Before Boxing Day 1973, the sides had never clashed competitively.
And to add spice to the occasion, the West Riding towns’ rugby league clubs also played each other!
Over at Thrum Hall, brothers Trevor and Jim Doyle combined to help Huddersfield clinch a last-gasp 16-13 triumph in Rugby League’s Second Division.
There was also a tight clash at Leeds Road, despite the final 4-0 scoreline in Town’s favour.
The derby followed the home club’s descent into Division III (two years earlier they had been in top-flight action at Everton on Boxing Day).
The game drew a season’s best crowd of 11,514 and brought a return for Alan Jones, who had featured in 22 First Division games for Town and played 36 times in all before switching to The Shay in the summer of 1973 .
As well as Jones, a Halifax side bossed by future Town Youth coach George Mulhall included the likes of experienced goalkeeper Alex Smith, long-serving centre-back John Pickering, former Newcastle, Sheffield United and Wednesday midfielder David Ford and lanky striker Dave Gwyther.
The Town team included seven who had played for the club in the top flight: goalkeeper Terry Poole, defender Geoff Hutt, midfielders Steve Smith and Terry Dolan, wingers Les Chapman and Bobby Hoy and striker Jimmy Lawson.
But it was a man whose presence pre-1972 might well have helped stave off the drop back to Division II who caught the eye.
Boss Ian Greaves had wanted to sign Manchester United striker Alan Gowling to play alongside Frank Worthington in the top flight.
But it took the sale of Trevor Cherry to Leeds and Worthington to Leicester to free the funds for the club-record £80,000 purchase of the former England Under 23 cap.
Gowling had bagged 17 goals as Town suffered a second successive relegation in 1972-73.
His double against Halifax , one a low shot from a tight angle and the other a header from a Hoy cross, took his haul for 73-74 to 14 and completed Town’s tally for the afternoon following earlier efforts by Lawson and Dolan.
“Halifax are a good side and this was a strange result which they didn’t deserve to be on the end of,” admitted a bemused Greaves.
“In the end, it was simply down to us taking the chances which came our way and them missing theirs, and when I think how we have struggled against some poor sides here at Leeds Road and then won this match so comfortably, football takes some believing.”
Paul Garner, John Saunders and Brian Marshall were the other players on duty in a game which left Town sixth and Halifax 14th in a table topped by Bristol Rovers.
