John Hope RIP

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Boxer Blade said:
Whenever john hope is brought up my memory is hope collecting the ball from a corner in front of the kop, playing Newcastle and Malcolm Mcdonald had been giving it out, they both fell to the floor as hope got up he (accidentally) walked over macdonald, huge cheer from the kop, to his credit macdonald just got up and carried on! If it happend today the player would rolling around for ages hoping to get him sent off. Happy memories.
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I remember that incident but thought it was when SuperMac was playing for Luton. The fact Silent has given you a like makes me think I've got it wrong
 

Amazing how the memory plays tricks. I remember the actions but I thought he had done John Tudor who had moved to Newcastle from the Blades.
 
Must have been Mac then. As I say, I can remember him trampling on someone and looking down in "surprise" much to our mirth.
 
1889 said:
That news is so sad, I can't believe he has died, he was a fantastic goalkeeper and a real character in an era of footballing characters.

I remember one Christmas game in the early 70's someone throwing him a satsuma and he stood against his post, peeled it and ate it as the game continued in front of him. He had a real rapour with the fans on the Kop and was a great goalie in his own right, whilst his persona was totally different to Alan Hodgkinson, who'd gone before.

When I think about it, he was my all time favourite Utd keeper and I am deeply saddened by his death :(
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Sorry mate but you must be getting confused with someone else I think? He was one of the poorest keepers we've ever had. He started out well initially when taking over from Hodgy and even forced his way into the England B team. But he quickly became a liability in goal. I remember the Arsenal game at home when we lost 5-0 and one of those goals was the classic goalkeeper mistake where he bent down to pick it up and it just rolled straight between his open legs and into the goal? I've never seen an error like that before in professional football - only in young kids learning to play junior football. During that game he was flapping at every corner and at one point he looked skywards and literally prayed to God to help him. It was desperate stuff. Hope found himself dropped not long after that and in the end he was put on the transfer list for free - but no club showed any interest in him. He ended up packing the game in altogether.

Those are facts.

I wouldn't pretend for one minute that he was a great keeper - but I will feel sad today thinking back to the memories of the lad and that great Sheffield United team that he played in.
 
Cerberus Blade said:
Sorry mate but you must be getting confused with someone else I think? He was one of the poorest keepers we've ever had. He started out well initially when taking over from Hodgy and even forced his way into the England B team. But he quickly became a liability in goal. I remember the Arsenal game at home when we lost 5-0 and one of those goals was the classic goalkeeper mistake where he bent down to pick it up and it just rolled straight between his open legs and into the goal? I've never seen an error like that before in professional football - only in young kids learning to play junior football. During that game he was flapping at every corner and at one point he looked skywards and literally prayed to God to help him. It was desperate stuff. Hope found himself dropped not long after that and in the end he was put on the transfer list for free - but no club showed any interest in him. He ended up packing the game in altogether.

Those are facts.

I wouldn't pretend for one minute that he was a great keeper - but I will feel sad today thinking back to the memories of the lad and that great Sheffield United team that he played in.
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He got injured playing in the reserves match after being dropped in April 1972, had a knee operation and was out of action for about a year. He did return to the 1st team in January 1974 replacing the ineffective John Connaughton and played quite ok for 8 more games before we signed Jim Brown. His knee was never right and in 1975 and 1976 he played 23 games for Hartlepool and also played for Pretoria in South Africa.

The fact is that we needed a new keeper who could come out for crosses as Hodgy "had lost it" during the 1970/71 season, the other teams were exploiting this weakness. He was very good and popular with the fans for the rest of 1971 (apart from the League Cup match at West Ham). He and Trevor Hockey were the two key signings for our promotion push
 
Cerberus Blade said:
Sorry mate but you must be getting confused with someone else I think? He was one of the poorest keepers we've ever had. He started out well initially when taking over from Hodgy and even forced his way into the England B team. But he quickly became a liability in goal. I remember the Arsenal game at home when we lost 5-0 and one of those goals was the classic goalkeeper mistake where he bent down to pick it up and it just rolled straight between his open legs and into the goal? I've never seen an error like that before in professional football - only in young kids learning to play junior football. During that game he was flapping at every corner and at one point he looked skywards and literally prayed to God to help him. It was desperate stuff. Hope found himself dropped not long after that and in the end he was put on the transfer list for free - but no club showed any interest in him. He ended up packing the game in altogether.

Those are facts.

I wouldn't pretend for one minute that he was a great keeper - but I will feel sad today thinking back to the memories of the lad and that great Sheffield United team that he played in.
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What a shame you didn't post that earlier, I'm, sure it would have been well received as part of his eulogy.

I think everyone appreciates that when someone dies there is an element of 'rose coloured spectacles' that's why you rarely see 'John Smith, died Saturday, bit of a twat if we're honest, no flowers' and why when you die, it may say something like 'Kind, thoughtful and considerate, was always mindful of the feelings of others' :mad:
 
Sad News indeed, RIP John, Condelences to friends and family, twas in 71 as a mere young strippling gangley legged whipsnapper at towd age of 9 that I became aware of and fell in love with the blades, although it would not be until a few years later I went to my first game, (my eldest sister and her then boyfriend took me).
 
diode_blade said:
Sad News indeed, RIP John, Condelences to friends and family, twas in 71 as a mere young strippling gangley legged whipsnapper at towd age of 9 that I became aware of and fell in love with the blades, although it would not be until a few years later I went to my first game, (my eldest sister and her then boyfriend took me).
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July 2016
 

Silent Blade said:
I didnt resurrect this on purpose. Just that this morning I saw this photo of our ex-players at the funeral. Should I have created a new thread instead?
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Silent Blade, you of all people don't need to justify yourself.

If other people can't be arsed to read a date on an OP then that's their problem.

LYDON's mischievous resurrection are different but they have still generated some decent replies.

Can't the moaners see that others enjoy threads, as evidenced by likes and replies?
 
Silent Blade said:
I didnt resurrect this on purpose. Just that this morning I saw this photo of our ex-players at the funeral. Should I have created a new thread instead?
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I'll let you off my friend ;)

There just seem to have been so many old threads resurrected and it just gets tedious IMO. I think you were right to post on this thread so apologies to you buddy.
 
I should coco said:
If other people can't be arsed to read a date
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The problem is that any thread old or new that has a new post is bold red when you go to main page. Clicking the link takes you to the newest posts and there is no indication there that the thread is old.

Anyway I'm going to give Silent Blade a big sloppy kiss next time I see him :D
 
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Very very sad news. The amazing save Wildsmith made to keep the Pigs in the game was cloned from the save John Hope made at the Leppings Lane end to earn us a 0-0 draw and precious point that eventually saw us promoted. A header was already in the top corner to his right but somehow he clawed it out - fantastic save. Thanks for the memories John - and that promotion; I don't think we'd have got up that year without you becoming a Blade.
 
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