[Lord Snooty]

July 26:

The number one name on the Town players database is Billy Crinson, who played in goal for our first official match, the game against South Shields Adelaide on the 8th of August 1908 in the North Eastern League. And it was on this date in 1883 that Billy was born, in Sunderland.

He signed for Town after The Wedesday let him go in the summer of 1908. That first match, up in the north east, ended in defeat with Billy being beaten twice in a 2-0 loss. He played 26 times for Town in that first season, but then signed for Brighton in the Southern League for the next one.

He was working in the shipyards before he signed for t'Owls in the First Division in 1906, staying there for a couple of years before he signed for us. His Wendy debut came away at Man City and he kept a clean sheet in a 1-0 win, as the Sheffield Star reported that "but for a first-class display in goal by young Crinson Wednesday would scarcely have come back home with both points."

His last game for Town was on the last day of 08/09, away at Hebburn, a game that never finished. It was abandoned with the home team 3-0 up, because of a bad storm.  It was a midweek game and very dark towards the end of the match and with strong, driving sleet, the ref decided to call it off. They were awarded the points. I think Town would've been happy enough to get home as they had stayed overnight in the north east, playing Seaham White Star the previous evening, making up the fixture backlog after a particularly bad winter. That match ended in a 2-2 draw.

He played 13 times for Brighton before the war came and afterwards, he went back home to Sunderland. He went back to working in the shipyards as well and it was in Sunderland that he died in 1951 aged 67.

Here's a picture of the 1908/09 team. Billy's the one with the white collar and the flat cap on the back row. Stood next to him, on the left as we look, is Fred Walker the player/manager.

[Lord Snooty]

July 27:

On this day in 2019, Town played a friendly match at the John Smith's Stadium against French Ligue 1 side Montpellier HSC. It was the pre season to our first season back in the Championship after two seasons in the Premier League and Jan Siewert was still the Head Coach.

Montpellier were the team who had our pants down over Isaac Mbenza and arranging this friendly was obviously them feeling slightly guilty over it. It wasn't much of a money spinner either, with only 5,383 turning out to watch it.

The Frenchies scored first against a Town team boasting the likes of Ryan Schofield in goal, Herbert Bockhorn and Tommy Elphick in defence and Adama Diakhaby running riot on the right wing.

Jan the man made one change at half time with Aaron Mooy replacing skipper Jonathan Hogg, but it was Juninho Bacuna who made the telling pass for the Town equaliser. His inch perfect through ball from just inside the opponent's half sent Karlan Grant in on goal. He expertly rounded the keeper and slammed the ball into the net before the covering defender could get a challenge in.

One more big chance came in the last minute when the brilliant Bockhorn laid a perfect ball at the feet of Flo Hadergjonjaj, who took too long and fluffed it.

Final score 1-1.

Two years later, on this date in 2021, Town traveled to the west coast to take on Fleetwood Town in a pre season friendly. We were still in the Championship but now had a Spanish lad called Carlos Corberan in as Head Coach. He had signed a new goalkeeper from MK Dons called Lee Nicholls, who we knew nowt about and it was unclear whether it would be he or Ryan Schofield starting the new season as the number one.

It was Schofield who started this one, alongside new signing Josh Ruffels, Naby Sarr, Romoney Crichlow and Pipa in defence. A young looking midfield included Josh Austerfield and Brahima Diarra, with Sorba Thomas, who had shown glimpses of something special in a few sub appearances in the previous season, and returning hero Jordan Rhodes was up top.

Things didn't go well and it was looking like we were going to be in for another shocker of a season as the home team scored twice in the first half. But Sorba was like a shining light. Every set piece he took was bang on the money, in dangerous areas, even if nobody had made a move into those areas. Will Carlos pick him for the starting XI when the season starts for real?

So two nil down at half time, Nicholls came on for Schofield and then after the hour mark, Carlos brought the big guns on. On came new signings young Levi Colwill, Matty Pearson and Ollie Turton, as well as Duane Holmes, Scott High and Danny Ward. Also coming on were the bromance boys, Harry Toffolo and Lewis O'Brien. Only Sorba played the full ninety.

Town dominated from then on, but could only pull one back, through O'Brien and it was a defeat in the last match of pre season, with a League Cup match away at Hillsborough on the horizon.

[Lord Snooty]

July 28:

Today is the birthday of Iffy Onuora and also Emile Smith Rowe.

Iffy was born first of these two, on this date in 1967 and is 55 today. He was born in Glasgow, brought up in Liverpool and has Nigerian parents, so was able to have a choice which country to represent at international level. However, none of them ever picked him. 

He attended Bradford University, where he earned a degree in economics (but not maths, physics and bionics) and played for their football team, which is where Town's scouts saw him and Eoin Hand offered him a contract at the start of the 1989/90 season.

He only started six games that season, but came of the bench 22 times. He managed five goals though, the first one coming in a League Cup 1st round 1st leg game against Doncaster Rovers at Leeds Road and he followed that on the Saturday after with the winner in a 3-2 win at Walsall. An instant hero, with his strong, pacy running and the novelty value of being a black footballer, something we hadn't had much of since Lloyd Maitland made his debut in the 70s.

He made a load more starts in the next season, teaming up with new signing Iwan Roberts. The season after though, them two were joined by Phil Starbuck to form a formidable front three. Iffy made it into double figures, bagging 14 goals, which was behind Starby with 18 and Iwan with 34. A cracking strike force, which took us all the way to our first Play Offs, which we lost to Peterborough.

That was under the management of Ian Ross. When Neil Warnock arrived, he didn't fancy Iffy and so he was moved on to Mansfield. His last Town goal was in February 1994 in a 1-1 draw at home to Burnley. That was until much later in his career when he returned to play for his old mate Peter Jackson in the 2003/04 season.

That goal was in the Play Offs against Lincoln City at Sincil Bank, not a classic strike, but a flick off his eyebrows from a corner. But they all count. That extra goal took his Town tally to 41, which leaves him in 41st equal place with Terry Gray in our all time scorers chart, hopefully to be overtaken by Danny Ward in the very near future.

In between the two Town stints he played for eight other clubs, mainly in the lower leagues. But the biggest club was in the Championship, playing for Warnock at Sheffield United. Sadly, he only played eight times as a Blunt before getting an Achilles injury that ended his season.

He hung up his boots when he'd done his mini stint at Town for Jacko and got a coaching job at Walsall. However, their new manager, a certain muppet called Paul Merson sacked him to bring in another more experienced coach. Muppet!

Merson's loss was Swindon's gain as he went there as coach,working his way to the top and his first stint as manager. He had other stints in the hot seat. Firstly at Gillingham, replacing Ronnie Jepson, who ironically had replaced him at Leeds Road in the 90s. And then later on at Lincoln, he had eleven games standing in for Jacko while he was away getting treatment for throat cancer.

His last job in management was with the Ethiopian national team. That was quite turbulent and lasted less than a year, but there was enough going on for Iffy to write about it in a publication called There's some cows on the pitch, they think it's all over...it is now!, published in 2012 by JMD Media and co-authored by Graham Clutton.

Nowadays he's involved with the England u21s coaching set up but is also the Premier League’s first Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.

One of those boys that old Iffy would've been coaching will be young Emile. He was born in Croydon on this date in 2000 and is 22 today.

He of course, came on loan to us in 2020 from the Arsenal and scored the winner against West Brom that secured our place in the Championship. Before that, he had scored down at Craven Cottage in another defeat against Fulham, but his goal brought us back into the game at 3-0 down and then provided an assist for Steve Mounie to make it 3-2.

We could all see he was a classy player, but Danny Cowley kept taking him off or leaving him on the bench, which he later explained......

We have to be very protective of him which none of us like. I actually boo myself when I take him off, because it's not something I want to do.

Anyway, back at Arsenal, he made it into the first team. He made it into the England team as well, scoring his first goal against San Marino in a 10-0 win. Last season, he scored ten goals for the Gunners in the Premier League.

Kevin Stonehouse, who played a couple of seasons at Leeds Road for Mick Buxton, sadly died three years ago, on this date in 2019, aged just 59.

He came to us from Blackburn in 1982 and had a good scoring record. But unfortunately he never really hit it off for us. He arrived after legends Steve Kindon, Peter Fletcher and Ian Robins had packed in and the ineffective Terry Austin had moved on. It was a defender who kept him out of the team though. Buxton pushed Mark Lillis up top during an injury crisis and ended up scoring 20 goals and so Kevin never really got his place back.

He did score a famous Town goal though. It was in the 1984 FA Cup when we, as a 2nd Division club, played high flying 1st Division club Queens Park Rangers. Lillis had given us the lead, but it was Kev who scored the winner, which would be the last time that we beat a top flight club in the FA Cup until we beat Birmingham in 2008.

He later played for Blackpool and Darlington and was working as a Football in the Community officer and for Newcastle United when he died suddenly. 

[SHEP_HTAFC]

Loved big Iffy Onuora as a player for Town. Remember him scoring a last minute equalizer to make it 2-2 v Blackpool away.
Was in the away end that day and I don't think I've ever been more wet in my life. No cover for away supporters in that ground.

[Lord Snooty]

July 29:

David Wagner had taken his squad out to a remote island off the coast of Sweden, had them back for a friendly against Liverpool and had now taken them out to a training camp in Austria, all in preparation for the start of what would end up as a glorious Play Off winning promotion season. So on this date in 2016, Wagz and the boys took on Bundesliga side FC Ingolstadt 04 at the Silberstadt Arena in Schwaz.

We had drawn with Werder Bremen a few days earlier and Wagner again started with new keeper Danny Ward in goal, new record signing Christopher Schindler and Aussie midfielder Aaron Mooy, on loan from Man City.

The Werder Bremen game had been goal less and this one looked to be heading the same way when Wagner made some late substitutions. On came Jon Gorenc Stankovic for skipper Mark Hudson, Jason Davidson for Chris Löwe, Martin Cranie for Tommy Smith, Rekeil Pyke for Elias Kachunga and most notably, dressing gown photo bombing cult hero Michael Hefele came on in place of Schindler, all in the 84th minute.

Chelsea boy Kasey Palmer came on for his first minutes in a Town shirt before these latest subs and played a part in the winning goal. He and Dean Whitehead combined to put Joe Lolley through and his perfectly weighted cross was turned into the net by the Heffing hero.

One nil. Game over. Back home now to prepare for Brentford.

[Lord Snooty]

July 30:

We have three birthdays today, on the date that ex Town full back Ray Wilson, won a World Cup winners medal in 1966.

First born was William Devlin. He was born in Belshill near Glasgow on this date in 1899 and went on to become a Cowdenbeath legend. The Blue Brazil were relegated from the Scottish League for the first time at the end of last season, after being members since 1905. Back in the 20s, they were a force to be reckoned with and oor Willie played a massive part in that.

Having played for Vale of Clyde, Clyde and 2nd Division new boys King's Park, he signed for Cowdenbeath in 1922 after scoring 21 goals in 16 games for King's Park in the previous season. Cowdenbeath were also a 2nd Division team, but Willie's goals fired them to promotion in 1924.

He then scored 33 goals, top scorer in the league as they finished 5th in the Scottish First Division, just two points behind Celtic in 4th. He followed that next season, again as top scorer, this time with a massive 40, as they finished 7th, two points behind Rangers. That was only from 31 games as towards the back end of that season, he joined the champions of England, Huddersfield Town for a fee of £4,200.

That was our third season as champions and with only eleven places available in the side with no subs back then, he only played four games in that part season. He made his debut in March, replacing George Cook at inside right at Newcastle in a 2-0 win in which George Brown scored both goals.

His next game came a week later, at Leeds Road against Manchester United. Cook came back and Willie played centre forward as Brown missed out. A crowd of 27,842 turned up to watch the mighty Town thrash the Red Devils 5-0 and our blue Devlin got his first Town goals, two of them to add to two for Cook and one for Billy Smith.

He kept his place for the next one, a trip to Anfield and scored again as Liverpool were beaten 2-1. All looking good then for Willie, but injury kept him out for most of the rest of the season, just coming back for one more game and scoring again in a 3-1 defeat away at Arsenal. But by that time, the League had been won and we were the first ever Thrice Champions.

So Willie scored 44 goals that season from 35 games. He scored ten goals in 28 matches in the next season, but was then sold to Liverpool. He scored 15 goals in 19 for them before heading back to Scotland for a short spell with Hearts.

He'd a similar record with the Tarts, 14 goals in 18 games, but then that was his top flight career over at the age of 29. Don't know why, injury perhaps, but he ended up playing in the Cheshire League with Macclesfield before going back for another short stint at Cowdenbeath, getting another six goals to make him their all time leading scorer with 120.

He then went international, turning out for Marseille and then finishing his career at FC Zürich.

Willie died in Glasgow in 1972, aged 72.

Andy Morrison was born on this date in 1970 and is 52 today. He was born in Inverness, but moved to Plymouth at a young age, explaining why a player with a strong west country accent was known as Jock.

He started out at Plymouth, a no nonsense centre back, playing over a hundred league games for them, all in the 2nd Division. He then was transferred to the newly formed Premier League in 1993 when Blackburn Rovers bought him and he played five matches in their side that finished runners up in the PL. He didn't feature at all though in the next one, when Rovers became unlikely Champions of England under Kenny Dalglish.

He then had two season's under the shadow of the Tower as Sam Allardyce bought him for Blackpool. It was almost a successful time, but not quite. His last game for the Seaside Donkeys was a Play Off defeat against Bradford City, which ended with big Sam getting the sack and big Andy getting transferred to Huddersfield Town.

We had just sold Andy Booth to The Wendies for an eye watering amount of cash in the summer of 96 and chairman Malcolm Asquith allowed manager Brian Horton to spend it all on three new players. And so Andy was bought and introduced as a Terrier Incoming at the same time as strikers Andy Payton and Marcus Stewart. And what a brilliant set of signings they turned out to be.

Horton made Andy club captain and he repaid that honour by scoring on his debut, adding a second goal to an earlier one from Darren Bullock in an opening day 2-0 win at home to Charlton. Two proper cult heroes on the score sheet!

He only scored one more though in his two and a half seasons at Town, a consolation goal in a defeat at QPR and most of his time with us was unfortunately spent in the physio's room following a bad knee injury. Horton got sacked and Peter Jackson took over and Andy fell out of favour. Not because of injuries or owt like that. The guy was on a self destruction mode and one of the last straws was when he ended up in a road rage incident and had to go on an anger management course.

He was out of the McAlpine door in 98, turning up at Man City. Not the mega bucks, moneybags Man City we see today. No, they were a 3rd Division club then, playing the likes of Chesterfield, Macclesfield and York City.

It was a 4-0 win at Maine Road against York on the last day of 98/99 that got them into the Play Offs, where Andy skippered them to a famous penalty shoot out win over Gillingham at Wembley. And it was all uphill for Citeh ever since.

City's manager at the time was Joe Royle and he later had this to say about Morrison......

Big clubs in that division are a scalp and everyone wants to beat them. We had that at City and it was hard for us, but we got the hang of it. The catalyst for us was signing Andy Morrison. He was the man for the job and the man for the division. He dragged us up kicking and screaming. We only got him because of his injury record, and because he had had a major fall-out with the manager at Huddersfield. He was as strong as they come and feared nobody – he played a big part in turning things round for us.

He had loans out at Blackpool, Crystal Palace and Sheffield Utd before hanging up his boots in 2002. He had coaching jobs, including being assistant manager at Worcester in 2005 when we beat them in the FA Cup, with a Chris Brandon goal after Danny Schofield had been sent off.

He's now back in management. Earlier this year, he was appointed manager of the Sri Lankan national team. It hasn't started right well, losing three out of three Asia Cup qualifiers.

And the third birthday today is that of young Rodney Rowe, who is 47 today. He was born in Huddersfield on this date in 1975 and signed professional terms with his home town club in 1993. He played only 46 games for Town, scoring five goals. If I hadn't looked that up, I would've said much more, but stats are stats.

He had loans out at Scarborough and Bury before Neil Warnock gave him his debut. Once in the side, he scored three goals in a week, against Cambridge in the league, Rotherham in the Autoglass and then Telford in the FA Cup. But he was up against Phil Starbuck, Iwan Roberts and Iffy Onuora in those days for the forward positions, so he spent a lot of time on the bench.

Brian Horton let him go to York City at the end of 96/97. After there, he went to Halifax, Gillingham and Hull before playing for a few non league clubs.

He now coaches kids in and around the Kirklees area.

[Lord Snooty]

July 31:

It's a happy birthday today to our former full back Florent Hadergjonaj, who now plays in Turkey. He was born on this date in 1994 and is 28 today. His birthplace was Langnau im Emmental, which is in Switzerland.

He played for the Swiss at youth level, but as a Kosovan passport holder, decided to represent them at senior level. Two of his caps came against England in the Euro qualifiers.

That was after he had left us. David Wagner signed him on loan to start with, but then signed on permanent in the 2nd PL season. He made 56 starts for Town, with a further 17 from the bench, before sodding off to Turkey where he now plays for Kasımpaşa.

So what did you think of him? Any good? Waste of money?

[Lord Snooty]

August 1:

On this date in 2021, we had our earliest ever start to a new season, until this year when we beat that again by playing Burnley in July. This one though was a League Cup match, an all Yorkshire game on Yorkshire Day, played away at Sheffield Wednesday.

Town's Head Coach Carlos Corberan, gave debuts to new boys, Matty Pearson, Ollie Turton, Levi Colwill and goalkeeper Lee Nicholls. It wasn't clear which of Nicholls, a free transfer from League One MK Dons' reserve team, or Ryan Schofield would be the first choice for this season. With Nicholls being chosen for this minor cup competition, does that mean Schofield will be the regular number one?

Whatever, it was Nicholls who gained instant hero status by winning the penalty shoot out that came about after a goal less draw, especially given the venue and the opposition. Memories of 2017 an' all that.

Sam Hutchinson took Wendy's first one back then. That was saved by Danny Ward. This time, he went first again and was on target, sending Nicholls the wrong way.

Boos rang around Hillsborough for the first Town taker. Coming on as an 81st minute sub was ex Wendy player, the returning Town legend Jordan Rhodes, who had played for t'Owls in that Play Off match, but apparently chickened out of taking a penalty against us. Big brave Jordan stepped up this time though and beat Bailey Peacock-Farrell with a fierce shot into the corner of the net.

Dennis Adeniran then tricked Nicholls with a stuttered step and fired down the middle after the keeper had dived. Up stepped Sorba Thomas and fired high into the corner, while the keeper went the wrong way, 2-2.

Massimo Luongo was next for Wendy, shooting high to his right, which was brilliantly saved by Nicholls. Danel Sinani, recently arrived on loan from Norwich, had come on as a 90th minute sub for Scott High. Had he come on specifically to take a pen? Oh yes. Coolly sent the keeper the wrong way. 3-2 to Town.

Liam Palmer was next for the home side. It was a terrible kick, reminiscent of the one taken by Fernando Foristieri, easily saved by our new hero Nicholls. This was a sign of things to come as he went on to be Player of the Season.

Which just left Lewis O'Brien to win it. Which he did firing high into the left hand top bins. 4-2 to the Terriers.

[theo_luddite]

Happy Yorkshire Day to all our readers

[Lord Snooty]

August 2:

On this date in 2014, 450 Town fans crossed the Pennines to watch the team, still led by Mark Robins take on Oldham Athletic in a pre season friendly, one week before the season was due to start with a home game against AFC Bournemouth.

It didn't go well!

The previous season had been dire, but an unlikely 4-1 win at Watford on the last day of the campaign had given us some sense of (false) hope. This match at Boundary Park didn't drive optimism any higher.

The Latics, a former Premier League club who now are in the National League, were in League One then, whilst we were still a Championship club. They had Town legend Paul Rachubka in goal and we had that other penalty saving hero Alex Smithies.

Town were already a goal down when Smithies got to face another penalty and in true style, he saved it, from Jonson Clarke-Harris. But Liam Kelly (not the one who played for Reading in 2017) netted the rebound.

So Oldham, led by that little toss pot Lee Johnson, were two up at half time. Robins responded by bringing on Tommy Smith and Danny Ward and the move improved our chances. On loan Tree Stump Radoslaw Majewski, found Nahki Wells and he fired past Rachubka to make it 2-1.

But it was Clarke-Harris, who has troubled us since with his height at set pieces for the Pish, scored a 25 yard thuunderbastard past Smithies into the top bins.

Robins response to going 3-1 down? Bring on Murray Wallace and Jake Carroll.