Chris Waters: Record-breaking Huddersfield deserve their time in spotlight

When Nottingham Forest went 42 games undefeated between November 1977 and November 1978, it was said that the figure could never be surpassed.

But Lee Clark’s men went one better before a 2-0 defeat at Charlton Athletic.

It could be a long time before Huddersfield’s feat is endangered – let alone eclipsed.

Some records, however, are surely unbeatable.

You just know they can never possibly be shattered.

Donning my Yorkshire Post anorak (standard issue), I have decided to pick out a few for your delectation.

They evoke a bygone game – and a long-lost world.

Take the events of September 12 1885, for example.

A Scottish Cup tie pitted Arbroath against a team from Aberdeen called Bon Accord.

The Accord, alas, were anything but bon, losing 36-0 in what remains the biggest defeat in professional football.

The background to the fixture was pure pantomime.

In the sort of mix-up that brought a whole new meaning to the term “clerical error”, the invitation to take part in the tournament went not to Orion Football Club of Aberdeen, but to the city’s Orion Cricket Club.

The cricketers, however, were a canny bunch.

Rather than get in touch with Stewart Regan’s forefathers at the Scottish FA, they renamed themselves Bon Accord and decided to pass themselves off as a football team. Sadly, the veil of subterfuge slipped somewhat when they crossed the white line.

At half-time, the Accord were in a spot of bother at 15-0 down.

They shipped another 21 goals in the second half and, by all accounts, it could have been more.

“The leather was landed between the posts 41 times, but five of the times were disallowed,” observed the Scottish Athletic Journal.

“Here and there, enthusiasts would be seen (with) scoring sheet and pencil in hand, taking note of the goals as one would score runs at a cricket match.”

Referee Dave Stormont, a sympathetic soul, admitted the score would have been 43-0 had he taken a harder line with the hapless cricketers. “My only regret was that I chalked off seven goals,” said Stormont, “for while they may have looked doubtful from an offside point of view, so quickly did the Maroons carry the ball from midfield, and so close and rapid was their passing, that it was very doubtful whether they could be offside.”

Arbroath goalkeeper Jim Milne Senior did not touch the ball during the match and spent much of his time sheltering from the rain beneath a spectator’s umbrella – and why not?

Nowadays, of course, cricketers play so much football in their pre-match warm-ups that the likes of Yorkshire CCC would probably give a decent account of themselves if invited to participate in the English FA Cup.

Another high-scoring feat that will never be broken was engineered by the footballers of Preston North End. On October 15 1887, Preston caned Hyde 26-0 in the FA Cup – the biggest victory in English competitive football.

The Hyde goalkeeper was Charles Bunyan Senior, who went on to play for Sheffield United after being sacked by Chesterfield for what the newspapers intriguingly termed “misdemeanours on and off the field”.

The illegitimate son of a straw plaiter, Bunyan was certainly a character. In his day, goalkeepers were allowed to handle the ball anywhere in their own half, and he made full use of this license by regularly wandering into the opposition half to join his own team’s attacks.

The inevitable consequence was that his own net was often left unattended, although it was said that Bunyan kept out as many against Preston as he contrived to let in.

One of the most enduring of all goalscoring records was set by Joe Payne on Easter Monday, 1936.

Playing for Luton Town against Bristol Rovers, he scored 10 times in a 12-0 win – the most goals by any player in a Football League match. Remarkably, Payne, 22, was a defender by trade who only played up front due to an injury crisis. In fact, he had only turned out four times for Luton that season – all at right-half.

“He has been regarded as the utility man of the reserves,” reported the Bedfordshire & Hertfordshire Evening Telegraph.

The paper added that “the main fault supporters have had to find with him has been that he did not seem to take the game seriously enough”.

After opening the scoring in the 23rd minute, Payne took it seriously enough on this occasion as he completed a hat-trick by half-time, at which point Luton were 4-0 in front.

He went berserk after the break, contriving a flurry of goals as Bristol imploded.

It was not until after the match, however, that Payne was credited with establishing a Football League record.

The previous Boxing Day, Tranmere Rovers’ Robert “Bunny” Bell had beaten the previous record of seven set by Arsenal’s Ted Drake when he scored nine times in a 13-4 victory over Oldham – itself still the record for the highest number of goals in a Football League game.

When Payne left the field at Kenilworth Road, the cheers of the crowd ringing in his ears, everyone assumed that he had scored only nine goals and equalled Bell’s landmark.

Everyone, that is, apart from referee TJ Botham.

Away from the din of the retreating crowd, Botham pointed out that Payne, in fact, had also scored Luton’s sixth goal, declaring that his shot had already crossed the line when it was bundled in by Martin.

Thus the first Luton’s supporters knew about it was when they read it next day in the morning newspapers.

So many of these records have stood the test of time.

Who, for example, will ever beat Dixie Dean’s mark of 60 goals in a season for Everton in 1927-28, or George Camsell’s record of nine hat-tricks in a season for Middlesbrough in 1926-27?

Who, for that matter, will surpass Lincoln City’s achievement of recording the most points in a season when there were two points on offer for a win (74 in 1975-76)?

Well, no one as it happens, as there are no longer two points on offer for a win, but any old excuse to write about Lincoln City...

I could list all manner of age-old records but, for now, let us salute Huddersfield Town for establishing their place in the statistical pantheon.

To go 43 League games unbeaten was an extraordinary feat – one that is perhaps not impossible to better but which will certainly take some beating.