[talkSAFT]

Yes, that one's understandable. There were some Saturday games in the 30s though that would attract 3,000s for 1st Division games around the same time as we were pulling 50,000+ for FA Cup matches.

Any psychiatrists about?
I used to memorise the FA Cup Final results (when I were a lad!) but NOT the League winners. Now it's vice versa, and I couldn't tell you who won the Cup this Year!

(In '68, when Albion won the Cup, we quickly sold our 4,000 tickets for a 3rd Round tie at Cochester - 150 miles away. 2 weeks later we took 400 to Bramall Lane for a League match - 60 miles away!!) Daft!

[Lord Snooty]

December 6:

It's birthday bonanza day today. I've got 7 (seven) of them to report on today. Sorry make that 8 (eight), almost forgot the most important one.......

Happy birthday today to the lovely Amelia Chaffinch, aka Lady Snoots......

So the seven other birthdays. A club legend, a club founder, two current players, a 1930s player, a player from the team that lost 10-1, and a helmet.

The legend is Andy Booth. He's 49 today having been born in Huddersfield on this date in 1973. He was about to sign on for Scarborough until Gerry Murphy intervened and signed him up for our youth set up. And the rest is history.

I think most of us are aware of his legendary status at the club and I've got a lot to get through today, so here's his stats, a video of his entire career or if you ain't got time to watch that, a video of his final Town goal down at Leyton Orient.......

He's at the top end of both our appearance and goals charts. In the apps he's in 4th spot with 457 behind Vic Metcalfe (459), Tom Wilson (500) and Billy Smith (574). And he's 3rd in the goals with 150, behind Jimmy Glazzard (154) and George Brown (159).

The club founder with the birthday today, I wrote about recently and that is Sir Amos Brook Hirst. He was a founding member of the club, a director, then chairman, also on the Football League commitee and eventually president of the Football Association, getting to go to matches with Kings and Queens. He was born in Huddersfield in 1878.

The two current players are Jonathan Hogg and Oliver Turton. Hoggy was born 110 years after Sir Amos, on this date in 1988, in Middlesbrough and so he's 34 today. Knocking on a bit now and he's been knocking on the physio's door a lot lately. Will he add to the 313 appearances that he's got for the club so far? At the moment he's in 17th spot in the chart, eight games behind Jimmy Glazzard.

Did you know Hoggy scored on his Football League debut? It was an 87th minute winner for Darlington (on loan from Villa) against Chesterfield. And he's never stopped hitting the back of the net since.

Six! He's got six.

What do you think about Hoggy then? Inspirational leader who we've sorely missed this season? Or are you in the camp that thinks he's past his sell by date and should be moved on? I personally think the former, and the sooner we get him back, the better.

As for Mrs Turton's lad, he was born in Manchester on this date in 1992 and so he's 30 today. A bit of a cult hero with the fans, who will all be on the pitch if he scores.

That won't be soon. He's another one in the physio's room.

He started his playing career with Crewe, making his debut in League Two as an 18 year old. He then went to Blackpool, for who his final game was at Wembley in the Play Off Final, scoring an own goal in the first minute.

More birthdays. The 1930s player was Benny Craig, who was born on this date in 1915 in Consett, County Durham. He played 106 times for Town between 1934 and 1938, before joining Newcastle United. He later became trainer at Newcastle when he hung up his booits.

The player from the Man City debacle was Ian Bray, born on this date in Neath in 1962 and so he's 60 today. He also played over a hundred games for us and they weren't all as bad as that Maine Road one.

He signed for us from Hereford United in 1985.

And the helmet? Jack Hunt. I can't remember the details of why he acquired that nickname (answers on a postcard please), but he's one of the very few former players who get booed when he comes back to the stadium. He was born in Rothwell in 1990 and he's 32 today.

On the field of play, on this date in 1992 (same day as Mrs Turton was in the maternity wing), Iain Dunn made a scoring debut for the Terriers in a fantastic FA Cup victory away at Bradford City. He scored inside the first ten minutes and then won the penalty for the second goal, which Kieran O'Regan took to make it 2-0.

In the Great Escape season of 97/98, things had really got going now. That tunnel was heading towards the barbed wire at a rapid pace. We'd beaten Bury the week before to get off the bottom of the league and on this date in 1997, we had a trip to Gresty Road to play Crewe Alexandra.

This was another brilliant feast of football, which Town won 5-2. Two goals from Marcus Stewart, two from Paul Dalton and one from the Chief, Wayne Allison.

Here have a watch of this....

Sorry to take up so much of your time today with the four videos. Not really. Nobody's making you watch them. 

I don't have a video of this next one but I've found a cracking photo. It's of the England captain, Huddersfield Town's Roy Goodall and the French captain Edmond Delfour at White Hart Lane ahead of the friendly match on this date in 1933. It was Roy's final game for England, his 25th cap.

Ye olde three lions won the game 4-1. George Camsell of Middlesbrough scored twice, Man City's Eric Brook got one and Tom Grosvenor of Birmingham got the fourth before Émile Veinante of Racing Club de Paris got a consolation.

Here's that photo. No idea what the three lasses are there for. Any ideas?

[Amelia Chaffinch]

Hunt dissed us when he signed for Palace saying he could see the class, or summat like that. And wasn't that a successful spell? Not. Got injured in preseason. And that was that. When he was at Barnsley I think it was, he said he knew how to beat us. I think it was that match he got booed. I'm sure he was expecting a hero's welcome, too. Knob.

[HerefordBull]

Used to like Ian Bray..............a good solid fullback. Think we let him go to the Terriers on a free.

Happy Birthday to Amelia.................you/re only 21 once so enjoy it Lady Snoots!

[talkSAFT]

I thought Amy was nearer 30 tbh.  Whatever - "She is what she is".

[Lord Snooty]

Nice birthday treat for Jac Khunt. He's playing at the Millers Oils High Performance Complex for the Wendies B team.

---

And the little toss pot's scored.

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Assisted by Jaden Brown.

[Lord Snooty]

December 7:

Laurent Depoitre was born on this date in 1988 and so is 34 today. He's a Walloon, having been born in Tournai, in the Wallonia region of Belgium. He's a big unit, a barrel chested, marauding attacker, the likes of which we hadn't seen down Leeds Road way since Steve Kindon woz 'ere.

If you look at his scoring record and the amount we paid for him, you could say he was a bit of a big fat flop. But of the six goals he scored, three of them were iconic goals of our Premier League life.

The one against Leicester when he outmuscled and left Harry Maguire for dead. The one against Manchester United and the one down at Chelsea. All memorable and will bring a big smile to the face of any Town fan.

He's back in Belgium now and still banging 'em in, playing a second spell at Gent in their top division. He's scored 12 already this season. Who have Belgium got that's better than he is? Roberto Martinez, you've only yourself to blame. 

On this date in 1991, we played in the 2nd round of the FA Cup, away at Rochdale. This was with Eoin Hand as manager, not Frank Stapleton as the YouTube caption said, nor in 1992 as the caption writer went completely offside. The Dale were being managed by former Town defender, Dave Sutton and had Town legend Malcolm Brown playing.

We'd beaten Lincoln United 7-0 at home, when Stapleton got his only goal for the Terriers. He was still here, but I think this was possibly his last game before taking the manager's job at Valley Parade. It was two of his strike partners who got our two goals. Iwan Roberts got the first and Iffy Onuora got the second as our brave lads won a gruelling match 2-1. Rochdale had a couple ruled out in the first half before going one nil up, but we fought back nicely in the second.

The win put us through to the 3rd round, where we were humiliated at home by Millwall.

If you've got a spare quarter of an hour, here's some home movie style footage of the Cup match.

[Lord Snooty]

December 8:

We had a tempetuous game with Swindon Town on this date in 2004. It was at the County Ground and Andy Woolmer the referee had a busy night. It was a League One encounter with Peter Jackson still in charge having led us to promotion at the end of the last season.

At this stage of the campaign we were comfortably mid table, but Swindon had been a tricky place to go in recent years for the Terriers. We won this one though.

Jacko had more or less the same team that had won in Cardiff, with just Chris Brandon added to the squad as well as Junior Mendes from the defeated Mansfield team, who was on the bench for this one.

The Robins had ex Town hero Steve Jenkins in their side, as well as former loanee, Jerel Ifil. Town scored first in the 19th minute through Pawel Abbott, then increased the lead in the 34th with Brandon on target and it was 2-0 at half time.

Things got a bit tasty after the break and Mr Woolmer started showing cards. Firstly, he sent off Ifil for a second yellow. He'd been on loan at Town from Watford a couple of years earlier. Then just as we were nicely seeing things out for a 2-0 win, he went and gave Lee Fowler a red one, a straight red one.

Typical Town conceded almost immediately with a goal from Grant Smith. But thankfully we held on for the three points, which took us up four places to tenth.

A more recent Town win came on this date in 2020 against Sheffield Wednesday. It was the first season with Carlos Corberán as Head Coach and of course, it was behind closed doors due to the pandemic. So we were all sat at home watching and it was probably the best performance so far with yond Spaniard in charge.

There were loads of Town connections in t'Owls team. Tom Lees, who had already scored two own goals for Town, was in their defence. Up front they had ex Town junior Josh Windass and on the bench they had Jordan Rhodes, Izzy Brown and Elias Kachunga. A great line up. Unfortunately for them, they had Tony Pulis in charge and were bottom of the Championship table.

Only one of Town's starting XI is still presently at the club, Jonathan Hogg. The rest were the likes of Ramarni Edmonds-Green and Josh Koroma who are both away on loan, Ben Hamer was in goal, Pipa was still here, as were the bromancing florists Harry Toffolo and Lewis O'Brien. Carel Eiting was here on loan from Ajax. Whatever happened to him?

Up front we had Fraizer Campbell and on the wing the much maligned Isaac Mbenza. Have I missed anyone? Oh yes, big Naby Sarr at the back. It was a sensational start and we went ahead in the 11th minute with the in form Koroma scoring. And it was Josh's trickery which won us a free kick on the edge of the area after 24 minutes had gone.

Mbenza had been utter garbage since he turned up in our second Premier League season, but since Carlos and the Spanish contingent had turned up, young Isaac had suddenly learnt how to take a fantastic free kick. And he did again, perfectly placing the ball in the top bins, left hand side. 2-0 and looking good.

We were looking so good in fact we should've been further ahead before the break. Should've definitely been further ahead in the second half when the clumsy Dominic Iorfa brought down supersub Juninho Bacuna in the box. Mbenza and Koroma both fancied taking it, but bumbling Bacca stepped up and sent it wide.

[Lord Snooty]

December 9:

Another day, another victory over the Wolverhampton Wanderers. 

This one was played at the McAlpharm on this date in the year 2000, just a few weeks after Steve Bruce had been sacked and replaced by his number two, Lou Macari. We were rock bottom of the what is now called the Championship after a dreadful first four months of the season. But a magic December, which saw Lou win the only Manager of the Month award in his 18 years in Football League management, had us up to 19th by the new year.

After winning last week at home to Crewe, we welcomed the old gold shirts to the stadium and a tense first half ended goal less. It was a good Town first 45 though and we looked lively with new loan signing from Birmingham City, Peter Ndlovu catching the eye. This was his Town debut and after the match we were all wondering why Trevor Francis had sent him here. They were in the same league as us and Peter had played in their last two Play Off campaigns. Before that, he'd played for Coventry City and was the first African to play in the Premier League.

It was he who opened the scoring four minutes after the break. Sub Delroy Facey made it 2-0 in the 86th minute and then Ndlovu doubled his own tally in the last minute to send the crowd wild with delight and finish the game with a 3-0 win.

The back to back wins didn't move us off the bottom of the table. That's how bad a start we'd had.

Another player who scored twice on his Town debut was Steve Mounié, our record signing (before we spaffed 17 million on Terence Kongolo). That was down at Crystal Palace in our first Premier League game. He hadn't scored since, having spent some time out with a heel injury, until on this date in 2017 when he scored twice again.

This was at the John Smith's against one of the team's we'd been promoted with, Brighton & Hove Albion. In that promotion season, we beat the Seagulls 3-1 in what was probably the best performance of the campaign. We won this one as well. Not quite up to the same level of slick, classy football, but a win nonetheless.

It was a 2-0 win and big Steve scored them both from well worked corner routines. The first in the 12th minute, an almost carbon copy of the first goal down at the Palace, a flick on from Christopher Schindler and bundled in by Mounié this time instead of going in off a defender like at Selhurst Park.

The second was just before half time when Zanka won the first header this time, big Stevie got the second, headed it goalwards and their Aussie keeper Matthew Ryan (who's cock up saw Australia knocked out of the World Cup on Saturday) let it through his grasp. A soft one, but they all count. The win moved us up to 11th.

We have a birthday in the current squad today. That's Danny Ward, who is 32 today, having been born on this date in Bradford in 1990.

He's scored 39 goals so far for the bright blue n white stripes of Huddersfield Town and hopefully he'll be adding to his tally tomorrow at Sheffield United.

Danny of course, has scored our last two hat tricks. One at Reading last season and one down at Watford in 2014. Two hat tricks in 8 (eight) years. That's ridiculous. Come on Danny lad. Let's have another.

Another birthday today is that of Wealdstone FC legend, Jermaine Beckford. He was born in Ealing on this date in 1983 and is 39 today.

Becks scored an absolute potload for Wealdstone (54 in 82 games), which earned him a move into the EFL with Leeds. They didn't play him though and sent him out on loan to Scunthorpe, where he scored another potload while his parent club got relegated to League One.  

It was from Leicester City though that he came on loan to us in 12/13 and his 9 goals for us kept us up in the Championship that season. His last one being in that crucial match at home to Barnsley.

Jermaine is now a well respected tv pundit and here's a picture of him scoring in yet another Town victory over Wolves. 

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Ninety nine years before the birth of the Beckford, Sandy Mutch was born on this date in 1884 in Inverurie, Aberdeenshire. He was the goalkeeper in our first ever Football League match in 1910 and stayed around until 1922, sharing the number 1 position at times with Olympic Gold winner and dentist Ron Brebner and the famous goalkeeping doctor and war hero Leigh Richmond Roose.

We signed him from Aberdeen at the age of 26 and he was 38 by the time he left for Newcastle. In that time he played in 251 games for us, just getting him into our all time appearances chart in 40th place. Two of those games were FA Cup Finals. The one we lost in 1920 and the one we won in 1922.

His last game for us was at Old Trafford when a Tom Wilson goal won us the FA Charity Shield against Liverpool. He then had a couple of seasons in goal for the Magpies and would've played in a third FA Cup Final until a knee injury made him miss the match.

That injury finished his career, but he stayed on Newcastle's books, eventually becoming head groundsman.

Sandy (or Alex or Cody as he was also known) died of kidney failure in 1967, in Newcastle, aged 82.

Here he is when Town played up and brought the Cup back to Huddersfield. (We're Yorkshire! We're Yorkshire!)

Finally toaday, a final cap for Austen Campbell. It was at Arsenal's Highbury Stadium on this date in 1931 against Spain and it was his 8th cap for England.

It was a friendly match and the Spanish got hammered 7-1. Portsmouth's Jack Smith scored twice, as did Everton's Tommy Johnson and Sammy Crooks of Derby County. The most famous footballer at the time, Everton's goal machine Dixie Dean, got the other. Guillermo Gorostiza scored a late consolation.

[Lord Snooty]

December 10:

On this date in 2019, Town travelled down to the Valley to play Charlton Athletic on a rain soaked Wednesday night. We had the Lincoln legends Danny and Nicky Cowley in charge. The Addicks had Leeds thug Lee Bowyer. They were just above us in the league and we were just above the relegation zone as Mrs Cowley's lads had begun the big turn around of the club's fortunes following that disastrous second Prima Donna League season.

Covid 19 was just around the corner but hadn't quite hit the headlines yet and so a crowd of 13,488 turned out, most of them getting angrier as the game went on with mistake after mistake by the home side going unpunished by the Terriers' misfiring front line. Steve Mounié, Karlan Grant, Elias Kachunga and Josh Koroma all going close.

Then with the game fading off to a goal less draw, Lyle Taylor won it for Charlton. Or did he? No. The liner's got his flag up. Who's offside? Certainly not Taylor. It turned out to be a great spot from the referee's assistant as future Town star Naby Sarr was offside in the build up.

To make it worse for the home side, we then went and won it in injury time. Flo Hadergjonaj got away down the left wing and cut the ball back to super sub Matty Daly who had snuck into the box. He expertly tucked it away for his first first team goal.

On this date in 1983, I saw one of the best games in which Town lost. It was up at Sid James' Park in Newcastle against an absolutely fantastic Magpies side.

Me and my pals went up there on the Millbridge Beer Bus and called off in a little town on the outskirts for a great lunchtime session before heading off to the game. I think it was Birtley, but I'm not sure. Absolutely great bit o' crack.

The coach lined up with a load of other Town coaches at the Leazes End. It was a fantastic following in the crowd of 25,747 as our geordie manager Mick Buxton, tried to win against his home(ish) toon team. Like I said, it was a brilliant match to watch. The attacking from both sides was relentless and a ten all draw would've been likely if not for the goalkeepers Martin Thomas and Brian Cox.

They did let seven in between them as Phil Wilson and Paul Jones scored for us. But some real superstars scored for Newcastle. Peter Beardsley, Terry McDermott, Kevin Keegan and Chris Waddle (2) with the goals as we got beat 5-2, which in any other game would be a hammering, but this was just a feast of football.

Were we downhearted? Certainly not. We were still 6th in the Second Division after recently having had to endure five seasons in Division 4. We were having the time of our lives. We were slightly pissed off though when we got back to the coach park to see all the windows had been bricked. By 'eck, that were a cold journey home.