Mick Buxton the man who restored pride and passion into Huddersfield Town

LISTEN to Dean Hoyle and former Huddersfield Town manager Mick Buxton has a lot to answer for.
Celebrating: Mick Buxton, right, with No 2 John Haselden.Celebrating: Mick Buxton, right, with No 2 John Haselden.
Celebrating: Mick Buxton, right, with No 2 John Haselden.

It was Buxton’s feted class of 1979-80 who conjured a life-changing moment for future Town chairman Hoyle, who fell in love with the blue and white 40 years ago this month while attending the club’s Division Four title-clinching victory over Hartlepool United at their former Leeds Road home.

The young lad from Heckmondwike liked things so much that he – to paraphrase American entrepreneur Victor Kiam in his famous TV advert – ‘bought the company’ albeit many years later.

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Buxton told The Yorkshire Post: “I speak to Dean and ring him up and see how he’s doing. I remember the first time I met him in the boardroom and he came over and I didn’t know him and he introduced himself.

Huddersfield hero: Mick Buxton.Huddersfield hero: Mick Buxton.
Huddersfield hero: Mick Buxton.

“The first thing he said to me was: ‘I blame you for me buying Huddersfield Town.’ I said: ‘Listen, you don’t blame me, I am not taking responsibility.’ Then he told me the story as a young lad. I like Dean, he’s a top guy.”

Speaking to Buxton, a revered ‘football man’, is both an education and a pleasure. It is also clear that, back in his managerial days, he was not one to suffer fools gladly.

As he did not when he arrived at a down-at-heel Huddersfield in the late Seventies when they were listing badly in the bottom tier of English football – an embarrassment for a club of that stature.

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It needed someone with purpose, energy, singularity of thought, discipline and a touch of ruthlessness and that is where Buxton came in.

Right-hand men: Manager Mick Buxton with Keith Hanvey, left,  and Steve Kindon, right.Right-hand men: Manager Mick Buxton with Keith Hanvey, left,  and Steve Kindon, right.
Right-hand men: Manager Mick Buxton with Keith Hanvey, left, and Steve Kindon, right.

He transformed Huddersfield in his tenure from October, 1978 to December, 1986 and while he may not have taken the club to the top-flight as the revered duo of David Wagner and Ian Greaves did or gone anywhere near those feted achievements of Herbert Chapman, few would deny that he is one of the most important managers in the club’s history.

Buxton said: “When I went in, we were third bottom of the bloody fourth division because of mismanagement and players who just didn’t give a b*gger.

“It annoyed me because Huddersfield in history is a great club. I remember thinking: ‘What is a great club doing here? We have got to change this.’

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“I’d seen things which I did not like, to be perfectly honest, and quickly kicked them into touch.

“I knew what needed to be done. It had lost its way completely. Some of the players were a waste of time.

“But out of the players there, there were ones like Sutton, Hanvey, Hart, Brown, Fletcher, Topping, Starling and Cowling at the time. Eight players there more or less stayed in my team. There were some good types.

“Unfortunately, the ‘baddies’ were winning and it was a case of getting rid of them. Before I took over, the only time you could get some of them to run was when they finished training and some used to race back from training to be first on the snooker table. We had a full-size table at the club. So that quickly went.

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“Training sessions had a meaning and purpose. We didn’t go in to keep people happy. We were there to win games.”

Buxton’s first full season of 78-79 was about getting a side in his own image and getting rid of those ‘baddies’.

The glory would come in the next year in a historic season chronicled in a book entitled ‘The 101 Club’ and written by journalist and Town fan Rob Stewart.

That figure refers to the number of league goals scored by Buxton’s side in a campaign which went down in club folklore and left such an indelible mark upon a young Hoyle.

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Buxton said: “There was only one player I bought in (before) – Ian Robins. He was terrific. I used to spend at least three nights a week at games. You make notes and I thought: ‘Christ, if it came about, I’d take him.’

“We built the attack around Robbo. I wasn’t one who went in for big centre-forwards, I went for people like Robbo, who you could play the ball into and get people running off him.

“We worked on it daily. We were back two afternoons a week. You wanted players who wanted to improve and go on.

“Ninety-odd per cent of goals are scored in the penalty box and it seemed common sense to me to get the ball into the penalty box as much as you possibly could.

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“We had Cowling, who was very good at going down the left and whipping the ball in, and Malcolm Brown – very good on the right and he could cross a hell of a ball. Not high balls, but whipped into near-post areas and Robins just knew. We didn’t mess about.”

Despite being sparing in his transfer dealings, Buxton provided fans with a Christmas present when he cajoled Steve Kindon, someone who he knew from his time at Burnley, to join.

It represented the final piece in the jigsaw in a season which would memorably see Town pip Walsall for silverware.

Buxton, now 76, said: “I wanted someone who could really excite the supporters. I said to the chairman: ‘What about Kindon?’ I’d known him since he was 15 or 16 and thought he’d put an explosion into the team.

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“It took a little bit to sort it out. The chairman was an accountant and I said: ‘We’ve got Christmas and New Year coming up, if we get Kindon, he will stick another couple of thousand on and you will get a bit of money back then.’

“I went to his house at Burnley and we were playing Rochdale on the Friday. Being the type of guy he is, he came across. He was concerned, having played in the top division all his life.

“We won 5-1 and he came to see me after and said he’d sign. He excited people, but wasn’t a ‘big-time Charlie’ and straightaway he was one of the lads.

“One game I recall is when we played at Portsmouth and were something like 3-1 down at half-time. I remember saying that if we played for the next 13-and-a-half games like the first half, we’d definitely get promoted as we played well. You have to be sensible how you look at games.

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“I am sure Walsall took their foot off the pedal. For me, we did not turn up to have a good time. We turned up to win football matches and kept going right to the end.”

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