Huddersfield Town

1999–2000 season
Chairman	Ian Ayre
Manager	Steve Bruce
Division One	8th
FA Cup	Third round (knocked out by Liverpool)
League Cup	Fourth round (knocked out by Wimbledon)
Top goalscorer	League: Clyde Wijnhard (15) All: Clyde Wijnhard (16)
Highest home attendance	23,678 vs Liverpool (12 December 1999)
Lowest home attendance	4,345 vs Scunthorpe United (24 August 1999)
Biggest win	7–1 vs Crystal Palace (28 August 1999)
Biggest defeat	0–3 vs Bolton Wanderers (22 April 2000) 0–3 vs Fulham (7 May 2000)
Home colours Away colours Third colours

This page documents Huddersfield Town's 1999–2000 season.

Following the sacking of Peter Jackson at the end of the previous season, owner Barry Rubery hired Steve Bruce as his replacement, and Huddersfield finished in 8th place in Division One that season, just 2 points outside the play-offs. This season also saw Town beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in the League Cup.

Squad at the start of the season

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  BEL Nico Vaesen 2 DF  WAL Steve Jenkins 3 DF  ENG Jamie Vincent 4 DF  ENG Craig Armstrong 5 DF  ENG Chris Lucketti 6 DF  ENG Kevin Gray 7 MF  GRE Giorgos Donis 8 MF  ENG Kenny Irons 9 FW  ENG Marcus Stewart 10 MF  ENG Scott Sellars 11 FW  SUR Clyde Wijnhard

No. Pos. Nation Player 12 MF  ENG Ben Thornley 13 GK  WAL Martyn Margetson 14 MF  WAL Barry Horne 15 DF  ENG Rob Edwards 17 MF  ENG Simon Baldry 18 DF  ENG Darren Edmondson 19 MF  ENG David Beresford 20 FW  ENG Wayne Allison 21 DF  ENG Jon Dyson 22 MF  ENG Chris Beech 37 DF  ENG Steve Baker (on loan from Middlesbrough)

Review

Rubery and managing director Ian Ayre talked up the side's chances of promotion, pointing to the acquisition of the high-profile Steve Bruce as a clear indication of their ambition. More serious investment brought the likes of Clyde Wijnhard, Chris Lucketti, Giorgos Donis, Scott Sellars, Kenny Irons, Ken Monkou and Dean Gorré to the club. The Terriers tore up the Division for the first few months playing attractive attacking football in the 7–1 annihilation of Crystal Palace (their best league result for 20 years), plus notable wins over rivals Ipswich Town, recently relegated Premier League side Blackburn Rovers, Manchester City and Nottingham Forest. During October and November, Town won 6 games in a row, a best for 17 years. In early October, the side even scored a famous 1–0 victory over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in the League Cup and were widely considered to be 'the best Town side in 30 years'. They lost to fellow Premier League side Wimbledon in the next round.

By Christmas time, Town were top of the table, but the loss of key defenders Steve Jenkins, Chris Lucketti, Ken Monkou and David May (who only made one appearance for Town because of injury) all suffered injuries at the wrong time. At the turn of the year, with the side suffering a blip in form, manager Bruce accepted the BBC's offer to cover previous club Manchester United's involvement in the much-derided FIFA Club World Championship in Brazil. With Town's form suffering, his popularity with the club's supporters plummeted. A run of 2 wins in 13 games didn't help things much either. Also during that run star striker Marcus Stewart was surprisingly sold to fellow 1st Division side Ipswich Town for a record fee of £2.75million. Less than a month later, he scored Ipswich's winning goal in a 2-1 win between the sides at Portman Road. Town signed Sheffield United's striker Martin Smith. Following that dreadful run Town went on a run of 6 games unbeaten, which saw Town on the verge of a play-off place with 4 games left.

After losing 3-0 at home to fellow play-off contenders Bolton Wanderers, they beat relegated Port Vale, meaning Town would get a play-off spot by winning their last 2 games at home to Stockport County and away to Fulham at Craven Cottage, but instead they lost them 2-0 and 3-0 respectively. In the end, if they won either of those last 2 games they would have got a play-off place.

Squad at the end of the season

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  BEL Nico Vaesen 2 DF  WAL Steve Jenkins 3 DF  ENG Jamie Vincent 4 DF  ENG Craig Armstrong 5 DF  ENG Chris Lucketti 6 DF  ENG Kevin Gray 7 MF  GRE Giorgos Donis 8 MF  ENG Kenny Irons 9 FW  ENG Martin Smith 10 MF  ENG Scott Sellars 11 FW  SUR Clyde Wijnhard 12 MF  ENG Ben Thornley 13 GK  WAL Martyn Margetson

No. Pos. Nation Player 14 FW  ENG Alun Armstrong (on loan from Middlesbrough) 15 DF  ENG Rob Edwards 16 FW  GRN Delroy Facey 17 MF  ENG Simon Baldry 18 FW  SCO Chris Hay 19 MF  ENG David Beresford 20 DF  IRL Thomas Heary 21 DF  ENG Jon Dyson 22 MF  ENG Chris Beech 23 MF  ENG Chris Holland 38 DF  SUR Ken Monkou 39 FW  THA Kiatisuk Senamuang 40 MF  SUR Dean Gorré

Results

Appearances and goals

Squad No.	Name	Nation	Position	League Apps	League Goals	FA Cup Apps	FA Cup Goals	League Cup Apps	League Cup Goals	Total Apps	Total Goals
1	Nico Vaesen	Belgium	GK	46	0	1	0	6	0	53	0
2	Steve Jenkins	Wales	DF	33	0	1	0	2	0	36	0
3	Jamie Vincent	England	DF	33 (3)	2	1	0	1 (2)	0	35 (5)	2
4	Craig Armstrong	England	MF	37 (2)	0	1	0	5 (1)	0	43 (3)	0
5	Chris Lucketti	England	DF	26	0	0	0	5	1	31	1
6	Kevin Gray	England	DF	16 (2)	2	1	0	2	0	19 (2)	2
7	Giorgos Donis	Greece	MF	10 (10)	0	0 (1)	0	3 (1)	0	13 (12)	0
8	Kenny Irons	England	MF	39	3	1	0	6	2	46	5
9	Martin Smith	England	FW	10 (2)	4	0	0	0	0	10 (2)	4
9	Marcus Stewart	England	FW	29	14	1	0	6	1	36	15
10	Scott Sellars	England	MF	23 (11)	1	1	0	1 (1)	1	25 (12)	2
11	Clyde Wijnhard	Suriname	FW	45	15	1	0	6	1	52	16
12	Ben Thornley	England	MF	16 (12)	1	1	0	4	0	21 (12)	1
14	Alun Armstrong	England	FW	4 (3)	0	0	0	0	0	4 (3)	0
14	Barry Horne	Wales	MF	6 (8)	0	0	0	3	0	9 (8)	0
15	Rob Edwards	England	MF	1 (8)	1	0	0	2	0	3 (8)	1
16	Delroy Facey	Grenada	FW	0 (2)	0	0	0	0	0	0 (2)	0
17	Simon Baldry	England	MF	5 (14)	1	0	0	0 (2)	0	5 (16)	1
18	Darren Edmondson	England	DF	2 (3)	0	0	0	0	0	2 (3)	0
18	Chris Hay	Scotland	FW	2 (5)	0	0	0	0	0	2 (5)	0
19	David Beresford	England	MF	0	0	0	0	0 (1)	0	0 (1)	0
20	Wayne Allison	England	FW	0 (3)	0	0	0	0 (1)	0	0 (4)	0
20	Thomas Heary	Republic of Ireland	DF	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
21	Jon Dyson	England	DF	22 (6)	2	0	0	2 (2)	0	24 (8)	2
22	Chris Beech	England	MF	34 (1)	9	0	0	4	1	38 (1)	10
23	Chris Holland	England	MF	16 (1)	1	0	0	0	0	16 (1)	1
24	Danny Schofield	England	MF	0 (2)	0	0 (1)	0	0 (1)	0	0 (4)	0
34	Michael Senior	England	MF	0	0	0	0	0 (1)	0	0 (1)	0
35	David May	England	DF	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
36	Kwami Hodouto	Togo	DF	1 (1)	0	0	0	1	0	2 (1)	0
36	Michel Ngonge	Belgium	FW	0 (4)	0	0	0	0	0	0 (4)	0
37	Steve Baker	England	DF	3	0	0	0	0	0	3	0
38	Ken Monkou	Suriname	DF	19	1	0	0	4	0	23	1
40	Dean Gorré	Suriname	MF	26 (2)	4	1	0	3	1	30 (2)	5