Huddersfield Town, fast approaching their 4,000th Football League match, are set for their 85th meeting with Middlesbrough when they head for the Riverside Stadium tomorrow.

And they’ve had both good and bad times during their previous 42 league visits to Teesside.

There’s no doubting the most memorable match from Town’s perspective.

Tuesday, March 31, 1970 remains the last date on which fans were celebrating promotion to the top flight.

Ian Greaves’s side went to Ayresome Park requiring a point to be sure of going up, and they got it courtesy of Steve Smith’s goal in a 1-1 draw seen by 27,519.

Ian Greaves
Ian Greaves

Terry Poole, Dennis Clarke, Geoff Hutt, skipper Jimmy Nicholson, Roy Ellam, Trevor Cherry, Jimmy Lawson, Frank Worthington, Jimmy McGill, Dick Krzywicki and substitute Les Chapman were the other men on duty in blue and white stripes.

Huddersfield-born Prime Minister Harold Wilson was among the first to congratulate the club on their return to the First Division after a 14-year absence.

“Heartiest congratulations on a magnificent season, getting Town back where you belong,” he wrote in a telegram.

Town went on to clinch the Second Division title by beating Blackburn 2-0 at Ewood Park with a Worthington double the following Saturday.

Seven season earlier, Town had taken a trip up the A19, and clinched a sizzling 5-0 victory.

Boro were put to the sword by Eddie Boot’s side, who had made a strong start to the Second Division campaign and were being talked about as promotion candidates.

Derek Stokes put Town on their way with a glancing header in the third minute.

And he increased the lead on 25 minutes, converting a Les Massie cross.

Town were three to the good shortly before half-time, when Boro’s Gordon Jones put the ball through his own goal.

Any hopes of a home comeback were extinguished early in the second half, when Ray Wilson waltzed through the Boro defence and shot home.

And the rout was completed when Kevin McHale netted late on.

The Saturday, August 25 match was seen by 18,470, and Town were to maintain their bright form up until December, when they were rocked by three successive defeats.

The campaign was then put on ice by a shocking spell of Winter weather which meant Town went the whole of January and February without a game. Boot’s side finally finished sixth.

While Town have chalked up eight victories at Middlesbrough (although none at the Riverside, Boro’s home since 1995), they have suffered 26 defeats, none more emphatic than on Saturday, September 30 1950.

The 8-0 First Division reverse for George Stephenson’s side, witnessed by 32,401, was a club-record defeat at the time (it wasn’t usurped until the 10-1 Division II defeat by Manchester City at Maine Road in November 1987).

Town were also thumped 7-2 in a Second Division clash at Ayresome Park in April 1967, when Dave Hickson and Massie scored the consolation goals.