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

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.

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 →

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

Date	Opponents	Home/ Away	Result F - A	Scorers	Attendance	League position
10 August 2002	Brentford	H	0 - 2		9,635	23rd
13 August 2002	Plymouth Argyle	A	1 - 2	Thorrington [89]	8,953	21st
17 August 2002	Peterborough United	A	1 - 0	Mattis [10]	5,205	19th
24 August 2002	Crewe Alexandra	H	1 - 1	Booth [26]	8,467	18th
26 August 2002	Tranmere Rovers	A	1 - 2	McDonald [44]	7,534	19th
31 August 2002	Blackpool	H	0 - 0		9,506	20th
7 September 2002	Barnsley	H	1 - 0	Smith [59]	11,989	17th
14 September 2002	Northampton Town	A	0 - 0		4,679	17th
17 September 2002	Queens Park Rangers	A	0 - 3		11,010	18th
21 September 2002	Luton Town	H	0 - 1		9,249	21st
28 September 2002	Oldham Athletic	A	0 - 4		7,643	23rd
5 October 2002	Port Vale	H	2 - 2	Smith [12], Baldry [17]	9,091	22nd
12 October 2002	Notts County	H	3 - 0	Stead [15, 73], Moses [25]	9,984	19th
19 October 2002	Mansfield Town	A	2 - 0	Smith [53, 61]	4,998	17th
26 October 2002	Colchester United	H	1 - 1	Stead [90]	8,924	16th
29 October 2002	Bristol City	A	0 - 1		11,494	17th
2 November 2002	Cheltenham Town	A	0 - 1		4,322	19th
9 November 2002	Wycombe Wanderers	H	0 - 0		8,695	20th
23 November 2002	Swindon Town	H	2 - 3	Smith [36], Stead [90]	8,334	22nd
30 November 2002	Chesterfield	A	0 - 1		4,194	23rd
14 December 2002	Stockport County	H	2 - 1	Smith [27, 83]	7,978	22nd
21 December 2002	Wigan Athletic	A	0 - 1		6,013	23rd
26 December 2002	Tranmere Rovers	H	1 - 2	Smith [78]	11,002	24th
29 December 2002	Cardiff City	A	0 - 4		13,703	24th
1 January 2003	Blackpool	A	1 - 1	Booth [75]	7,184	24th
11 January 2003	Peterborough United	H	0 - 1		9,022	24th
18 January 2003	Crewe Alexandra	A	0 - 1		5,819	24th
25 January 2003	Cardiff City	H	1 - 0	Booth [80]	9,462	23rd
4 February 2003	Plymouth Argyle	H	1 - 0	Smith [82 (pen)]	7,294	24th
8 February 2003	Wycombe Wanderers	A	0 - 0		5,886	23rd
15 February 2003	Cheltenham Town	H	3 - 3	Irons [54], Smith [56, 59]	9,309	23rd
22 February 2003	Barnsley	A	1 - 0	Booth [26]	12,474	21st
25 February 2003	Brentford	A	0 - 1		4,366	21st
1 March 2003	Northampton Town	H	2 - 0	Baldry [44], Smith [45]	9,661	19th
4 March 2003	Queens Park Rangers	H	0 - 3		8,695	20th
8 March 2003	Luton Town	A	0 - 3		6,122	21st
15 March 2003	Colchester United	A	0 - 2		3,835	23rd
18 March 2003	Mansfield Town	H	1 - 1	Smith [51]	8,756	24th
22 March 2003	Bristol City	H	1 - 2	Smith [20 (pen)]	9,467	24th
29 March 2003	Notts County	A	2 - 3	Booth [19], Schofield [37]	5,872	24th
5 April 2003	Chesterfield	H	4 - 0	Smith [17, 53], Stead [23, 66]	9,098	22nd
12 April 2003	Swindon Town	A	1 - 0	Smith [87]	4,760	22nd
19 April 2003	Wigan Athletic	H	0 - 0		13,769	22nd
21 April 2003	Stockport County	A	1 - 2	Booth [3]	7,159	22nd
26 April 2003	Port Vale	A	1 - 5	Gavin [45]	5,925	22nd
3 May 2003	Oldham Athletic	H	1 - 1	Schofield [26]	11,271	22nd

FA Cup

Date	Round	Opponents	Home/ Away	Result F - A	Scorers	Attendance
16 November 2002	Round 1	Swindon Town	A	0 - 1		4,210

Worthington Cup

Date	Round	Opponents	Home/ Away	Result F - A	Scorers	Attendance
10 September 2002	Round 1	Darlington	H	2 - 0	Baldry [3], Clarke [16 (og)]	3,810
1 October 2002	Round 2	Burnley	H	0 - 1 (aet, 90 mins: 0 - 0)		5,887

LDV Vans Trophy

Date	Round	Opponents	Home/ Away	Result F - A	Scorers	Attendance
22 October 2002	Round 1	Wrexham	A	1 - 2	Mattis [77]	1,350

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

1. "English Football Stats - English League Tables - 2002/03 - Tiers 1 - 4". www.englishfootballstats.co.uk. Retrieved 26 February 2023.