LAST time Town played Coventry, Galpharm coach Terry Yorath was a Sky Blue - and referee Peter Willis had fans seeing red.
The sides who come face to face in their first match in the Copa de Ibiza tomorrow evening haven't clashed since August 30, 1977.
The occasion was a League Cup second-round tie at Leeds Road.
A crowd of 8,577 - the biggest at the ground that season - turned out to see a Town side reduced to 10 men by the 24th-minute sending off of centre-back Steve Baines put up a brave fight before falling to late goals by Scots pair Ian Wallace and Jim Holton.
Coventry, bossed by Gordon Milne, were celebrating a decade in the top flight going into the 1977-78 campaign.
Town had been in the highest echelon up until 1972, but had then free-falled down the divisions, ending up in the basement by 1975.
Under John Haselden, they had made a distinctly poor start to the League campaign, but managed to knock out Carlisle, from the division above, in the first round of the League Cup to bring Coventry to West Yorkshire.
Yorath, signed from Leeds a year earlier, was the driving force of a side which also included big centre-back Jim Holton, his Scottish international teammate Tommy Hutchison, striker Wallace, a snip of a signing from Dumbarton, and former Aston Villa stalwart Ray Graydon.
However Town made light of the gulf in status to give Coventry a fright, even after the admittedly rugged Baines, already booked for handball, had walked for the most innocuous of late challenges.
It was just the latest of a catalogue of controversies which featured Town and the Durham whistler, who had given Tranmere three penalties in one game two seasons earlier and sent off mild-mannered Steve Smith at Doncaster the campaign before.
Town, burning with a sense of injustice, set about their visitors with gusto, and as things got tasty, Coventry skipper Yorath and Holton were both booked.
Midfield schemer Kevin Johnson, tough defender Peter Hart, tricky winger Terry Gray and willing striker Terry Eccles really caught the eye, but Town just couldn't break through.
Having weathered the storm, Coventry went ahead through Wallace on the hour, then clinched it with a Holton header on 75.
Manager Milne was warm in his praise of Town, saying: "This was our hardest match this season (they had played Derby, Chelsea and Manchester United).
"Huddersfield's standard of play was much better than the Fourth Division and I felt very sorry for the lad sent off.
"The foul was his first and definitely not dirty."
Haselden said: "We played well and we were far from disgraced.
"Now we must transfer this form to the League."
Town finished 11th in Division IV, Coventry seventh in the First.
