I have only a few fleeting memories of my very first match at Elland Road in September 1946. I know I went with my Grandad and he must have pushed me through the crowd to the front so that I could see. Leeds United were resplendent in their blue and gold quartered shirts and Sheffield United were in traditional red and white stripes.
As far as the players were concerned I can remember a lively red haired wing half for Sheffield United being involved in the thick of the action. This was Alex Forbes, later to find fame with Arsenal and Scotland. For Leeds the man who stood out was burly, balding centre half Tom Holley, who later became a sports journalist with the Yorkshire Evening Post.
The game ended in a 2-2 draw in front of a crowd of 27,500 and one of the goal scorers for the visitors was Albert Nightingale, who I was soon to be watching perform for Huddersfield Town. Although this was a first division game, Leeds United were to have a poor season and ended up being relegated along with Brentford. Sheffield United, who were missing their star player Jimmy Hagan for this match, were themselves relegated two seasons later.
United entertained Yorkshire rivals Sheffield United, the side against which they played their last pre-war game on 2nd September 1939, the day before war was declared. Now in the first season of league football since the war, Leeds United obtained their first point of the season, despite being outplayed for long periods of the game.
They were without centre forward George Ainsley and full back Ken Gadsby, both injured. Ainsley was badly missed although his deputy Gerald Henry did score, he is really an inside forward and too small for a centre forward role. They also need more strength at inside forward, although the diminutive Welshman, Aubrey Powell, also scored.
Leeds had no forward as good as Albert Nightingale, a clever ball player, or a wing half with the strength of Scotsman Alex Forbes or a defender with the class of Eddie Shimwell. Nightingale and Brook scored the Sheffield goals and they looked a good side, despite the absence of international Jimmy Hagan. Leeds' best player was commanding centre half and captain Tom Holley, but apart from him the defence looks a long way short of First division standard.
(At the end of the season Leeds United were relegated, finishing in last place with only 18 points from 42 games, seven points behind the other relegated team - Brentford and 15 points behind Huddersfield Town who just escaped.)
However, within months I was living at Lascelles Hall, a small village on the outskirts of Huddersfield, more famous for it's cricketing history than anything else. Unfortunately, after seeing my first Huddersfield Town game against Preston North End on 16.11.46 (which Town won 3-0), we were hit by the worst winter in living memory. The next game I saw was not until 17.5.47, when Town again won 3-1 against Middlesborough, while clearing away the backlog of fixtures due to the very heavy snowfalls.
SATURDAY 16TH NOVEMBER, 1946 Attendance 17,773
LEAGUE DIVISION ONE AT LEEDS ROAD, HUDDERSFIELD
HUDDERSFIELD TOWN 3 (Rodgers 2, Thompson) PRESTON NORTH END 0
Hesford; Hayes, Barker; A. Watson, Hepplewhite, Boot;
Bateman, Whittingham, Rodgers, Thompson, Metcalfe;
Fairbrother; Scott, A. Beattie; Horton, Williams, Hamilton;
Finney, McLaren, McIntosh, R. Beattie, Wharton;
Tom Finney, who is challenging Stanley Matthews for a place in the England team, showed that he has the craft to beat experienced defenders like Boot and Barker and had not Preston's forwards bunched together in front of goal, or had not Hesford once again produced an exemplary goalkeeping display, Preston might have extended their unbeaten run which stretched back to September 28th.
It was a much improved performance from Town, with Metcalfe again outstanding. Despite this they remain bottom of the table, but only on goal average behind Leeds United and Portsmouth.
SATURDAY 17TH MAY, 1947 Attendance 16,238
LEAGUE DIVISION ONE AT LEEDS ROAD, HUDDERSFIELD.
HUDDERSFIELD TOWN 3 (Whittingham 2, Glazzard) MIDDLESBOROUGH 1 (Dews)
Hesford; Hayes, Barker, A. Watson, Hepplewhite, Boot;
Bateman, Glazzard, Whittingham, Doherty, Metcalfe;
Malan; Hepple, Stuart; Bell, N. Robinson, McCabe;
Spuhler, McCormack, Fenton, Dews, Walker;
For this last game of the season, played in the middle of May after the heavy snowfalls earlier in the year, Middlesborough fielded a somewhat below strength side without England regulars George Hardwick and Wilf Mannion. Gordon Hepple made his debut for Boro' and the South African goalkeeper Norman Malan made his final appearance before joining Darlington. It was nearly all one way traffic with Town well on top, despite a consolation goal from Worcestershire cricketer George Dews.
The first division champions were Liverpool after their last match against Wolves. Manchester City and Burnley were promoted from the second division to replace Leeds United and Brentford who were relegated.
So it was not until season 1947-48 that, with a group of new found friends, I soon became a regular at Huddersfield Town's Leeds Road ground, standing behind the goal, on the uncovered terrace below the half time scoreboard.
The journey to the ground which became a regular ritual for the next two seasons started with a walk down the steep hill from Lascelles Hall to the trolleybus terminus at Waterloo. Then a short ride to Moldgreen and another walk past the Dalton cricket ground, pausing to watch the action during early and late season, and then another steep descent down Kilner Bank to the ground. So coming home after a poor game (and there were plenty of those) and in poor weather was literally an uphill struggle.
We always got there early to join the throng of autograph hunters on the wide expanse of pavement outside the ground. Many of the home team players were young men and would slip into the players' entrance unnoticed, but when the visitors' coach arrived everyone would spot the big name players who we had seen pictures of in the football magazines. Remember no television in those days.
Some of the players I remember being more extrovert, like Trevor Ford, the Aston Villa and Wales centre forward, who always wore a camel hair overcoat and looked like a film star. Peter McKennan, the Middlesborough player, was another extrovert always surrounded by a group of admirers and willing to sign autographs. The highlight was probably the last match of Frank Swift, the famous England goalkeeper, who left the ground in a Manchester City Supporters Club coach bedecked with flags and a banner which read, 'Manchester City, England Great Britain thanks you'. In fact it turned out not to be his last match as due to an injury crisis he was actually recalled briefly at the start of the following season.
Like Swift, Billy Wright of Wolves was a member of the all-conquering England side of those immediate post-war years. When his club won the F.A. Cup in 1948-49 they came to Huddersfield for a mid-week match and Wright appeared with the cup in a battered old wood box and allowed all of us small boys the thrill of being able to touch the cup. Today you would have to pay the appropriate fee to the sponsors to be photographed with the cup before you got anywhere near it.
Town had famously lost the 1936 Cup Final in the last minute when George Mutch of Preston North End scored a disputed penalty which went in off the crossbar.
During the three seasons I watched them Huddersfield Town were perennial strugglers against relegation from the First Division, which they had famously won three seasons in a row in 1924, 1925 and 1926. They had one of the largest grounds in the league, which had attracted a record crowd of 67,037 for a game with Arsenal in 1932. The huge open terrace, opposite the main stand, was perhaps not quite as big as the one at the Valley, Charlton but not far off. The 1950-51 Playfair football annual showed a picture of this large terrace nearly empty, due to dreadful weather, for a game with Chelsea.
Now times had changed and the men in the famous blue and white stripes clung onto their first division status by the skin of their teeth. The man who kept them up during those three season was Irish international, Peter Doherty. He had been a big name player with Manchester City before the war and with Derby County in their cup winning side of 1945-46. His one man crusade, surrounded by players of lesser abilities, was always something of a struggle. He seemed to take all the free kicks, penalties and throws in and it very often didn't work. In other words he seemed to be trying too hard. However he deserved credit for bringing on some of the youngsters around him, notably left wing partnerVic Metcalfe, who went on to play for England. After leaving Town, Doherty became a successful player-manager with Doncaster Rovers. I still have a copy of his autobiography, which I remember my father queued for some time to get, a reflection of his popularity in Huddersfield.
Perhaps because of this lack of success, even at such a young age, I took a somewhat detached view. I did not become a blinkered fanatical supporter, but appreciated more the visiting sides and the quality of their play, thus starting the habit of a lifetime of being for the most part a somewhat neutral observer.
What struck me most from my spot behind the goal were the goalkeepers, who all appeared to me to be old men. They all wore green polo neck sweaters, long shorts and huge boots. Men like George Swindin of Arsenal, Joe Rutherford of Villa, George Marks of Blackburn, Joe Robinson of Blackpool, Stan Hanson of Bolton and particularly Ted Sagar of Everton, who had played in a cup winning side in the early 1930s, alongside the legendary Dixie Dean, all seemed absolutely ancient.
My most vivid memory of those times is not of a Huddersfield Town game, but a cup tie which took place at the Leeds Road ground in February 1948, which I will report in my next blog.
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