Jimmy Hagan November 1938 (From The Jimmy Hagan Story)
Jimmy Hagan arrived at Bramall Lane as a slim, dark-hared, good-looking, 20-year-old with a growing reputation as an intelligent and very talented youngster with exceptional ball control, good balance and a strong shot with either foot. Whilst he was tipped to become a great player, he was not yet the finished article, though his transfer caused plenty of favourable comment among the Sheffield United fans.
In the Sheffield United dressing room, where many players had ‘seen it all before’, his arrival did not create any undue excitement, however. Hagan was a quiet young man, and not one to push himself forward. Sheffield United had some good, experienced players, and some promising youngsters of their own. Although they had been in the Second Division since 1934 they had reached the Cup Final in 1936 and had twice narrowly missed out on promotion. At the start of the 1938 season the club had bought Harold Hampson from Southport for £2,200. Now Teddy Davison was banking on Hampson and Hagan to supply the extra quality to get the team back into Division One.
With no television to showcase the talents of rising stars, reputations were made largely by word of mouth or from reports in the national and local newspapers.
The use of substitutes was still many decades in the future so new players could not be eased into a team by giving them a run out for the last few minutes of a match. It was all or nothing in those days and Hagan was thrown in at the deep end for his first match in the red and white stripes of the Blades on 5th November 1938, when he immediately established himself in the side. He was given the number 10 shirt and thus started in the inside left position in an away game against Swansea Town. The team won 2 –1, with the goals coming from the burly centre-forward, Jock Dodds, and left-winger, George Jones.
The following week Hagan played in his first home game against Chesterfield, again at inside-left. The team drew 1 – 1.
It was perhaps felt at this point that Hagan’s relatively slim build was something of a handicap for an inside forward, for he was switched to right wing where he formed a partnership with Hampson at inside-right . Hagan’s first match on the wing, against Tranmere Rovers, saw the team win 2 – 0, with both goals coming from Jock Dodds. Then, on 26th November, Hagan scored his first Sheffield United goal in a 3 – 1 win over West Ham United in front of the home crowd of nearly 20,000. He scored in the next game, too. The quiet young man was letting his feet do the talking and, in a small way, the Legend of Jimmy Hagan had begun!
