2002–03 Huddersfield Town A.F.C. season

Huddersfield Town

2002–03 season
Chairman	David Taylor
Manager	Mick Wadsworth (until 26 March 2003) Mel Machin (from 27 March 2003)
Division Two	22nd (relegated)
FA Cup	First round (knocked out by Swindon Town)
League Cup	Second round (knocked out by Burnley)
League Trophy	First round (knocked out by Wrexham)
Top goalscorer	League: Martin Smith (17) All: Martin Smith (17)
Highest home attendance	13,769 vs Wigan Athletic (19 April 2003)
Lowest home attendance	3,810 vs Darlington (10 September 2002)
Biggest win	4–0 vs Chesterfield (5 April 2003)
Biggest defeat	0–4 vs Oldham Athletic (28 September 2002) 0–4 vs Cardiff City (29 December 2003) 1–5 vs Port Vale (26 April 2003)
Home colours Away colours
← 2001–02 2003–04 →

Huddersfield Town's 2002–03 campaign saw them relegated to the bottom division for the first time since the 1979–80 season. Huddersfield endured a dreadful season under Mick Wadsworth. That season saw Wadsworth sacked twice, but on the first attempt of him being sacked, he was re-hired because the club couldn't pay him off. Mel Machin took over for the last month of the season, but couldn't stop the Terriers relegating to the Football League Third Division.^[1] Town's main worry during the season was administration, which nearly saw the club liquidated.

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 Scott Bevan (on loan from Southampton) 2 DF  WAL Steve Jenkins 4 DF  ENG Nathan Clarke 5 DF  ENG Adie Moses 6 MF  ENG Chris Holland 7 MF  ENG Danny Schofield 8 MF  ENG Kenny Irons 9 FW  ENG Andy Booth 10 MF  USA John Thorrington 11 MF  ENG Simon Baldry 14 FW  ENG Jon Stead

No. Pos. Nation Player 15 FW  AUS Scott McDonald (on loan from Southampton) 17 DF  ENG Eddie Youds 19 FW  ENG Martin Smith 20 DF  IRL Thomas Heary 22 DF  CAN Kevin Sharp 23 DF  ENG Jon Dyson 27 DF  ENG Nat Brown 28 DF  ENG Paul Scott 29 MF  ENG Jon Worthington 31 FW  ENG Paul Macari 33 MF  IRL Dwayne Mattis

Review

Mick Wadsworth was appointed manager of the Terriers during the close season with many people predicting Town would have as good a season as the previous season, which saw them lose in the play-offs to Brentford, but Wadsworth's new 4-3-3 formation wasn't pleasing fans and players alike. During the early part of the season, Town had a run of scoring 1 goal in 6 matches. The only highlight of the early part of the season was taking Division 1 Burnley to extra time in the second round of the Worthington Cup, before losing 1–0.

Christmas and New Year also bore little joy to the Terriers and went on a run of 5 losses from 6, before a mini revival which saw them unbeaten in 5 matches, before another dip which saw them lose another 5 in 6. That saw Wadsworth lose his job in late March, which then saw Mel Machin take over as caretaker manager and after managing to draw with eventual champions Wigan Athletic, many thought that Town might survive, but bad consecutive losses to Stockport County and Port Vale saw Town go down.

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 4 DF  ENG Nathan Clarke 5 DF  ENG Adie Moses 6 MF  ENG Chris Holland 7 MF  ENG Danny Schofield 8 MF  ENG Kenny Irons 9 FW  ENG Andy Booth 10 MF  USA John Thorrington 11 MF  ENG Simon Baldry 12 FW  PER Gianfranco Labarthe Tome 14 FW  ENG Jon Stead 15 DF  IRL Jason Gavin (on loan from Middlesbrough) 17 DF  ENG Eddie Youds 19 FW  ENG Martin Smith

No. Pos. Nation Player 20 DF  IRL Thomas Heary 22 DF  CAN Kevin Sharp 23 DF  ENG Jon Dyson 27 DF  ENG Nat Brown 28 DF  ENG Paul Scott 29 MF  ENG Jon Worthington 31 FW  ENG Paul Macari 33 MF  IRL Dwayne Mattis 35 GK  ENG Phil Senior 37 DF  ENG John McCombe 38 DF  ENG David Mirfin 40 GK  ENG Andrew Jeffery

Results

Division Two

FA Cup

Worthington Cup

LDV Vans Trophy

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	Total Apps	Total Goals
1	Scott Bevan	England	GK	30	0	1	0	2	0	1	0	34	0
2	Steve Jenkins	Wales	DF	26	0	1	0	2	0	0	0	29	0
4	Nathan Clarke	England	DF	2 (1)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2 (1)	0
5	Adie Moses	England	DF	40	1	1	0	1	0	1	0	43	1
6	Chris Holland	England	MF	33 (1)	0	1	0	2	0	1	0	37 (1)	0
7	Danny Schofield	England	MF	25 (5)	2	1	0	2	0	0 (1)	0	28 (6)	2
8	Kenny Irons	England	MF	29 (6)	1	0	0	1	0	0 (1)	0	30 (7)	1
9	Andy Booth	England	FW	32 (1)	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	32 (1)	6
10	John Thorrington	United States	MF	16 (15)	1	0 (1)	0	0 (1)	0	1	0	17 (17)	1
11	Simon Baldry	England	MF	14 (8)	2	0	0	2	1	1	0	17 (8)	3
12	Kevin Gallacher	Scotland	FW	5 (2)	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	6 (2)	0
12	Gianfranco Labarthe Tome	Peru	FW	0 (3)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0 (3)	0
13	Lee Ashcroft	England	FW	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	0
14	Jon Stead	England	FW	28 (14)	6	1	0	2	0	1	0	32 (14)	6
15	Jason Gavin	Republic of Ireland	DF	10	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	10	1
15	Scott McDonald	Australia	FW	7 (6)	1	0	0	0 (1)	0	0	0	7 (7)	1
17	Eddie Youds	England	DF	25	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	25	0
19	Martin Smith	England	FW	35 (3)	17	1	0	1 (1)	0	1	0	38 (4)	17
20	Thomas Heary	Republic of Ireland	DF	14 (6)	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	15 (6)	0
22	Kevin Sharp	Canada	DF	38 (1)	0	1	0	2	0	1	0	42 (1)	0
23	Jon Dyson	England	DF	2 (1)	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	4 (1)	0
27	Nat Brown	England	DF	36 (2)	0	1	0	1	0	1	0	39 (2)	0
28	Paul Scott	England	DF	2 (11)	0	0	0	0 (1)	0	0	0	2 (12)	0
29	Jon Worthington	England	MF	10 (12)	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	11 (12)	0
31	Paul Macari	England	FW	0 (5)	0	0	0	0 (1)	0	0	0	0 (6)	0
33	Dwayne Mattis	Republic of Ireland	MF	27 (6)	1	1	0	1 (1)	0	1	1	30 (7)	2
35	Phil Senior	England	GK	16 (2)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	16 (2)	0
37	John McCombe	England	DF	0 (1)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0 (1)	0
38	David Mirfin	England	DF	0 (1)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0 (1)	0

References

This page was last edited on 16 March 2023, at 04:15