Sheffield United 1982-1983

[JJ Sefton]

 

[JJ Sefton]

I read a lot about apathy at the club at this time, low attendances and the like. Was that the case? Or were folk just skint?

 

[Tyler Durden]

I hope that the commentator on the Dingle match died a slow death.

 

[SouthEssexBlade]

I read a lot about apathy at the club at this time, low attendances and the like. Was that the case? Or were folk just skint?

Bit of both I think. Attendances generally were pretty low at this time, the hooligan thing was at it's height and we'd signed Curran which pissed off plenty of Blades. Also Porterfield probably changed a winning team a bit too much, had too many options and played some strange formations to accommodate everyone.

 

[JJ Sefton]

I hope that the commentator on the Dingle match died a slow death.

I did think about just playing Kajagoogoo over it.

 

[Revolution]

I read a lot about apathy at the club at this time, low attendances and the like. Was that the case? Or were folk just skint?

That season was a rude awakening after how well the year before had gone.

United were amongst the pre season favourites and had brought in some good players over the summer (Terry C****n most notably), but we got pasted 4-1 at Pompey (the Champions elect) on the first day, and though we were about 5th after 8 games, we slipped away and finished mid table. Crowds had more or less halved by the end of the season, despite winning 9 games at home in a row at one point.

I wrote a piece early last season about the striking parallels between the first 8 games of last year and 1982-3 - and it turned out that the two seasons finished up very similar indeed. A bloated squad, lots of injuries, some unsettled players, the manager not knowing his best team, embarrassing defeats (particularly away from home) and a mid table finish.

Crowds were of course low all over the place in that period, and money was thin on the ground in Sheffield, but apathy was a big part of the fall off in gates. I remember, for example, that I didn't go to any of the last 3 or 4 home games, basically because my father couldn't be bothered to attend and I wasn't old enough to go on my own.

 

[Silent Blade]

I read a lot about apathy at the club at this time, low attendances and the like. Was that the case? Or were folk just skint?

I think 1982-83 season was the least in number of me attending matches. It wasn't because we had signed Terry Curran (I must be one of the few that was pleased we had signed him because he was a very good player for Wendy. When I read the Star headlines in summer 1982 about the rumours about him coming to us I found it hard to believe that a player popular with Wendy fans would want to join us despite we were a division lower). I was playing in a lot of football matches that season and was disappointed at having to miss games in the first few months of the season to see Curran and Alan Young.

 

[Tyler Durden]

It got worse it terms of attendances towards the late 80's too. The 86/87 season saw an average of 9,992. I can only guess that the local economy being on its arse was a big factor.

Weirdly enough, in my first season as a season ticket holder (99/00), the average was 13k, which was 3000 fewer than the previous season. Then the season after it jumped up to 17k. But maybe that's a discussion for later in the series.

 

[georgebernardshaw]

I remember this period in United's history with great affection.....







...not

 

[Revolution]

It got worse it terms of attendances towards the late 80's too. The 86/87 season saw an average of 9,992. I can only guess that the local economy being on its arse was a big factor.

Weirdly enough, in my first season as a season ticket holder (99/00), the average was 13k, which was 3000 fewer than the previous season. Then the season after it jumped up to 17k. But maybe that's a discussion for later in the series.

That was United's only 4 figure average attendance since the 1890's.

That season there were 3 gates under 7,000, from memory, with the lowest being the Palace game which was also the lowest post war home league gate.

 

[Tyler Durden]

That was United's only 4 figure average attendance since the 1890's.

That season there were 3 gates under 7,000, from memory, with the lowest being the Palace game which was also the lowest post war home league gate.

I was at the 8000 match against Port Vale. Then again that's the game that about 30,000 others claim they were at

 

[BushBlade]

I was at the 8000 match against Port Vale. Then again that's the game that about 30,000 others claim they were at

For a long time I thought I went to that but as I've got older I'm not sure. At the time it didn't seem that significant. Just another shit game under Heath. Then he got the boot.
Maybe I was, maybe I wasn't, hard to care now.

 

[Cheets]

1982/83 was the first season I started going on my own. We had a lot of good victories at home but our away form let us down. I remember being quite shocked as our attendances dipped below 10,000 towards the end of the season after getting 20,000 plus towards the end of the previous season. When the crowd for the Derby friendly last night was announced as 6,000, I thought to myself we got that for a few division 2 games circa 1987.

 

[Cheets]

Like Silent I was really excited that we'd signed Curran and it was very amusing to see the Wendies' hero wearing a Blades shirt. There was a double page spread of him in Match Weekly with the headline 'LEAVING WEDNESDAY WAS EASY'. With Edwards, Morris and Curran up front I was convinced we'd go up again but alas, it wasn't to be. As well as Alan Young we also tried to sign Trevor Aylott from Barnsley but had to make do with Ray McHale.

 

[Silent Blade]

Like Silent I was really excited that we'd signed Curran and it was very amusing to see the Wendies' hero wearing a Blades shirt. There was a double page spread of him in Match Weekly with the headline 'LEAVING WEDNESDAY WAS EASY'. With Edwards, Morris and Curran up front I was convinced we'd go up again but alas, it wasn't to be. As well as Alan Young we also tried to sign Trevor Aylott from Barnsley but had to make do with Ray McHale.

Porterfield tried to sign Kevin Drinkell too

 

[VLYDONIMIR]

Is that Brian Glover reprising his matchday commentary from Kes?

 

[VLYDONIMIR]

Curran was on United's radar before he signed for Forest from Doncaster Rovers. I never knew that.

Curran's favourite game was the 4-1 "BDM" when there were over 10,000 outside Hillsborough without tickets!!
That's what he said. I'm only quoting.

Curran... "I wanted to upset Jack," he says of the disagreements with Jack Charlton over Wednesday's long-ball game and transfer policy that prompted his cross-city switch.


Anyway, enough of him.

There's ONLY one privileged to be known as TC at BDTBL...
ONLY ONE #10

 

[hendo]

I think this is the same as the opening photo on the video. Can't remember where I got it from but it is signed (if you look closely!).

 

[hendo]

I thinkView attachment 18767 this is the same as the opening photo on the video. Can't remember where I got it from but it is signed (if you look closely!).

One signature at bottom right is poss for a player not shown? Can't make it out very well.

 

[SUFC Handsworth]

I read a lot about apathy at the club at this time, low attendances and the like. Was that the case? Or were folk just skint?

Apathy grew as the season progressed, but for the start of the season the club and supporters were on a high and hoping to build on the Division 4 title with another promotion in 82-83. We'd matched our record signing fee paid by getting Alan Young from Leicester, rubbed the pigs snout in it by buying their star player (made even better when the tribunal set the fee at £100k, when the pigs wanted a lot more) and gates at the start of the season were at healthy level, another promotion season would probably have seen an average attendance pushing towards 20k.

However, as the season panned out it became obvious the squad was top heavy with strikers and wide players (Porterfield even added Rotherham wide-man Tony Towner to the squad on loan at the back end of the season), with the defence looking weak and new midfield players McHale and Arnott struggling to settle in (ie they were poor however in 83/84 they did step up to the mark). In hindsight (or perhaps Porterfield should have used some foresight) he should have spent the money on defenders and a quality midfield player (at the time we were linked with amongst others Rotherham defenders Stancliffe and Forrest, Steve Bruce at Gillingham, midfield players Danny Wilson at Chessie and Ronnie Glavin at Barnsley, and the Snodin brothers at Donny) and kept faith with Edwards, Hatton and Morris as the forwards.

In comparison a few years later Bassett after promotion in 88-89 identified a key weakness as the defence and spent a lot of money (by United's standards at the time) on bolstering the back line (ironically DB matched the record fee paid by signing a defender Mark Morris from Watford), which all worked a treat as a second promotion was achieved in 89-90. If Porterfield had done similar in 82-83 we could well have achieved back-to-back promotions earlier in the decade.

I don't know if anyone has pointed it out on this thread but Curran was very much a signing of the Chairman Reg Brealey and not Porterfield. In Curran's book he makes the point that before the tribunal both the pigs and Newcastle subsequently offered more money for his services but as he'd promised Brealey he stuck by his word and signed for us.

 

[bladestrivia]

went to all 3 of them games, barnsley had some good players back then mccarthy glavin and banks the wigan game iam sure shred walked round the pitch and up to porterfield or was that later we played palace on a tues nightand iam pretty sure that is the only time we got under 70000

 

[Silent Blade]

the wigan game iam sure shred walked round the pitch and up to porterfield or was that later we played palace on a tues nightand iam pretty sure that is the only time we got under 70000

Matthew Bell wrote in Shred's obituary about that Wigan game (it was in February 1984 when we lost 3-0) when Shred banged on the roof of the dugout and telling Porterfield what he thought about our display.

The Palace match you are talking about was in 1986/87

 

[shorehamview]

I thinkView attachment 18767 this is the same as the opening photo on the video. Can't remember where I got it from but it is signed (if you look closely!).

I couldn't tell who they are, and I've cricked my neck from trying to read them.

 

[nowtfancy]

Thanks for sharing these.

Just a reminder as to how important football really is - despite reading about apathy and poor results etc, looking back they are good memories to have as i went to all these matches with my dad who died a few years later.
The social links we make through it are worth more than the bad taste a few shit managers & players leave.

Wont matter this year though, 'cause we are gonna be brilliant...

 

[Cheets]

Another thing to remember about that season was that in the summer of 1982, as well as the signing of Curran from our arch-rivals, Brealey unveiled large-scale plans to develop Bramall Lane, including a two-tier Kop and a hotel. Planning permission was never granted despite Brealey taking it as far as the House of Lords, but it all indicated how ambitious Brealey was for the club at the time, in stark contrast to his later years at the club in the early 90s.

 

[JJ Sefton]

Another thing to remember about that season was that in the summer of 1982, as well as the signing of Curran from our arch-rivals, Brealey unveiled large-scale plans to develop Bramall Lane, including a two-tier Kop and a hotel. Planning permission was never granted despite Brealey taking it as far as the House of Lords, but it all indicated how ambitious Brealey was for the club at the time, in stark contrast to his later years at the club in the early 90s.

He had an idea what to do with us and when it became apparent that idea wouldn't work out he wanted to go. Trouble is that he couldn't find anyone to take us off his hands.

 

[SouthEssexBlade]

Another thing to remember about that season was that in the summer of 1982, as well as the signing of Curran from our arch-rivals, Brealey unveiled large-scale plans to develop Bramall Lane, including a two-tier Kop and a hotel. Planning permission was never granted despite Brealey taking it as far as the House of Lords, but it all indicated how ambitious Brealey was for the club at the time, in stark contrast to his later years at the club in the early 90s.

The planning refusal (it was a bit of a daft scheme) was the start of Brealey losing interest.

 

[Cheets]

Brealey had a lot of weird and wacky ideas in the early 80s, including dropping leaflets over towns where United were due to be playing, containing the message 'The Blades are coming!'

 

[JJ Sefton]

Brealey had a lot of weird and wacky ideas in the early 80s, including dropping leaflets over towns where United were due to be playing, containing the message 'The Blades are coming!'

Perhaps that isn't too sensible, but when you look at how football has developed since lots of his ideas were ahead of their time, for better or worse.

 

[Revolution]

Brealey was well ahead of his time in some respects. Plus the mess of the early 1990s was not his doing, but Paul Woolhouse's