Dale Tempest has revealed the story behind the story of Huddersfield Town’s win over Blackburn Rovers 32 years ago.
The Examiner’s Huddersfield Town Facebook page today posted a picture of Dave Cowling , who was on the scoresheet against Rovers on December 29, 1984, and it revived memories for Tempest, who is now Director of Public Relations for league sponsors SkyBet.
Tempest also scored that day at Ewood Park, as did Graham Cooper in a 3-1 win.
Tempest explained: “It was a fantastic win for us over at Blackburn because they were flying at the time and right up the top of the table.
“But it turned out to be a far more significant match for us for a totally different reason.
“We were doing superbly ourselves that season, winning something like eight out of nine matches, and the Blackburn win made it 10 out of 13.
“Dave Cowling crossed for me to score, I remember, and Coops got the other to round it off after Dave had scored himself, and we were absolutely cruising.
“But near the end of the game, which was played on quite an icy surface, Noel Brotherston turned to go past Paul Jones and Jonesy slipped.
“He injured his back in the process and he basically wasn’t able to play again during the whole season – he made a comeback attempt later but didn’t see out the game.
“What it meant was that we lost our centre-back partnership of Jonesy and Sam Allardyce.
“They were just brilliant together, absolutely the perfect partnership for us at the heart of defence, and losing that understanding and presence pretty much knocked the stuffing out of our challenge.”
Town brought in fireman Steve Stoutt as an emergency measure from Bradley Rangers (he later went to Wolves) and later signed Simon Webster from Tottenham. Town eventually finished 13th and Blackburn fifth.
The teams who went up that season from the old Division Two were Oxford United as champions, Birmingham City in second and Manchester City in third.
Relegated teams that season were Wolves in bottom place, Cardiff City and Notts County.
