The Good Old Days.

[Woodwardfan]

Very happy memories of my dad taking me to Boxing Day matches, and the smell of cigar smoke all around the ground will never leave me.

Not sure of your age but could they have been Xmas morning games?

Not yet mentioned on here but how special they were. What days they were, even if we didn't win!

 

[Nick Jansky]

Not sure of your age but could they have been Xmas morning games?

Not yet mentioned on here but how special they were. What days they were, even if we didn't win!

I'm 56, and just missed out on the Xmas morning games, but I remember my dad & older brothers heading off to them. I was too young, had to stay at home with mum whilst she cooked the turkey. By the time I was considered to be not too much of an annoyance to take they had finished.

 

[Revolution]

I'm 56, and just missed out on the Xmas morning games, but I remember my dad & older brothers heading off to them. I was too young, had to stay at home with mum whilst she cooked the turkey. By the time I was considered to be not too much of an annoyance to take they had finished.

The last Christmas day game was in 1957-8, I think.

 

[Sean Thornton]

It's hard work on here Peter, i think the clique would give a Wednesdayite a better welcome, i'll leave you to it.

Plenty on the internet backing the 1965 year and Everton fans up along with Liverpool fans. Even as a kid I can remember trouble at games well prior to Skinhead culture.

 

[Esablade]

Very happy memories of my dad taking me to Boxing Day matches, and the smell of cigar smoke all around the ground will never leave me.

...and if you were coming from 'the wrong side of town', the smell of hops from Whitbreads as you crossed Lady's Bridge and it was match day...

 

[I should coco]

..and if you were coming from 'the wrong side of town', the smell of hops from Whitbreads as you crossed Lady's Bridge and it was match day...

If you were really luck with your timing you would lose the smell from Whitbreads half way through Town, then pick up the even hoppier nose from Waaaards on the Moor.

I'd completely forgotten this wonderful aroma until I came out of the Virgin Gym (Broadfield Road) and got a noseful. Abbeydale Road is just over the Railway Line and although it is only a very localised area, it is still a wonderful pungent smell.

 

[Nick Jansky]

...and if you were coming from 'the wrong side of town', the smell of hops from Whitbreads as you crossed Lady's Bridge and it was match day...

Yes, wonderful smell!

Another memory is the club shop, such as it was, in a terraced house on John Street, staffed by two young ladies that I had a serious teenaged crush on. We used to pop in to buy programmes from the away matches that we couldn't afford to go to.

 

[Paisley Blade]

In previous years, Dennis Finnegan and David Smith who was a Wendyite and could have played for either Sheffield team. He went on to play for Huddersfield (alongside such luminaries as Frank Worthington) as he thought his chances of first division football would be better with them. I'm in touch with him again but the last time I actually saw him was when he was playing for Hartlepool in the FA Cup at Maine Road. They got mullered 6-0

I used to work alongside Dennis when I was a nipper - tremendous bloke.

 

[bornablade]

Trolls were things that lived under bridges and scared billy goats.

We used to come out of matches after we'd won feeling gay.

 

[dublin 10 blade]

Thanks, I couldn't remember their name. I lived on Glencoe Road and my Grandmother and spinster Aunt lived up the road and then in the Shrewsbury Almshouses over the wall at the bottom of our garden. Perhaps your Granddad maybe knew my Grandmother and " got me down in the nettles" as she once said about her estranged husband!!!

Bramall Lane was in view from Sky Edge and the Cholera Gardens and would come into view on our walk to games at the top of Shrewsbury Road- excitement, anticipation, likelihoods, hopes, fears, PMT, warmth, sense of belonging, heritage. Night matches were the best, Bramall Lane lit up for a game was glamorous from up there but there was a spell when the lights were subdued until nearly kick off, maybe the miners strike period or other power cuts.

When I lived on Skyedge , when you looked out the living room window , there stood the lane a sight to behold when the floodlights where on .

 

[HodgysBrokenThumb]

I've still got my scrap books and autograph book from the early 70s. During the summer holidays we used to hang around the players entrance on John Street to catch them as they came back from training. They were always happy to chat with us and sign autographs, I remember John Flynn in particular being a really great bloke and would have a kick around in the street with us.

I've also still got the complete Wonderful World of Soccer Stars sticker album from 69/70, which sadly didn't include the Blades. It was the first season they used action shots rather than just head & shoulder pics, brings back so many memories.

Envious envious of you! Are you sure you didn't nick the albums that me and Woodwardfan can't remember getting rid of?

 

[Woodwardfan]

1. Maximum wage.
2. No Bosman- will that be changed after Brexit I wonder?
3. 1 black player in the whole football league.
4. Cricket in the 50's and 60's - separate thread maybe- such outstanding days and days and years.
5. Watched players develop from kids to adults to mature players to experienced players to veterans and felt you knew them as family. More integrity there somehow.
6.Hodgy' s one -on- ones.
7. Hodgkinson, Coldwell, Shaw, Richardson, Shaw, Summers.

 

[Mad Mick]

Played on Park Hill flats every Sunday morning and more in school holidays for a couple of years. David Ford and Charlie Bell played too. Big playing area with netting in a big circle at one end and a wall made a natural goal at the other end. Sometimes 20 a side- great times.

You are correct. Maybe we both played at the same time.

 

[Sean Thornton]

You are correct. Maybe we both played at the same time.

Just below the Parkway.

 

[Mad Mick]

That's right Sean. Parkway was my local for a time. Was on telly a few years ago as one of the toughest pubs in England. Also they filmed one of the "This is England" episodes on grass just a few yards away.

 

[Sean Thornton]

That's right Sean. Parkway was my local for a time. Was on telly a few years ago as one of the toughest pubs in England. Also they filmed one of the "This is England" episodes on grass just a few yards away.

Saw that Mick. Recognised a lot of the regulars !

Tommy Cosh's local for many years used to terrify us when we were kids but actually a great bloke.

 

[Mad Mick]

I knew Tommy well.

 

[SandyMcBlade]

How long were we without a stand on John street after we had to take the old wooden one down because of the Bradford fire ?

 

[Silent Blade]

The last Christmas day game was in 1957-8, I think.

Our last Xmas Day match was in the 2-1 win at Grimsby in the 1958-59 season

 

[Tunstall Fred]

How long were we without a stand on John street after we had to take the old wooden one down because of the Bradford fire ?

Fred Wests Garden?

 

[Silent Blade]

How long were we without a stand on John street after we had to take the old wooden one down because of the Bradford fire ?

knocked down after the last home game of the 1993-94 season (2-0 win v Newcastle). Stand opened in October 1996 (v Tranmere 0-0)

 

[SandyMcBlade]

I know we went for years with the open cricket side but that period when it was just a scrap yard on John st. for me was the most unsettling period we've been through.
especially with the trouble about the chairman's bankruptcy at the time, and the talk about us not having enough money to rebuild.......

 

[Fulwood Blade]

This is probably one for silent.........

I heard a story once about a Utd reserve FB who played 600+ games for the reserves and only a couple for the first team.

When asked why he hadn't ever moved clubs - his answer was "1st teamers got £23 quid for playing, reserves got £21 for playing", so now real reason to move.

Come on silent - there's a tester for you, and the player was? I don't know btw - just heard this a long time back.

UTB

 

[Sharrow Snuff Mill]

For years after I started going in 1956 the only song we sang was ' Ilkley Moor bar t'at' but it did feel as though the whole crowd sang it. We had a crowd limit of 57000 in the 60's and we filled the ground regularly in cup games. What days they were. Burnley, Norwich, Wednesday.

Norwich had their current song "On the ball City" which I still know word for word. Don't think the other two had a song. Maybe Arsenal was another 57k crowd.

I remember a full house against Norwich in a 5th or 6th round cup tie, and along with the rattles, scarves,tophats, bells etc., there were 2 or3 Norwich fans with live canaries in cages on the Bramall Lane end.

 

[Revolution]

This is probably one for silent.........

I heard a story once about a Utd reserve FB who played 600+ games for the reserves and only a couple for the first team.

When asked why he hadn't ever moved clubs - his answer was "1st teamers got £23 quid for playing, reserves got £21 for playing", so now real reason to move.

Come on silent - there's a tester for you, and the player was? I don't know btw - just heard this a long time back.

UTB

Roy Ridge. 11 league games in 12 seasons or something.

His story is in Gary Armstrong's "Blade Runners"

 

[Sharrow Snuff Mill]

Bob Socks thinks Everton fans started it and in 1965

It started well before that. I remember a number of us on the Kop always waiting for a couple of characters called Willy and Gowler to arrive to get it going. It was around 1960.

 

[Sharrow Snuff Mill]

1 no league cup.
2. No paint trophy etc etc
3. Dick Wragg, John Short, John Harris.
4. Eric Taylor
5. Tony Kaye, Peter Swan and Bronco Lane.
6. No security stewards.
7. No announcers
8.No alcohol
9. Players tunnel on John Street, wire netting cover.
10. Linesman were allowed to make decisions and put their flag up!!
11. No diving.
12. No shirt pulling
13. No wrestling at corners
14. Three or four handshakes on scoring, nothing more.
15. No yellow or red cards.
16.Temporary stand on cricket pitch for big games and 57000 capacity.

 

[Sharrow Snuff Mill]

The only time a temporary stand went on the cricket pitch was in 1961, I think, for a 6th round cup tie against the Pigs . It took the gate up to 60,000. I still haven`t forgiven that dour, miserable "person" called Howard Wilkinson for scoring the goals in a 2 - 0 defeat.

 

[Silent Blade]

The only time a temporary stand went on the cricket pitch was in 1961, I think, for a 6th round cup tie against the Pigs . It took the gate up to 60,000. I still haven`t forgiven that dour, miserable "person" called Howard Wilkinson for scoring the goals in a 2 - 0 defeat.

1960. It was Derek Wilkinson who scored both goals. Howard Wilkinson was in our books at the time but never played for our 1st team. His debut for Wendy was in Sept 1964

 

[cahill]

:


The only live TV game for years.

I recall that apart from the FA Cup final, the England v Scotland game during the home Championships and the European Cup final were also shown live on TV. That was it. I also remember one year the FA Amateur Cup final was on TV
Walthamstow Avenue v West Auckland, anyone else remember that ? Walthamstow Avenue merged with other London clubs over the years and have now morphed into Dagenham and Redbridge FC.

The nights just fly by in my house