18 – Why Does Steve Claridge Hate Us? – Post 23

Steve Claridge, it seems, doesn’t like Huddersfield Town. Every time he gets the chance to talk about us on the Football League Show, he shies away, mumbling something about budgets and how he prefers Southampton – despite being a legend at their hated rivals, which is where I remember him best.

But, I hear you cry, why doesn’t he like us? He has good memories, surely, of avoiding the drop with Pompey, winning Division 2 with Birmingham; although that is counter-balanced by Town relegating his Walsall team in 2006.

I decided to pull out all the Steve Claridge stats I could and see if there was anything that stood out. I was surprised.

In all, Steve played (or was at teams who played in the early days for when I can’t get line-ups) 18 times against Town – 9 home, 9 away. He scored 4 goals – 2 home, 2 away (again, possibly – probably – a couple more). The outcome of those games is as follows.

Home – P9 W3 D3 L3

Away – P9 W3 D3 L3

Its all very even, and strangely so. A team against whom your results have been exactly mediocre don’t shriek out as someone to take against – not to me anyway.

The only thing I can possibly think is that Aldershot played Town on 22nd October 1988 – which may well have been Claridge’s debut for them after 3 years in the wilderness. They lost 1-2. Does he bear a 23 year old grudge? I wouldn’t put it past him.

If anyone can provide opposition line-ups/scorers for Town games before 1995; I’ll update more accurately.