Friday 29 January 2010
Bristol Rovers (H) - 19/1/10
Drove four hours, sat there, this game sort of happened and then went back to London. £80 well spent?
Thursday 28 January 2010
Pre-match Excitment: Yeovil
So, after a long absence, Town are back on the road with a trip to rural Yeovil! Its a long journey for us Londerners let alone the rest of the Terriers heading down from the north to contend with. After the break from our away day woes of this season, I feel there is a refereshed positive attitude for the rest of the years travelling. Impressive signings have been made in key areas which were costing us in the past and now we look a more solid unit, but you know what town are like...
I can't wait to be back on the terracing again. Even without a roof the atmosphere could still be impressive and a good start to 2010 away with a win can lift the spirits once again. For people who have never been its a definate experience, last year was truly horrid, it pissing it down all evening. Not fun in an open terrace. Town fans turned up in fancy dress, awaiting the arrival of Pilkington and Ainsworth. Both high spirits and high skill were severely dampened.The beast of bad away play can hopfully be put to rest and the south can yield some happiness to the ranks of town fan fans for once.
Only 2 more sleeps...
I can't wait to be back on the terracing again. Even without a roof the atmosphere could still be impressive and a good start to 2010 away with a win can lift the spirits once again. For people who have never been its a definate experience, last year was truly horrid, it pissing it down all evening. Not fun in an open terrace. Town fans turned up in fancy dress, awaiting the arrival of Pilkington and Ainsworth. Both high spirits and high skill were severely dampened.The beast of bad away play can hopfully be put to rest and the south can yield some happiness to the ranks of town fan fans for once.
Only 2 more sleeps...
Tuesday 12 January 2010
Fanzine Article - University in London with Huddersfield Town
Huddersfield, a town famous for numerous things including textiles, the birthplace of rugby league and even a prime minister. It is also famous for being the home of the first team to become thrice first division champions back in the heady days of the 1920s. These are honourable and well-known facts are they not? Not so in the murky lands that we call ‘down south’.
I, like many eighteen year olds embarked on a three year course at University around September 2008. I was lured down the M1 and to the bright lights of the big city to study at Goldsmiths College. A university that was more famous for beautiful art than the beautiful game meant that I wasn’t expecting to be having to many discussions about the fragility of a Clarke/Butler centre back pairing during the coming season!
However, during the coming weeks I met a range of fans of teams from Reading to Torquay and even a lad in a junior Emley shirt at football trials! (that is another story for another time) As the season progressed the inevitable plastics came out, with my mates Rob and Theo flying the flag for Liverpool, even though they both lived in Slough and Tauton respectively, a short 200 mile pilgrimage to Anfield. Nights spent crying into their over priced pints ensued as Liverpool threw away their title ambitions. In between the moans about Gerrard and Kyut I threw my two cents worth in about our woeful performances under Ternent, especially the 4-0 drubbing at Peterbourgh that I attended.
The increase in town shirt wearing around campus and absences from parties because I was stuck in traffic jam on the way back from MK Dons meant people started to take notice. With one friend affectionately calling me Mr Huddersfield.
Suddenly people who didn’t even know where Huddersfield was on a map were taking an interest. Looking out for scores, commenting on signings and even taking the piss out of hero Andy Booth. It was almost like a mission to get Huddersfield Town known and respected within Goldsmiths University had worked, without them or even me knowing.
Then came the day where all the talking and building up of this great club came into action, Leyton Orient away. Last day of the season. I managed to assemble 9 of my mates to come with me and boy what a game to go to.
Reports all week showed that ticket sales were good, with the majority of fans coming down to send off club legend Andy Booth into happy retirement. With my collection of shirts handed out to the boys and bets placed, the trip to east London and the Coach and Horses pub was made.
We walked in a wall of West Yorkshire where the ale and tales of town had been flowing for a good few hours. It was great to see the looks on my mates faces, giving them a chance to witness a slice of Huddersfield town football camaraderie and culture. The exact same reason why I have followed the terriers all over the country and will continue to do so.
After the great atmosphere of the pub my mates were further treated to it again in the stadium, filling the away end with songs and banners celebrating Booty. The match finished 1-1 but walking away from the ground town had won the hearts and minds of my friends. “Town are defiantly my league one team now and your chairman is legend for the free beer, just a shame we didn’t get any,’ chirped up Rob on the train home. Theo also added ‘great game and a great following, can we go and see more games next season?’
So over the course of one academic year I had spread the word of the town far and wide within Goldsmiths more than I ever hoped, even converting some of the fair weather fans. The best bit is they even all hate Leeds now, mission accomplished.
I, like many eighteen year olds embarked on a three year course at University around September 2008. I was lured down the M1 and to the bright lights of the big city to study at Goldsmiths College. A university that was more famous for beautiful art than the beautiful game meant that I wasn’t expecting to be having to many discussions about the fragility of a Clarke/Butler centre back pairing during the coming season!
However, during the coming weeks I met a range of fans of teams from Reading to Torquay and even a lad in a junior Emley shirt at football trials! (that is another story for another time) As the season progressed the inevitable plastics came out, with my mates Rob and Theo flying the flag for Liverpool, even though they both lived in Slough and Tauton respectively, a short 200 mile pilgrimage to Anfield. Nights spent crying into their over priced pints ensued as Liverpool threw away their title ambitions. In between the moans about Gerrard and Kyut I threw my two cents worth in about our woeful performances under Ternent, especially the 4-0 drubbing at Peterbourgh that I attended.
The increase in town shirt wearing around campus and absences from parties because I was stuck in traffic jam on the way back from MK Dons meant people started to take notice. With one friend affectionately calling me Mr Huddersfield.
Suddenly people who didn’t even know where Huddersfield was on a map were taking an interest. Looking out for scores, commenting on signings and even taking the piss out of hero Andy Booth. It was almost like a mission to get Huddersfield Town known and respected within Goldsmiths University had worked, without them or even me knowing.
Then came the day where all the talking and building up of this great club came into action, Leyton Orient away. Last day of the season. I managed to assemble 9 of my mates to come with me and boy what a game to go to.
Reports all week showed that ticket sales were good, with the majority of fans coming down to send off club legend Andy Booth into happy retirement. With my collection of shirts handed out to the boys and bets placed, the trip to east London and the Coach and Horses pub was made.
We walked in a wall of West Yorkshire where the ale and tales of town had been flowing for a good few hours. It was great to see the looks on my mates faces, giving them a chance to witness a slice of Huddersfield town football camaraderie and culture. The exact same reason why I have followed the terriers all over the country and will continue to do so.
After the great atmosphere of the pub my mates were further treated to it again in the stadium, filling the away end with songs and banners celebrating Booty. The match finished 1-1 but walking away from the ground town had won the hearts and minds of my friends. “Town are defiantly my league one team now and your chairman is legend for the free beer, just a shame we didn’t get any,’ chirped up Rob on the train home. Theo also added ‘great game and a great following, can we go and see more games next season?’
So over the course of one academic year I had spread the word of the town far and wide within Goldsmiths more than I ever hoped, even converting some of the fair weather fans. The best bit is they even all hate Leeds now, mission accomplished.
Saturday 9 January 2010
GAME OFF- Southampton
Thursday 7th January 2010. The day i made my return to London after The Christmas Holiday, full of new year hope and optimism for our game down on the coast at the Lovely Southampton.
I hadn't even got out of Sheffield station when i heard the news that the game was off, 100's texts flooding my phone matched with 100's of expletives, another away day had been crushed! From looking at Down at the Mac the excitement had been building for a long time and with the playful squabbles and banter flying between the two rival 'swiggers buses' the day would have turned out to be a memorable one.
I say fuck health and saftey, put on some good old boots and get the orange ball out!
I hadn't even got out of Sheffield station when i heard the news that the game was off, 100's texts flooding my phone matched with 100's of expletives, another away day had been crushed! From looking at Down at the Mac the excitement had been building for a long time and with the playful squabbles and banter flying between the two rival 'swiggers buses' the day would have turned out to be a memorable one.
I say fuck health and saftey, put on some good old boots and get the orange ball out!
Wednesday 6 January 2010
West Brom home (FAC R3) - 2/1/10
So after the disappointment of getting half way to Carlilse on boxing day, and missing the Paul Ince Show due to 5-a-side commitments in London, it was time to get back on the HTFC rollercoaster once again. Like a genius I had managed to lock myself out of my flat on NYE and so had been staying with my brother Simon and his wife Stacey since. Woke up nice and early on Saturday morning after a lovely evening of shit TV and tasty curry, and set off on the road up north. We stopped for fuel on our way out of London where we made an offering to the god of karma by helping an old lady change her flat tire. Would this be enough to make said gods smile on us and grant us a Town win and hopefully the ever elusive fixture - Spurs in the next round of the cup?! (Nearly all my mates are Spurs fans you see...). Even the old dear hoped we won (thought it was very strange we were Huddersfield fans but as long they weren't playing Chelsea then she wished us the best). We set off in gorgeous blue skys and were full of hope...
(This is what full-of-hope faces look like in case you were wondering).
We made contact with Yorkshire on the phone and were warned about the amount of snow coming down, was hard to worry about such things whilst our skies were blue but sure enough before long it started snowing where we were too. Would this be another bloody non-starter?
Of course as we have the best ground in the world there was no chance of it not happening and before long we were in God's favourite part of his own country...
...picked up our littlest brother, and went for the usual pre match pints at the Slubbers, courtesy of our old mum...
...went down to the ground, still full of of hope and excitement (now with the old man in tow too)...
...and settled down to watch the game. However isn't wasn't to be, was such a disappointing result as, despite showing hints of their class West Brom weren't great, and if we had been on our game we could have been beaten them. The one thing yet again I took from the game was how Town teams over the last few years have been missing a nasty edge, whereas West Brom had this in abundance. I really think we need some more hard men in the team, and be willing to constantly push things like throwing in further up the pitch, having clever digs on opposing players when you can, just little things like that that seem to give teams nastier than us a slight competitive edge... Ron Jepson, Kev Grey, even Robert Page - the types of player that we don't see here anymore. Really thought that's what we were getting with Anthony Kay, but that certainly didn't turn out to be true.
Anyway we set off back to London in a race to get to the pub by 9 o'clock, and we didn't manage to win that battle either. Here are the faces of disappointment...
...fuck you God of Karma!
(This is what full-of-hope faces look like in case you were wondering).
We made contact with Yorkshire on the phone and were warned about the amount of snow coming down, was hard to worry about such things whilst our skies were blue but sure enough before long it started snowing where we were too. Would this be another bloody non-starter?
Of course as we have the best ground in the world there was no chance of it not happening and before long we were in God's favourite part of his own country...
...picked up our littlest brother, and went for the usual pre match pints at the Slubbers, courtesy of our old mum...
...went down to the ground, still full of of hope and excitement (now with the old man in tow too)...
...and settled down to watch the game. However isn't wasn't to be, was such a disappointing result as, despite showing hints of their class West Brom weren't great, and if we had been on our game we could have been beaten them. The one thing yet again I took from the game was how Town teams over the last few years have been missing a nasty edge, whereas West Brom had this in abundance. I really think we need some more hard men in the team, and be willing to constantly push things like throwing in further up the pitch, having clever digs on opposing players when you can, just little things like that that seem to give teams nastier than us a slight competitive edge... Ron Jepson, Kev Grey, even Robert Page - the types of player that we don't see here anymore. Really thought that's what we were getting with Anthony Kay, but that certainly didn't turn out to be true.
Anyway we set off back to London in a race to get to the pub by 9 o'clock, and we didn't manage to win that battle either. Here are the faces of disappointment...
...fuck you God of Karma!
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