Two years ago, if you’d had asked me to name three teams Cardiff City could be regarded as a bogey team to, I would have replied Leeds, Forest and Huddersfield. Given the fortunes of that trio since then, it’s a surprise that, while it still holds true for the first two named, Huddersfield are now in danger of becoming a bogey side of ours.
I may be wrong here, but I think it got to sixteen matches without defeat for us against Huddersfield before a goal in added time secured a home win for the Yorkshire team in early 2022 as they closed in on a Play Off place. Then, last season, despite them being written off as certs for relegation at one stage, Huddersfield did a double over us with the 2-1 defeat (actually it was a thrashing they gave us) in our final home game of last season being one of the main reasons why, at the time the identity of all of the sides in the 23/24 Championship first became known, I thought we looked the weakest squad in the league for the upcoming season.
This time around, they were the first Championship side to change managers, but, although they were tipped by many to struggle, Huddersfield are not doing too badly. Nevertheless, tonight’s away game is one that City should be confident of getting something from based on how the season has gone for both teams so far. The problem is, we’ve slipped into 22/23 mode in our last two matches and we’re in danger of getting into a viscous circle whereby our manager thinks we need to be more defensive in our outlook while important players are missing through injury and, as a result, we could return to a situation where one goal is enough to beat us.
Anyway, here’s a pretty late quiz on Huddersfield – I’ll put the answers on here tomorrow morning.
60s. Lancashire born, this defender crossed the Pennines to begin at Huddersfield and went on to wear blue for the rest of a long playing career. He was at Leeds Road for four years and scored what was one of only two career goals while with them. When he moved on, it was up a division to what was considered a booming, trend setting club at them time. Our man was a regular in the first team for much of the eight years he spent at his second club as he clocked up over two hundred league appearances for them, all in the top flight, The final club he played for were another ambitious outfit who just about made it into the First Division before he retired at the end of the seventies, although he had long since lost his regular place in the starting line up by then. After a short move into management, he ran a shop selling rock in the city where he spent the final years of his football career and he was also the joint owner of a racehorse he shared with an ex footballer who went on to make a name for himself in the horse racing world once he stopped playing. Who is he?
70s. Possessor of a unique footballing surname as far as I am concerned (apart from his brother who played alongside him for a while), this full back was your typical lower league journeyman through a league career which spanned twelve years and three decades. He started off in the west country not far from his birthplace and was a part of a team which I would have thought could have been described as that club’s best ever if league position is used as the criteria for selection. He eventually suffered a relegation, but was named in the PFA Division Four select side picked by members of the player’s union just before his eight year stay at the club was ended by a move to Huddersfield who were probably at their lowest ebb when he arrived. By the time he left two years later, an improvement, which would see them climb two divisions in a short time, had begun and he ended his full time career playing at a ground which was shared by the local football and cricket clubs. Who am I describing?
80s. Defender moistens brew! (5,7)
90s What is the link between the Lord of the Rings, the Beatles, Cardiff City in the sixties and seventies and the Huddersfield Town side of the early nineties?
00s. Wounds inflicted by an ordinary man maybe.
10s. eg Lee Trundle and Alan Tait perhaps?
20s. Deride, then dishevels by the sound of it.
Answers:
60s. Chris Cattlin played for Huddersfield between 1964 and 1968 before signing for Coventry who were playing their first ever season in the top flight at the time he arrived. Although they had quite a few relegation tussles during his time with them, Cattlin was one of the mainstays of a squad which gradually established Coventry as First Division regulars before he moved on to Brighton in 1976 when they were in the Third Division. Three years later, they’d made it into the First Division and this was when Cattlin decided to retire – he’d not finished with Brighton though because he was their manager between 1983 and 1986. Cattlin also co owned a race horse with ex England international Mike Channon.
70s. Plymouth born Phil Sandercock played over two hundred times for Torquay from the late sixties until the mid seventies when he signed for Huddersfield and finished his career with a couple of years at Northampton Town.
80s.Simon Webster.
90s. Peter Jackson. The New Zealand born film director took charge of the filming of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Get Back docuseries on the Beales released two years ago. Peter Jackson (more famous now as a rugby reporter) was the South Wales Echo’s Cardiff City correspondent for much of the sixties and seventies and Peter Jackson was also a centreback who played for Huddersfield between 1990 and 1994 and later went on to manage the club.
00s. Joe Skarz.
10s. Jack Payne (others have pointed it could have just as easily been Jack Hunt!)..
20s. Josh Ruffels.