TERRIERS HISTORIC LINKS: BRIAN CLARK

Club Historian, Richard Shepherd, remembers a famous link with Saturday's opponents...

It could not have worked out better for striker Brian Clark, who joined us from Saturday’s opponents Huddersfield Town on Friday, February 2nd 1968.

The following day Bristol-born Brian made his début for City in a Second Division match at Derby County, and scored twice in a 4-3 win.

The former Bristol City forward, who had been a consistent scorer for his home-town club after joining them as a junior player, had been with Huddersfield since October 1966.

He had a promising start with the Yorkshire club too, until an injury sustained on their 1967 pre-season tour to Germany curtailed his progress. In fact, by January 1968 he was finding it difficult to regain his first-team place...



At that time our manager Jimmy Scoular was looking to sign a replacement for striker Bobby Brown, who had been forced into an early retirement following a knee-injury picked up against Aston Villa on Boxing Day 1967. That replacement turned out to be Brian Clark, who himself admitted that the transfer came at a crucial point in his playing career.

Brian cost Cardiff City a bargain £8,000 fee and was to score over 100 League and Cup goals for us in two spells, forming a prolific goal-getting partnership with John Toshack before Toshack’s move to Liverpool in November 1970.

Indeed, we had good reason to be grateful to Huddersfield for Clark’s move to Cardiff City - not least for one of the most famous goals in Bluebirds' history (pictured below) as he headed home the winner against Real Madrid at Ninian Park in 1971.



Click below to watch Anthony Pilkington hit the back of the net in our 2-0 victory over the Terriers earlier this season...