From Bazza scoring at Leeds Road to Beerhouses sponsoring a player – the link to the Terriers is strong!
I thought that since this week sees the 40th anniversary of my only appearance on the hallowed turf at Leeds Road I’d do a little blog about Super Huddersfield Town. It’s 19th November 1983 and with the words of encouragement from Mick Buxton ringing in my ears, I can still vividly remember the roar of the nearly 9000-strong crowd as I sprinted on to the pitch at Leeds Road. Only moments later Mark Lillis squared the ball across the 6-yard box, and I smashed it in to the bottom corner in front of a packed Cowshed for my first and only goal in Town colours (so far!).
After 5 more minutes of warming up, testing the reflexes of Brian Cox with some close range shooting and a couple of dribbles past Dave Sutton, it was up to meet the referee and Fulham captain for the toss. I then ran off and down the tunnel to get changed before I took my seat in the stand to watch the mighty Terriers win 2-0 thanks to goals from Colin Russell & Brain Stanton. I was 8 years old and by then had already been prescribed a lifetime of the trials and tribulations of being a Huddersfield Town fan.
Now 40 years on, I am still following the ups & downs of what it is to be a Huddersfield Town fan, and like all fans of unsuccessful and unfashionable football clubs, are well versed on the highs and lows associated with watching your team.
Following Huddersfield Town for work as well as pleasure
Beerhouses has always had a strong link to the Terriers; there’s me and our office manager Clare, who is a home and away Town fan, and our founder Mike Field was also a lifelong supporter. Our Huddersfield pubs, The Sportsman and The County, certainly have strong links too, being favoured by Town fans on match days, and the West Riding in Dewsbury draws in those fans passing through Dewsbury train station on their way to the game. This year, we have strengthened that link to Huddersfield, the Club, and our pubs through sponsoring a player, Ben Jackson, via The County.
This means, as an added bonus, I’m also watching with a work hat on and, as such, find myself checking the team sheet at 2pm and the scores awarded by Steven Chicken in the Examiner (obviously for not much longer, unfortunately) to see how our Ben has done.
It’s not the winning…
It may not be going too well at the moment, but it wouldn’t be Town without a relegation scrap or promotion battle. We still end up going each week, however much we moan, because as we all know, the chat in the pub with your friends and fellow fans before and after are what matchday is really all about.
#HTAFC #UTT
Barry Shaw, Operations Manager and Lifelong HTAFC Fan