The following article appeared in the programme for Racing Club Warwick v Barwell on 17th August 2004.
Right then…here goes…in my desperation to find something vaguely interesting to read in the Racing Club programme I have finally reached the last resort and will write it myself this season (!). And that’s making the assumption that these articles will prove to be vaguely interesting. The only judge will be YOU. If you like these ramblings then my name is Craig Brebner. If you don’t, then let’s see if you can do better! A case of “Come and have a go if you think you’re bard enough?” Seriously, any feedback you may give would be much appreciated. You can either abuse me in person (if you can find me – I’m the good-looking one who stands near the dug outs!) or send an email outlining your list of complaints to craigbrbnr@aol.com.
First up this week is the question “What have you been doing with yourself during the long summer months since Racing Club last kicked a ball in anger in the league game against Cradley Town” (it was 1st May). Myself? I managed to string the season out for a few more weeks by traipsing around the country in search of anything resembling football.
Saturday 8th May saw a visit to Whaddon Road, home of Cheltenham Town (and Whaddoney the Robin) to see if Huddersfield Town could secure the final automatic promotion spot out of Nationwide Division 3. Given the importance of the game I arrived early for fear of a lock out. In the event the attendance was only 5,814 of which perhaps 2,000 had made the trek down from West Yorkshire.
I have long been an admirer of Andy Booth, a cult-hero amongst Huddersfield fans. For those of you that don’t follow these things, Andy is a local boy made good who started his career at Huddersfield before going on to bigger and better things at Sheffield Wednesday (in the days when they were a good side). Andy’s back with the Terriers now and appears to be verging on veteran status. Of course he scored, after 16 minutes and the game seemed set fair for a Huddersfield procession into Division 2. No chance! Pretty soon the nerves began to jangle and, to be fair, Cheltenham had a right go. 15 minutes from the end and, sure enough, the obligatory back pass cock-up occurred and, with the keeper stranded, 10 man Cheltenham equalised with a comedy goal.
One of the joys of this kind of end-of-season-promotion-decider-fare is the “rumour that spreads like wildfire”. In this game Huddersfield needed only to achieve a better result than Torquay did away at Southend. As soon as the Cheltenham equaliser went in the Huddersfield fans became increasingly distracted, as they wanted to know the goings on at Roots Hall. How is it in these situations that false rumours start to circulate? Is there a mischievous little monkey who thinks he will have a laugh at the expense of his mates? Who knows but twice in the last 15 minutes the Huddersfield fans erupted in celebration, the first time as they correctly identified that Southend had pulled one back and the second time as they wrongly celebrated the mighty Shrimper’s equaliser! Oh how the Cheltenham fans laughed at the end as the correct score-line was announced!
So it was all a big let down for Peter Jackson, Huddersfield’s manager who had to contend with only had a handful of players being signed on at the beginning of the season when he took over with Terry Yorath. However, in the end, the Terriers had the ultimate satisfaction of Play Off glory at Cardiff and the accompanying promotion. All's well that ends well!
Don’t miss Part 2 when I discuss the Executive Box experience and the FA Trophy Final.
Keep the faith!
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