Five of the best opening day matches
With Town hosting AFC Bournemouth to start the 2014/15 Sky Bet Championship season in just over six weeks’ time, htafc.com has picked out five of the best opening day results in the Club’s history!
The game against the Cherries will be a tough way to open the new campaign after Eddie Howe’s side finished last season in impressive style, but if Mark Robins’ side can replicate any of the five performances below it would go a long way towards securing three points!
You can now buy your ticket for any of Town's opening home League games - click HERE for full price information!
Huddersfield Town 1 Leeds United 0
23 August, 1952
Division Two
Gate: 35,230 @ Leeds Road
Goal: Jimmy Glazzard
It’s not often that a West Yorkshire derby opens the season in modern football, but that was the case in the 1952/53 campaign!
This 1-0 victory in front of a packed Leeds Road was the first win in an unbeaten 10 match start to the season – the best start in 27 years – and set the tone for a successful year under Manager Andy Beattie.
Having been relegated from the top flight in the previous year, Town achieved promotion from Division Two at the first attempt, finishing second with 58 points from 42 games (there were two points for a win at that time).
Remarkably Beattie used just 15 players that season, with the defence of Jack Wheeler, Ron Staniforth, Laurie Kelly, Bill McGarry, Don McEvoy and Len Quested starting all 42 League games.
Huddersfield Town 3 Blackpool 0
15 August 1970
Division One
Gate: 22,787 @ Leeds Road
Goals: Steve Smith (2), Frank Worthington (p)
A 3-0 home win over Blackpool was the perfect way to announce Town’s arrival back into the top flight of English football after a 14 year absence.
Steve Smith’s brace and a penalty from the enigmatic Frank Worthington gave Town fans reason to celebrate in what turned out to be an average season, with the lack of a proven goalscorer preventing the Terriers from finishing higher than 15th in the Division One table.
Despite this, many of the names in the team will be recognisable to Town fans; Trevor Cherry, Roy Ellam, Geoff Hutt and Jimmy McGill all played regularly.
Huddersfield Town 4 Millwall 3
17 August 1985
Division Two
Gate: 6,603 @ Leeds Road
Goals: Dale Tempest (3, 1p), Simon Webster
To this day, striker Dale Tempest is the only Town player to score a hat-trick in an opening day fixture.
It still needed centre back Simon Webster to score a fourth in order to give Town victory against visitors Millwall in a tight 4-3 victory.
This game also featured a second debut for the popular Mally Brown upon his return from Newcastle United.
Blackpool 1 Huddersfield Town 4
13 August 1994
Division Two
Gate: 8,343 @ Bloomfield Road
Goals: Paul Reid (2), Ronnie Jepson (2)
Town entered the 1994/95 season with a lot of momentum, having completed a move from Leeds Road to the new Alfred McAlpine Stadium. However, the fixtures pitted Neil Warnock’s side with an opening game at Blackpool.
Nevertheless, Town prevailed with an impressive 4-1 victory thanks to braces from Paul Reid and ‘Rocket’ Ronnie Jepson.
This win was one of many in the opening third of the season, which was Town’s best start in 15 years, and eventually led to the memorable Play-Off Final win at Wembley over Marcus Stewart’s Bristol Rovers.
Notts County 0 Huddersfield Town 3
7 August 2010
League 1
Gate: 10,342 @ Meadow Lane
Goals: Anthony Pilkington (2), Jordan Rhodes
Town have enjoyed many opening day wins in their history, but you’d be hard pressed to find a more dominant performance than the one against newly promoted Notts County in 2010.
Anthony Pilkington got things started, smashing Gary Roberts’ cross home in the 32nd minute, before Jordan Rhodes turned home a rebound just three minutes later. ‘Pilks’ second came with just under 20 minutes left to give Town a thumping win.
