup in 1977. After Old Trafford, he had a go at managing in Norway with Rosenbburg and then back to Lancashire with Burnley before retiring in 1986.

Sadly though, in 2002 he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and died in March 2007, aged 78. 

[WakeyTerrier]

Just the one game attended for me on this date, but what a game to attend

Euro 2020(21)
England 2 v 0 Germany
Wembley Stadium
Att 41,973

A tight game that England eventually won thanks to 2 late goals from Sterling(65) and Kane (86).

It was far from a classic, but the atmosphere was electric considering Wembley was less than half full. We were lucky to attend this as originally it was meant to be played in Dublin but they pulled out of hosting any Euro games so thanks to my trusty phone/laptop we were on the ticket selling site as soon as it opened and managed to bag a couple of tickets.

This result was our first win in a major final against Germany since that famous day in 1966, suddenly the country started believing.

We're on our way folks!

[Lord Snooty]

June 30:

Sandy Mutch was the Town's regular goalkeeper from the first season in the Football League in 1910 to the time he left for Newcastle in 1922. However, in 1911/12, he shared the keeper's jersey with Ronald Brebner, the ex Sunderland, Chelsea and Darlington keeper.

Ronald played 23 second division matches that season and at the end of the season, he was picked to represent Great Britain at the Olympics in Sweden. He had been in the squad for the 1908 Olympics, but missed out on winning a gold medal by not being selected for the Gold Medal Match.

GB had received a bye for the first round, so on this date in 1912, Ronald played in the quarter final match against Hungary. The game was played in Stockholm at the Tranebergs Idrottsplats and Great Britain won it 7-0. Vivian Woodward of Chelsea scored one, but Harold Walden of Bradford City scored six.

Ronald's Town team mate, William Martin was also in the squad, but didn't play in this match.

These players were all amateurs remember. Professionals weren't allowed in the Olympics and Ronald was a dentist in Darlington, playing part time for Town.

Next up is Finland in the semis on July 2nd.

Willie Watson, the son of thrice Champion Billy Watson, had grown up in Bolton on Dearne during Town's glory years and then had played eleven games for Town in the 1938/39 season as an 18 year old. He was a wing half, but also a top class cricketer and was taken on by Yorkshire, making his debut for the county in 1939.

By the time the 50s came around, he'd played test cricket for England, played football for England and after playing for Town throughout the war years, he was now playing for Sunderland.

But on this date in 1953, he played one of the most famous test innings in Ashes history, which became known tenuously and by nobody at all as "the day Huddersfield Town won the Ashes back for England".

England had been set 343 to win by the Aussies, who were led by Lindsay Hassett and England at the end of Day 4 were 20/3 having lost captain Len Hutton for 5, Don Kenyon for 2 and Tom Graveney for 2.

Watson was 3 not out, batting alongside Denis Compton who was 5 not out. The first four days had been sold out with spectators sat right next to the boundary ropes. Hardly anybody had turned up for the final day with play not expected to last until Lunch.

But they hadn't reckoned with a brilliant rear guard action from this Yorkshireman, who along with Trevor Bailey put on a fifth wicket partnership to stifle the Aussies. Watson brought up his century half an hour from the end of play, smashing Richie Benaud to the boundary for 4, but then he was caught by Graeme Hole off the bowling of Doug Ring to give the much larger by now crowd some jitters.

Not to worry though, Godfrey Evans and Johnny Wardle saw the time out and the match was drawn, leaving the series still at 0-0 after two matches. It wasn't until the final game at the Oval that England won the Ashes, winning them back for the first time since losing them in 1934.

But without the Watson/Bailey epic partnership, the Ashes would've been retained by Australia. Here they are after the match with our Willie on the left.

[theo_luddite]

Has anyone from Bratfud City scored 6 in a game since, let alone for England?

---

To answer my own question
Most goals scored in a match: 7 – Albert Whitehurst v Tranmere Rovers, Division Three (North), 6 March 1929.

[Lord Snooty]

July 1:

Fred Bullock was born on this date in 1886 in Whitton, London. He made his Town debut at left back in our first Football League season in 1910 and would go on to be club captain. But on this date in 1916, Fred spent his 30th birthday knee deep in muck and bullets at the Battle of the Somme.

That battle started on this date and lasted to the 18th of November. There were many soldiers involved that had played for Huddersfield Town before and after the war, but they were but a tiny fraction of the three million from both sides, with over a million of them being wounded or killed. Some of the following players may or may not have been there on this date, I don't have access to military papers, but they were all brave men who answered the call.

Our Fred had joined the Football Battalion, which as you may know, was made up of all kinds of footballers from differing backgrounds and was part of the Middlesex Regiment. Fred was a Lance Corporal. His Town team mate Jack Cock, was a Lance Sergeant. Chelsea's Vivian Woodward, who I mentioned yesterday scoring in the Olympic Games, was a Captain in the battalion. Walter Tull of Northampton Town was a Second Lieutenant and Bradford City's Frank Buckley was the Major. Alan Haig-Brown of Clapton Orient was the Lieutenant Colonel.

Norman Holmes of York City was a Lance Corporal. He had played three games for Huddersfield Town in 13/14 as a right back. He had moved on to York by the time the war started and the wounds he got in the war ended his playing career, but he did live til 1965. George Crowther was a Private in the Football Battalion. He had played a couple of matches at centre forward for the Town in 12/13. He survived the conflict, living to the age of 65.

John Wood was also, according to his Wikipedia page, in the Football Battalion. He had played in Town's first ever FL match in 1910, before transferring to Aberdeen. Now he is the one who I asked about with Lee Morris, the author of the Where Are They Now book. The book says that John was killed at the Battle of the Somme, but his name doesn't appear on the HTSA Heritage Project's Roll of Honour. Hopefully that will be sorted out soon. There aren't many details about him, so Lee says they're going to "do some digging".

Fred Bullock survived the war, he was injured at the Battle of Delville Wood, a couple of weeks after the start of the Somme offensive. He returned to action later on but then suffered a knee injury in 1918. That didn't halt his football career though as he and Jack Cock both won the London War Cup with Brentford in 1918/19 before they both came back to Leeds Road when the FL resumed in 1919.

Jack went on to play for England and have a career that would make a good film/documentary, which I've written about before and probably will again. Fred sadly, died in 1922 of heart failure due to ammonia poisoning, which was a suspected suicide. There wasn't much known back then about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Of the other Town players we do know of, who were at the Somme, Henry Crozier was in the Sheffield Pals. He hadn't yet made the first team at Town and never did as he was one of the many men killed on this date, the first day of the offensive.

Charles Randall was in the Coldstream Guards and had played for Town on loan from Newcastle in the two seasons prior to our Football League life started. He was killed in September and is buried at Dantzig Alley British Cemetery in Mametz.

Leigh Richmond Roose, the famous doctor/playboy/goalkeeper, who played five games for Town at the end of the 10/11 season, was killed in October. More about him later in the year.

Sam Wadsworth, Bertram Gilboy and Bob Reid were all in the Royal Garrison Artillery, who were at the Somme, but also at other conflicts, so there's no confirmation that these players were there on this date in 1916. But they could well have been.

Sam of course, went on to win the Football League three times with Town in the 20s, but at this time, he was a Blackburn Rovers player. He lived until 1961. Gilboy was another one to survive. He served as a gunner in the RGA and played three games for Town in 12/13 as a forward. Born in Islington, he lived right up to the age of 79, dying in Southampton in 1974. Scotsman Reid won the Bronze Medal of Military Valor. He had played for Town in the season prior to the FL being suspended in 1915, making 26 appearances at right back. After the war, he played for Southend.

Similarly, Joe Walter of the Gloucestershire Regiment. They were fighting at the Battle of the Somme, but I can't see if he was there at this time. He could well have been though. He did survive the war, being the guest of honour at the final game at Leeds Road in 1994, before he passed away a year later aged 99.

One hundred years after the Great War ended, the 2018 World Cup was taking place in Russia. On this date, Mathias Jorgensen aka Zanka, became the first Huddersfield Town player to score a goal at a World Cup. That was in the first minute of the Denmark v Croatia game when he fired home after a goalmouth scramble at the Nizhny Novgorod Stadium. The Croatians equalised in the 4th minute and that was the scoring done. The game went to penalties.

Our goalkeeper Jonas Lossl was sat on the bench, watching Kasper Schmeichel attempt to save the Danes from going out. He'd already saved a penalty in extra time from Luca Modric and despite him saving another two in the shoot out, it was Croatia who went through, winning 3-2.

They went on to reach the final, knocking out England on the way.

Two years later, another battle was being fought. The battle against the Coronavirus. We were in lockdown but football was back on again, just like during the war to keep up the morales of the country. Town, under the leadership of Danny Cowley, had not started the restart well, losing to Wigan and the Forest Gimps.

That bad run came to an abrupt end though on this date in 2020 as we watched on i-player as our brave boys smashed Birmingham City 3-0 at the Trillion Trophy Stadium. The referee in this game, Robert Jones hadn't read the terms and conditions of refereeing Town matches. He gave us not one, but two penalties!!

The first one was scored by leading scorer Karlan Grant, after he himself had been brought down in the area, just as he was about to shoot in the 10th minute. The second came in the 50th minute, but Grant's shot was saved by Lee Camp. Not to worry, we got a free kick a minute later which Harry Toffolo floated into the danger zone for Fraizer Campbell to poke home.

Another free kick taken by Toffolo from the same area in the 72nd minute was headed back across the box by Steve Mounie and headed in by Elias Kachunga. Thankfully, the win moved us back out of the bottom three to 19th.

Next up, Pressed on Both Ends at the John Smith's.