Huddersfield Town

2005–06 season
Chairman	Ken Davy
Manager	Peter Jackson
League One	4th
Play-offs	Semi-finals (knocked out by Barnsley)
FA Cup	Third round (knocked out by Chelsea)
League Cup	Second round (knocked out by Blackburn Rovers)
League Trophy	First round (knocked out by Boston United)
Top goalscorer	League: Andy Booth (13) All: Andy Booth Gary Taylor-Fletcher (15 each)
Highest home attendance	19,223 vs. Barnsley (16 May 2006)
Lowest home attendance	5,518 vs. Welling United (6 November 2005)
Biggest win	5–0 vs Milton Keynes Dons (18 February 2006)
Biggest defeat	1–4 vs Scunthorpe United (2 September 2005) 0–3 vs Port Vale (28 December 2005)
Home colours Away colours Third colours

The 2005–06 season of Huddersfield Town A.F.C. was their second competitive campaign in the restructured Football League One. They finished in 4th place, qualifying them for the play-offs, but, after beating Barnsley 1–0 in the first leg at Oakwell, they lost the second leg 3–1 at the Galpharm Stadium, to lose 3–2 on aggregate.

Their season was also noted for their cup campaigns in the Football League Cup and FA Cup. They managed a respectable 3–1 loss to Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park, where around half of the 12,000 crowd were Town fans. Then in the FA Cup, the Terriers were 8 minutes away from forcing a replay against José Mourinho's Chelsea, before succumbing to a goal by Eiður Guðjohnsen.

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  ENG Paul Rachubka 2 DF  ENG Andy Holdsworth 3 DF  ENG Danny Adams 4 MF  ENG Mark Hudson 5 DF  ENG David Mirfin 6 DF  ENG Nathan Clarke 7 MF  ENG Chris Brandon 8 MF  ENG Tony Carss 9 FW  POL Paweł Abbott 10 FW  ENG Gary Taylor-Fletcher 11 MF  ENG Danny Schofield 12 MF  PAK Adnan Ahmed 14 DF  ENG Tom Clarke

No. Pos. Nation Player 15 FW  IRL John McAliskey 16 DF  SCO Martin McIntosh 17 DF  ENG John McCombe 18 MF  ENG Jon Worthington (Captain) 19 DF  ENG Anthony Lloyd 20 FW  MSR Junior Mendes 21 MF  WAL Lee Fowler 22 GK  ENG Phil Senior 23 FW  ENG Andy Booth 24 MF  IRL Michael Collins 25 MF  ENG Matty Young 26 DF  ENG Aaron Hardy

Review

Controversial 'Young Guns' campaign

Before the start of the season 2005–06, the club launched the controversial 'Young Guns' campaign. The players, manager Peter Jackson, assistant manager Terry Yorath, and coach Martyn Booty posed for the 2006 calendar in cowboy outfits.^[1] Six of the younger players featured on the cover of the corporate hospitality brochure. Basing the cover around the 'Young Guns' theme was widely considered to be a mistake and caused the booklet to be adversely linked with the Brokeback Mountain film.

Despite losing to Nottingham Forest on the opening day of the season, Huddersfield started the 2005–06 season brightly and were top of the table by mid-October. During the season they got the chance to show their pedigree by playing at Blackburn Rovers in the League Cup, which they lost 3–1.

Then they had a big money-spinning FA Cup match at Chelsea in January. They showed superb spirit to only lose 2–1, but many predicted it could be the turning point in Town's season, as they hadn't won a game since being drawn against them, a month earlier.

Gerry Murphy won the Football League's Contribution to Football award on 5 March 2006 selected by listeners of BBC Radio Five Live's Sport on Five.^[2][3]

With the season heading towards its climax, Town had to prepare for the play-offs after a disappointing April, which saw them lose out on automatic promotion to the Championship. The goals of Paweł Abbott, Gary Taylor-Fletcher, Andy Booth, Danny Schofield and Sheffield Wednesday loan signing David Graham helped Town to have the joint-second best scoring record in the division behind Swansea City.

Huddersfield beat Barnsley 1–0 at Barnsley in the play-off semi-final first leg but lost 1–3 (2–3 on aggregate) in the return. Season highlights included an away victory against local rivals Bradford City and a league double over fellow neighbours Oldham Athletic.

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  ENG Paul Rachubka 2 DF  ENG Andy Holdsworth 3 DF  ENG Danny Adams 4 MF  ENG Mark Hudson 5 DF  ENG David Mirfin 6 DF  ENG Nathan Clarke 7 MF  ENG Chris Brandon 8 MF  ENG Tony Carss 9 FW  POL Paweł Abbott 10 FW  ENG Gary Taylor-Fletcher 11 MF  ENG Danny Schofield 12 MF  PAK Adnan Ahmed 14 DF  ENG Tom Clarke

No. Pos. Nation Player 15 FW  IRL John McAliskey 16 DF  SCO Martin McIntosh 17 DF  ENG John McCombe 18 MF  ENG Jon Worthington (Captain) 19 DF  ENG Anthony Lloyd 20 FW  MSR Junior Mendes (on loan at Northampton Town) 21 FW  SCO David Graham (on loan from Sheffield Wednesday) 22 GK  ENG Phil Senior 23 FW  ENG Andy Booth 24 MF  IRL Michael Collins 25 MF  ENG Matty Young 26 DF  ENG Aaron Hardy

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	FLT Apps	FLT Goals	Playoff Apps	Playoff Goals	Total Apps	Total Goals
1	Paul Rachubka	England	GK	34	0	2	0	2	0	1	0	2	0	41	0
2	Andy Holdsworth	England	DF	37 (5)	1	3	1	2	0	0 (1)	0	2	0	44 (6)	2
3	Danny Adams	England	DF	40	0	3	0	2	0	0	0	2	0	47	0
4	Mark Hudson	England	MF	25 (4)	3	3	0	0 (1)	0	0	0	2	0	30 (5)	3
5	David Mirfin	England	DF	27 (4)	1	2 (1)	0	0	0	0 (1)	1	0	0	29 (6)	2
6	Nathan Clarke	England	DF	46	0	3	0	2	0	0 (1)	0	2	0	53 (1)	0
7	Chris Brandon	England	MF	36 (4)	3	3	1	1 (1)	0	0	0	0 (1)	0	40 (6)	4
8	Tony Carss	England	MF	9 (8)	0	0 (1)	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	11 (9)	0
9	Pawel Abbott	Poland	FW	26 (10)	12	1 (2)	0	2	2	1	0	0 (2)	0	30 (14)	14
10	Gary Taylor-Fletcher	England	FW	30 (13)	10	3	1	1 (1)	3	1	0	2	1	37 (14)	15
11	Danny Schofield	England	MF	37 (4)	9	3	1	2	0	0	0	2	0	44 (4)	10
12	Adnan Ahmed	Pakistan	MF	4 (9)	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	5 (9)	0
14	Tom Clarke	England	DF	16 (1)	1	0 (1)	0	0 (1)	0	1	0	0	0	17 (3)	1
15	John McAliskey	Republic of Ireland	FW	0 (9)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0 (9)	0
16	Martin McIntosh	Scotland	DF	20 (2)	4	1	0	1	0	0	0	2	0	24 (2)	4
17	John McCombe	England	DF	1	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	3	0
18	Jon Worthington	England	MF	41	4	2	0	1	0	1	0	2	1	47	5
19	Anthony Lloyd	England	DF	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	0
19	Dan Smith	England	DF	7 (1)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	7 (1)	0
20	Junior Mendes	Montserrat	MF	1 (4)	0	0	0	1 (1)	0	0	0	0	0	2 (5)	0
21	David Graham	Scotland	FW	15 (1)	9	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	17 (1)	9
22	Phil Senior	England	GK	12 (1)	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	13 (1)	0
23	Andy Booth	England	FW	33 (3)	13	2	2	1	0	0	0	2	0	38 (3)	15
24	Michael Collins	Republic of Ireland	MF	9 (8)	1	0 (2)	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	11 (10)	1
25	Matty Young	England	MF	0 (2)	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1 (2)	0
26	Aaron Hardy	England	DF	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	0
27	James Hand	Republic of Ireland	MF	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	0

References