History of Huddersfield Town A.F.C.
Huddersfield Town A.F.C. is an English football club formed in 1908 and based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. They play in the Football League Championship and are managed by Mark Robins who was appointed on 14th February 2013. The club's previous manager Simon Grayson was relieved of his duties on 24 January 2013.
In 1926, they became the first English team to win three successive league titles – a feat which only three other clubs have been able to match. They also won the FA Cup in 1922 and have been runners-up on 4 other occasions.
Formation
In 1908, the Huddersfield Association Football Ground Co. was formed and, with capital of £500, set about purchasing the Leeds Road recreation fields. The stadium just started as a pitch but was still ready for their first game, which was a local semi-final. On 15 August 1908, Huddersfield Town Association Football Club was registered as a limited company. Fred Walker was appointed as the club's first manager. The stadium was opened on 2 September with a game against Bradford Park Avenue, which was also the club's first game, Huddersfield beat Bradford, 2–1 in front of a crowd of 1000. Their first match in a senior competition, came 3 days later (5 September), against South Shields Adelaide in which "salmon pink" shirts were worn.[1]
In 1910, Huddersfield tried to gain entry to The Football League. The club had invited the ubiquitous Archibald Leitch to completely reconstruct Leeds Road at an estimated cost of £6,000. The pitch was to be turned by 90 degrees and a 4,000 seat stand was to be constructed, with a design which was similar to the those of Chelsea, Fulham and Tottenham Hotspur. Terracing was also planned, to provide an overall capacity of 34,000. After the plans went through Huddersfield directors applied successfully to become members of the Football League and development of Leeds Road began immediately.
Liquidation and Re-formation
The stadium was finished a year later and the club was granted Football League status. The stadium was officially opened on 2 September 1911 by the Football League president John McKenna. Not all was well with the club and the new ground, attendances sunk below 7,000 and the pitch had deteriorated. The club's directors attempted to sue Leitch but they had massive debt and in 1912 sank into liquidation.
In 1919, Huddersfield Town reformed but fared no better and were reportedly £25,000 in debt, prompting a plan to move to Elland Road (previously of Leeds City) in Leeds and sell the Leeds Road site for redevelopment. The reports galvanised supporters to start fund-raising to stave off the move. After a month of fund raising and negotiations the club stayed in Huddersfield. Huddersfield Town then reached 1920 FA Cup Final and won promotion to Division One. Two years later, Huddersfield Town beat Preston North End 1–0 to win the FA Cup, they went on to win the Charity Shield in the same year. The club then became the first club to win a hat-trick of Division One titles from 1923–24 to 1925–26. Herbert Chapman led the club to the first two titles, during 1923–24 and 1924–25 seasons. Cecil Potter took charge during the last title winning season. In 1924, Huddersfield became the first team to score directly from a corner. During these very successful early years, Huddersfield's fan base increased, necessitating more capacity at their Leeds Rd home. The terracing was extended so that it could hold 47,000 for a cup tie against Liverpool, and further work would eventually lead to the capacity increasing to 60,000.
Leeds Road had very modest improvements despite Huddersfield's success, and in February 1932 they recorded a record attendance of 67,037 against Arsenal; this led to two fans being crushed and over one hundred injured. During this game, 5000 fans broke through the gates on the Popular Side whilst hundreds spilled onto the track. Five year later, the terracing barriers caved in again leading to four injuries on this occasion, which led to the club having to improve the barriers.
Post-World War II
Huddersfield Town, stayed in the top division until 1950 when disaster struck. A fire burnt down the schoolboy enclosure and the club were forced to move to Leeds United's Elland Road for two games. In the 1951–52 season, Huddersfield struggled in the top division and in April 1952, Andy Beattie was appointed manager, but failed to keep the Terriers up in the top division and they were relegated for the first time in their history. Beattie was one of the youngest managers in the Football League, and had two horshoes nailed to his office wall for luck. During the summer he made four crucial signings, full-back Ron Staniforth, utility player Tommy Cavanagh and inside forward Jimmy Watson. At the end of the season, Huddersfield finished runners-up in Division Two sealing an immediate return.
Following their return to the top division, Huddersfield continued to climb the table and finished in 3rd place, which remains Huddersfield's highest finish since World War II. The following season, Huddersfield slipped down the table finishing 12th and Beattie offered to resign despite their run to the FA Cup quarter-finals, but was persuaded to stay on. England was appointed to assist Beattie. They had been team-mates at Preston North End but the following season Huddersfield were relegated in a season which saw the emergence of future England full-back Ray Wilson. Beattie then resigned in November 1956, believing that he had taken the team as far as he could. Bill Shankly was then appointed to take over as manager.
During the 1957–58 season, Shankly oversaw a Huddersfield side who became the only side to score six goals and lose the game against Charlton Athletic which finished 7–6, despite being 5–1 up with 30 minutes remaining. Shankly left on 1 December 1959, to manage Liverpool.,[2] Eddie Boot was appointed the day after.
Floodlights were installed at Leeds Road in 1961, this was financed by the £55,000 transfer of Denis Law to Manchester City.[3] They became known as the "Denis Law Lights". Two of them collapsed in a heavy gale a year later and they were all replaced.
It wasn't until 1970, that Huddersfield returned to the first division, under the guidance of Ian Greaves, who was appointed on 11 June 1968.[4] The team struggled on their return to the top flight of English football,and finished the season in 15th place.
Decline and Recovery
The second season in Division One, led to relegation which was followed by a consecutive relegation to Division Three which led to Ian Greaves leaving his post with Bobby Collins replacing him. Huddersfield then became the first League champions to slip into the Division Four in 1975.
A recovery started under Mick Buxton, who was hired on 30 August 1978. He managed Huddersfield Town to promotion from the 4th to 3rd division in 1980 and to the second division in 1983. After being unable to return to the Top Division, Buxton was sacked just before Christmas in 1986. The club's fortunes again declined under the leadership of Steve Smith and later Malcolm Macdonald. A 10–1 defeat at Manchester City on 7 November 1987, helped them to relegation back to the Division Three during the 1987–88 season.
Former Republic of Ireland manager Eoin Hand was handed the task of restoring the side to the second tier. Despite the prolific form of striker Craig Maskell, Town failed to achieve a Play-off berth in any of Hand's seasons in charge and he departed the club in 1992. His replacement Ian Ross did better and, through the creative midfield partnership of Chris Marsden and loan signing Peter Butler and the goalscoring abilities of Iwan Roberts, steered the Terriers to a 3rd-place finish and a Play-off meeting with 6th-placed Peterborough United, a tie Town were heavily favoured to win. Unfortunately for Town, the influential Butler widely credited with sparking Town's strong finish to the season, was ineligible to take part in the matches. Despite this setback, a 2–2 draw at London Road and an early goal at a packed Leeds Road put the Terriers within touching distance of Wembley. However, the players' anxiety clearly increased and The Posh struck twice in the second half to leave Town's hopes shattered. The devastating defeat affected the form of the side into the next season and it was only the late-season appointment of popular former boss Mick Buxton as Ross' assistant that kick-started the season.
Neil Warnock took over for the 1993–94 season, replacing Ross after the Terriers had made a remarkable escape from relegation to the basement division. He immediately secured the services of Reading 'keeper Steve Francis for the then substantial sum of £150,000. Despite this outlay and a radical overhaul of the squad that saw the departures of fan favourites such as Chris Marsden and Iwan Roberts, the Terriers struggled for much of the season. In late 1993, Town paid Exeter City £70,000 for Ronnie Jepson who acquired the sobriquet Rocket Ronnie. Jepson initially failed to maintain the prolific form that earned him the move north.
However, a successful run in the Football League Trophy and a narrow aggregate victory over Carlisle United in the Northern Final earned a trip to Wembley to face Southern Section winners Swansea City. It would be Huddersfield's first Wembley appearance since 1938's FA Cup final defeat to Preston North End. The upcoming Wembley appearance boosted the Terriers' morale and young striker Andy Booth and some memorable performances from another fan favourite Phil Starbuck steered the club well clear of relegation with a strong finish to the league campaign. This came despite the team's 3–1 defeat on penalties to Swansea after a 1–1 draw in front of 27,000 Town fans.
Moving to Galpharm
Huddersfield Town played their 1,554th and final League game at the Leeds Road ground on 30 April 1994, beating Blackpool 2–1, watched by a near capacity crowd of 16,195. Huddersfield were still in the third tier of the English league when they moved from Leeds Road (now redeveloped into a retail park) into the new Alfred McAlpine Stadium (now called the John Smith's Stadium) for the 1994–95 season. During the first season at the new stadium, Huddersfield were promoted via the play-offs.
On 5 June 1995, Warnock left Huddersfield and Brian Horton was appointed as manager and an instant push to the Premier League was put on where the Terriers finished 8th in Division One (now the second tier after the introduction of Premier League in 1992). The following season was more of a struggle, with Town finishing 20th.
At the turn of the 21st century, Huddersfield were relegated back to the third tier under Lou Macari, where an instant push for a quick return was put on, Huddersfield lost 2–1 to Brentford in the play-offs meaning another year in the Third tier. That other year then resulted in a relegation to the Third Division under Mel Machin, who was sacked at the end of the season. Peter Jackson was appointed as manager before the start of the season, who ended up giving Huddersfield an instant return after beating Mansfield Town in the Play-off final.
Jackson did well for the first two seasons, finishing 9th and 4th, but failing to get promotion via the Play-offs, which then resulted in three mid-table finishes.
Lee Clark and on the up again
Lee Clark was appointed on 15 December 2008, during his first full season he managed to get Huddersfield to a play-off final and followed that with a higher finish but another play-off failure losing to Peterborough United. During his third season, Huddersfield set a Football League record of 43 games unbeaten (not including their play-off final loss), which was previously set by Nottingham Forest.[5]
The run was ended by league leaders Charlton Athletic in the very next game after it was set.
Clark was sacked as manager of Huddersfield on 15 February 2012 following a 1–0 home defeat to Sheffield United.
On 26 May 2012 Simon Grayson led Huddersfield Town to the League one playoff final. The game finished 0–0 after extra time and a dramatic penalty shootout finished with Huddersfield victorious after 22 penalties with the score 8–7, promoting Huddersfield to the Championship.
Back in the Championship Huddersfield survived relegation on the last day to finish 19th and then in the 2013/14 they again stayed up after finishing 17th.
References
- "Huddersfield Town – 75 years on – A History of Huddersfield Town" by George S. Binns
- "Huddersfield Town – A Complete Record 1910–1990" ISBN 0-907969-64-X
- "Huddersfield Town – Champions of England 1923–24, 1924–25, 1925–26" by Jim Brown (published in 2003 by Desert Island Books)
Notes
- ↑ Page 10, "Huddersfield Town(the greatest team in the world) – A Complete Record 1910–1990" ISBN 0-907969-64-X
- ↑
- ↑
- ↑ "Ian Greaves's managerial career". soccerbase.com.
- ↑ "Huddersfield 2 – 1 Notts County". BBC Sport. 19 November 2011.
External links
Preceded by Tottenham Hotspur F.C. |
FA Cup Winners 1922 |
Succeeded by Bolton Wanderers F.C. |
| Preceded by Tottenham Hotspur F.C. |
FA Charity Shield Winners 1922 |
Succeeded by Professionals XI |
| Preceded by Liverpool F.C. |
English Football League 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 |
Succeeded by Newcastle United F.C. |