[Lord Snooty]

Yes I thought that too. If only we had an A-list film star that was also a massive Huddersfield Town supporter.

[HerefordBull]

Thanks for the history about Leigh Richmond Roose . Not heard of this before and will try to get the book.

As happened to many soldiers in the First World War their actual death and manner of this was never known The battle for Gueudecourt had officially finished a week before this date but in all the confusion, it appears, it is not known exactly what must have happened to him.

The Thiepval Memorial was built to mark all the Commonwealth soldiers whose bodies were never found at the Somme ( similar to the Menin Gate outside Ypres to mark the missing soldiers there) and has over 70,000 names on it. It is an impressive memorial and a very fitting tribute to be named there for Leigh and a fine remembrance for his family.

[Lord Snooty]

October 8:

It's a happy birthday to our very own Teasy-Weasy today. Huddersfield's favourite hairdresser, Matt Glennon. He's 44 today, having been born in Stockport in 1978.

He started his career at Premier League Bolton Wanderers, but never actually got a game. So it was out on loan at Bristol Rovers that he made his league debut, keeping a clean sheet in a goal less draw against Wigan. Off then to Hull, Carlisle, Falkirk and St Johnstone, before landing in Huddersfield in 2006.

In 2007, he became one of a select few of goalkeepers who have saved three penalties in a match (though one of them was a re-take, so technically, only two), against Crewe at home.

Lee Clark let him go though in 2010 and if you wonder why he sounds bitter on the radio sometimes, it's because the poor bugger ended up at Bradford City.

Back home to Stockport County for his final go in the Football League, before opening his salon, G27 in Emley with his wife Nicola, playing non league and eventually replacing Kieran O'Regan on Radio Leeds.

On this date in 1996, Town played Birmingham City, who were still considered a big club at the time. As such, they had some big names in their team, who would become club connections in the future. I'm talking about Ian Bennett, Barry Horne and a player who was booed throughout the match, the former Man Utd defender Steve Bruce.

This was the second season with Brian Horton in charge and we had started quite well after a reasonable mid table finish before. We won this game 3-0 and we were at that score by half time in what was probably the best 45 minutes under Horton.

Rob Edwards and Marcus Stewart had us two-nil up by the 23rd minute and Brum should've been down to ten men when Bruce made a disgraceful, last man foul that anybody else but an ex Manyoo player would've been sent off for.

Not to worry, Paul Dalton gave us the third goal just before the break and the lads came off to a standing ovation at half time.

So this moved us up to 7th in the table, but for some reason, we never kicked on from this big win. It would be another ten games before we won again by which time we were down to 17th and would finish the season in 20th.

So the next season came along and the bad form continued. We had started with nine games without a win, when the Board finally gave Horton his marching orders. And then on this date in 1997, ex Town player and inspirational captain, Peter Jackson was appointed as manager.

He brought along his old mate, Terry Yorath and the two of them set about changing things and setting up what became known as The Great Escape.

It didn't start well, with a 3-0 home defeat against Charlton Athletic and that opening sequence without a win stretched to 14 before we had a very famous win at home to Stoke City. More on that in a few weeks time. 

[Lord Snooty]

October 9:

Happy birthday today to Jon Russell, who's 22 today, having been born on this date in 2000, in Hounslow. He's been this season's scapegoat, which is a real shame. That anybody has to be a scapegoat at all, but for the fact that he had such a brilliant half a season earlier this year after breaking into the team.

Come on, Jon lad. Prove them all wrong.

On this date in 1991, 3rd Division Town played 2nd Division Sunderland in a League Cup 2nd round 2nd leg game at Leeds Road. We'd beaten them 2-1 in the 1st leg at Roker Park and so we would've been confident of holding on for a famous win. A crowd of 11,178 came out to see this one, more in hope than expectation, even though we were 4th in the table.

But for a change, those hopes became real as we smashed the Mackems 4-0 on the night and 6-1 on aggregate. Iffy Onuora opened the scoring. Iwan Roberts scored twice and Gary Barnett got the fourth.

Finish off today with a defeat. A famous defeat. A defeat at home to Manchester United, on this date in 1971. Famous because it was the last time that the brilliant icons of the 1960s, Bobby Charlton, George Best and the ex Town star Denis Law, all scored in the same game.

A crowd of 33,458 turned up to see this, the biggest Leeds Road crowd of the season, following two wins on the trot against Leeds Urinals and Nottingham Florist, but it was a 3-0 defeat for us.

Manchester United didn't come back and play in Huddersfield for another 46 years, but we certainly made up for this defeat. More of that in a couple of weeks time. In the meantime, have a watch of this terrific trio tearing us apart again.

---

[Lord Snooty]

October 10:

Ernie Islip was born on this date in 1892, although the book Huddersfield Town - a complete record by Terry Frost, has him born on the 31st. They both agree he was born in Parkwood Springs in Sheffield though.

He signed for Town in 1911 but didn't make his debut until 1913, an away defeat at Bristol City. After this, he was a regular in the side up until the war and on this date in 1914, he scored in a home match against Wolves on his 22nd birthday. Billy Smith scored the other goal in a 2-0 victory.

During the war, he guested for Sheffield Wednesday before going off on military service in Egypt.

He was late back after the war had finished, still on service in Egypt until December 1919, by which time, Billy Smith had become the regular in his position on the left wing. Luckily for Ernie, Billy got himself suspended for the 1920 FA Cup Final and so Ernie was in, winning a runners up medal as the Town lost to Aston Villa.

Town won promotion that year and Ernie moved to play inside forward or centre forward for more regular games. Two years after the Cup Final defeat, he had a winners medal, playing against Preston in the 1922 FA Cup Final, in a season when he finished as joint leading scorer with Clem Stephenson, both scoring 15.

He was transferred to Birmingham in 1923 and when he left he'd scored a total of 52 goals. He is now 21st in the all time goal scorers chart, level with Colin Dobson.

After Birmingham he went to play for Bradford City, Kidderminster, Ashton and finally Wrexham. When he hung up his boots, he returned to Huddersfield to run a pub in Lindley, but died in 1941, aged just 48.

Jack Chaplin was born on this date in 1882 in Dundee. He played for Dundee, then Spurs where he was a teammate of Herbert Chapman, before going back to Dundee and winning a Scottish Cup winners medal. That was against Clyde and he played left back in a tie that went to a second replay after two drawn matches, with all three games being played at Ibrox.

Later, he teamed up again with Chapman, first at Leeds City, but then at Town where he was trainer. But when Chapman left for Arsenal and then Cecil Potter quit after one season in charge, Chaplin was persuaded to step up to the hot seat, becoming our first ever Scottish manager. Mark Fotheringham, also from Dundee, is the ninth.

Today's question; How many of the other seven Scottish managers can you name?

He had three seasons in charge, finishing twice as runners up in the First Division and getting to the FA Cup semis in his third season. At the end of that 3rd season, he resigned to be replaced by Clem Stephenson. He did stay on though, reverting back to his previous role, which he stayed in right up to the start of the 2nd World War.

He died in Doncaster in 1952, aged 69.

On the field of play, on this date in 2009, we played Exeter City at home in a League One match. We won it 4-0, with Lee Novak scoring an early opener. Jordan Rhodes added a second in the 44th minute, but then added two more soon after half time to complete his hat trick by the 52nd minute.

All three of his goals were headers and he achieved his hat trick in 8 minutes of playing time, which set a new Football League record, beating the previous quickest of all headers hat tricks set in the 1930s by Everton legend Dixie Dean.

[SHEP_HTAFC]

Town's Scottish managers.....I'm rubbish at these questions....
Can only think of Lou Macari and Bill Shankly.

[HerefordBull]

From reading Snoots magnificent daily reports I remember him mentioning one of my favourite Villa players, Ian Ross, managing the Terriers. ( he finished his playing career with Hereford United)

[HerefordBull]

So had to cheat in the end  , ..............Apart from the 5 mentioned, the other 4 Scottish managers were...........

David Steele in the 40's

Andy Beattie in '52

Bobby Collins in '74

Tom Johnson x3 in '64 , '75 and '77

Terrier fans on here will probably have memories of the last two?

[Lord Snooty]

Nice one.

Steele was a thrice champion of the 20s.

Beattie was Scotland's first national team manager.

Collins had the impossible task of stopping our fall into the 4th div.

Tom Johnston. First spell was before I started but the other two stints were pisch!

[Lord Snooty]

October 11:

It's a happy 80th birthday today to one of our last England internationals, Mike O'Grady. He was born on this date in 1942, in Leeds.

He signed for Town in 1959 and stayed for 6 seasons, scoring 28 goals, but the highlight of his Town career would be gaining an England cap. Just the one as a Town player and only Ray Wilson would play for England as a Huddersfield Town player after him.

Mike scored twice in a 3-1 win against Northern Ireland in Belfast, just nine days after his 20th birthday. Oddly never got picked again for three years. By which time, he had transferred to his home town club, the Beeston BellEnders.

Talking of Town internationals. On this date in 2021, Sorba Thomas gained his second cap for Wales, playing the full 90 minutes in a World Cup qualifier against Estonia in Tallin, having got his first cap three days earlier as a sub against the Czech Republic.

He now has six caps, the last one coming a couple of weeks ago when he sent over a beautiful cross for Gareth Bale to nod home the equaliser against Poland. Unfortunately Gareth headed it against the bar and the Boyos lost 1-0.

Hopefully, our boyo can keep improving his performances over the next few weeks to make sure he stays in the squad for the World Cup.

On this date in 1924, Arsenal, managed by former Town caretaker manager Leslie Knighton, traveled to Leeds Road to play the current Football League champions Huddersfield Town, who were managed by future Arsenal manager Herbert Chapman.

Town were once more top of the league when the Gunners came up for this one and we would still be top after thrashing them 4-0. The first Town goal was a Football League landmark goal, being the first goal to be scored direct from a corner. This came after the rule had been changed during the close season.

It was scored by Billy Smith and the others came from George Cook, Charlie Wilson and George Brown.

On this date in 1994, Town returned to Valley Parade for an Auto Windscreens Shield match against Bradford City just two and a half weeks after we beat them 4-3 in the league. After that game, we had beaten Brighton and drawn at Birmingham to go top of the 3rd Division table (known as Division Two at the time) and arrived at the Manningham Tip full of confidence for a first round group stage game. It was the first match in the competition since we reached the Final in the previous season.

Simon Baldry and Andy Booth scored in a 2-1 win, which following the recent 4-3 win, had us chanting; four-three, two-one, four-three, two-one, to the tune of the clock chimes. 

On this date in 2003, the rescue job by Peter Jackson was well under way. This was after relegation to the 4th Division (known as Division Three at the time) and administration with Ken Davy taking the club on.

Our opponents today were Torquay Utd and we won 1-0, which was the fourth win on the trot, five if you include the brilliant League Cup win at Sunderland. The thing we all remember about this one is the 80th minute goal scored by Tony Carss, a volley from a corner, which is widely regarded as the best ever goal scored at the stadium.

Torquay had the last laugh though, pipping us to the last automatic promotion spot.

Sadly, the only video I can find is this poor quality one on YouTube, with very strange commentary......

7