[Lord Snooty]

Cannot imagine you losing 7 . 2  over 2 legs to Airdrie FC now.........how the game has changed.

Really? 

[HerefordBull]

In my opinion yes! .....................Money / broadcasting rights and fees etc.

Up to even the mid 90's Airdrieonians had a fairly good record even reaching the Scottish Cup Final twice during the early 90's, losing narrowly once to Celtic and once to the old Glasgow Rangers. Money started to talk during and since this period which eventually ended up seeing them in liquidation in 2002 whilst trying to keep up with other clubs.

They are back now but in the modern game can now never achieve the previous heights of the old club. I couldn't find the exact figures for Airdrie but looked at the average players wages for a similar sized club Alloa. Their average is around £500 per week with one on around 1k and some on a lot less. According to the site I was on the average wage for Terriers players came in around 7k a week with one on around 27k. Hence up here we have the big 2 and even in the EPL there are the big six which few clubs can get near.......Newcastle may challenge in the future but once again this is due to money.

This financial distance has been set up over the last 30 years and is gradually getting bigger and in my eyes has changed the game forever and up in Scotland can never see Airdrie ever getting to the Scottish Cup Final again. From the time you lost to them in the early 70's they got to the final three times and regularly won the second tier of Scottish football.......not any more.

[Lord Snooty]

We've got beat by smaller clubs than Airdrie.

---

There's always hope though isn't there. Look how close Arbroath got to the Prem last season.

[Lord Snooty]

Another one for today. Thirty years ago today, Boothy scored the first of his 150 goals for the club, in a 2-2 draw at Blackpool.

[Lord Snooty]

November 4:

Alf Young of Huddersfield Town and England was born on this date in 1905 in Sunderland. He started his career in Division Three North with Durham City and signed for Town in 1927, but was stuck in the resrves for three seasons as he played centre half and centre half at Huddersfield Town belonged to Tommy Wilson. And when Wilson was missing, it was Bon Spence as second choice. But when Alf did get in the team, he soon became unshiftable.

His debut came three days after a 1930 New Years Day 7-1 hammering at Bolton. He must've done alright, the defence only conceded once, in a 1-1 draw at home to Birmingham. But Wilson was back in for the Cup game at Bury on the following Saturday. Alf did get back for a few more games towards the back end of the season, actually playing the four games prior to the FA Cup Final against Arsenal. But Tom was the club captain and had a waxwork specially made for the Cup Final at Madame Tussauds, so there was no chance that young Alf would be in the side.

He finally displaced Wilson in the next season and after 500 games for the club, Tom left for Blackpool, leaving Alf to make the number 5 shirt his own. He was the regular centre half for the rest of the decade, right up to the start of the war, with manager Clem Stephenson making him club captain in 1935.

Having missed the 1930 Cup Final, he did eventually play at Wembley, leading the team in the 1938 Final against Preston. Sadly, in the last minute of extra time, Alf made a perfectly good tackle on the edge of the penalty area, which the referee deemed to be a foul, inside the area and pointed to the spot. Where's VAR when you need it?

He did stick around during the war, playing games for Town as well as York City and it was York who he played for after the war had finished.

Talking of the war. He played nine times for England, but the most famous match by far was one that is still talked about today. Well I've talked about it loads on here. I talk of course about the 6-3 win in Berlin against Germany, a match attended by Adolf Hitler and the England players were forced to make that salute as the anthems were played before kick off.

Ken Willingham, Alf's Town team mate also played in that one and apparently, the two of them had the piss taken by the rest of the Town team when they got back. But the decision to do this had not been taken lightly. Two years earlier, Hitler had been livid that the GB Olympic team had not acknowledged him and the British Ambassador Neville Henderson had been summoned to make sure it was carried out this time.

Stanley Matthews later recalled that the team were livid and told Henderson where he could shove his salute. But he had to talk them round for the sake of apeasement and persuaded them that the salute would not constitute an endorsement of the N@zi regime. It worked a treat and four months later, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain came home from talks with Hitler, proclaiming peace in our time, whilst waving a bit of paper in his hand.

As we all know, quoting from Blackadder in the last conflict. It was all bollocks!

So Alf played in the three league games for Town in the 1939/40 season that got chalked off when the war got underway. So those three don't count in his total of 309 matches for the club, which puts him in 21st position in the all time appearances chart, having been overtaken recently by Jonathan Hogg.

After hanging up his boots, he became a coach at Town before he went off coaching in Denmark and got involved with the national team. He had one game in charge, as caretaker manager and that was in 1956, a World Cup qualifier against Ireland in Dublin, which the Irish won 2-1.

He also had a short spell managing Bradford PA before returning to Leeds Road as a coach for Eddie Boot and then was a scout for the club before his retirement.

He died in Huddersfield in 1977, aged 71.

On the field of play, on this date in 2017, we beat West Bromwich Albion at the John Smith's Stadium in the Premier League. It was David Wagner verses Tony Pulis and it was the game in which Rajiv van La Parra scored that wonder goal, the one that Ben Foster could only stand and watch as the ball went flying over his head.

It was a nervous end to the game though as dopey ref Roger East sent Christopher Schindler off for a second yellow card offence. But we held on and Wagz went running on the pitch at the end to give heroic goalkeeper Jonas Lossl a massive hug.

Oh happy days. What the chuff went wrong? Not just for us, but the Baggies as well?

[Lord Snooty]

November 5:

It's Bonfire Night and a day to remember, remember. Well not on this date in 1994 it wasn't.

This was the Neil Warnock promotion season and we were on a 13 match unbeaten league run, after we'd lost the first game at the Alfred McAlpine Stadium against Wycombe. We'd done so well, we were top of the league at the start of play, but on this day, it all went wrong.

We went to Bootham Crescent to play York City and were one-nil down early on, with Paul Baker scoring for the Minstermen. It got even worse before half time when Tom Cowan got sent off for a wild tackle. And even worse when Glen Naylor made it 2-0 just before the break.

It was 3-0 in the second half, as future Town striker Paul Barnes scored, but the worst part of all came as we faced a corner in front of the Town fans behind the goal. Some f***ing idiot threw a firework. Not one of those stupid flares they get now, but a proper, old school banger.

It hit Iain Dunn and went off in his face. How he escaped without serious injury or being blinded, is a miracle. Or at least a very lucky escape.

Some Town fans really are dickheads!

Fortunes were reversed in 2018. It was our second season in the Premier League, David Wagner was still the boss, but we were not getting the results this time, despite some decent performances. We'd gone ten league games without a win, with the only points gained were from draws with Cardiff, Everton and Burnley.

Christopher Schindler had scored the goal in that draw at Turf Moor and it was he who headed us in front from a corner in this game on this date at home to Fulham. He scored it but the pedantic panel gave it as an own goal by Timothy Fosu-Mensah.

Nah! Schindler, mate!

That was the only goal of the game and it was a good win to commemorate the third anniversary of Wagner's appointment, on this date in 2015. Not only that, the three points got us off the bottom of the Prima Donna league table, above the Cottagers and Cardiff, level on points with Newcastle.

At last, things are looking up. Next up, a home game with West Ham and a visit to Molineux. Oh aye, we've turned the corner now.

[Lord Snooty]

November 6:

It's a happy birthday today to our USA international midfielder, Duane Holmes. He's 28 today having been born in 1994 in Columbus, Georgia to an American father and an English mother. He moved to England at the age of 2 with his mum and was brought up in Wakefield.

He played for the Town Academy, making it all the way into our first team, but having had loan spells at Yeovil and Bury that didn't work out, apparently due to his attitude, he was released by new Town manager David Wagner in 2016. He signed for Scunthorpe.

His career was going nowhere and he was contemplating packing in all together when suddenly, Frank Lampard signed him for Derby. Duane was back in the Championship and played in the famous game at the Beeston Skip when the Ramsbottoms beat the BellEnders in the Play Offs.

But Lampard left and scrotum faced, granny shagger Wayne Rooney took over as boss. He and Duane had a fall out and so in January 2021, Carlos Corberan brought him back home to Huddersfield.

Happy birthday, Duane.

I mentioned an FA Cup match with South Kirkby Colliery the other day. It was played on this date in 1909 at Leeds Road, a 3rd qualifying round match (modern day 1st round proper). We'd already beaten Heckmodwike away and Mirfield United then Rothwell White Rose both at home and now the Kirkbyites came to Huddersfield with a reputation for "rough house" football.

Town won the match 5-2 with Jack Foster scoring his tenth goal of the cup campaign. William McCreadie got the second, James Roberts scored a penalty and Alonzo Drake, the chain smoking, future Yorkshire cricketing legend, scored twice.

But the story of the game was the dirty tactics from the opposition. The Town player/manager Fred Walker was deliberately kneed in the head, which had him carted off to hospital unconcsious, with a career ending injury. But the fact that their reputation was known beforehand and that the ref had been warned of such, led the Town Board of Directors to lodge an official complaint. Not about South Kirkby Colliery, but about the incompetence of the referee. Some things never change.

In a strongly worded letter to the FA, signed by the Chairman of Directors of Huddersfield Town AFC. It said that he had approached the ref ten minutes prior to kick off and warned him about them, to which the ref had replied that he knew all about their style of play.

After 12 minutes of roughness and deliberate kicking going unchecked, manager and centre half Walker spoke to the ref. Three minutes later he was knocked out. But that wasn't all. The Colliery team finished the game with eight men, not that anyone was sent off. Two of them injured each other trying to take out one of our players and another broke his own leg whilst deliberately trying to foul our outside left.

The letter finished with saying that the Directors considered this to be the worst ever exhibition of football they'd ever witnessed and that the referee was incapable of controlling such an important match and as such, in the interests of the good of the sport, it is our duty to report him.

Who'd be a ref? 

Next up, it's Rotherham Town at home in the 4th qualifying round.

One hundred years later, we had another FA Cup match at home, on this date in 2009. This was a 1st round match at the John McAlpharm Stadium against Dagenham & Redbridge of League Two. We were in League One at the time.

It was the Lee Clark side that should've won automatic promotion but ended up losing to Millwall in the Play Offs. It was a great, free scoring team and this game was another superb exhibition from our lads. We won it 6-1.

Robbie Williams entertained us and did take that first goal with no regrets after being given too much freedom as the defence were having one of their lazy days after ten minutes, well you win some lose some. (I apologise for that last sentence, it really is somethin' stupid  )

Gary Roberts and then Lee Novak scored to put us 3-0 up before Jordan Rhodes got on the score sheet in the 44th minute.

In the second half, Novak made it five and then Roberts made it six-nil in the 72nd minute. However, we declared at that stage and Paul Benson scored for the Daggers and the game finished 6-1.

Next up? A trip to Port Vale. Robbie's team. 

Another big win on this date, this time in Division 4 in 1979. It was a home game with Northampton Town, coming just a couple of weeks after a surprise defeat at their place.

No cock ups this time though, winning it 5-0 with goals from Ian Robins (2), Micky Laverick, David Cowling and Dave Sutton. The result kept us top of the table, but still the people of Kirklees weren't flocking back after the years of dross that had been served up. Only 6,552 came out on a Tuesday night.

And finally, that man Billy Price again. He would've been our all time goal scoring record holder, if the majority of his goals hadn't been discounted because they were played in the Wartime Leagues.

On this date in 1943, he scored 7 (seven) goals in a match against Crewe Alexandra. As far as I know, he's the only Town player to score that many in a Town match, even though it doesn't count.

Jimmy Glazzard scored the other goal in an 8-0 victory at Leeds Road.

[Lord Snooty]

November 7:

It's a dark date in the history of this great football club. Two events, many years apart, when the club was at possibly it's lowest point from where there were two options. Disappear without trace. Or fight back.

Back in 1919, Leeds City had been found guilty of making illegal payments to players during the First World War and rather harshly expelled from the Football League. Their place had been taken by Port Vale who, seeing as the season was well under way, took over their results and fixtures.

The people of Leeds then had a meeting at which it was decided to found a phoenix club, to play at Elland Road under the name of Leeds United. They were then offered a place in the Midland League. Huddersfield Town chairman, John Hilton Crowther had been at that meeting.

On this date in 1919, a Friday night, a further meeting was held at the YMCA Halls in Albion Street, Leeds, attended by Crowther and Arthur Fairclough (pictured below) the Town manager, who both addressed the meeting.

It was proposed for Huddersfield Town to move lock, stock and barrel into Elland Road and instead of taking up the offer from the Midland League, they would instead do to Huddersfield Town what Port Vale did. That is, take over our results and fixtures and our place in the Football League Second Division, which at the time stood in 8th place following a fine 3-0 win at home to Fulham on the previous Saturday, the one which attracted a crowd of less than 3,000.

The people of Huddersfield obviously had no interest in supporting football, preferring rugby league and so this move seemed to be the sensible thing to do.

The following day's Examiner headline read........

TOWN CLUB DEAD!

So how would the people of the town and the surrounding areas respond? Did the club survive? Well obviously, yes. And if you've been reading this all year you'll know how. Who's daft idea was it to write the history of the club this way around? 



The other dark day came on this date in 1987. Town were bottom of the Second Division, having only won one game all season, last week's win at home to Millwall. Today we traveled across the Pennines to play Manchester City at Maine Road and suffered a club record defeat of 10-1. We were to wear probably the worst ever away kit as well.

Malcolm Macdonald was the Town manager and City were managed by a future Town manager, Mel Machin. This is all news to me. Reading up on something I've ignored and put right at the back of my mind. It's like some form of therapy, which may make me feel more at ease about it. Maybe not. Let me know how you feel after this session.

Anyway, I wasn't there at the game. A friend of mine was and he said it was humiliating, more so after the game when the City fans just laughed at the Town fans instead of trying to kick the shit out of them.

Where was I? Well I was working. Listening to the radio, we started off quite well, with Duncan Shearer and David Cork going close to scoring, but somehow had gone 4-0 down by half time, by which time I'd left work and was walking home. By the time I got home it was 9-0. Just in time to hear Andy May score for Town from the penalty spot.

As bad a day it was for us, it was a momentous and historic day for Citeh. Neil McNab, who later came to play for us, scored the first, but then for the first time in a Football League match, three players scored hat tricks. They were Paul Stewart, David White and Tony Adcock.

Poor old Brian Cox is remembered as the goalkeeper who let in ten, which is a bit of bad luck for him, because he really was a great keeper and had performed brilliantly to get us promoted into the Second Division in the first place.

If you can stomach it, here's the whole ITV footage from the Sunday afternoon, or was it on Saturday night back then? Like I said, I've obliterated most of this from my memory bank and I've never watched this (until now). All I could remember was Martin Tyler and his mocking commentary and I certainly didn't remember Frank Worthington being the expert summariser.

Tyler never mentions this match though to be fair to him. In fact he only ever mentions it every time he commentates on a City match, as soon as they go two or three goals up.

If you have been traumatised by watching these harrowing scenes, then watch this. For on this date, exactly ten years later, in 1997, we played Man City away, at the same ground and beat them 1-0 with the Goal of the Century, scored by Rob Edwards.

And the truth of the matter is that, despite all their money and titles and multi million pounds worth of players, they've never done the Thrice Champions. We were the first and they haven't ever won more than two in a row, so stick that up yer arse, yer Mancky tossers!

There were comparisons to the match from ten years earlier. We once more were bottom of the Second Division (calling itself Division One at the time). But that's where the comparisons end, for we were onto the Great Escape. Peter Jackson and Terry Yorath were in charge now and we had just won our first game of the season a week before (at home to Stoke). Sorry, there's another comparison. 

Anyway, by the end of the season, Town had avoided relegation, finishing 16th, a whole five points above the drop zone. So who was it five points below us in 22nd place, going down with Reading and Stoke. Hard to believe it now, but it was, oh yes it was.......

MANCHESTER CITY!                  

[Lord Snooty]

November 8:

Marcus Stewart is 50 today. One of the greatest players we have had in modern times. He was born on this date in 1972 in Bristol. He is currently Head of Player Development at Yeovil Town.

A year after playing for Bristol Rovers and scoring against us in the 1995 Play Off Final, he signed for Town and became an instant fans' favourite. He played under three managers for the Terriers. Brian Horton, with whom he started his Town career and performed brilliantly in his first season, scoring 11 goals before injury curtailed his season, meaning the team struggled and only just avoided relegation.

The next season, he top scored with 16 as the team did the Great Escape under Peter Jackson and top scored again in the next season after that with 26 goals, as Jacko's heroes went top of the league before tailing off.

He never won promotion with us, but we were well under way to doing so when Steve Bruce became manager. However, that all went off the rails when Bruce, Barry Rubery and Iain Ayre conspired between them (each one eventually blaming the others) to sell Marcus to our promotion rivals, Ipswich Town.

That's when he did get to the Premier League, with the other Town. And he went on to be a legend at their club, being the second top scorer in the PL in 2000/01, playing in the UEFA Cup with them and getting calls from everybody up and down the country to be picked for England, calls which were shamefully never acted upon.

After Ipswich, his goals got Sunderland promoted to the PL. Then went back home to play for Bristol City, Yeovil and finished up at Exeter. He has coached at Exeter, Bristol Rovers, Walsall and Yeovil.

But then in September this year came the news that shocked us all. He had been diagnosed as having motor neurone disease following twelve months of testing. His wife, Louise has set up a Just Giving page for the Darby Rimmer charity and this is her statement and the link to the page......

Thanks for taking the time to visit our JustGiving page.

It seems like yesterday I was setting up a just giving page for Marcus and I to run the London Marathon. Now it’s for a cause even closer to our hearts. After Marcus’s diagnosis our family and friends were all in agreement on one thing, making this a positive situation. We’ve received some invaluable support and advice from Stephen Darby,  co founder of the Darby Rimmer charity, so there was no other charity we would all like to support more. Raising awareness, support and inevitably helping find a cure for this disease is key. We have several fundraising events already set up. Marcus’s sons are running the Manchester Marathon. Myself, family and friends are taking part in one of the ultra challenges, the London winter marathon walk and we have more in the pipeline. I will update the page with further events in due course. If you would like to run your own fundraising event or join us in the ones we are doing. Please email me at : louisestewart28@yahoo.com.

Please donate no matter how big or small. It will all help in the battle to #attackMND

Your support is invaluable. Thank you in helping support the fight ??and showing your support for Marcus.

Lou Stewart xx

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/l...stewart254

Marcus scored 67 goals for Huddersfield Town and is now 14= in our all time goal scorers chart, level with Ian Robins.

Another young man celebrating a birthday today is Josh Koroma. He has more than likely played his last game for us, scoring 13 times. He was born in 1998 in Southwark and is 24 today.

Happy birthday, Josh.

On the field of play, following yesterday's headline "TOWN CLUB DEAD", we had our first ever meeting with Coventry City on this date in 1919. First apart from the two matches we had in the final Wartime League season. They had just been elected into the Football League and were getting much bigger crowds than us, even though they were struggling to get any points, losing their first ten games.

They lost this one as well, but attracted a crowd of 15,000 into Highfield Road as the Town won 2-0 with a Frank Mann penalty and a goal from Sammy Taylor to move the poorly supported team up into 5th.

The two teams meet again in a week's time when the club will be hoping for a crowd the size of something similar to what Coventry got. A meeting is being planned for full time to discuss what to do next.

[Lord Snooty]

November 9:


One of the players that David Wagner signed for the promotion season, Kasey Palmer has a birthday today. Born in Lewisham in 1996, he's 26 today. Having done the rounds of the Championship mid table clubs in Derby, Blackburn, Bristol City and Swansea, he's now playing for Coventry City at the Ricoh Coventry Building Society wherever it is they're playing these days.

Another birthday today is that of Kieran O'Regan, who was born in Cork in 1963 and is 59 today. He had five seasons with us and was joint top scorer in 1990/91 with 14 goals, the same as Iwan Roberts. Nine of his goals were penalties. Yes nine. Nine penalties in one season. We don't get that many in a decade now.

One of those penalties was scored against Bury at Leeds Road. Nowt unusual about that. But Kieran was wearing the goalkeeper's jersey at the time, having gone in goal after Lee Martin had gotten sent off.

On the field of play, thousands gladly cheer them on the way........ well a few hundred of us went to watch them in the Johnstone Paints Trophy away at Rotherham on this date in 2010. This one wasn't at the New York Stadium. It wasn't even at Millmoor, it was at the Don Valley Stadium in Sheffield. If you include Leeds Road and the John Smith's, I've seen Town play Rotherham on five different grounds.

This one was a great advert for the competition, with a superb performance by the lads in front of a crowd of 2,185. We were one up in the first minute when Jordan Rhodes scored. Rotherham equalised soon after, but then Jordan got his second, followed by Benik Afobe getting his first Town goal, making it 3-1 at half time.

Scott Arfield made it four and then young Benik got a fifth, before the Millers got a late consolation, finishing the game with a 5-2 Town win.

Back in 2003, Town were in the 4th tier of English football, having been through the traumas of relegation and administration and almost going out of existence. Ken Davy had secured a rescue package and had placed old favourite Peter Jackson in charge.

On this date, we had been chosen by the BBC to be on telly for the first round of the FA Cup, away at Conference Premier team, Accrington Stanley. They were in their first season in the Conference, having just won the Northern Premier League and with us being the "big club", the BBC commentary was ridiculously biased against us.

The bloody ref was biased as well. Young Jon Worthington, in his breakthrough season, cleared the ball from a corner and having cleared it, caught one of the Stanley players in his follow through. Unbelievably the ref gave a free kick on the edge of the area. Even more unbelievable, he pulled out the red card and sent young Worthy off.

An absolutely shocking decision and this was only in the 16th minute.

We played the rest of the match a man down and we were looking good for a replay when the game turned again in the 89th minute. Ian Gray, our goalkeeper received a career ending hand injury from an opponenet who went totally unpunished. Gray was replaced by Phil Senior.

He'd only been on the pitch for a minute when he was picking the ball out of the net after a wicked swerving shot from Andy Gouck went through his hands. And that was us out of the Cup. And how the BBC loved it. Tossers!

Tomorrow, we have drawn them in the Cup again in four years time. Does that make sense?