Blades Lowlights

[Finn Keane o' Balmaqueen]

0-3 at Altrincham. FA Cup Replay. Trusson sent off. 81/82

Arsenal, Bolton Wanderers, Sunderland.
The three 5's. 77/78.

Signing of The A1 Gypsy.

 

[boo radley]

The building of the South Stand 1975. Look what has happened since.

 

[Dkc]

Oh the famous Port Vale away game when we "hit rock bottom" should maybe be in there too, forget what year that was

 

[Dkc]

The building of the South Stand 1975. Look what has happened since.

Perhaps the ghosts of certain S Yorks cricketers have never forgiven us for basically exiling Yorkshire cricket from Sheffield to Leeds - and the curse will continue until county cricket returns

 

[spongebobblade]

Well that's my lucky pants int' bin

You've had your crusty lucky pants since 1979 B56? .......

 

[CarlMcBlade]

Were you at The McCain the night we won the Yorkshire Cup?

It was '23 with The White Horse all over again.
A monumental event in football and seldom mentioned in our glorious history.

Mickey Mouse!

 

[Blade56]

You've had your crusty lucky pants since 1979 B56? .......

1974 when I got married, Doh.

 

[Silent Blade]

Perhaps the ghosts of certain S Yorks cricketers have never forgiven us for basically exiling Yorkshire cricket from Sheffield to Leeds - and the curse will continue until county cricket returns

In late 1971 the club announced that we would be building a new stand and that the last cricket match at the ground would be in 1973. It was expected that the stand would be completed before the start of the 1974/75 season. My dad (who wasnt interested in cricket) was delighted at the news. At that time our attendance average was over 30,000 which seemed a good idea. Our average attendance for the 1972/73 season had dropped by nearly 10,000 and it wasnt much better in 1973/74. The plans in building the new stand were already taking place but the costs were rising, the completion of the stand were delayed.We were struggling financially and had to sell our star player, Geoff Salmons in summer 1974. It was a surprise that we had done well on the pitch for the 1974/75 season and attendances only rose towards the end of the season. The club sold a lot of season tickets for the 1975/76 season and everything seemed rosy but it wasnt to be!

 

[Hunkerby]

"It's not whether you get knocked down that matters, it's whether you get back up."

Hillary Clinton - after getting stuffed in New Hampshire today.

 

[Dkc]

Even Hillary would be feeling the strain if she'd lost the last 20 primaries

 

[boo radley]

In late 1971 the club announced that we would be building a new stand and that the last cricket match at the ground would be in 1973. It was expected that the stand would be completed before the start of the 1974/75 season. My dad (who wasnt interested in cricket) was delighted at the news. At that time our attendance average was over 30,000 which seemed a good idea. Our average attendance for the 1972/73 season had dropped by nearly 10,000 and it wasnt much better in 1973/74. The plans in building the new stand were already taking place but the costs were rising, the completion of the stand were delayed.We were struggling financially and had to sell our star player, Geoff Salmons in summer 1974. It was a surprise that we had done well on the pitch for the 1974/75 season and attendances only rose towards the end of the season. The club sold a lot of season tickets for the 1975/76 season and everything seemed rosy but it wasnt to be!

Yep leading to that 2-2 against Leicester and one of their players getting smacked by one of our so called fans. In our history up until '78 we had finished no lower that 12 in what is now the Championship. Mainly screaming agony since.

 

[Hunkerby]

Which of those defeats is our Monica Lewinsky?

 

[Treeton Blade]

The failure to sign Dan Burn in those heady days of 2015/16, has always rankled with me

 

[ghandi]

In the long term, this was the best thing that could have happened to us, as it gave Bassett the chance to rebuild the side at a lower level. And unlike the clowns we've had for the last five years, he was able to execute his plan. That said, it was an awful evening, with Piggy Shutt scoring for them and then Paul Fucking Williams missing his open goal at the Kop. Have never been keen on Bristol City after that, and was delighted when Walsall beat them in the final.




This was the worst one for me by miles... I went on my own and sat in the Chelsea end for £10 - West Stand if I recall correctly, the Shed was to the right as I looked - and for 80 minutes all was fine. We were winning, they didn't give a fuck as they had the cup final the following week and it would have taken an epic turnaround for us to go down. And then it happened... and the joy it gave those cunts was way too much to take, so as the Shed end piled onto the pitch I legged it out of the ground, utterly heartbroken. The slightest of consolations was watching Chelsea get slapped 4-0 by ManUre at Wembley, and hoping they felt as miserable in the pissing down rain after that game that I did after ours.

Piggy Shutt was a born and bred Blade from Handsworth.

 

[ghandi]

Went to all apart from Walsall (chose to play in a 6 a side tournament at Manchester), Chelsea (playing cricket at Castledyke) and Yeovil. 1975-76 was a long and a miserable season. I remember my dad telling me about the heartbreak of relegation against Chelsea in 1968 (despite that we wore black shorts for the first time in a home game that season). He recalled Hodgy being in tears after the match

Hodgy was poor that day especially his kicking from inside the box.

 

[Nade]

Hull was a highlight for me. Was very proud after that match.

 

[grafikhaus]

It's been a blast, hasn't it?

My first disappointment was the last-day relegation in 1968. Since then, it's been all downhill...(The 'Law of Thirteens' - 1968 down v Chelsea, 1981 down v Walsall, 1994 down v Chelsea, 2007 down v Wigan.) I'm going away in 2020!

Like others, I wouldn't have missed it for the world - far better than supporting all the other 'average' teams. Even a lot of Man. U and Chelsea fans get bored with seeing endless trophies won. You need games like Walsall to fully appreciate days like Leicester in 1990.

However...I feel it could get a whole lot worse. Our 'board/owners' have obviously planned their exit strategy and won't be putting any more money into the club. If not this season, next year will be a close-run thing for a relegation struggle as the 'old faithfuls' will have been binned, Brayford - and probably Sharp - will be sold and we'll be expecting kids to compete in the hurly-burly of the Third Division. Disregarding lack of investment, it should never have come to this. We have enough talent to have mounted a serious promotion challenge this year and NA must take the blame for that.

I imagine Derby fans will be having similar discussions re. the sacking of Paul Clement that we had after Clough went. 'But he got us up to the play-offs!', 'We're in fifth and McClaren finished eighth!'. No doubt the odd glorious cup failure will be thrown in and some delusionals may even claim that McClaren was 'a good manager'. But cherry-picking the odd statistic won't do, it's the trend that counts. Derby could see that their promotion charge was fading and acted. (I'm not advocating getting rid of NA as poor as he's been. We'd only get somebody even worse.)

And finally, with Derby's traditional promotion fade-out under way, I fear the S6 lot. Previously-mentioned disasters such as Chelsea away in 1993 (Segers, Fashanu etc.) and 2007 (Tevez) seem to have had an air of inevitability about them - the bizarre sequences of events that come together, it's almost as if it's 'written in the stars'. And in 2012 we managed to lose our star striker as Wendy embarked on a remarkable run. I'm watching the teams above Wendy show signs of faltering but the pigs don't seem to be. Let's hope I'm wrong...

 

[super_pig]

you missed leicester at home 2-2 draw and Bristol Rovers in the Watneys cup

 

[BushBlade]

It's been a blast, hasn't it?

My first disappointment was the last-day relegation in 1968. Since then, it's been all downhill...(The 'Law of Thirteens' - 1968 down v Chelsea, 1981 down v Walsall, 1994 down v Chelsea, 2007 down v Wigan.) I'm going away in 2020!

Like others, I wouldn't have missed it for the world - far better than supporting all the other 'average' teams. Even a lot of Man. U and Chelsea fans get bored with seeing endless trophies won. You need games like Walsall to fully appreciate days like Leicester in 1990.

However...I feel it could get a whole lot worse. Our 'board/owners' have obviously planned their exit strategy and won't be putting any more money into the club. If not this season, next year will be a close-run thing for a relegation struggle as the 'old faithfuls' will have been binned, Brayford - and probably Sharp - will be sold and we'll be expecting kids to compete in the hurly-burly of the Third Division. Disregarding lack of investment, it should never have come to this. We have enough talent to have mounted a serious promotion challenge this year and NA must take the blame for that.

I imagine Derby fans will be having similar discussions re. the sacking of Paul Clement that we had after Clough went. 'But he got us up to the play-offs!', 'We're in fifth and McClaren finished eighth!'. No doubt the odd glorious cup failure will be thrown in and some delusionals may even claim that McClaren was 'a good manager'. But cherry-picking the odd statistic won't do, it's the trend that counts. Derby could see that their promotion charge was fading and acted. (I'm not advocating getting rid of NA as poor as he's been. We'd only get somebody even worse.)

And finally, with Derby's traditional promotion fade-out under way, I fear the S6 lot. Previously-mentioned disasters such as Chelsea away in 1993 (Segers, Fashanu etc.) and 2007 (Tevez) seem to have had an air of inevitability about them - the bizarre sequences of events that come together, it's almost as if it's 'written in the stars'. And in 2012 we managed to lose our star striker as Wendy embarked on a remarkable run. I'm watching the teams above Wendy show signs of faltering but the pigs don't seem to be. Let's hope I'm wrong...

There's an elephant in the room.

We're not mathematically safe yet. When posters say 'it can't get worse', yes it can. Worse than we've ever seen before.

 

[Silent Blade]

Hodgy was poor that day especially his kicking from inside the box.

Was he? I remember my dad saying that he was disappointed with Bernard Shaw in that match. He never rated him

 

[ghandi]

Was he? I remember my dad saying that he was disappointed with Bernard Shaw in that match. He never rated him

My memory was that the weather conditions were wet and windy and Hodgy had difficulty in kicking from his hands where the ball was hardly reaching the circle on the halfway line which contributed to a lot of pressure on our defence. I agree with your Dad Bernard Shaw wasn't very good and that's why he ended up playing for the dark side.

 

[Silent Blade]

My memory was that the weather conditions were wet and windy and Hodgy had difficulty in kicking from his hands where the ball was hardly reaching the circle on the halfway line which contributed to a lot of pressure on our defence. I agree with your Dad Bernard Shaw wasn't very good and that's why he ended up playing for the dark side.

John Hope threw balls further than he kicked!