Huddersfield Town commentator’s most memorable matches
- Paul Ogden’s top five Huddersfield Town games
- Oggy is the Huddersfield Town commentator for BBC Radio Leeds
- Watch the full piece for FREE on #HTTV
We all remember different football matches for different reasons. We caught up with BBC Radio Leeds commentator Paul Ogden to find out the five Huddersfield Town matches that are particularly pertinent in his mind.
Oggy has been commentating on Huddersfield Town matches since 1999 and following the Terriers through all the ups and the downs.
So, we caught up with the voice of Huddersfield Town to find out which games stick in his memory the most.
Game 1 – Huddersfield Town 0-0 Sheffield United (8-7 pens) on 26 May 2012
“Match number one is definitely my first visit to Wembley covering Huddersfield Town and that is the League 1 Play-Off Final in 2012… the penalty shoot-out against Sheffield United.
“Right from the beginning of the day, the emotion of it almost got the better of me on several occasions. The first was when Peter Clarke led the team out, if you’ll listen really carefully, you’ll hear me gulp a way a big lump in my throat; it wasn’t me just being self-indulgent, I felt the sense of occasion in my own heart. I got to the point after 12 or 13 years of covering Huddersfield Town, where I never really expected to see us at Wembley.
“To see such a nice guy like Peter Clarke lead such a likeable team out on to the hallowed turf at Wembley, was quite a moment for me.”
Game 2 – Huddersfield Town 3-3 AFC Bournemouth (4-2 pens) on 18 May 2011
“The second match is from the season before and one of the most dramatic matches I’ve covered as Huddersfield Town commentator; that’s the semi-final second leg against Bournemouth before we got to the Final at Old Trafford.
“The second leg went to extra-time, 3-3 at the end of extra-time and then the penalty shoot-out won by Antony Kay. Probably the loudest and most passionate atmosphere generated by home fans before we got into the Premier League that I can ever remember.”
Game 3 – Huddersfield Town 2-2 Barnsley - 4 May 2013
“Game three is a game that people remember across Yorkshire at the end of our first season I the Championship; that is the ridiculous 2-2 draw with Barnsley on the final day of the season. Mark Robins’ team and/or Barnsley could’ve gone down on the day.
“We went into the rollercoaster of emotions, which is always the case of watching Huddersfield Town, just in that game itself.
“We went behind to Chris O’Grady’s goal, we fought back through Jermaine Beckford and James Vaughan. The shared celebrations at the end from the Town and Barnsley fans and the shared journey home celebrating the preservation of Championship status is something no-one can forget.”
👏 What a moment this was...
— Huddersfield Town (@htafc) May 4, 2020
🗣 "Yorkshire, Yorkshire, Yorkshire!"#htafc 🤝 @BarnsleyFC
🗓 #OnThisDay in 2013.
Game 4 – Huddersfield Town 1-2 Birmingham City on 6 May 2001
“Game four is the tricky one because this was an early, very powerfully negative emotional experience for me in the commentary box that I was only just ready for. You’ll need a longer memory than some to have experienced the emotion on the day; it’s the stuff of legend in the time since.
“It was the final day of the 2001 season after Steve Bruce had lost his job and been replaced by one of his co-Assistants Lou Macari. Lou had done a good job of steadying the ship, we had Andy Booth back in the building, but Town on the final day of the season, unfortunately were the victim of circumstances elsewhere. Not a single result that we were hoping for positives from went Town’s way.
“All the results meant Town were relegated in unbearable fashion on the final day of the season.”
Game 5 – Reading 0-0 Huddersfield Town (3-4 pens) on 29 May 2017
“I’m not going to even ask you to guess… of course the 2017 Play-Off Final and penalty shoot-out against Reading. We had built such an emotional momentum behind David Wagner on the way to Wembley. There was a feeling of positivity that I think drove Town to, into and away from Wembley on the day.
“For all the time that Town couldn’t score a goal against Reading in normal play, or in extra-time, we never seemed to lose the feeling that we were going to win.
“Once we got onto the field and kick-off started, I seem to remember realising loud and openly on air in the opening seconds, I think I said “this is it, one of these teams will be playing in the Premier League next season” and I could hardly believe it myself.
“I always felt we were going to edge it and we did!”
Watch the full piece below on #HTTV!
