Thirty years ago. Anyone on here go to this fixture 30 years ago when Hull had to win by 3 goals to beat the Blades to promotion ? Loads of Blades there supporting Burnley and Hull went into a quick 2 goal lead but somehow Burnley held on to ensure a Blades promotion, can't remember which division we were in, old 3rd division I think. Brian Marwood who was Hull's main man left the field in tears. I seem to recall Colin Morris said that being there was one of the worst decisions he ever made. Have to agrre with him, extremely tense to say the least
It wa 15th May 1984. It was in the the third division. Oxford and Wimbledon had already been promoted and the third place was up for grabs (no play offs then). Going into the last Saturday of the season (12th May), ourselves, Hull and Bristol Rovers still had a chance of that place. The table looked like this
3. Sheffield United P45 pts 80 GD + 31
4. Hull P44 pts 79 GD +31
5. Bristol Rovers P45 pts 78 GD +14.
On that Saturday, we were playing Newport and home and Hull and Bristol Rovers were playing each other at Hull. We had a routine 2-0 win whereas Hull and Bristol Rovers drew 0-0, meaning the latter were out of it and the table now looked thus:
3. Sheffield United P46 pts 83 GD +33
4. Hull P45 pts 80 GD +31.
Hull still had that game at Burnley left on the Tuesday (that would not, of course, be allowed to happen these days) and, as we had scored 86 goals to Hull's 69, needed to win by 3 to overhaul us on GD (unless they won 18-16
). I remember the Star reporting on the Monday Wednesday manager Howard Wilkinson saying he thought United would be ok and pointing out no team had won by 3 away from home on the Saturday . That gave me a bit of confidence...
Come the Tuesday, I was glued to radio Sheffield, which those days just had score updates and 15 minute reports from the grounds. After 2 minutes, Marwood scored for Hull. Bugger! However, the first half wound its way along and the score stayed at 1-0 at half time.
In the second half we went over to Radio Humberside for live commentary, which, as you can imagine was rather Hull centric. However, we got half way through the half and it was still 1-0 and I was starting to relax slightly until that bugger Marwood went and scored again. There were now 20 plus minutes for Hull to get a third against a team with nowt to play for and I settled down to await the inevitable.
Miracously (perhaps the only time in history the football gods have looked kindly on us), a third goal did not come. With 5 mins to go and Hull pressing like mad, Burnley got a break and the commentary went something like this "and Burnley break and [however he was] is steaming down the right wing, he gets the cross in and there is Billy Hamilton on his own 6 yards out, he must score.... and he heads it over the bar! A real let off for Hull there. Come on you Tigers, finish the job"! Cue me with "you useless fucking bastard Hamilton, you could have put me out of my misery".
There then followed 5 minutes plus of nailbiting agony, but Hull didn't really threaten. The final whistle went and the commentator said "tragedy for Hull tonight as they miss out on promotion by the narrowest of margins". The feed went back to radio Sheffield then and Robert Jackson said "it's not a tragedy at all as Sheffield United are promoted".
Me? I was flat on my back breathing heavily....
