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Memries of Birmingham
Birmingham – like most teams – have had some iconic players down the years. I’ll start with recently-deceased Roger Hynd. An absolute beast of a player (nephew of Bill Shankly), he played 170 games for Brum from 1970 to 1975. A real ‘ard nut, his thighs were like tree trunks.
A game I remember was on 3rd November, 1973. We drew 1-1 and Hynd scored the equalizer in front of the City fans at the Bramall Lane end. The Blues struck up a rendition of their club anthem ‘Keep right on to the end of the road’ which was a Harry Lauder music-hall song and taken up during City’s 1956 run to the FA Cup Final. Birmingham player and Glaswegian Alex Govan adopted the song for City. (Govan died in 2016, aged 86.)
Another who played five years for The Blues (1971-76) and scored 58 goals in his 175 games for Birmingham was Bob Hatton. Between 1980-82, Bob scored 34 goals in 95 games for The Blades including 15 goals in the side that won promotion from the old Fourth Division in the 1981-82 season.
His United career virtually ended with a broken leg against Manchester City on 12 February 1972. Struggling to regain his place in the first team, he made his final appearance on 30 December 1972 before Norwich City secured his services in February 1973.
Worthy of mention is much-travelled Peter Withe. He played for 14 different clubs, made 539 appearances and scored 177 goals (plus eleven England caps). Between 1985 and 1989, Withe made 74 appearances for The Blades, scoring 18 goals. In 1987, Withe spent a brief period on loan at Birmingham and, during this spell of 8 games as a loanee, returned to Bramall Lane on 20th October 1987. In this match – won 2-0 by Birmingham – Withe scored both goals…
The earliest footage I can find of Blades v Blues is 10th October, 1970 when the Blades won 1-0 at St. Andrews with a goal from John Tudor:
This clip continues with a 4-4 draw at Bramall Lane on 24th August, 1996. Featuring for Birmingham are Paul Devlin, Gary Ablett, Paul Furlong and Steve Bruce(!). 1-2 down at HT, braces for United from both Gareth Taylor and Andy Walker shared the spoils in this second-tier (Division One) game where United were managed by Howard Kendall. Look out for the ‘bomb site’ on the John Street side, awaiting development.
On 10th February, 2001 United beat Brum. at Bramall Lane 3-1. The visitors’ goal coming from Geoff Horsfield…
Our last competitive meeting with The Blues was on 28th January 2012 in the fourth round of the FA Cup at Bramall Lane where Danny Wilson’s third-tier side lost 0-4 to Championship play-off losing Birmingham.
Of course, no account of our matches versus the Blues would be complete (for supporters ‘of a certain age’) without mentioning the final game of the 1974-75 season. Ken Furphy’s Blades were closing in on a final position in the top tier which may have allowed us to qualify for Europe. Around 8,000 United fans descended on St. Andrews for this Wednesday evening game on 29th April, 1975. Without any semblance of direction from stewards or police, most Blades found themselves on the large, partly-covered terrace down the side of the pitch. As it turned out, this was City territory – including the ‘Zulu Warriors’. As this 0-0 game progressed, many Birmingham fans infiltrated and carnage ensued. Personally, I had a United scarf on and was ‘targeted’ by 3 or 4 City fans and was pretty badly injured. Finally arriving back at New Street railway station, the highly-polished floor was covered in occasional pools of blood. Extremely grim times.
To date, our League results against Birmingham read:
Home: P: 49 W: 30 D: 8 L: 11 F: 109 A: 64
Away: P: 49 W: 12 D: 9 L: 28 F: 47 A: 86
Men to watch?
Ex-Blade Che Zach Everton Fred Adams joined Birmingham after playing just one game for United in the 2016-17 season. The fee was undisclosed, although the Sheffield Star reported it to be around £2 million, and that United had turned down deals valued at £1.2m and £1.7m. For some, a divisive figure at Bramall Lane, Che scored 11 goals in 47 appearance, including a sensational brace In the League Cup semi-final second leg against Tottenham Hotspur on 28 January 2015 at Bramall Lane. Adams replaced Campbell-Ryce after 74 minutes. Five minutes later he had scored his first goals for Sheffield United with two goals in just over two minutes, which would have taken the game to extra time had Christian Eriksen not scored for Tottenham Hotspur in the 88th minute to win 3–2 on aggregate.
In all, Redknapp signed 13 players this summer. However, this hasn’t been translated into instant success and, prior to last Saturday’s narrow home win over Nottingham Forest, the Blues were in 22nd place, with only Bolton and Sunderland below them and gaining just 12 points from 16 games.
Last Saturday (18th November) Che Adams’ fifth-minute winner against Nottingham Forest ended a run of four straight defeats and 436 minutes without scoring since Che Adams scored in the 19th minute in the home win against Cardiff on 13th October. With just nine goals from 18 matches, Brum are by far the lowest scorers in the Championship.
Recent history: Like so many clubs in recent times, Birmingham have had a turbulent last few years. In 2007, Hong Kong businessman Carson Yeung attempted to buy control of The Blues. Worried about the direction the club was taking, manager Steve Bruce resigned to become manager of Wigan Athletic. Over the protracted period of this takeover, Yeung was arrested in Hong Kong on charges of – among others – money laundering. He was sentenced to 6 years imprisonment, appealed, had his travel documents seized and finally, in July 2016, immediately returned to custody.
In June, 2015 ‘Brum were taken over by Trillion Trophy Asia who dismissed manager Gary Rowett and replaced him with Gianfranco Zola. Zola lasted a mere 24 matches before being replaced (incredibly) by the ubiquitous Harry Redknapp. Thirteen games, eight losses and many millions of pounds later, Redknapp left, was briefly replaced by Lee Carsley and Blues are currently managed by Steve Cotterill.
