The news that Huddersfield Town are investigating two claims of anti-Semitic abuse by their fans following Saturday's defeat does not surprise me, however following Leeds from afar i have never really understood why they hate us so much.
I just feel it is too easy to dismiss it as local rivalry, jealousy at our success, anger at seeing their best players like Trevor Cherry, Mike O'Grady and Roy Ellam(!) lol picked off at will. I mean similar scenarios are apparent with the Sheffield clubs and I have exchanged a fair bit of banter down the years with the, but there isn't for wont of a better word the "nastiness" between ourselves, the Blades or the Owls - although I will concede our meeting in October overshadowed by the antics of one silly pissed-up child did tip into sheer nastiness but I' could not recall a similar occasion at Hillsborough in past visits.
Being born in the early 70's and following Leeds from the late 80's, it was unlikely Huddersfield would register on my radar. Much was made of the 49 years that spanned League wins between last Saturday but the number of visits we had made in that time apparently was just 13-we simply have not even been in the same Division as our friends from down the A62 for the best part of half a century.
My first encounter with one of their fans came in late 1993. I'd met a couple who ran a pub in Dewsbury and would occasionally stop on my way home for a post-match pint and natter. Dewsbury seemed to be split between Leeds and Huddersfield fans and a grimy looking Town fan spotted my Leeds shirt and hollered "Ay up we gorra nickname for yer centre-forward....Miss A Sitter" he rasped away into his pint. Seeing as he was referring to big, black Brian Deane I suppose it could have been worse! But they struck me as the sort of fans you could not have a friendly matter at the bar with, unlike most other supporters.
Fast forward to the new millennium and even Bradford City had long left Town languishing in the lower reaches of the football league. The toellandback empire was doing nicely and a Leeds supporting mate, who's daughter starred in a local ladies football team put put an appeal for surplus kit. The girls were turning out on well-worn hand-me-downs from the lads teams. At the suggestion of my mam, I offered to buy them a new kit with toellandback on the front. I put this to my mate who was delighted, gave him the budget and told him to get it ordered and I'd pay the supplier directly.
A few weeks went by and I had not heard anything. I mentioned it to my mate who admitted the problem was the coach and some committee members were Huddersfield fans and were uncomfortable at accepting the gesture from a Leeds fans website! It was as if I was proposing a wholesale change of the club name and the kit to all-white, I insisted the kit should stay in their traditional colours. I met the anti-Leeds brigade and I think once they met me and realised I genuinely wished to help their club they were okay about it although I was tempted to pull the plug and find a club less fussy. In the end we got on great and I even got invited to their presentation evening at Batley Frontier Club. I was honoured to be introduced as the sponsor and booed off the stage when toellandback's loyalties were revealed!
On the 10th anniversary of Billy Bremner's death, our opponents were Huddesfield at Elland Road. The afternoon was marred with chants of "Silly Bremner" from the away end and the statute of Bremner was splattered with blue paint. Ironically it served the perfect team talk for Leeds to go out and triumph 4-0 but if Leeds fans had behaved so appallingly at another ground the book would have well and truly been thrown in our direction.
So I am still none-the-wiser why we get under their skin so much and thinking back over my experiences has heightened my pleasure at seeing us prove that Grayson still cannot organise his defence, Alex "safe hands" Smithies see his pre-match "I turned down Leeds Scum" taunts rammed back down his throat with handling that would have shamed Paul Rachubka and not forgetting our one-time poster boy Adam Clayton's childish celebrations in front of Warnock before going-missing for the remaining half of the game like he used to do at Leeds!