Huddersfield Town F.C. season 1996-97

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Huddersfield Town
Season 1996-97
Manager	Brian Horton
Chairman	Malcolm Asquith
League	Division One
Final league position	20th
FA Cup	Third Round
Coca-Cola Cup	Third Round
Top goalscorer	League: Andy Payton (17) All: Andy Payton (19)
Highest home attendance	17,358 vs Manchester City (18 January 1997)
Lowest home attendance	5,094 vs Colchester United (19 September 1996)

Huddersfield Town's 1996-97 campaign was a disappointing season for Town, finishing in 20th place, just 8 points and 2 place above the drop zone. Injuries and illness forced Town to play a record 35 players during the season, then a record, which would actually be broken the following season. Brian Horton's job was seemingly on the line following the disappointing season, although he wouldn't leave the McAlpine Stadium until October 1997.

Contents 1 Squad at the start of the season 2 Review 3 Squad at the end of the season 4 Results 4.1 Division One 4.2 FA Cup 4.3 Coca-Cola Cup

[edit] Squad at the start of the season

No. Position Player -- GK Steve Francis -- GK Tony Norman -- DF Sam Collins -- DF Tom Cowan -- DF Jon Dyson -- DF Kevin Gray -- DF Thomas Heary -- DF Steve Jenkins -- DF Andy Morrison -- DF Robbie Ryan -- DF Lee Sinnott -- MF Simon Baldry -- MF Darren Bullock

No. Position Player -- MF Simon Collins -- MF Gary Crosby -- MF Paul Dalton -- MF Rob Edwards -- MF Lee Makel -- MF Paul Reid -- FW Iain Dunn -- FW Delroy Facey -- FW Ian Lawson -- FW Michael Midwood -- FW Andy Payton -- FW Rodney Rowe -- FW Marcus Stewart

[edit] Review

Town made a promising start beating Charlton Athletic 2-0 in front of the highest home crowd for an opening day game for 24 years. This was followed up by wins over Ipswich Town, Oldham Athletic, Reading & Birmingham City, but then a spell of 9 games without a win including a 6-0 hiding at Swindon Town left manager Brian Horton in the lurch.

Form wasn't helped by the consistent injuries to top players such as Marcus Stewart and Andy Morrison, but Town slowly tried to recover, but their best run of the season came during the Christmas and New Year period when they went 5 games unbeaten, but they then went on a run of 1 win in 10, which propelled them into relegation territory.

By the end of the season, top scorer Andy Payton's goals were starting to dry up, but a win on the penultimate day of the season against already relegated Southend United made certain that Town would play Division 1 football the next season.

[edit] Squad at the end of the season

No. Position Player -- GK Steve Francis -- GK Tony Norman -- DF Sam Collins -- DF Tom Cowan -- DF Jon Dyson -- DF Darren Edmondson -- DF Kevin Gray -- DF Thomas Heary -- DF Steve Jenkins -- DF Andy Morrison -- DF Robbie Ryan -- DF Lee Sinnott -- MF Simon Baldry -- MF David Beresford -- MF Marcus Browning

No. Position Player -- MF Wayne Burnett -- MF Gary Crosby -- MF Paul Dalton -- MF Rob Edwards -- MF Lee Glover (on loan from Rotherham United) -- MF Jeremy Illingworth -- MF Lee Makel -- FW Delroy Facey -- FW Peter Kaye -- FW Ian Lawson -- FW Michael Midwood -- FW Andy Payton -- FW Rodney Rowe -- FW Marcus Stewart

[edit] Results

[edit] Division One

Date	Opponents	Home/ Away	Result F - A	Scorers	Attendance
17 August 1996	Charlton Athletic	H	2 - 0	Bullock [15], Morrison [85]	11,858
25 August 1996	Barnsley	A	1 - 3	Cowan [44]	9,787
31 August 1996	Crystal Palace	H	1 - 1	Payton [33]	11,166
7 September 1996	Ipswich Town	A	3 - 1	Payton [47, 67], Stewart [51]	10,661
10 September 1996	Tranmere Rovers	H	0 - 1		10,181
13 September 1996	Oldham Athletic	H	3 - 2	Stewart [15, 85], Gray [90]	10,296
22 September 1996	Stoke City	A	2 - 3	Worthington [7 (og)], Stewart [36]	9,147
28 September 1996	Reading	H	1 - 0	Payton [34]	10,330
8 October 1996	Birmingham City	H	3 - 0	Edwards [17], Stewart [23], Dalton [45]	10,904
12 October 1996	West Bromwich Albion	A	1 - 1	Cowan [51]	14,960
16 October 1996	Swindon Town	A	0 - 6		7,724
19 October 1996	Southend United	H	0 - 0		9,578
26 October 1996	Port Vale	H	0 - 1		11,017
30 October 1996	Wolverhampton Wanderers	A	0 - 0		22,376
2 November 1996	Bolton Wanderers	A	0 - 2		15,865
8 November 1996	Bradford City	H	3 - 3	Dalton [42], Lawson [45], Crosby [48]	14,126
16 November 1996	Oxford United	A	0 - 1		7,460
19 November 1996	Manchester City	A	0 - 0		23,314
23 November 1996	Grimsby Town	H	2 - 0	Payton [24, 27]	10,590
30 November 1996	Port Vale	A	0 - 0		6,026
3 December 1996	Sheffield United	A	1 - 3	Payton [14]	14,700
7 December 1996	Norwich City	H	2 - 0	Payton [34, 56]	10,749
14 December 1996	Portsmouth	A	1 - 3	Makel [51]	6,954
21 December 1996	Queens Park Rangers	H	1 - 2	Payton [51]	10,718
26 December 1996	Tranmere Rovers	A	1 - 1	Payton [21]	10,134
28 December 1996	Ipswich Town	H	2 - 0	Lawson [50], Payton [85]	11,467
1 January 1997	Stoke City	H	2 - 1	Makel [6], Edwards [63]	11,919
18 January 1997	Manchester City	H	1 - 1	Lawson [78]	17,358
25 January 1997	Oldham Athletic	A	2 - 1	Payton [71, 83]	8,566
28 January 1997	Reading	A	1 - 4	Payton [9]	5,710
1 February 1997	Bradford City	A	1 - 1	Crosby [1]	17,373
8 February 1997	Wolverhampton Wanderers	H	0 - 2		15,267
15 February 1997	Grimsby Town	A	2 - 2	Stewart [44], Edwards [48]	6,197
22 February 1997	Bolton Wanderers	H	1 - 2	Cowan [16]	15,861
1 March 1997	Norwich City	A	0 - 2		13,001
4 March 1997	Oxford United	H	1 - 0	Makel [27]	11,276
8 March 1997	Queens Park Rangers	A	0 - 2		9,789
15 March 1997	Portsmouth	H	1 - 3	Stewart [35]	10,512
22 March 1997	Barnsley	H	0 - 0		14,754
31 March 1997	Sheffield United	H	2 - 1	Dalton [1], Cowan [18]	14,551
5 April 1997	Crystal Palace	A	1 - 1	Payton [61]	13,541
9 April 1997	Charlton Athletic	A	1 - 2	Dalton [77]	11,032
12 April 1997	Birmingham City	A	0 - 1		14,394
19 April 1997	West Bromwich Albion	H	0 - 0		12,748
26 April 1997	Southend United	A	2 - 1	Payton [23], Beresford [67]	4,762
4 May 1997	Swindon Town	H	0 - 0		11,506

[edit] FA Cup

Date	Round	Opponents	Home/ Away	Result F - A	Scorers	Attendance
4 January 1997	Round 3	Queens Park Rangers	A	1 - 1	Crosby [64]	11,776
14 January 1997	Round 3 Replay	Queens Park Rangers	H	1 - 2	Edwards [7]	11,814

[edit] Coca-Cola Cup

Date	Round	Opponents	Home/ Away	Result F - A	Scorers	Attendance
20 August 1996	Round 1 1st Leg	Wrexham	H	3 - 0	Stewart [12, 25, 53]	5,178
3 September 1996	Round 1 2nd Leg	Wrexham	A	2 - 1	Payton [10], Edwards [55]	1,776 Huddersfield won 5-1 on aggregate
17 September 1996	Round 2 1st Leg	Colchester United	H	1 - 1	Cowan [45]	5,094
24 September 1996	Round 2 2nd Leg	Colchester United	A	2 - 0 (aet: 90 mins: 0 - 0)	Stewart [98], Simon Collins [110]	4,095 Huddersfield won 3-1 on aggregate
23 October 1996	Round 3	Middlesbrough	A	1 - 5	Payton [87]	26,615

Huddersfield Town FC v • d • e
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