The stripes meant success for Town

Town’s 1969/70 Division Two championship-winning squad: (Back row, from left) Ray Mielczarek, Steve Smith, Dennis Clarke, Roy Ellam, David Lawson, Terry Poole, Dick Krzywicki, Trevor Cherry, Brian Greenhalgh. (Back row, from left) Frank Worthington, Jimmy Lawson, Jimmy McGill, Jimmy Nicholson, Bob Hoy, Colin Dobson, Geoff Hutt THE blue and white striped shirts were back by popular demand and Huddersfield Town barely put a foot wrong all season.

It was 1969-70 and the all-blue shirts which had featured for the previous three seasons had been consigned to the bin.

So had a decade-and-a-half of frustration for the supporters as Ian Greaves led Town back into the top flight as Second Division champions.

Star striker Frank Worthington hit a double and wingman Bobby Hoy got the other as Town won 3-2 at Hull City 49 years ago.

For once, the team remained relatively free from injuries and, in the league, only 15 players were used and there were seven ever-presents, equalling the records of 1952-53 – another excellently put-together promotion campaign.

And by the time the team arrived at Boothferry Park for the October clash, they had been known by their new nickname of The Terriers for only a month.

Topping the Town scoring charts, Hoy matched Jimmy Lawson with seven for the campaign.

The win at Hull was one of four in five matches (including a draw with Millwall) and by November Town had hit the top of the table.

Strangely, they were proving a bigger attraction away from home than at Leeds Road.

A slight stumble in December, when a solitary defeat – to Blackpool – followed by a postponement meant a slip to third place, was rectified over Christmas as Greaves’ side again topped the table and, consequently, the Leeds Road gates began to improve.

When Hull City visited in the return fixture in March, a crowd of 26,046 were there to watch a 2-2 draw and, when Town paraded the championship trophy after the closing 3-1 win over Watford, 27,916 were inside the ground to celebrate.

By then, new signing Dick Krzywicki had impressed so much in his handful of appearances that he earned two caps for Wales.

Fans’ favourite Worthington, who signed for Town as a junior in 1964 but didn’t make his debut for three years, finished top scorer again in the club’s first season back in the top flight, but left after relegation in 1972.

Hoy stayed with the club until 1975, when he transferred to Blackburn Rovers after a decade of service at Leeds Road.