Anyone believing that, assuming we stay up, a promotion challenge is off the agenda next season needs to look at the example of Huddersfield Town for proof that this does not have to be the case. They consolidated their position in the top six on Saturday with a great win at leaders Fulham after a summer which saw them making changes on a modest budget which would probably be much like the one we’ll be working with in the close season.
There’s no doubt therefore that City will go into Wednesday’s match against the Terriers as big underdogs, but we do have a very good recent record in fixtures against the Yorkshire team to encourage us and our form over the past month or so is our best so far this term – although, to be fair, there’s hardly been much competition on that front has there!
Here’s Huddersfield related questions dating back to the sixties.
60s.Shilling account for a Huddersfield midfielder?
70s. Who is the former Huddersfield centreback from this decade who was banned from Chesterfield matches in his subsequent career in the game after retiring from playing?
80s. Teeth wiper combination up front? (5,5)
90s. This Maltese born midfielder was not averse to travelling during a pretty nondescript playing career which began on the coast in Hampshire, he turned up in Scotland at the home of the closest local derby in the game probably and also in Finland and Greece, but never made it to a hundred league appearances in his twenty three year career. Only two of these games were for Huddersfield in a loan move early in his career and he is best known for his role with the club he played most games for – even then he didn’t reach twenty matches mind, but when he left them, he was the longest serving manager in English football’s top four divisions, who is he?
00s. Which player turned out for Huddersfield against us in this decade some thirteen years after he’d played for City on loan?
10s. Kneel ova a striker! (3,5)
20s. Which former City and Huddersfield man made his debut for a club managed by a former City player on Saturday?
Answers:
60s. Bob Ledger.
70s. Steve Baines played over one hundred matches for Huddersfield before becoming a Football League referee for eight years after retiring. Baines took charge of Huddersfield matches and games involving all but one of his former clubs – the exception was Chesterfield, but I couldn’t find out whether this was because it was the last club he played for or whether it was because he played more matches for them than anyone else.
80s. Peter Withe.
90s. Paul Tisdale played two games for Huddersfield on loan from Southampton in 1996. Tisdale turned out for Dundee United and Exeter among others and was still registered as a player with the latter in 2014 when he was eight years into a managerial spell which ended in 2018 – Tisdale is currently manager of Stevenage.
00s. Eddie Youds made two substitute’s appearances for us in January 1990 while on loan from Everton and then in the same month in 2003, he was in the Huddersfield team which beat us 1-0 at the McAlpine Stadium.
10s. Lee Novak.
20s. Oumar Niasse came on as a sub for Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink’s club Burton Albion in their 3-0 loss at Ipswich this weekend.