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View attachment 48195 The next post in this series is coming a little early, as I am off abroad for nearly 2 weeks. I will deal with January 17 and 24, 1959, and save the last day of the month for when I'm back. The league is going better for the 2019 Blades, who have moved into the 2nd automatic promotion spot, than it did for the 1959 team. Having lost the first match in January, the second league game, at home v Cardiff on Jan 17, was postponed, presumably because of the weather. The match was eventually played as the last home game of the season. So by mid-January we were still 5th, but 7 points behind Fulham in 2nd place; we now had a match in hand. But the Cup was looking a better prospect, as 60 years ago today Worcester were beating Liverpool 2-1, to earn a home tie v the Blades on Saturday January 24th. And the possibility of defeat for United seemed improbable, but Worcester's victory over Liverpool, who were just above us in the League, ensured that we would be taking it seriously. A performance like the one v Barnet last week would have been unthinkable.
(A brief aside, perhaps depressing for those of you young enough to be supporting the Blades for decades to come: of the 22 teams in League 2 in 1958-59, Liverpool are the only one to have established themselves in the top tier. Fulham, Burnley, Brighton, Huddersfield, Cardiff are there at the moment, but are not long-term residents.)
The pitch at Worcester on Jan 24 was playable, but not perfect. The record crowd of 17000 was packed into the ground, but I have known it more uncomfortable at the Lane when 57000 were in for a big match. There were plenty of Blades in the ground, and a noisy build-up. One of the pictures I have included in the post below shows that the club took it seriously - they apparently spent a couple of days at a nearby spa to relax. This was at a time when for away matches at places like Bristol the team travelled on the same trains as the fans; I always believed that the club secretary bought about 20 cheap day returns on the day - the same tickets we all bought. It was great for autograph-hunting, with most of the players having no airs and graces. Hodgy, needless to say, was simply the best.
The match was surprisingly stress-free. Lewis scored with a good shot after 5 minutes, United took control, and Simpson scored a clever goal early in the second-half, bringing a ball coming over his shoulder down with his right foot and stroking it in with his left. After that, all was calm, except for Knowles getting booked for flattening Hodgy, and the rare sight of Coldwell overlapping like Baldock, and putting in a great centre. It all became comfortable, as summed up by Heap's cartoon in the Green'Un, which for some reason I can only insert at the beginning. By the time of the next home game, on March 7th, the Worcester match was worth only 1 short sentence. All attention had turned to the next round.
Some grainy pictures follow below.