1970-71 (55 years ago today) match reports and photos

[Silent Blade]

Blades 2 (Colquhoun, Dearden) Bolton 2 (Hulme, Phillips)

I remember the ref being Roy Capey who had hit the sports headline a month earlier for allowing a goal that wasnt to stand in the Chelsea v Ipswich game (see video below)



The ref's decisions that evening at Bramall Lane brought frustrations to the players and the crowd too. I remember Woody about to take a throw in, the ref blew his whistle and indicated that it was a throw in for the visitors, Woody's response was to throw the ball down in frustration and he got a talking to. The reaction by the fans in the BLUT showed a lot of anger when Addison got booked for dissent (I think) later in the game.

The only goal I remember was Bolton's 2nd equaliser and Len Badger falling on his knees putting both his hands on his face in horror as his backpass from his head went short for Hodgy and Phillips took advantage to score. It was a big disappointment that we had dropped a home point to a poor side.











From the programme

 

[Silent Blade]

24/10/2025

Hull City 1 (Wagstaff) Blades 1 (Currie)

My dad and I travelled to the match on the Football Special train from the Midland station, not sure if it took us to Hull train station or to Boothferry Park Halt station but I remember getting a bus to the ground and a middle aged Hull fan was telling me that Ken Wagstaff was going to score and that we would lose 2-0. In the last 55 years when I think of Hull City, I picture Wagstaff's cherub face and receiving handshake congratulations from his team mates after scoring a goal. He scored over 300 career goals in 16 years playing for only Mansfield and Hull City and could easily have played in the top division. He always scored goals in a smooth and calm way.

There was only one change in our line up. Mick Heaton came in for Ted Hemsley who was probably injured. I read that Heaton was a good amateur gymnast and I remember noticing his sort of robotic dance style when he is in control of the ball and then goes into a swivel before releasing the ball.

I was sat in the stand opposite where both goals were scored. Early in the game, Wagstaff broke through our defence, Hodgy came out of the goal but was fooled by Wagstaff's feint and dived to the ground, Wagstaff found space between Hodgy and the near post before coolly rolling the ball into the net, many Hull fans in front of me stood up to celebrate early blocking my view of the ball entering the net. In the 2nd half we equalised with a mishit shot by Currie (see from 2 mins 42 secs from below video) after Hull half cleared a long throw by Salmons (not sure what a cheeky Hull fan was trying to do behind him before the throw in). The Hull defence stood still watching the ball travel slowly through them. A dropped point didnt change positions in the 2nd division table for both Hull (1st) and Blades (4th)


During half time the scoreboard at the ground revealed that, bottom of the 1st division. Blackpool were leading 3-0 against FA Cup holders Chelsea. On the way back home in the train I saw in a Saturday evening paper that Chelsea had won 4-3!
















From the Green Un middle pages that evening

 

[Silent Blade]

31/10/1970

Blades 2 (Dearden, Tudor) Carlisle 2 (Balderstone, Ternent)

It was a shocker that we had dropped a point when we were leading 2-0 with 10 minutes left.

All the goals were scored at the Kop End and viewing the BLUT, my dad and I thought our first goal was from a Woodward cross shot. It was from when we read the match report in the Green Un that evening, we learned that Dearden got the final touch from Woody's cross.

Tudor increased our lead heading in a Woody corner.

Footballer/Cricketer Chris Balderstone fired in Carlisle's first from the right. Mick Heaton (our stand in left back) was criticised in the paper report for allowing Balderstone the chance but I dont remember the mistake. A few minutes later Neil Warnock's friend, Stan Ternent equalised for Carlisle, Interesting to see that Bob Hatton was playing for Carlisle in that match.























From the programme




From the Green Un middle pages that evening

 

[Silent Blade]

3/11/1970

1969/70 County Cup Semi Final Replay
Barnsley 3 (Loyden 3) Blades 2 (Addison, Woodward)


I had high hopes that we would win the match because we were two divisions above Barnsley and I was shocked reading in the papers that we had lost despite leading 2-0 at half time. My dad laughed at my reaction and told me that the County Cup isnt an important competition.

 

[Silent Blade]

7/11/1970

Blackburn 1 (Russell) Blades 3 (Currie, Powell (pen), Dearden)


My dad decided in the morning that we head off to Ewood Park but he then parked his car on the path off Lea Road in Dronfield (where Ted Hemsley had a Turf Accountant shop some years later) , he told me to stay in the car while he is in the Midland Hotel (now Dronfield Arms) as "two or three" Blades were keen on going to the match. I waited ages in the car (in those days it was quite common leaving your child in the car for a long time!) and eventually when my dad came out of the pub, alongside him were two big men who didnt look familiar to me , both men greeted me when they got in the car as if they knew me. I may have met them before but I couldnt remember. They were Ray "Nip" Hague and Graham Beresford who I got to know quite well in the next few years as they often travelled in the same coach, organised by the Dronfield SUSC branch, as me. Both were well known Dronfield Blades over the years. I also got to know Graham's two brothers Jimmy (RIP) and Roger (now lives in Buxton, I think) who also travelled to away matches in the same coach as me. I have never met anyone who hated Wendy as much as Nip did. A few years later one Sunday afternoon watching the "New Faces" programme on tv he got really incensed that the "Save our Owls" band appeared in the programme so he trashed his own tv by kicking it!
Either due to setting off Dronfield late or that the traffic on the way to Ewood Park was so bad, we missed seeing the whole of the 1st half. I went straight to the toilet as soon as we got in the ground and my dad had heard from someone that we were leading by a goal meaning that we missed Currie's goal. For the whole of the 2nd half I was stood right in front (near to the goal) of what is now called the Ronnie Clayton End or the Bryan Douglas End. Early in the second half at the other end , a Blackburn chance was half cleared, and the ball fell to Alex Russell outside the box and he didnt have a clean strike of the ball, Hodgy had the shot covered but he let the ball roll slowly over his outstretched arms. It was a poor goal to concede. Soon after Billy Dearden broke away and got tripped in the box as he was about to shoot. It was a clear penalty that would have been a red card offence nowadays but I dont think the defender got a booking. I hadnt really realised that it was to be the first time I saw our player taking a penalty (only realised that in the last few years), the last penalty we had was in the 5-0 home win against Villa in Nov 1969. I turned to my dad asking him who was going to take the penalty, he wasnt sure! Then we saw Dave Powell pick the ball up and walked to put the ball on the spot. I wasnt expecting a defender to take the penalty. Powell converted the spot kick like he did in the Villa match 12 months earlier. The paper report stated that the keeper almost saved Powell's penalty but I dont remember it being like that. I cant remember our third goal scored by Dearden.

Nip passed away over 15 years ago and I have not seen Graham since 2007.

 

[Kenworthy’s Tash]

View attachment 217249

Our greatest ever side

 

[Blacksea]

The Blackburn game was one of my first away games,love the Wendy's attendance figure that day ... massively.

 

[LS16Blade]

The Blackburn game was one of my first away games,love the Wendy's attendance figure that day ... massively.

The 12,688 crowd at Hillsborough was typical of their gates that season. Bolton (12,920), Carlisle (12,881), Watford (12,139), Oxford (11,134), Orient (11,149), Swindon (12,694), Birmingham (13,138), Bristol City (12,481), Norwich City (13,136), Portsmouth (14,134), and Sunderland (9,720).

They had 3 gates that bucked the trend - when promotion-chasing Leicester (23,160) and Hull (22,150) brought big followings, and then on Easter Monday when United fans descended en masse contributing significantly to a gate of 47,592.

As has often been the case down the years at S6, the ground’s capacity to accommodate the occasional outlandish gate - such as the one against United which was in effect equivalent to 4 of their usual gates that season - propped up their seasonal average to a slightly more respectable 15,780…notwithstanding that the majority of their run-of-the-mill fixtures attracted well below this figure.

SWFC fans melted away very quickly after relegation from the top flight in May 1970, and stayed away for the rest of the decade.

 

[MagnifiqueShorehamStreet]

Went to Hull away, after spending the night on Donny station, having gone to see Jimmy Cliff at Donny Top Rank.Arrived in Hull early and hung round the station, until some of their fans spotted us and started to throw filed down pennies at us, so we did a quick one.
Loads of Unitedites were there for the game, which I thought we should have won,I always thought that back in the day, but was happy to settle for a point.
Went on the SUT bus for the Blackburn game.The steak pudding and chips was a good as I remembered from the previous season, and always loved Ewood Park, which allowed fans to walk round and change ends at half time, so you were always behind the goal you were attacking.Currie was his usual magnificence, and had a Birds Eye view of Dearden’s goal, which sent us all home happy.
Best season ever!

 

[ancientblade]

Went to Hull away, after spending the night on Donny station, having gone to see Jimmy Cliff at Donny Top Rank.Arrived in Hull early and hung round the station, until some of their fans spotted us and started to throw filed down pennies at us, so we did a quick one.
Loads of Unitedites were there for the game, which I thought we should have won,I always thought that back in the day, but was happy to settle for a point.
Went on the SUT bus for the Blackburn game.The steak pudding and chips was a good as I remembered from the previous season, and always loved Ewood Park, which allowed fans to walk round and change ends at half time, so you were always behind the goal you were attacking.Currie was his usual magnificence, and had a Birds Eye view of Dearden’s goal, which sent us all home happy.
Best

went on the train special to hull that day and yes we should have won that game

 

[Silent Blade]

11/11/1970
A shock for Cardiff fans but a boost for other promotion candidates as John Toshack signs for Liverpool from Cardiff for a transfer fee of £110,000

 

[Bell4]

11/11/1970
A shock for Cardiff fans but a boost for other promotion candidates as John Toshack signs for Liverpool from Cardiff for a transfer fee of £110,000
View attachment 225464
View attachment 225465

What a player

 

[Silent Blade]

14/11/1970

Blades 1 (Tudor) QPR 1 (Hunt)

A friend of mine, Mark, who lived three doors away from me (he still goes to home and away matches) came with me and my dad to the match. Looking at QPR's line up they had one ex-England international (Venables) and four future ones (Parkes, Clement, Francis and Marsh).

Early in the game Geoff Salmons broke through at the Lane End and was brought down from a heavy challenge by keeper Phil Parkes, the ref waved "play on" giving us the advantage rule as seen in below photo, John Tudor was the first to get to the loose ball and fired us into the lead despite that a QPR defender got a foot to it but it wasnt enough to divert it away from the net.




Tudor more concerned about Salmons rather than celebrating his goal


Early in the 2nd half Ron Hunt equalised by heading in a free kick. For the rest of the 2nd half Phil Parkes made several brilliant saves also we were frustrated with the ref's poor decisions. There was a long delay after a clash for an aerial ball between Phil Parkes and Billy Dearden, Parkes' feet had got onto Dearden's chest so both players needed treatment as seen in below photo.




As the report says that the ref played only 1 minute and 5 seconds of injury time before disallowing Addison's winner, it should have been at least 3 minutes. I remember after the final whistle Parkes jumping for joy and hugging his team mates as QPR managed to get an unlikely point at the Lane. After the match myself, my friend and my dad saw quite a few policemen standing in front of the players entrance in John Street waiting to give the officials an escort to their respective cars and making sure they are not attacked by angry Blades fans.


Otside the players entrance in John Street I told my dad "when Alan Hodgkinson comes out I will tell him that he didnt play well today". My dad looked at me in horror and said "dont do that , it would upset him, he is a good man". I followed his advice and then when Hodgy came out, I said nothing but Hodgy was in his usual chirpy self and ruffled my hair. It made me realise that my dad was right after all!
















From the middle pages in the Green Un that evening

From the programme

 

[Hanauer]

Looking at the pictures of the crowd there is no way it was under 20000.

 

[Alan Birchenall's hair]

Remember this match, with the 'too late' winning goal being chalked off. There was also a match against QPR when Venables was waiting for the ref's signal to take a corner for QPR at the Kop end, and the Kop was chanting 'Venables is a wanker'. He rather shot them down in flames as he turned to the Kop and joined in, complete with appropriate handclapping. Everyone laughed and cheered him. This could have been the same game, but I seem to remember it being a night match.
Anyone?

 

[Silent Blade]

Remember this match, with the 'too late' winning goal being chalked off. There was also a match against QPR when Venables was waiting for the ref's signal to take a corner for QPR at the Kop end, and the Kop was chanting 'Venables is a wanker'. He rather shot them down in flames as he turned to the Kop and joined in, complete with appropriate handclapping. Everyone laughed and cheered him. This could have been the same game, but I seem to remember it being a night match.
Anyone?

Night match on a Tuesday night was the 2-0 win in February 1970

 

[Silent Blade]

21/11/1970

Sunderland 0 Blades 0

A few days earlier a schoolclassmate, Andrew (RIP) from Blayton Road in Burngreave was taken round to my house by his brother George (RIP too) who was about 15 years older than him. His brother asked my parents if he could take me to watch Wendy play Middlesbrough. They agreed and I was happy with that as I didnt think my dad was keen on going to Sunderland. Andrew claimed he is a Wendy fan like George but my mate's football knowledge wasnt that good at the time and it was still not much better before he passed away. Whenever Andrew was having an argument with someone at school he would threaten the pupil he would ask his brother to give the pupil "a good hiding" so we all thought he was a "hard and dangerous" man! I discovered on the day of the Wendy v Boro match that George was a kind and a gentle person, much different to what my classmate had described! The two moments I remember about the match was when Boro scored their 2nd goal to make it 2-2, my classmate cheered thinking Wendy had scored and it amused me! His brother had to tell him that it wasnt Wendy who had scored! The other moment was soon after that, Wendy were awarded a penalty, the penalty taker was Tommy Craig (I have to admit he was a good player) and he did a little feint when running up to the ball which made Boro keeper Willie Whigham dive one way and Craig rolled the ball to the other side of the goal to make it 3-2 to Wendy.

Interesting that Albert Stubbins, who played for Liverpool and Newcastle, and who was included on the front cover of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album, was one of the reporters of our match at Roker Park.

 

[Silent Blade]

28/11/1970

Blades 3 (Currie, Tudor, Woodward) Oxford 0

The day before was a sad day. When I got home from school there was no one in the house and the doors were locked. I waited on the drive and then my dad arrived early from work to let me know that my maternal grandmother had passed away and then he took me to my grandmother's house in Hartley Brook Road. On getting in the house there were my mum, my uncles, aunties and cousins mourning in the living room.

My dad already arranged for my classmate Andrew (RIP) and his brother George (who took me to S6 the previous Saturday) to come with us to the Oxford game. All four of us were sat in the BLUT. Oxford's manager was Gerry Summers who was a popular Blade player between 1957 and 1964.

The biggest talking point of the first half was TC's tackle on Mick Way (got carried off the pitch after the foul) which enraged the Oxford players. When play resumed, my dad told me "Watch Oxford's number 11, he is after Currie". This number 11 was big, slow moving and had a ridiculous combover. He tried hard to be near TC whenever TC had the ball. TC was too quick for him every time. I hadnt known the Oxford player's name until years later when my dad recalled that Oxford match and I could remember him telling me to watch the Oxford number 11, I had realised that it was Ron Atkinson (who was WBA's manager at the time my dad was recalling the Oxford match).

In the 2nd half at the Lane End, three great goals by Currie (a thunderous low shot from outside the penalty area), a powerful header by Tudor and a lovely rising shot by Woodward from outside the penalty box. Late in the game Dave Powell had a good chance to make it 4-0 but he hit his penalty over the bar.

I dont think my classmate went to another football match again for a long time as I remember my dad saying "He is more interested in watching the pigeons flying to the roof of the stand than watch the football match"

Tudor handling a cross into the net in the 1st half. The ref disallowed the goal. You can see Big Ron behind him!



















From the programme







From the Green Un middle pages that evening