Football crossover surprise

I split my footballing allegiances a few ways, but mainly between Shrewsbury Town, the team I have supported since I was a kid, and Barry Town, who are my 'local' team. The past few seasons I have been to more Barry games than Shrewsbury games, but I do try and make an effort to get to some marquee Shrewsbury games. 

One of the most fun things about Shrewsbury's longstanding membership of EFL League One is the number of big clubs who end up slumming it down with the likes of us. This year's new arrivals from the division above included Huddersfield Town. Not that long ago they were in the Premier League, mixing it with the elite, and now they aren't. 

I'd never been to Huddersfield before, and I like watching Shrewsbury playing at bigger grounds, so was keen to 'tick off' this one. With the game falling on the Saturday of the August bank holiday, a possible road trip was on. My brother, Dave, filled up his new tankbus with people and drove us there. We made good time and we had a quick look around the town before heading to the ground. 

The John Smiths Stadium is a relatively new construction that is nestled into a hollow of some hills. I really liked it. The arched stands looked lovely in the August sunshine and they seemed to hold the acoustics well - it was noisy in the away end, as the home supporters next to us also had a drum so there was a constant beat going. 

The game itself was surprisingly even, given that Shrewsbury are already bottom of the table and Huddersfield were already near the top. The home team played some lovely football but were the very definition of profligate in front of goal, only managing to get the ball in the net once. At the end they were hanging on to the three points as Shrewsbury pushed for the equaliser. It didn't come, but I hadn't expected Shrewsbury to still be in the game at the end so I thought it was a very encouraging performance against a side who are likely to go back up this season. 

However, an even bigger surprise was waiting in the match programme. It's common to see a feature on the visiting team which will include a player who has played for both clubs. The writer opted to mention goalkeeper Tim Clarke, and offered some highlights of his career - which includes playing for Barry in their famous win over Porto in 2001!

I didn't expect to follow Shrewsbury away and end up reading about Barry as well!