The 1969/1970 season

Coming from our feature writer.

AND so to that season 1969-1970 ... part three of a very special Five part series!

Speak to Jimmy Nicholson about that team he skippered in 69-70 and he will tell you they were a young team, growing all the time in confidence with such belief in each other both individually and as a team and physically by far the fittest side in the Division.

But there was more, yes the Gaffer Ian Greaves - but whilst instrumental to him not something he alone could do, the players had to do it themselves. It was the power of positive thinking.

Constantly this thinking was hammered into the players and it was working. Turning a 1-4 defeat to bottom side Villa into a positive takes some doing but Greaves and Cockburn certainly did this to our Town Terriers.

It was yet another brick in the immense wall being built down Leeds Road way, with a 7 game unbeaten run following. That two of these produced 0-0 draws at home shows how confidence on their travels was mounting bringing along with them 8 goals from three fixtures. The other 2 home games produced similar 4-0 trouncing of visitors from the Valley and Pompey.

On November 1st Town lit up the sky for their fans as we topped the Division for the very first time following the second of the home 0-0 scorelines after a visit from the Lions of London; the previous goalless fixture was with fellow Yorkshiremen from Ayresome Park. Later in the season another draw with the men up in Middlesborough would be written into the history books.

A 1-2 defeat at Swindon and the mid-point of the campaign brought the run to an end and talking with the lads after the game they agreed when I mentioned it will be all doom and gloom again back home!

We are a bit like that we Town fans a slight sniffle and it’s flu.

A second successive away defeat did not help matters especially as it was at the seaside in December. A 0-2 reversal against Blackpool who with the two points they gained moved up to 7th in the table, and dropped us down to 3rd. Sandwiched in between we had lost our coveted top spot, which we had held for five matches, when picking up the one point in a 2-2 draw in the Midlands at St. Andrews.

Christmas in 1969 certainly brought good cheer for the Town fans with a scintillating game and display on Boxing Day before a large Leeds Road crowd, in what was a first home fixture for nearly six weeks, and a 2-1 victory over Sheffield United.

The League table on that 26th day saw us in third spot, though level on points with the Blades in second and one point behind Blackburn Rovers who had top spot with 33 points, we did though have games in hand over both the clubs above.

When the final fixture of 1969 got our away form back on track with a 2-1 win at Bristol City it couldn’t get much better for Town fans?

But it could - for we moved up two places and ended the year Top of the Table.

From 25 games played we had 34 points one more than second placed Sheffield United who had played 27. Blackburn Rovers were third also with 33pts but had played one more than us. Only Cardiff City in 6th spot had played fewer games, 24, but they were 4 points adrift of the top.

The table made for interesting reading as it provided an accurate assessment of the season so far and backed up my claims then and to this day that we were just where we deserved to be.

We were top because we had been the best side in the division, no question.

We had 14 victories under our belt, no other side had more, and we had lost fewer games that any other team in the division, just 5.

With 6 victories on our travels unmatched by any other side the philosophy according to I. D. Greaves regarding performing on away soil was proving the Managerial talent we possessed. Perhaps six draws were a wee bit more than the Boss would have liked but with 4 coming from our travels and three of them before September was out even he I am sure was more than a little pleased with how quickly his young Terriers had listened and learned.

Other interesting facets from the year end saw Swindon with the only unbeaten record, of sorts, with their colours, as Town had found in November impossible to do, still to be lowered at the County Ground.

Yorkshire neighbours the Blades had scored 52 goals with just 22 conceded, us 43/26.

Blackburn, remember in third place had scored but 4 goals away from Ewood Park, though one had come early season producing our only home defeat. That we found in that defeat it impossible to breach their defence shows in their goals against column numbering but 13.

The good ship Huddersfield Town was set fare for 1970 with Ian Greaves at the wheel and skipper Jimmy Nick his able Lieutenant on the park, would we to enter even more glorious seas or would the deep water of Division Two still hold dangers for us?

We hope you have enjoyed our "Those Were The Days" articles, and find them an interesting look at some special memories of Town through the years. Memories that will not, and can not be forgotten - and memories only our beloved Town could have created