1963-64 (60 years ago) match reports and photos

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Silent Blade said:
2/11/1963

Blades 2 (Kettleborough, Wagstaff) Arsenal 2 (Strong, Baker)

Still top of the league!

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Chesterfield born Bob Wilson in goal for Arsenal. He didnt have a regular place in the 1st team until the 1968-69 season!
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Scores, scorers, line ups and league tables in below link
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Oh happy days! As the Lines from the Pavilion (below) point out, this was the first time since 1925 that we had been top of the top league, and if that is correct, and my subsequent recollections are correct, we were in the same position again in autumn 1971, and never since. Safe to say we won’t be getting there this season! So should those of us who can remember both 1963 and 1971 regard ourselves as a privileged elite, or a cursed minority who have twice had their dreams shattered? More thoughts on that in the weeks to come…
I again found the programme notes an interesting read, and have included my dad’s updating of the league table; this was not just the excitement of being top of the league - he used to do it every week, even with the Central League tables.
And thanks for the picture of Bob Wilson - never seen that before.
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And a final detail - ashamed to say I cannot remember Wagstaffe’s worldie. He was in great form - 12 appearances, 6 goals.
 

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Silent Blade said:
9/11/1963

Leicester 0 Blades 1 (Kettleborough)

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Scores, scorers. line ups and league tables in below link
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Was there ever a better time to be a teenager growing up as a Blade than early November, 1963? When I look back (and when you get to a certain age, no matter whatever you swore you would never do, you will start looking back one day), that was a month which shaped a part of me for life. I was probably insufferable at the time (I probably still am), but optimism was at its height. I was doing well at school, and was captain of the school football team (rugby was the prestige sport at King Teds, so that was no great achievement); the Beatles had just been invented, and the previous Saturday I had been to see them for the second time at the City Hall. My hair style had gone from Elvis to Beatles that year, and has remained the same ever since. And the Beatles were about to release their second LP (albums had not been invented) on November 22nd. Nothing could overshadow that event (check the history books if you don’t get the irony). And most importantly, United were top of the league after the win at Leicester, beginning to establish a clear lead. Monday mornings at school were a pleasure, hunting down the Wednesdayites to enjoy a bit of banter at their expense, for once. Nothing too aggressive; the rivalry was strong, but there was also a rivalry between football supporters and the rugby players, which was in many ways more important.
However, by the end of November, things had changed… For the moment, I attach below the Reserve programme for this wonderful day when anything seemed possible. My life of glamour extended to going to watch the Reserves😂
And all was well there. We watched the scoreboard show the progress at Leicester, and Graham Shaw was playing for the Reserves after a long absence through injury - and scoring a goal! And the Reserves beat Bolton 2-1, which set us up perfectly for the following week’s first-team game against a struggling Bolton side. What could possibly go wrong?
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Silent Blade said:
Now you mention November 22nd, we were at the top of the league when JFK got assassinated!
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As well as CS Lewis and Aldous 'Brave New World' Huxley. Because it was overshadowed by JFK's assassination, it is considered to be two of the worst timed deaths in celebrity history!
 

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Hi Hodgy’s Broken Thumb,

I see in your reserve programme against Bolton our goalie is Bob Widdowson, who never managed to establish himself in the first team but I recall a newspaper cutting somewhere when he played at Everton in the cup and we knocked them out.
The report said “A star is born” as he performed heroics diving from one side of the goal to the other -
Does anyone know when that match was played?
 

Thanks Silent. The Best goal was the one at the start of M o Day, wasn’t it?
 
mikeheath said:
Hi Hodgy’s Broken Thumb,

I see in your reserve programme against Bolton our goalie is Bob Widdowson, who never managed to establish himself in the first team but I recall a newspaper cutting somewhere when he played at Everton in the cup and we knocked them out.
The report said “A star is born” as he performed heroics diving from one side of the goal to the other -
Does anyone know when that match was played?
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I haven’t come up with the answer to your question. He played 7 league and 1 Cup game, but I don’t think he played a Cup game v Everton. He was a good keeper from what I saw of him, but was unlucky with injuries, and the fact that Hodgy was so consistent. As with all good questions, the search led me to an answer to a different question. He went on at least 2 summer tours to the Americas, both eventful for him. In 1962 he had to come home after breaking his arm in one game; and in 1967 Utd became the first English team to play in Bolivia, and for some reason Bob Widdowson played at right-half! A load of stomach upsets, perhaps? I will let you know if I find out more.
 
HodgysBrokenThumb said:
I haven’t come up with the answer to your question. He played 7 league and 1 Cup game, but I don’t think he played a Cup game v Everton. He was a good keeper from what I saw of him, but was unlucky with injuries, and the fact that Hodgy was so consistent. As with all good questions, the search led me to an answer to a different question. He went on at least 2 summer tours to the Americas, both eventful for him. In 1962 he had to come home after breaking his arm in one game; and in 1967 Utd became the first English team to play in Bolivia, and for some reason Bob Widdowson played at right-half! A load of stomach upsets, perhaps? I will let you know if I find out more.
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He did play at Everton in the 1964-5 season. There is a photo of him in an aerial challenge, will find it
 
mikeheath said:
Hi Hodgy’s Broken Thumb,

I see in your reserve programme against Bolton our goalie is Bob Widdowson, who never managed to establish himself in the first team but I recall a newspaper cutting somewhere when he played at Everton in the cup and we knocked them out.
The report said “A star is born” as he performed heroics diving from one side of the goal to the other -
Does anyone know when that match was played?
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The best I can do is extract from a report on his debut, at Blackpool, in a 4-2 win on April 3, 1962
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More details are on the ‘60 Years Ago this month’ thread, for that date; but nothing to answer your question.
 
HodgysBrokenThumb said:
I haven’t come up with the answer to your question. He played 7 league and 1 Cup game, but I don’t think he played a Cup game v Everton. He was a good keeper from what I saw of him, but was unlucky with injuries, and the fact that Hodgy was so consistent. As with all good questions, the search led me to an answer to a different question. He went on at least 2 summer tours to the Americas, both eventful for him. In 1962 he had to come home after breaking his arm in one game; and in 1967 Utd became the first English team to play in Bolivia, and for some reason Bob Widdowson played at right-half! A load of stomach upsets, perhaps? I will let you know if I find out more.
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Dangerous thing to admit to on here😂. He was worryingly successful as Wednesday manager for 3 years, and only Spurs saved us from having to listen to Wednesdayites telling us about how they won the League… no doubt they’d still be going on about it now! Glad to know that you turned out ok in the end…
 
16/11/1963

Blades 0 Bolton 1 (Deakin)

We remain top of the league despite losing to 2nd from bottom Bolton. Hodgkinson out injured for the next seven weeks also Kettleborough out injured for next few months.

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Scores, scorers, line ups and league tables in below link
 
Silent Blade said:
16/11/1963

Blades 0 Bolton 1 (Deakin)

We remain top of the league despite losing to 2nd from bottom Bolton. Hodgkinson out injured for the next seven weeks also Kettleborough out injured for next few months.

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Scores, scorers, line ups and league tables in below link
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60 years on, I can finally have my own Forum meltdown moment. Life was good as a 16-year-old Blades supporter. For 6 years or so United had been steadily improving, had got together a settled team of players who played 100s of games, had a sensible manager, an identifiable brand of football, and a good understanding between players and supporters (football clubs had supporters, The Beatles had fans). And at this time, clubs like Ipswich and Burnley had been League Champions. I truly believed that winning the League or the Cup was possible. Top of the league against Bolton who were likely to be relegated, but that was the day when it all began to collapse. Graham Shaw was still out injured (but his younger brother was playing well in his place), Richardson was missing injured for the first time in 2 years, the Bolton keeper Hopkinson (very similar to Hodgy as a goalie) played a blinder, but most importantly Hodgy broke his thumb, and Kettleborough damaged his knee in a 1-0 defeat. We did remain top of the League (a good question on Pointless would be ‘who were top of the league in England on the Friday that JFK was assassinated?’), but by the following Saturday that had all changed.
At the time, and very unfairly, no doubt, I blamed the Board. I knew we were not a wealthy club, but with Hodgy and his deputy, Bob Widdowson, injured, we did not get a proper replacement, and instead webrought back from non-league Buxton our ageing former reserve keeper, Des Thompson. He was good fun as reserve keeper (a poor man’s Harry Gregg is how I thought of him), but as a replacement for my hero Hodgy, this sent out all the wrong signals, and the next 7 games produced just 3 points, and the dream was over. Possibly Kettleborough’s injury was a bigger factor, and several other injuries followed quickly (who was the Shirecliffe sniper then?), but I always put my loss of footballing innocence down to the return of poor old Des.
For anyone who wants a humorous version of events, and a feel for how football was and football injuries were treated, I recommend the pages below from Hodgy’s autobiography. They are, however, a fictional re-creation, as the match described is at Bolton, and 3 of the players mentioned did not even play in that fateful game. But, allowing for humorous exaggeration and inaccuracy of detail, I think it gives a great picture of how footballers felt and were treated. Authentic, but totally inaccurate in historical detail:
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Extracts from the programme:
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Silent Blade said:
Ball Inn sniper!

The inaccuracies in Hodgy's autobiography! 🫣
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Losing 2 goalkeepers in a week had to be more than coincidence. Ball Inn sniper… or Des Thompson 😂 I think we should be told!
Hodgy’s autobiography is incredibly inaccurate, but I am so biased that I still like it. I have come to accept it as a fictional re-creation which captures the spirit of the time.
 
Trying not to make my post too long, I saved one page of the Bolton programme for a separate post. A good innovation was the introduction of a page for individual players to express their opinions, beginning with experienced captain, Cec Coldwell. Nothing earth-shatteringly original in his article, but as you would expect of the man a very straightforward and committed attitude to club captaincy, respecting the club, taking seriously his responsibilities to his team-mates, recognising family support, and a sense of pride in what he and the club were achieving. I assume his career was exceeding his expectations when he started out, and he was taking nothing for granted.
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