FOOTBALL hooliganism came to Town as promotion rivals Manchester City were held to a goalless draw at Leeds Road.

A bumper 31,876, the biggest home gate since a home derby with Leeds three years earlier, squeezed into the ground for the top-of-the-table tussle.

Tom Johnston's Town, aiming to regain the top-flight place lost in 1956, were leading the old Division II having won seven out of 11.

Big-spending City, bossed by Joe Mercer, were two points adrift but had played a game less.

Mercer, whose right-hand man was Malcolm Allison, had splashed out £75,000 to bring in Swindon winger Mike Summerbee, Rangers inside-forward Ralph Brand and Everton centre-back George Heslop.

Town were also at the centre of transfer talk, but it was concerning their England international winger Mike O'Grady, who was being linked with a move away (this was to be his last Town game before a £30,000 switch to home-city club Leeds).

O'Grady certainly signed off in style with a sizzling display which terrorised the City defence.

"Whoever gets O'Grady will get the bargain of the season, whatever the price," wrote the Examiner's Longfellow.

"He baffled City with his speed and fabulous footwork."

What a shame his teammates couldn't take advantage!

Town had plenty of chances, but so did the visitors in a frenetic match which featured a string of heavy challenges but just one caution, for Brand for dissent over a controversial free-kick.

The closest Johnston's men came to a winner was after 68 minutes, when centre-forward Tony Leighton headed against the bar.

City's best chance came five minutes later, when Brand's low shot was stopped by goalkeeper John Oldfield's outstretched leg.

While the action was being played out on the pitch, there were skirmishes off it, although the worst had come at half-time, when the unsegregated spectators swarmed onto the turf to change ends.

Town chairman Roger Kaye said: "We are taking a very serious view of these incidents. This sort of behaviour has to be stopped. The big question is how it can be done."

City were quick to condemn the problem element among their support.

Secretary Walter Griffiths said: "We don't want these sort of hooligans supporting us.

"We are taking strong measures to stamp the trouble out and in terms of punishment, the wrongdoers deserve everything they get.

"The problem is more noticeable away from Maine Road, and we do not want a small minority of supporters getting the club a bad name."

As well as dealing with the hooligans, the Huddersfield Borough Police had problems sorting out traffic congestion.

With the town centre completely snarled up from two o'clock, many drivers simply abandoned their cars by the side of whatever road they were on and walked the rest of the way to the ground!

Afterwards, it took ninety minutes to clear the car parks surrounding the ground.