1969-70 (55 years ago) match reports and photos

[Silent Blade]

17/1/1970

Blades 2 (Reece, Addison) Preston 0

My first match as a committed Blade! My dad did take me to a few games before that. He said my first ever game was against Blackpool which was before he took me to watch Spain v Switzerland World Cup match at S6 in 1966 but I have no recollection of both matches. I have a vague memory of being in the BLUT cheering our goal that was scored at the Lane End and a bald player (must have been Bill Punton) running over to congratulate the scorer but I dont know who the opponents were. The first time we scored at the Lane when Bill was playing was against Burnley on 17/12/66 but I doubt my dad took me to the Lane in the winter months so the match must have been in 1967, his only home game during the 1967/68 season was the 2-4 defeat against Arsenal so I think the game might have been the Arsenal one or against Southampton on 25/2/67. I remember going to the Norwich and Cardiff games in Sept 1969.

Back to the Preston game. We missed the kick off (my dad was always late in getting ready for matches as he usually insisted on watching the races on ITV) and got into the BLUT. I remember seeing Alan Kelly snr in goal for Preston and noticed his warming up routines near the edge of the box when the ball was at the other end. A lot of fans in the stand were moaning and criticising the team when we kept missing chances which surprised me and I couldnt help looking at an elderly man with flat cap and glasses near me as he kept shouting "Rubbish! Rubbish!" . Late in the game we eventually scored but I do not remember what the goal was like nor being aware of who was the scorer (Reece). Soon after that, my dad decided that we should leave for home and missing the final minutes of the match. As we had just were about to exit the stand, my dad heard another roar and then asked a steward if we had scored again and he confirmed that we had. The photo below is the goal that I had missed.











Scores, scorers and league tables in below link

1970-01-17

From the programme

 

[Silent Blade]

24/1/1970

FA Cup 4th round

Derby 3 (O'Hare 2, Durban) Blades 0

My dad took me to watch Chesterfield v Lincoln. The kick off was probably 3.15pm (in those days Chesterfield and Bury had 3.15pm kick off for home games on Saturdays). We were late again for the kick off probably because my dad again wanted to watch racing on tv. Chesterfield won 4-0 but I do not remember the goals at all. I remember during half time my dad pointing out to the scoreboard in the Cross Street end telling me we are to find out the half time score for the Blades FA Cup match at Derby. I remember the disappointment on his face when it was revealed that we were losing 2-0. In the end, we lost 3-0 and our FA Cup dream was over . When we got home we discovered that 1st division Wendy had lost 2-1 at home to 4th division Scunthorpe and that cheered my dad up!

I remember watching the highlights of Derby v Blades match on YTV at my grandmother's house in the next day.














From the Green Un middle pages that evening

 

[Alan Birchenall's hair]

Went to Derby on the football special train with some mates. I was 11, and my mates varied from 10 to 13 years old, and we went on the Poplar side at the Baseball Ground. Imagine that happening now. They'd have to be taken into a 'Family Stand'. That age was much more streetwise then. Anyhow, we were nowt like as bad as 3-0 suggests. Dodging Derby skinheads on the way back to the station was fun though. Our scarves were hidden in our pockets!

 

[Silent Blade]

31/1/1970

Hull City 2 (Wagstaff 2) Blades 3 (Addison 2, Colquhoun)

My dad took me to see Wendy play Ipswich in the 1st division. It was my first ever Wendy match. After parking the car, my dad and I walked down to the bottom of Herries Road and we saw my Wendy supporting Uncle Pete at the back of the Kop waving at us.

Before the game sitting in the South Stand, my dad pointed out Mick Hill who was playing for Ipswich and he explained that Hill was our player until "a few months ago". Early in the game there was a bit of commotion around us as most eyes looked at the electronic scoreboard in the Kop showing goal alerts of the Blades match at Hull. My dad and I felt low seeing that we were losing 2-0 but Addison pulled a goal back not long before half time. Wilf Smith and Jackie Sinclair scored to give Wendy 2-0 lead. Mick Hill then pulled a goal back for Ipswich. Then all eyes were on the electronic scoreboard alerting us that Addison had scored again to make it 2-2 and not long after my dad and I were delighted when the alerts came on again revealing Colquhoun had scored the winner. Back on to the football pitch, Mick Mills hit Ipswich's late equaliser.

In the next day highlights of both matches at S6 and Boothferry Park were shown on YTV. Woody assisted all our goals. For the first goal the Hull defence seemed to be expecting Woody to aim for Colquhoun at the near post and they were rushing to him as soon as Woody took the corner kick, the flight of ball deceived them and it went straight to Addison's head!



Ken Wagstaff scoring the second goal









Scores, scorers and league tables in below link

1970-01-31

From the Green Un middle pages that evening

 

[ancientblade]

Went to Derby on the football special train with some mates. I was 11, and my mates varied from 10 to 13 years old, and we went on the Poplar side at the Baseball Ground. Imagine that happening now. They'd have to be taken into a 'Family Stand'. That age was much more streetwise then. Anyhow, we were nowt like as bad as 3-0 suggests. Dodging Derby skinheads on the way back to the station was fun though. Our scarves were hidden in our pockets!

yes was on the popside that day with 4k blades was a lively afternoon on there with derby trying to scale the dividing railings but came unstuck every time daft thing that day was that for some reason we were sold tickets for derbys side and got pelted with allsorts when police let us climb over wall on popside to join united fans hated the baseball ground went 3 times and never saw us score a goal 1 - 0 in 68 3 - 0 in 70 and 3 - 0 again in 71 was always a bog of a pitch anall

 

[bornablade]

31/1/1970

Hull City 2 (Wagstaff 2) Blades 3 (Addison 2, Colquhoun)

My dad took me to see Wendy play Ipswich in the 1st division. It was my first ever Wendy match. After parking the car, my dad and I walked down to the bottom of Herries Road and we saw my Wendy supporting Uncle Pete at the back of the Kop waving at us.

Before the game sitting in the South Stand, my dad pointed out Mick Hill who was playing for Ipswich and he explained that Hill was our player until "a few months ago". Early in the game there was a bit of commotion around us as most eyes looked at the electronic scoreboard in the Kop showing goal alerts of the Blades match at Hull. My dad and I felt low seeing that we were losing 2-0 but Addison pulled a goal back not long before half time. Wilf Smith and Jackie Sinclair scored to give Wendy 2-0 lead. Mick Hill then pulled a goal back for Ipswich. Then all eyes were on the electronic scoreboard alerting us that Addison had scored again to make it 2-2 and not long after my dad and I were delighted when the alerts came on again revealing Colquhoun had scored the winner. Back on to the football pitch, Mick Mills hit Ipswich's late equaliser.

In the next day highlights of both matches at S6 and Boothferry Park were shown on YTV. Woody assisted all our goals. For the first goal the Hull defence seemed to be expecting Woody to aim for Colquhoun at the near post and they were rushing to him as soon as Woody took the corner kick, the flight of ball deceived them and it went straight to Addison's head!



Ken Wagstaff scoring the second goal

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Scores, scorers and league tables in below link

1970-01-31

From the Green Un middle pages that evening
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Three assists from Woody. Two goals from his corners. What we would give today for those stats and his ability to deliver a cross.

There was real genuine excitement in those days when we got a corner.

 

[Silent Blade]

Three assists from Woody. Two goals from his corners. What we would give today for those stats and his ability to deliver a cross.

There was real genuine excitement in those days when we got a corner.

If Fantasy Football was around at the time, he would have very high points!

 

[Silent Blade]

7/2/1970

Blades were supposed to play at home to Swindon but the fixture got put back by two days because Swindon were playing against Scunthorpe in the FA Cup 5th round.

I remember looking at the final scores in the Green Un that day and seeing "Northampton 2 Man U 8". George Best scored 6 goals in that match and he then became my favourite non Blades player. I watched the highlights of the match on YTV in the next day at my grandmother's

 

[Silent Blade]

9/2/1970

Blades 1 (Badger) Swindon 2 (Trollope, Horsfield)

My first night match in memory. My dad told me that he took me to watch Spain v Switzerland World Cup match at S6 in 1966. I think the match was played in the evening as it was played on a Friday. I have no recollection of the World Cup match as I was only 4 years old. Now back to the Monday night fixture between the Blades and Swindon at BDTBL... I remember my dad pointing out Don Rogers' name on the back of the match programme and telling me that he is a really good player. I think he explained to me that Don scored 2 goals in Swindon's 3-1 win against Arsenal in the previous season's League Cup final. I dont think I was really aware that there is another domestic cup competition.

The only goal I could remember that night in the 2-1 defeat was Len Badger's at the Lane End. I am sure his shot caused a hole in the side netting and there was a delay in restarting the match as the ground staff repaired the netting.

It was our 10th defeat of the season but we were still in 2nd place in the league table!








League table in below link

1970-02-09

From the programme

 

[Silent Blade]

14/2/70


Football caught its worst cold of the winter yesterday. Thirty three English and Scottish matches were forced off including the Middlesbrough v Blades and Wendy v Man City (became one of the most talked about football matches in Sheffield history when it was played 2 months later!) matches. On YTV in the next day highlights of Spurs v L**ds were shown (see photo below)

1970-02-14

 

[Silent Blade]

24/2/1970

Blades 2 (Colquhoun, Reece) QPR 0

My second midweek match. Sat in the John Street that evening instead of BLUT (Cant remember why). Some of the QPR players were tanned (Clement, Venables, Hazell, Leach and Bridges) making their blue and white hooped shirts and white shorts look very bright in the floodlights, both goals in the first half were headers from Woodward's corners.



Reece 2-0




Scores, scorers, line ups and league tables in below link

1970-02-24

From the programme

 

[Silent Blade]

28/2/1970

Blackburn 1 (Martin pen) Blades 2 (Woodward, Currie)

My dad took me to watch Wendy beat Burnley 2-0. Burnley born Jack Whitham scored both goals

I was sat in the South Stand and early in the game many heads turned right towards the electronic scoreboard at the Kop and it revealed that Blackburn had scored an early goal against the Blades . Nearly half hour later there was another score alert from the scoreboard, Woodward had equalised . 15 minutes after half time, another score alert revealed that Currie had scored to give us the lead

On getting the Green Un that evening I looked at a small column which revealed the games going to be shown on MOTD that night (also on YTV in the next day). Blackburn v Blades being one of the two matches to be shown on MOTD !! At that time my bed time were between 9pm and 10pm, so my dad and I persuaded my mum to let me watch MOTD and she said yes!! . MOTD highlights of the match lasting over 35 minutes can be seen from 53 mins 30 seconds in below video. It is a surprise that both teams played scrappy football (pitch wasnt good as we had poor weather for a few weeks) and even TC (playing more of a forward role usually on the left then) at times struggled to make the ball stick to his feet.


TC scoring the winning goal







Scores, scorers and league tables in below link

1970-02-28

From the Green Un middle pages that evening

 

[ancientblade]

28/2/1970

Blackburn 1 (Martin pen) Blades 2 (Woodward, Currie)

My dad took me to watch Wendy beat Burnley 2-0. Burnley born Jack Whitham scored both goals

I was sat in the South Stand and early in the game many heads turned right towards the electronic scoreboard at the Kop and it revealed that Blackburn had scored an early goal against the Blades . Nearly half hour later there was another score alert from the scoreboard, Woodward had equalised . 15 minutes after half time, another score alert revealed that Currie had scored to give us the lead

On getting the Green Un that evening I looked at a small column which revealed the games going to be shown on MOTD that night (also on YTV in the next day). Blackburn v Blades being one of the two matches to be shown on MOTD !! At that time my bed time were between 9pm and 10pm, so my dad and I persuaded my mum to let me watch MOTD and she said yes!! . MOTD highlights of the match lasting over 35 minutes can be seen from 53 mins 30 seconds in below video. It is a surprise that both teams played scrappy football (pitch wasnt good as we had poor weather for a few weeks) and even TC (playing more of a forward role usually on the left then) at times struggled to make the ball stick to his feet.


TC scoring the winning goal
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Scores, scorers and league tables in below link

1970-02-28

From the Green Un middle pages that evening

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can remember seing all coaches coming back up snig hill as we were queing to get in merrie england bar underneath black swan great disco bar that was

 

[MagnifiqueShorehamStreet]

This was my first season of being allowed to go to away games, by my folks, and my first of many trips to Blackburn.
Remember:
-the steak pudding and chips before the game.Couldn’t believe that meat and suet combo could taste so good.
-that early shocker of a pen after 30 seconds.
-Blackburn was an old school ground in those days which allowed for both sets of fans at opposite ends of the ground to switch ends at half-time, so you could always see your team from nearest the goal they were attacking.
-a great comeback from the lads.Thought promotion was soon, travelling back on an S. U. T. coach.

 

[Silent Blade]

 

[Silent Blade]

7/3/1970

A lot of snow in mainland Britain in the past few days. I remember looking at the fixture column on the back page of the Daily Express that morning and it read Aston Villa v Sheffield United P-P. The decision to postpone the match would have been made on the Friday. In the afternoon my dad was listening to updates of the League Cup final between Man City and West Brom from Grandstand on BBC. You can see in the below video that the groundstaff at Wembley had been busy in clearing the snow away from the pitch.




From the Green Un middle pages that evening

 

[Silent Blade]

13/3/1970

Blades 1 (Woodward) Carlisle 0

I had been off school in the past few days due to being ill (think it was flu). I remember being in bed on the Friday night after 10pm getting ready to sleep. I thought my dad had gone out to the "boozer" for the evening and then I saw him come up the stairs to my bedroom to tell me that he had just come back from seeing the Blades beat Carlisle 1-0. I was confused as I hadnt realised that we were playing that evening. My dad explained that we were playing on the Friday night to avoid clashing with the FA Cup semi final match between Man U and L**ds being played at S6 in the next day also the reason why he hadnt told me about the match at the Lane was that I had just recovered from an illness and he thought it wouldnt be wise for me to go to the match when I hadnt fully recovered. He was telling me that Woodward had scored the goal powering home from a short free kick (by Barlow) to the roof of the net. The win had put us in a good position to get the two automatic places for promotion. The 2nd division table was as below



Our remaining games were Boro (a) , Leicester (a), Bolton (h), Blackpool (a), Millwall (h), Bristol C (a), Aston Villa (a), Oxford (h) and my dad was confident about us finishing in the top 2.







From the programme


In the Green Un middle pages the next evening

 

[Silent Blade]

14/3/1970

FA Cup semi final day. Leeds and Man U draw 0-0 at S6. Highlights of the match on MOTD that evening. Dont think I watched it.

 

[ancientblade]

14/3/1970

FA Cup semi final day. Leeds and Man U draw 0-0 at S6. Highlights of the match on MOTD that evening. Dont think I watched it.

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went down with a mate for this game and sat on wall outside kop man utd fans everywhere must have outnumbered leeds fans two to one

 

[Silent Blade]

17/3/1970

Middlesbrough 1 (Hickton) Blades 0

A blow to our promotion hopes. I do not remember being aware that we had lost at Boro that evening or in the next morning. In the next evening Blackpool had lost at home to Hull City which was a boost to our promotion hopes. Again, I do not remember being aware of Blackpool losing. The top of the table after the games played on the 18th was like this.

1. Huddersfield played 35, 49 points
2. Blades 35, 43
3. Cardiff 35, 42
4. Middlesborough 35, 42
5. Blackpool 34, 42
6. Swindon 33, 41
7. QPR 35, 40
8. Blackburn 35, 40
9. Leicester 35, 39

Our remaining games were Leicester (a), Bolton (h), Blackpool (a), Millwall (h), Bristol C (a), Aston Villa (a), Oxford (h)

 

[Silent Blade]

21/3/1970.


Leicester 2 (Glover, Fern) Blades 1 (Reece)

My first away match!

My dad took me and my cousin David Beardow (not sure if it was his away first match) to Filbert Street.

Len Glover opened the scoring with a low shot, Gil Reece equalised just before half time but Rodney Fern hit Leicester's winner in the 2nd half. Near the end of the match we had a "good goal" disallowed and I remember Colin Addison protesting towards the ref.

After the game my dad, David and I were outside the players entrance looking at our players signing autographs before they got into the coach. The mood didnt seem good as Eddie Colquhoun seemed to shout back at a group of Blades fans who said quite a few things. Alan Woodward signalled through the coach window to tell my dad to go round the other side of the coach and my dad lifted me up so that I could push through my match programme through the little sliding window. He then got the players in the coach to sign my programme before giving it back to me. I was awestruck and shaking like a leaf, got a nod and a wink from Dave Powell who was next to Woody. Have loved Woody since then.

Blackpool's 2-1 win at Carlisle meant that we had dropped down to 3rd place in the table. Boro drew at home to Norwich, Cardiff lost 2-1 at Watford, Swindon drew 3-3 at Bristol City.










Scores, scorers and league tables in below link

1970-03-21

 

[Silent Blade]

28/3/1970

Blades 0 Bolton 1 (Manning)

Watched the match from the BLLT. I think my dad, myself and my cousin missed the start of the match because years later I had discovered from looking at the Green Un match reports in the Sheffield Archives at the Central Library that in the opening minutes of the match, the ref ruled out a goal from Woodward direct from a corner kick at the Kop End. I hadnt realised that for years! The following week the Green Un published two photos of the disallowed goal and it didnt seem that Colquhoun had impeded Alan Boswell (Bolton's keeper). Throughout the match the Blades struggled for a breakthrough on muddy conditions. Late in the game John Manning hit the winner at the Kop End. It was a real blow to our promotion hopes also Blackpool won their home game against Villa by 2-1 (I remember watching Fred Pickering on MOTD hitting the winner with a penalty)








Scores, scorers and league tables in below link

1970-03-28

From the programme



From the Green Un middle pages that evening

 

[Bell4]

28/3/1970

Blades 0 Bolton 1 (Manning)

Watched the match from the BLLT. I think my dad, myself and my cousin missed the start of the match because years later I had discovered from looking at the Green Un match reports in the Sheffield Archives at the Central Library that in the opening minutes of the match, the ref ruled out a goal from Woodward direct from a corner kick at the Kop End. I hadnt realised that for years! The following week the Green Un published two photos of the disallowed goal and it didnt seem that Colquhoun had impeded Alan Boswell (Bolton's keeper). Throughout the match the Blades struggled for a breakthrough on muddy conditions. Late in the game John Manning hit the winner at the Kop End. It was a real blow to our promotion hopes also Blackpool won their home game against Villa by 2-1 (I remember watching Fred Pickering on MOTD hitting the winner with a penalty)

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Scores, scorers and league tables in below link

1970-03-28

From the programme

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From the Green Un middle pages that evening

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Millwall Athletic?

 

[Greenwich Blade]

Millwall Athletic?

I've just done a quick Google and they were Millwall Athletic for a while. However, they'd dropped "Athletic" from their name by 1920.

Millwall F.C. - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Silent Blade]

Millwall Athletic?

Yes it was when I started following football

 

[Silent Blade]

I've just done a quick Google and they were Millwall Athletic for a while. However, they'd dropped "Athletic" from their name by 1920.

Millwall F.C. - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

We didnt drop "Athletic" in 1970

 

[Greenwich Blade]

We didnt drop "Athletic" in 1970

Glad to see we've always been up with the times!

 

[Racing Blade]

13/3/1970

Blades 1 (Woodward) Carlisle 0

I had been off school in the past few days due to being ill (think it was flu). I remember being in bed on the Friday night after 10pm getting ready to sleep. I thought my dad had gone out to the "boozer" for the evening and then I saw him come up the stairs to my bedroom to tell me that he had just come back from seeing the Blades beat Carlisle 1-0. I was confused as I hadnt realised that we were playing that evening. My dad explained that we were playing on the Friday night to avoid clashing with the FA Cup semi final match between Man U and L**ds being played at S6 in the next day also the reason why he hadnt told me about the match at the Lane was that I had just recovered from an illness and he thought it wouldnt be wise for me to go to the match when I hadnt fully recovered. He was telling me that Woodward had scored the goal powering home from a short free kick (by Barlow) to the roof of the net. The win had put us in a good position to get the two automatic places for promotion. The 2nd division table was as below

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Our remaining games were Boro (a) , Leicester (a), Bolton (h), Blackpool (a), Millwall (h), Bristol C (a), Aston Villa (a), Oxford (h) and my dad was confident about us finishing in the top 2.

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From the programme
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In the Green Un middle pages the next evening
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Thanks for this one.... my first match and I've gone through life thinking that John Tudor scored the first goal I saw, when it was, in fact, Woody!

Remembering that it was a night match, I'd often wondered what my dad was thinking, taking a 5 year year old to his first game on a school night. I'll let him off now I know it was a Friday (rest his soul).

 

[Silent Blade]

Thanks for this one.... my first match and I've gone through life thinking that John Tudor scored the first goal I saw, when it was, in fact, Woody!

Remembering that it was a night match, I'd often wondered what my dad was thinking, taking a 5 year year old to his first game on a school night. I'll let him off now I know it was a Friday (rest his soul).

Tudor did score in the 2-2 home draw against Carlisle in October 1970

 

[Racing Blade]

Tudor did score in the 2-2 home draw against Carlisle in October 1970

We definitely won my first game 1-0. I wonder if Tudor came on as a sub and my Dad was impressing upon me that his appearance was something to get excited about (which I'm sure it would have been).