BOTH Andy Booth and Luke Beckett, the contenders to lead the Town attack in next Saturday’s eagerly-awaited FA Cup fourth-round clash at Oldham, know a thing or two about scoring.

But neither can boast the goals-per-game record of Dave Mangnall, the cigarette-card star who enjoyed a field day the only other time the two clubs have met in the most famous club knockout competition of them all.

The nomadic former miner (he was born in Wigan and died in Cornwall) was nothing short of a frontline phenomenon, firing in 141 goals in 218 league appearances in a career which took him from Yorkshire (Doncaster, Leeds and Town) to the Midlands (Birmingham) then London (West Ham, Millwall and QPR) and brought the friendship of American singer and film star Sophie Tucker, who became godmother to his son.

Mangnall was neither the tallest nor heaviest player in the game (his vital statistics being 5ft 10in and 11st) but he was both quick and athletic and refused to be intimidated by bigger opponents.

As well as being fearless in the air, he possessed a brilliantly deceptive body swerve which gave him room to shoot with both feet from a variety of angles.

Town, who had turned Mangnall down after he came on trial as a teenager, had his services between December 1929, when he was signed from neighbours Leeds, and February 1934, when with question marks over his recovery from an injury which kept him out for most of the 1932-33 campaign, he left Leeds Road for Birmingham.

Mangnall’s later exploits showed those fitness fears to be unfounded, and he had similarly proved the doubters wrong earlier in his career.

After an unsuccessful stint at Doncaster in 1923-24, Mangnall collected coal during the week and goals on a Saturday for his local club Maltby Main.

He was handed a second chance in senior football by Leeds in 1927, but it took him a while to make his mark, with a 10-goal second-team haul in a Northern Midweek League match against Stockport helping earn him a debut at senior level against Burnley at Elland Road in September 1929.

Mangnall made the headlines by notching six goals in nine outings, and much to the disgust of their supporters, Leeds parted company with him when top-flight rivals Town, needing a replacement for George Brown, offered a then-hefty £3,000.

He chalked up 73 goals in 90 games in all competitions while at Town, with his best season undoubtedly 1931-32, which included that previous cup clash with Oldham.

Mangnall can still boast three club records set during that campaign – the most goals scored in one season (42), an individual five-goal haul (in a 6-0 top-flight home victory over Derby) and the best-ever scoring run of 11 consecutive matches.

Games two and three were against Oldham in the cup third round, with a 1-1 draw at Boundary Park, when 30,607 crammed into a ground where the capacity is now just 13,500, being followed four days later by a Leeds Road replay when 20,609 watched Mangnall net four times in a 6-0 triumph.

In all there were nine goals from the centre-forward in a cup run which also accounted for QPR and Preston and took Town to the quarter-finals, when a club-record attendance of 67,037 saw Arsenal win 1-0.

Mangnall went one better in 1936-37, by which time he was playing for Millwall, who became the first club from outside the top two divisions to reach the semi-finals.

As luck would have it, the ground designated for the last-four showdown with Sunderland was Leeds Road, where Mangnall, who used the services of a herbalist to beat a thigh strain, was hailed by both Millwall and Town followers in a 62,813 crowd.

Almost inevitably, the man whose double had sunk Manchester City in the quarter-finals scored Millwall’s goal in a 2-1 defeat, taking his cup-run tally to 10.

Mangnall might have been a favourite with the fans, as well as Hollywood star Tucker (the pair were introduced after she attended a pre-season friendly) but he fell foul of the club in a dispute over pay and gave up football to become a grocer back in Birmingham.

He returned to the game two years later when he accepted an offer from QPR, scoring 96 goals in wartime football before becoming manager in 1944.

Mangnall guided the West London club to the Third Division South title in 1948, but gave up the hot seat after relegation from Division II (now the Championship) in 1952.

He became a publican in Penzance, where in April 1962, an illness ended a remarkable life at the age of just 56.