50 years ago today

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Silent Blade said:
5/12/1970

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There is no report of the match in the scrapbook that I bought a few years ago, I am afraid.



My dad and I had set off in in a good time his big black car (Austin, I believe as it did have trafficators like this) View attachment 99665
As soon as we arrived in the town centre, the car had broken down and with the help of by passers, the car was pushed to the nearest garage. The mechanics in the garage agreed to try and fix the car while my dad and I watched the match at Kenilworth Road. Luckily the weather was dry and mild that day and the football ground being a walking distance away from the garage. We were stood in the side terrace where the tv cameras were.

Early in the game John Ryan (a future Blade) sent over a cross from the right (you may note Colin Addison's unusual way of trying to stop the cross) for Malcolm MacDonald to head firmly towards our goal and at first I thought Hodgy had made a good save as it seemed that he had tipped the ball over the bar, I clapped immediately, but quickly stopped clapping, when I realised that the ball unfortunately had dipped into the net (as you can see in the below video from 3 mins 16 seconds)

During half time I was either in the toilets or getting refreshments from the bar when the second half had started, the first action I saw on the pitch when I got back to the terraces was seeing the ball looping over Hodgy and Dave Powell was on the goal line trying to head the ball out but it ended up in the net. I had missed the build up to the goal. About 20 to 25 years later visiting my Norwich mate in Gorleston, he showed me a recording of Luton's goals against us that appeared in Anglia tv's football programme a few weeks earlier. I hadnt realised that the build up to the 2nd goal was started by a MacDonald long throw that Hodgy had failed to punch clear only for Jimmy Ryan to head the ball over the the crowd of players in the box despite Powell's attempt to head the ball away (I remembered the last bit).

Near the end I think Bill Dearden won a penalty for us. TC then became our new penalty taker (note Roger Hoy trying to put TC off by using a shoulder nudge), not a well taken penalty but it was enough to beat keeper Tony Read (who had a spell as an outfield player scoring 12 times for Luton in the mid 1960s).

After the game walking back to the garage my dad discovered that the mechanics couldnt repair the car so my dad had to call for the AA despite not being a member of any breakdown service (he realised afterwards that it was important for him to be a member of the AA). Eventually the car got repaired and I remember looking at the speedometer when we were back on the M1 and being surprised that it was travelling at 90mph in some parts of the M1. Unfortunately MOTD was reaching the end by the time we arrived home.

Sadly it was Colin Addison's last competitive game for us as he had an injury which was to rule him out for nearly the rest of the season, he made a sub appearance in the County Cup 4-0 win at Millmoor after the end of the season. In October 1971 he joined Hereford United as the player-manager replacing the legendary John Charles. What a season Hereford had! Their famous FA Cup 3rd round replay win against 1st division Newcastle. Despite finishing 2nd in the Southern league at the end of the season, they were elected a place in the Football League replacing Barrow who had finished 3rd from bottom of 4th division. The reason why Barrow didnt get many votes from FL chairmen were highly likely to be for geographical reasons.




First half action (not the goal). My dad and I are somewhere in the terraces behind.
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Found more photos and match reports in below link

Match Report: Luton Town vs Sheffield United 1970/1971 | Hatters Heritage

www.hattersheritage.co.uk www.hattersheritage.co.uk

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Silent Blade said:
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I am afraid the 1970-71 scrapbook I have doesnt have the match report of our match at top of the table Hull City.

My dad and I travelled to the match on the Football Special train from the Midland station, not sure if it took us to Hull train station or to Boothferry Park Halt station but I remember getting a bus to the ground and a middle aged Hull fan was telling me that Ken Wagstaff was going to score and that we would lose 2-0. In the last 50 years when I think of Hull City, I picture Wagstaff's cherub face and receiving handshake congratulations from his team mates after scoring a goal. He scored over 300 career goals in 16 years playing for only Mansfield and Hull City and could easily have played in the top division. He always scored goals in a smooth and calm way.

There was only one change in our line up. Mick Heaton came in for Ted Hemsley who was probably injured. I read that Heaton was a good amateur gymnast and I remember noticing his sort of robotic dance style when he is in control of the ball and then goes into a swivel before releasing the ball. I only realised today that Stuart Pearson (later played for Man U and West Ham) was playing for Hull that day.

I was sat in the stand opposite where both goals were scored. Early in the game, Wagstaff broke through our defence, Hodgy came out of the goal but was fooled by Wagstaff's feint and dived to the ground, Wagstaff found space between Hodgy and the near post before coolly rolling the ball into the net, many Hull fans in front of me stood up to celebrate early blocking my view of the ball entering the net. In the 2nd half we equalised with a mishit shot by Currie (see from 2 mins 42 secs from below video) after Hull half cleared a long throw by Salmons (not sure what a cheeky Hull fan was trying to do behind him). The Hull defence stood still watching the ball travel slowly through them. A dropped point didnt change positions in the 2nd division table for both Hull (1st) and Blades (4th)


During half time the scoreboard at the ground revealed that, bottom of the 1st division. Blackpool were leading 3-0 against FA Cup holders Chelsea. On the way back home in the train I saw in a Saturday evening paper that Chelsea had won 4-3!



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More photos. Mick Heaton our number 3

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Another one. Note the goalkeeper. IMG_20210318_150342.jpgIMG_20210318_150400.jpg
 
I think I'm right in saying Arthur Mann (number 3) is not the player who represented Man City and yet that Arthur Mann became maanger of Boston in the 1980's.
 

Silent Blade said:
More photos. Mick Heaton our number 3

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Found another photo of the match, but I dont remember the incident. Caption says "24th October 1970; Sheffield United centre forward Bill Dearden accidently knocked out as he was celebrating a goal with Tony Currie. Hull City captain Terry Neill explains that goalkeeper Ian McKechnie attempted to kick the ball up for field for the re-start only to hit the luckless Dearden instead."

Hull1970.jpg
 
Silent Blade said:
Found another photo of the match, but I dont remember the incident. Caption says "24th October 1970; Sheffield United centre forward Bill Dearden accidently knocked out as he was celebrating a goal with Tony Currie. Hull City captain Terry Neill explains that goalkeeper Ian McKechnie attempted to kick the ball up for field for the re-start only to hit the luckless Dearden instead."

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went to that game at boothery park on the train special tcs scuffed effort got us a point plenty of blades on hulls end that day
 
ancientblade said:
went to that game at boothery park on the train special tcs scuffed effort got us a point plenty of blades on hulls end that day
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Bert said:
Bert also went on the train. You could walk round their ground from one end to the other in those days.
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My dad and I were in the train special too
 
20/3/1971

Blades 5 (Woodward, Ford, Reece, Colquhoun, Dearden) Blackburn 0.

It was a rainy day and on the way to the match in my dad's car, he stopped at Meadowhead to go in a phone booth (we didnt have a phone at home at the time), I followed him wondering what he was doing. He said he was ringing the bookies to find out the odds for us to finish the season as 2nd division champions and he said that he will make the bet.

Now to the match. We scored twice in the first 3 minutes!

Woody in the 1st minute

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Ford in the 3rd minute

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We carried on attacking but Blackburn's keeper made some good stops and I remember him running out of the penalty box to punch away a counter attacking chance which would have been a red card offence nowadays. Eventually we got our third goal just before half time after Jones made a fantastic double save and Reece fired in the rebound.

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In the 2nd half Colquhoun headed in our 4th and near the end Dearden got our 5th

BlackburnDearden.jpg

Then we were awarded a penalty but Ted Hemsley's effort ended up at the back of the Kop.

The ref was Norman Burtenshaw (now 95 years old) and the crowd thought he had a good game. Seven weeks later he refereed the Liverpool v Arsenal FA Cup final. Looking at the other results in the 2nd division, Hull had lost again but to Luton who were only 2 points behind us with 2 games in hand. We were now in 3rd position a point behind Cardiff and Leicester, both have a game in hand over us.

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Silent Blade said:
20/3/1971

Blades 5 (Woodward, Ford, Reece, Colquhoun, Dearden) Blackburn 0.

It was a rainy day and on the way to the match in my dad's car, he stopped at Meadowhead to go in a phone booth (we didnt have a phone at home at the time), I followed him wondering what he was doing. He said he was ringing the bookies to find out the odds for us to finish the season as 2nd division champions and he said that he will make the bet.

Now to the match. We scored twice in the first 3 minutes!

Woody in the 1st minute

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Ford in the 3rd minute

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We carried on attacking but Blackburn's keeper made some good stops and I remember him running out of the penalty box to punch away a counter attacking chance which would have been a red card offence nowadays. Eventually we got our third goal just before half time after Jones made a fantastic double save and Reece fired in the rebound.

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In the 2nd half Colquhoun headed in our 4th and near the end Dearden got our 5th

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Then we were awarded a penalty but Ted Hemsley's effort ended up at the back of the Kop.

The ref was Norman Burtenshaw (now 95 years old) and the crowd thought he had a good game. Seven weeks later he refereed the Liverpool v Arsenal FA Cup final. Looking at the other results in the 2nd division, Hull had lost again but to Luton who were only 2 points behind us with 2 games in hand. We were now in 3rd position a point behind Cardiff and Leicester, both have a game in hand over us.

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I have no recollection of the Blackburn match which pisses me off no end as it sounds like a fantastic performance (especially from TC) and I can think of no reason why I would not have been there .
 
This is when I was been bounced on my dad's knee learning to love Dem Blades......
 
Last week after the QPR game I said Ted's last minute penalty would become more significant when we played this game against Blackburn.

Two penalties. If you are going to miss a penalty then do so when you are 5-0 up. If Ted had scored the penalty against Blackburn and missed the one in the last minute against QPR to give us a valuable point then our season could have ended up differently.

Two penalties in the same season. 2006/07. David Unsworth misses against Blackburn (ironically. Was that at the kop end?) and then scores one against us for Wigan in the last game of the season. If those had been the other way around our future could have ended up differently.

Fine margins as they say.

Those reports Silent just show how good we were. TC running the show. What a great time to be a Blade. Looking at the state of the pitch. He'd be priceless playing on today's surfaces.
 
bornablade said:
Last week after the QPR game I said Ted's last minute penalty would become more significant when we played this game against Blackburn.

Two penalties. If you are going to miss a penalty then do so when you are 5-0 up. If Ted had scored the penalty against Blackburn and missed the one in the last minute against QPR to give us a valuable point then our season could have ended up differently.
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I was thinking the same when I was trying to picture Ted's penalty at QPR. He would have been under a lot more pressure at Loftus Road right in the last minute and against the giant Phil Parkes in goal. Dont know if he blasted or placed the kick. No comparison in the pressure he must have felt when taking the penalty when 5 up against Blackburn but he blazed the ball to the back of the Kop!
 

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