[Lord Snooty]

Huddersfield Town v Brentford
The Sky Bet Championship
Saturday April 3rd - 12:30 ko
at the John Smith's Stadium

Huddersfield Town welcome Brentford to the John Smith's Stadium on Good Friday Saturday afternoon for an important game for both sides at either end of the table. The match, originally scheduled for Good Friday, has been moved to Saturday dinnertime for Sky Sports, meaning that everybody else will have played already by the time we kick off.

The big question on everybody's lips is, will our new signing, Senegal international striker Oumar Niasse be playing? Well he has been here a while, as Head Coach Carlos Corberán explained when he signed on Friday......

“Oumar has played the highest level of English football for over three years, which means he has all the necessary skills to play in the Sky Bet Championship.

“He is a striker with the dynamic to work very hard; to press the opponent and attack the space.

“He has been working on the pitch with us for a little while and has adapted to our training intensity. He needs time to build up his match fitness as he has had a long time without playing a competitive game, but we will work hard with him to get him ready.”

How long has this international break been going on, by the way? Seems like two months since we last saw our brave boys in action, never mind two weeks. We have had two players away on international duty, Pipa and Juninho Bacuna. Three years ago, we had four players at the World Cup Finals, now just a Spanish u21 and a player playing for a minor team in the CONCACAF, currently ranked at no 76 in the world. Anyway, Peeps played two and a half games and Bacca played twice and scored twice.

But that's not relevant now. There's a pandemic still ongoing and these two players will have to quarantine when they get back. Not properly quarantine though. They are allowed to mix with their teammates and other footballers playing on the same field. And any Brentford players coming back from international duty will have the same sanctions, so not like the rest of us who would face a five grand fine for leaving the country, but hey ho. Football must go on. It is, after all, the only thing that has kept this nation's morale going over the last twelve months.




A brief history of Brentford: formed in 1889 by members of the local rowing club, they entered the London League, then the Southern League and moved into Griffin Park in 1904. They then joined the Football League in 1920 when most of the SL joined en masse to form the new Division Three (South). That first FL season was a struggle and they had to apply for re-election, which they did successfully.  

In 1933, under the management of Harry Curtis, they won promotion to Div 2. Not only that, but in 1935 they went up again into Division 1, their first and only time in the top flight of English football. They stayed there for 4 pre war seasons, finishing in 5th, 6th, then another 6th, and then 18th, before getting relegated again in the first season after the second world war. By 1954, they were back down in the 3rd division.

Harry Curtis

Things got even worse and they were relegated to Division 4 for the first time in 1961. They came back up a couple of seasons later, but were up and down between the lower two leagues for the next few decades. Their first bit of real excitement came in 1985 when they reached the final of the Football League Trophy at Wembley, but were beaten 1-3 by Wigan Athletic.

The nineties started as a better decade for them, winning promotion back to the 2nd tier in 1992 for the first time since the fifties. Only a couple of seasons later though they were back down again. They reached the Play Offs in 1995, when we beat them. And then in 1997 they reached the Play Off Final, only to lose to Crewe. This sparked off another downturn in fortunes, getting relegated the following season. But they were back up by the end of the decade and in 2000 they reached another FL Trophy Final, losing this time to Port Vale.

They got revenge over us in the 2002 Play Offs, but went and lost to Stoke in the final. More Play Off failures followed, getting beaten by Sheffield Wednesday in 2005 and then Swansea in 2006. They then had another spell in the 4th tier before coming back up again in 2009. Another FL Trophy Final defeat came in 2011, beaten now by Carlisle, and then the next season saw them mess up automatic promotion on the final day of the season. Needing a win to go up, they won a last minute penalty against Doncaster. The Donny keeper saved it and immediately kicked out for the counter attack, which brought the visitors a goal and send them up instead. This setback was followed by yet another Play Off defeat, this time by Yeovil Town.

But that setback wasn't terminal and in 2014 they finally won promotion to the Championship, finishing runners up behind Wolves and have been there ever since. In that time they have had another couple of failed Play Off campaigns. In 2015, they were beaten 5-1 on aggregate by Middlesbrough. Then last season, they made it to the Play Off Final, after beating Swansea City 3-2 on aggregate, they were beaten in extra time by Fulham. Two Joe Bryan goals giving the Cottagers the edge before Henrik Dalsgaard got a consolation with the last kick of the game.

At the start of this season, they finally left Griffin Park and set up home in the newly built Brentford Community Stadium.

Head to Head



The head to head is all square with 25 wins each and 18 draws.

Well there's one big head to head match that stands out above the rest. That is of course, the 1994/95 League 2 (now League 1, but actually the 3rd division) Play Off semi final 2nd leg, played at Griffin Park. The first leg, as would become the norm in these games, Town failed to win at home. That ended 1-1 with Chris Billy scoring ours and Nicky Forster scoring for the Bees. The second leg didn't start well for us. Martin Grainger giving them the lead from the penalty spot, before Andy Booth levelled up not long after. That concluded the scoring in normal and extra time and the match went to penalties.
Grainger again netted from the spot to give Brentford an early lead, before Ronnie Jepson scored our first. Robert Taylor then made it 2-1 before Kevin Dearden, the Brentford keeper gave them the advantage, saving from Pat Scully. It was soon level again though as Town keeper Steve Francis saved from Denny Mundee. Lee Duxbury then scored to make it 2-2. Simon Ratcliffe and Lee Sinnott took it to 3-3. Then came the decisive moment as Francis saved from Brentford skipper and club legend Jamie Bates, thus setting up a win for Town should we convert the next one. Up steps cult hero Darren Bullock. Did he bury it? Not quite, he blasted it down the middle and Dearden looked to have saved it, causing some home fans to stifle a cheer as they realised it had actually gone in. It seemed a couple of seconds before the Town fans at the other end of the ground realised and a delayed raucous cheer came up as Bully turned around and everybody of the blue and white persuasion went barmy.
Oh happy days and of course we then went on to beat Bristol Rovers in the final at Wembley. Here you go. Re-live that penalty shoot out.

That all seems a long time ago now. Not as long ago as our first ever meeting. That was in January 1920 in the first round of our epic FA Cup journey, all the way to the final (which we lost 0-1 to Aston Villa), and it was a 5-1 victory for Town at Leeds Road. Goals for our brave boys that day were from Billy Smith, Sammy Taylor (2), Jack Swann and Ralph Shields. The second meeting came at the same stage of the same competition in the very next season. This time down at theirs with Ernie Islip and William Wright scoring in a 2-1 win for the Town, who of course were now playing their first season in the First Division, whereas Brentford had just joined the Football League.

Our first meeting in the League came in 1935/36 when the Bees had been promoted up to the 1st Division. It was a 2-1 Town win to start with, Len Butt and Charlie Luke scoring ours. That was followed by a 2-2 draw down at Griffin Park in January with Luke again on the scoresheet as well as a Reg Mountford penalty.

The following season saw two 1-1 draws in the league, but then Brentford got FA Cup revenge, beating Town 5-0 down there in the third round, as they went on to reach the quarter finals for the first time. They had the upper hand now as they were reaching their best ever league finishes and did the double over us in 1937/38 and 1938/39.

The next game between the two was a 1-0 win for Brentford, but would not count for anything in the end. It was played at Griffin Park on the 2nd of September 1939. It was the third match of the season, a season that would soon be cancelled as the day after this defeat Neville Chamberlain declared that this country was at war with Germany.

Griffin Park suffered in the blitz and after the war had finished, the Bees were relegated in the first post war season. Brentford won the game 2-0 at theirs with 31,264 squeezing into the ground. Town won at Leeds Road 3-0 with Arnold Rodgers (2) and Jimmy Glazzard scoring.

We had one season together in the 1950s, but didn't meet again until the 1975/76 season when we had both dropped all the way down to Division 4. Terry Gray and Colin Garwood scored the goals in a 2-1 win at Leeds Road, then we played out a goalless draw down at theirs in front of only 4,413 spectators. After three seasons together in the basement league, we met up again in Division 3 in 1980/81. We won 3-0 at home with goals from Ian Robins, Steve Kindon and Brian Stanton, before another 0-0 draw down at their ground.

We spent a few more seasons together, both clubs suffering relegations and winning promotions, with of course that famous Play Off win in 1995. The Bees however gained revenge in the 2002 Play Offs. After a goalless draw at the MacAlpine Stadium, Brentford beat us 2-1 at Griffin Park. Andy Booth scored as he had in 1995, this after he had returned from his spell away at Sheffield Wednesday, but couldn't inspire a victory as Darren Powell and Lloyd Owusu gave Brentford the win. They lost in the final so we spent some more time together.

Some remarkable games took place in the following years in League 1 and in the Championship. There was a 4-4 draw in the final league game of the 2010/11 season. We had already booked our place in the Play Offs and it looked to be going well as Danny Ward scored twice to put us 2-0 in front, only for Jeffrey Schlupp to score twice to level things up. Lee Novak then restored the Terriers' lead. Lewis Grabban then equalised before Benik Afobe made it 4-3 only for Grabban to grab another. That was 4-4 in the 68th minute and we were all expecting some kind of record score, but it never came.

The next season saw us win brilliantly down at Griffin Park. Jordan Rhodes (2), Novak and Gary Roberts scoring in a 4-0 victory. We followed that with an evening televised Sky game. Town were 0-2 down when Alan Lee bundled the keeper, 1920s style, into the back of the net. Incredibly, the ref, instead of booking the big lad and disallowing the goal, pointed to the centre spot and Town had a goal back. Brentford obviously weren't happy and were less happy as Jamie McCombe equalised on the stroke of half time. To make the Bees mood less than buzzing, young Mr Rhodes made it 3-2 in the second half to round off a remarkable Town victory.

There was a 1-5 home defeat for the Terriers in the last game of 2015/16, which didn't bode well as we were given Brentford at home for the first game of the following season. But unknown to many so called tv experts, David Wagner had put together a brand new squad and had had them away on a Swedish island preparing for this. Elias Kachunga gave Town the lead on his debut in the 50th minute, only for Nico Yennaris to level things up in the 77th. So Wagner sent on young Chelsea loanee Kasey Palmer. The John Smith's Stadium roof went flying as he took the ball with his first touch of the match, rounded the keeper and buried it to win the match. His touchline hug with Wagner was one of the iconic moments of what turned out to be a very successful season. And we completed the double down at theirs, winning 1-0. Rajiv van La Parra scoring in that match, with a funny looking goal which somehow went in under the keeper's body.

We have played three times since we came back to the Championship. Last season, we were the only team to keep two clean sheets against the Bees (with their fans complaining about Danny Cowley "shit-housing"). First off, we won our final visit to Griffin Park with a 1-0 win and a Karlan Grant goal. The game at ours was goal less. And then we got spanked 3-0 at the new ground of theirs early in this season, with goals from Josh Dasilva, Marcus Forss and Bryan Mbeumo, all coming in the second half.





So what's going on down at the Brentford Community Stadium? Still managed by Thomas Frank, the former Brøndby IF boss. The 45 year old Dane began his career as a youth coach at the age of 22 after a short amateur playing career. He worked his way all the way to national level managing the Danish under age teams.
He was then given his first senior appointment in 2013 by Danish Superliga club Brøndby IF. They reached high enough in the league to qualify for the Europa League, but twice failed to reach the group stage and following a disagreement with the chairman, Frank quit.
His next move was to Griffin Park and an assistant's job, initially to Head Coach Richard O'Kelly and then Dean Smith, but midway through the 18/19 season he became Head Coach when the pair of them buggered off to Aston Villa. He's done alright since.

Who's in their squad then? Well the main man this season has been Barnsley flop, Ivan Toney. He scored his 28th goal of the season against Forest last week from the penalty spot. Just had his 25th birthday, he seems to have been around for ages. That's because he made his debut at the age of 16 in an FA Cup match, playing for his hometown club Northampton Town, becoming their youngest ever first teamer. That was in 2012 and he made his league debut in the following season and then scored his first league goals, scoring twice in a match with Dagenham & Redbridge.
After scoring 13 goals as a Cobbler, he moved north to join the Premier League with Newcastle Utd. Still only 19, he went straight into their League Cup team, but only managed a couple of Prima Donna sub appearances before going on loan to Barnsley in League One. He only scored twice in 20 appearances there, but did play in two Wembley wins. Firstly winning an EFL Trophy medal as the Tykes beat Oxford Utd and then came on as a sub in the Play Off Final win against Millwall.
He then had loan spells at Shrewsbury, Scunthorpe and Wigan and despite being recalled by Newcastle in January, he had played enough games for Wigan to win a League One champions medal. His goal tally was rising now, which alerted Peterborough, who forked out £650,000 for him in 2018. He just kept scoring for fun. He bagged 23 for the PishPosh in his first season and then 26 last season as they missed out on the Play Offs in the curtailed season.
In the summer, Brentford sold Ollie Watkins to Villa for £28m. They spent a fraction of that to bring Toney to the new Community Stadium and he's paid them back with 28 goals already.

Young Toney

They have a Spanish goalkeeper, David Raya, who came over to this country as a kid to join the Blackburn Rovers Academy. He played over a hundred games for them before going to Brentford in 2019. Ex Scunny keeper Luke Daniels is the back up goalie. He played in goal at their place this season against us.

The magic hatted Pontus Jansson is the skipper. He of course was the clown stood standing there, playing Michael Hefele onside in a famous match against Leeds Urinals. The rest of the defence is Danish. Henrik Dalsgaard, Mads Bech Sørensen, Mads Roerslev Rasmussen and Luka Racic are all bacon pastry eaters. Even Winston Reid, on loan from West Ham, has a Danish mother and played for their under age teams before turning his allegiance to New Zealand, his birth country. There are baconballers in midfield as well. Christian Nørgaard, Mathias Jensen and Emiliano Marcondes make it a total of seven Danes in the squad.

They do have some Englishmen in the squad. I've mentioned already Toney and Daniels, well there's a Henry as well. Rico Henry is a Brummie who came from Walsall in 2016. And there's Charlie Goode as well, who signed from Northampton in the summer. Josh Dasilva makes up the English contingent. He came through the Arsenal Academy.

The international players continue though with Hamburger Vitaly Janelt signing in the summer and being a regular in midfield this season. Then there's the Spaniard Sergi Canós who signed for Liverpool as an 18 year old, his family run a Spanish restaurant on Penny Lane. He then went on loan to Brentford, signed for Norwich and then signed on permanently at Brentford in 2017.

Finnish international forward Marcus Forss came vis the Baggies Academy in 2018. He spent time on loan at Wimbledon last season.






Brentford's last line up at home to Forest:
1 Raya
22 Dalsgaard
18 Jansson
23 Reid
29 Bech Sørensen
8 Jensen
6 Nørgaard
27 Janelt
19 Mbeumo
17 Toney
7 Canós

Subs:
5 Pinnock
9 Marcondes
15 Forss
20 Ghoddos
24 Fosu-Henry
28 Daniels
30 Rasmussen
31 Zamburek
41 Bidstrup


Club connections: The extremely disappointing Alex Pritchard signed for us in January 2018, during our first season in the Premier League. Least said, the better. Earlier in his career, he had a season on loan at Brentford from Spurs in 2014/15. He scored 12 goals for the Bees that season, including one against us in a 4-1 win for them at Griffin Park and by the end of the season he had earned himself a place in the Championship Team of the Season.  

Jordan Rhodes went on loan to Brentford from Ipswich early on in his career, when they were in League Two. He made his debut against Macclesfield but then scored on his second outing at home to Aldershot Town. He did even better in his next match, scoring a hat trick at Shrewsbury, becoming Brentford's youngest ever hat trick scorer. He scored three more goals for them before breaking a metatarsal in March, which ended his season and his time at Griffin Park. However, despite only being there for three months, he won the Player of the Year.
He then signed for Huddersfield Town and when he left, he stood in 8th position in our all time leading scorers list with 87 goals, meaning he will need 13 more when he comes back in the summer (according to a reliable source he is), to become only the 6th Town player to score a hundred goals for the club.

Clyde Wijnhard had a roller coaster of a time when he joined Town from Leeds in 1999. First season was brilliant, finishing top scorer with 16. Then came the car crash, which virtually ended his playing career. Virtually ended, as he did come back, but it was at a lower league level and he never reached the same brilliance. He went to Preston, Oldham, Darlington, Macclesfield and then in 2006 he ended up playing for Brentford. It was a short stay of seven games without scoring and that was his career done.

Fred Bullock and Jack Cock both played for both clubs around the time of the First World War. Bullock was the Town captain and played for us from the very first season in the Football League. Cock had played three non league matches for the Bees before signing professional terms at Leeds Road just before the start of hostilities.
Both players served in the armed forces. Cock served in the army, becoming a Sergeant-Major and earnt the Military Medal for "Bravery in the Field" and was Mentioned in Despatches for "gallantry". He was reported as 'missing, presumed dead' at one point during the war. Bullock joined the Middlesex Regiment, becoming corporal and was injured in the shoulder during the Battle of the Somme. Later he picked up a bad knee injury and was demobbed from the army.
Whilst on service, both lads played as guests for Brentford in the wartime league and were part of the team that won the London Combination League in the first post war season. After this, they both returned north to resume their careers at Huddersfield Town. The Town however were in dire financial straits at this time and one of the first things they did about this was to sell Cock to Chelsea for a record fee of £2,500. This was shortly after he had won his first international cap for England.
Fred stayed around though and as captain, led the fund raising activities for the cash strapped club. That was a success and so later in that season, he led the club to it's first FA Cup Final (which we lost to Aston Villa) and also promotion to the First Division. Sadly though, that knee injury flared up again and he was forced into retirement soon after. He had a testimonial, which he spent the money on buying the Slubber's Arms pub on Halifax Old Road. It was here in 1922 sadly, where he was found dead at the age of 36. It was said that he died of heart failure due to ammonia poisoning and been suffering "nerve troubles" during the month preceding his death. Suicide? Post traumatic stress disorder? Or what they called "shell shock" back then? So a sad end to the life of a true Town legend, who had earned one cap for England against Ireland in 1920.
On a happier note, Jack went on to play more games for England during his Chelsea days and later went on to be a highly popular singer in the Music Halls, which earned him a recording contract and later a couple of film roles.

Ralph Shields was another member of that great post war team. He was a bombadier during the hostilities, having signed for Town from Newcastle just before the war started in 1914. He was top scorer in that last pre war season and then had limited chances afterwards following the emergence of Sammy Taylor. So he ended up being transferred to Exeter City, which only lasted one season, before moving to London to play for Brentford in 1921. That was another one season stint, scoring just the once in eight appearances. After that he went back to his native North-East and played for Blyth Spartans.
Once his career in football was over, he and his family emigrated to Australia. They built a new life in Concord, New South Wales. But then another World War started and so in June 1940, 9 months after the outbreak, he joined the Australian Army and gave a false birth date, which produced an age just shy of the limit of 40, when he was actually 48. In 1942, while serving with the Australian Army Service Corps in Malaya, Ralph was captured by the Imperial Japanese Army and interred as a POW in Sandakan Prisoner of War Camp, North Borneo. He died of malnutrition and beriberi on 21 November 1944 and was buried at the Labuan War Cemetery in Malaysia.  

Another North-Easterner playing for the club at this time was Thomas Elliott. He played 74 times before the war, but only once after, before he moved to Nottingham Forest. He only stayed there for that one season, then went down to Brentford for their first season in the Football League. He had a couple of seasons there, playing 55 games and scoring 9 goals.

Striker Bertram Gilboy played for Town in 1912/13, after signing from Southend Utd, but had moved to Preston by the time war broke out. He served in the war as a gunner with the Royal Garrison Artillery and then had a season with Brentford in the season after the war.

Inside left George Cook had been in the Royal Artillery during the war and joined Town in 1923 from Rotherham County. He won three Football League champions medals with us, scoring 35 goals. Two of those goals were the most important in the history of the club, when we beat Nottingham Forest at Leeds Road 3-0 on the 3rd of May 1924. That was when we won our first title and if it had been 2-0 instead of 3-0, we would've been runners up to Cardiff instead of winning on Goal Average.
Halfway through the 26/27 season he transferred to Aston Villa, then went to Spurs, before finishing his career at Brentford in Division 3 (South) in 1931, staying for just one season.

Buster Brown was a Londoner who came north to play for Town in the 30s and scored on his debut in a 1-1 draw at Hillsborough in 1935. That was his only game that season, but he established himself in the team in the next season, playing on the right wing, helping Town to a 3rd place finish in the First Division. He only scored one more goal, in a 2-1 win at Maine Road against Man City, before transferring to Brentford in 1936. He was at Griffin Park for over ten years, but of course, the war interrupted that, meaning his Brentford record only recorded 106 appearances.
During the war though, as football continued in an attempt to keep up morales, with many clubs fielding guest players, Brentford played in and reached the Final of both competitions known as the London War Cup. They were played over the seasons 1940/41 and 1941/42. They lost to Reading in the first one, but Buster played in the second one as the Bees beat Portsmouth. Called the London War Cup, it involved most of the clubs in the south, but the competition was abandoned when a 50 mile travelling restriction was introduced.
 
Jeff Taylor, like Jack Cock a few decades earlier, played for Town and Brentford and then went on to have a succesful singing career. Not Music Hall this time though, Jeff went on to become an Opera Singer. He had three seasons at Town, playing 68 times and scoring 27 goals. Two of those goals came in a match at Bellend Road. Not against Leeds Utd though. He scored twice in a 2-0 win over Derby County in April 1950 after we had to move there temporarily after the main stand at Leeds Road was badly damaged by fire.
He was transferred to Fulham in 1951 and it was during his time in London that he enrolled at the Royal Academy of Music. He moved across London in 1954 to Griffin Park and in 94 appearances for the Bees, scored 34 goals. He retired from football, aged 27 and joined the Yorkshire Opera Company. This led to him travelling all over the world singing as a bass baritone, before becoming Professor of Singing at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music in Glasgow.
Jeff's brother, Ken Taylor, also played for Town, racking up 250 appearances, as well as playing cricket for Yorkshire and England.

Tommy Cavanagh may be best remembered these days as assistant to Tommy Docherty in his Manchester United days when they won the 1977 FA Cup. Earlier though, he had played as an inside forward for Town in the 50s, having signed for us from Stockport County in 1952. He played in our promotion winning team and the next couple of First Division seasons, scoring 29 goals in 93 games. Later on, he managed Brentford from January 1965 to April 1966, just missing out on promotion to the 2nd division.

Brentford in popular culture: Celebrity supporters include Greg Dyke and Phil Collins. I think we'll gloss over those two. Sarah Cracknell, the singer with Saint Etienne, is supposedly a Bees fan. Here she is on Top Of The Pops in 1993.



Mr Light Entertainment himself and star of Dr Who, Bradley Walsh, was a professional footballer with Brentford. He signed for them as an 18 year old in 1978, but never got past the reserves side. He had loan spells at Barnet, Tring Town, Boreham Wood and Chalfont St Peter, but then injury forced his retirement at the age of just 22. He still takes part in Soccer Aid and he's an all round good geezer really.  



In 1953, Griffin Park was host to The Great Game, a film starring James Hayter, Diana Dors and Thora Hird. This footage features the scenes recorded at Griffin Park.









Other Championship matches this weekend:

Good Friday:
AFC Bournemouth v Middlesbrough
Bristol City v Stoke City
Cardiff City v Nottingham Forest
Derby County v Luton Town
Millwall v Rotherham United
Preston North End v Norwich City
Queens Park Rangers v Coventry City
Watford v Sheffield Wednesday
Wycombe Wanderers v Blackburn Rovers
Barnsley v Reading (17:30)
Birmingham City v Swansea City (20:00)


Recent form - last 6 matches:

Sheff Weds 1-1 Town
QPR 0-1 Town
Town 0-0 Cardiff
Town 1-1 Birmingham
PNE 3-0 Town
Derby 2-0 Town

Brentford 1-1 Forest
Derby 2-2 Brentford
Blackburn 0-1 Brentford
Norwich 1-0 Brentford
Brentford 2-1 Stoke
Brentford 3-0 Sheff Weds

Town are 18th with 42 points, Brentford are in 4th with 68.

Leading scorers:
Terriers:
Frazier Campbell (7)
Josh Koroma (6)
Isaac Mbenza (5)

Bees:
Ivan Toney (28)
Sergi Canós (7)
Josh Dasilva (7)
Marcus Forss (7)


April the 3rd down the ages: How did we get on in previous matches played on this date?

1915: Derby County (h) Div 2, drew 0-0
1920: Barnsley (a) Div 2, drew 3-3 (Frank Mann, Sammy Taylor 2)
1923: West Bromwich Albion (h) Div 1, WON 4-1 (Ernie Islip, Billy Smith, Charlie Wilson, George Brown)
1926: Leicester City (a) Div 1, lost 0-2
1931: Newcastle Utd (a) Div 1, drew 1-1 (Ernie Whittam)
1934: Liverpool (h) Div 1, lost 0-2
1937: Stoke City (h) Div 1, WON 2-1 (Pat Beasley, Willie MacFadyen)
1943: Halifax Town (h) Wartime League North, WON 1-0 (Bobby Barclay)
1948: Preston North End (a) Div 1, WON 2-0 (Jimmy Glazzard 2)
1954: Sheffield Wednesday (a) Div 1, WON 4-1 (Jimmy Glazzard, Bryan Frear 2 (1 pen), Tommy Cavanagh)
1956: Arsenal (h) Div 1, lost 0-1
1961: Charlton Athletic (h) Div 2, drew 2-2 (Chris Balderstone, Les Massie)
1965: Norwich City (a) Div 2, WON 2-0 (Johnny Quigley, Les Massie)
1971: Derby County (a) Div 1, lost 2-3 (Dennis Clarke, Roy Ellam)
1976: Northampton Town (a) Div 4, drew 1-1 (Rod Belfitt)
1982: Swindon Town (a) Div 3, WON 5-1 (Keith Hanvey, Tim Hotte 2, David Cowling, Mick Kennedy)
1987: Brighton & Hove Albion (a) Div 2, drew 1-1 (Duncan Shearer)
1990: Preston North End (h) Div 3, lost 0-2
1999: Queens Park Rangers (a) Div One (2nd tier), drew 1-1 (Ian Lawson)
2001: Crystal Palace (a) Div One (2nd tier), drew 0-0
2004: Leyton Orient (a) Div Three (4th tier), drew 1-1 (Andy Booth)
2010: Wycombe Wanderers (a) League One (3rd tier), WON 2-1 (Jordan Rhodes, Theo Robinson)
2012: Leyton Orient (a) League One (3rd tier), WON 3-1 (Jordan Rhodes 3)

Not bad at all. Won more than we've lost and unbeaten since 1990.

Played 23, Won 9, Drawn 9, Lost 5.

Some legends of the Club scoring on this day, who I have written about before, so won't repeat now. Names of goal scoring legend like George Brown, Billy Smith, Jimmy Glazzard, and Jordan Rhodes.

Another one of those legends was Sammy Taylor, who scored on this day in 1920. His two goals against Barnsley were the first in a series of scoring in seven consecutive matches. The second goal was his 30th of the season and he would go on to finish the season with a club record of 42, which still stands today. Another club record began just after this match. After this draw, we went on to win the next eleven league matches (8 in this season and the first three of the next one), another record that still stands to this day.

Pat Beasley, who scored in the 1937 win against Stoke, went on to manage Birmingham City. He took them to (almost) European glory, reaching the Final of the 1960 Inter City Fairs Cup (the equivalent to the modern day Europa League), which they lost over two legs to Barcelona.

Willie MacFadyen, who also scored in 1937, came to us at the back end of his career as a Motherwell legend. He's their all time leading scorer with 235. His goals won them the Scottish League championship in 1931/32, scoring 52 of them, which is a record in the Scottish League for a single season that still stands today. He only got 18 in his two seasons with us, but did help us reach the 1938 FA Cup Final. Despite scoring bucket loads at club level, he only ever played twice for Scotland.

Rod Belfitt, who scored in 1976 against Northampton, played for Leeds Utd in the 60s and 70s. He won two medals with them, both in 1968. The League Cup and the Inter Cities Fairs Cup. Lost his place when Mick Jones and Allan Clarke turned up and so went to Ipswich. It was the end of his career when he landed at Leeds Road, as we were descending the League Ladder. Scored 8 times for us over a couple of lower league seasons.

Now that 5-1 win at Swindon in 1982 was a right game. Me and my mates set off Friday teatime after work, in the van. Got half way, stopped for beer, kipped in the van. The next morning, went for breakfast and bought a newspaper and saw that Argentina had invaded the Falkland Islands and we were about to go to war! Unbelievable! We were discussing the possibilities of being called up, being in our early 20s, and would we go. Luckily, it never got to that. Anyway, that's another story. The match itself was brilliant. Tim Hotte scored twice in the game. He was still 18 at the time and was very small. His Town career never really took off and he only scored another two before ending up at Halifax.

Ian Lawson, who scored in 1999 against QPR, was the son of Jimmy Lawson, who won a 2nd Division Championship medal with Town in 1969/70. Ian wasn't quite as successful, playing only 45 times for us and scoring 5 goals. Shortly after this match, he was released and joined Bury. By the age of 26 he had retired and if I remember correctly, became a golf professional.


Quiz Time: Only Connect (Sequences):

If you've ever watched the ridiculously difficult quiz show Only Connect, you'll know how this works. What is the fourth in each sequence? For example......

[a] Mark Hudson. (b) Danny Cowley. [c] Danny Schofield. [d].......?

The answer of course would be Carlos Corberan, being the last four permanent or temporary managers of Huddersfield Town. So see how you get on with these. And they're all related to either Huddersfield Town or Brentford.


1. [a] Ronnie Jepson. (b) Lee Duxbury. [c] Lee Sinnott. [d].......?

2. [a] Andy Booth 457. (b) Vic Metcalfe 459. [c] Tom Wilson 500. [d]......?

3. [a] Aston Villa. (b) Blackburn Rovers. [c] Arsenal. [d]........?

4. [a] Elias Kachunga 13. (b) Steve Mounié 9. [c] Karlan Grant 4. [d]......?

5. [a] The Brook. (b) The New Inn. [c] The Princess Royal. [d]........?

6. [a] 19/20. (b) 52/53. [c] 69/70. [d]........?

7. [a] Ambrose Langley. (b) Andy Beattie. [c] Ian Greaves. [d]........?

8. [a] Lasse Vibe. (b) Neal Maupay. [c] Neal Maupay. [d]......?

9. [a] David Burke. (b) Tom Cowan. [c] Peter Clarke. [d]........?

10. [a] Rekorderlig. (b) PURE Legal. [c] OPE Sports. [d].......?




Brentford v Huddersfield Anagrams:

1. Pa Pi

2. Swine Boiler

3. Vienna Toy

4. Clerc Aaron Bros

5. Snoots Jap Nuns

[ritchiebaby]

Might as well get in early - No 5 in the anagrams is Pontus Jansson

Now to read the article

[hibeejim21]

Sarah Cracknell

[ritchiebaby]

Not as sweet as Mint Cracknel.

[hibeejim21]

She still looks grand to this day Ritchie.

[jjamez]

8. [a] Lasse Vibe. (b) Neal Maupay. [c] Neal Maupay. [d]......? Watkins?

10. [a] Rekorderlig. (b) PURE Legal. [c] OPE Sports. [d].......? Paddy power/no one

1 hmmm pipa?

[theo_luddite]

Nice one Snoots.

Too early for the Summer Transfer thread, too late for the Winter thread, so in the absence of anywhere else to put it, it's in the Unexamined so it must be true

Huddersfield Town captain Christopher Schindler linked with summer move to Nuremberg.

To begin with, would he just go for a trial?

I'll get me coat.

It is April 1st

---

PS - is 5 the pubs you and AmChaff crawl through on your way to or from a home match? All that guff about sitting in Costa waiting for the crowds to die down, eh?

[Lord Snooty]

Correct jjamez. I thought Pipa would've been a bit trickier to get, but you got it straight away. Well done.

No5. If that do be true, theo. You still haven't stated which is 4th in the sequence.

[theo_luddite]

It would likely be the one next to Costa before or maybe just after the game

[Lord Snooty]

You mean The Rope Walk. We have been in there, but it gets a bit too crowded. Or should I say, used to get crowded.

Wrong answer anyway.

---

Well, can you believe it? Oumar Niasse is injured already, Carlos has just revealed in his presser.

Koroma is back training though.