1973-74 match reports and photos (50 years ago today)

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26/1/1974

1972/73 County Cup final

Wendy 0 Blades 0 (Wendy won 4-3 on penalties)

I am not sure if I was aware of the match being played at the time. My dad wasnt keen on going to County Cup matches, he took me to only two County Cup matches and both were at Millmoor in August 1970 and May 1971. My dad usually sends me the Green Un to me by post when I was at Mary Hare but not during the close season. Dont remember if he did send me the last Green Un of January 1974.

Woodward, Eddy and Badger scored our penalties, Flynn and Colquhoun missed.

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Roy Coyle and Dave Staniforth

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2/2/1974

Blades 1 (Speight) Everton 1 (Barnard pen)

I wasnt at the match as I was at Mary Hare school, dont remember how I found out the score and how I felt about the result.

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

From the programme
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Not saying we didn't ..signing players like Garbett, Franks , Field start of the decline.....we were supposed to bring in players who would push us on
Oh yes, Third division signings by Furphy but Franks was signed by Harris. Franks didn't have a good relationship with Furphy.
 
9/2/1974

Norwich 2 (MacDougall, Stringer) Blades 1 (Hemsley)

I was at school but despite having a close friend (spoke to David through facetime a few hours ago) who is a Norwich fan, I do not remember how I reacted to the score that day. I asked David what he could remember, he thinks we found out the score from BBC Grandstand vidiprinter. Were we having a debate or exchanging banter? We cannot remember this but we can remember the next day better. As junior schoolboys, we were supposed to go out of the school grounds for the Sunday walk in the afternoon, but to our joy, the poor weather made the school teachers on duty decided to cancel the Sunday walk. It meant that we could watch "The Big Match" in the tv room.

The TV room was packed as many boys wanted to watch the programme and highlights of the Norwich v Blades match were shown as either the 2nd or 3rd match of the programme. I can remember being confused at why the Blades were being forced to re-take the kick of and it did look like the ref had booked Terry Garbett for twice not taking the kick off properly (the rule at the time is that you have to play the ball forward from the centre spot). In the Morning Telegraph report, the ref insisted that none of the players were booked for the kick off incident!

I remember all the goals and Hemsley's consolation was quite freakish because he had fallen down on the ground sideways in a scramble, swung his foot to lift the ball high over the bemused keeper Keelan and then the ball dipped into the net. Many in the tv room were telling me that it was a "fluke" goal!
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Scores, scorers, line ups and league tables in below link

 
16/2/1974

Blades 0 Stoke 0

The previous day was my school's Open Day and my parents met some of my teachers. Nearly all of the teachers told my parents that I need to work harder at school! :tumbleweed:

I was home for the weekend so I was able to go to the match. The only memory I have of the match is when the ref gave Mick Speight the marching orders after he clashed with Stoke's John Mahoney in the centre of the pitch.

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


From the programme

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16/2/1974

Blades 0 Stoke 0

The previous day was my school's Open Day and my parents met some of my teachers. Nearly all of the teachers told my parents that I need to work harder at school! :tumbleweed:

I was home for the weekend so I was able to go to the match. The only memory I have of the match is when the ref gave Mick Speight the marching orders after he clashed with Stoke's John Mahoney in the centre of the pitch.

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


From the programme

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It hardly filled you with optimism when the attacking options are either Garbett & Cammack or Bone & Staniforth.

It just shows how much we relied on Woody for the goals.

As we all look forward to today's match our attacking options when playing at the top level are pretty much the same.
 
23/2/1974

Leicester 1 (Worthington) Blades 1 (Salmons)

Highlights of the match was on MOTD that evening. Being a first former at Mary Hare meant that I had to be in my dormitory to get changed for bed at 7.45pm and that the lights would be switched off at 8.15pm. I did get to see both goals on Football Preview on Grandstand two weeks later as I was home that weekend. There is footage of Worthington's goal (from 1 min 50 secs in below link) but cant find one for Salmons' equaliser in youtube. Bad defending by us in dealing with Shilton's long punt that led to Worthington's goal!



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2/3/1974

Blades 0 Man U 1 (Macari)

I wasnt at the match as I was at Mary Hare. For the second successive Saturday highlights of the match was shown on MOTD and I wasnt able to watch the programme because as a first former I had to be in bed before lights were out at 8.15pm. I dont remember the day at all or that TC had become the club captain (not his first time as our captain, I think his first time was in Bobby Charlton's Old Trafford farewell the previous season).




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


From the programme

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3/3/1974

Tony Currie named in the 1973/74 first division team in the first ever PFA Awards Night.

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9/3/1974

I was home from school that weekend because it was thought a few weeks earlier that we were going to play a league match at home to Liverpool but they were still involved in the FA Cup. The big news that day was the Newcastle v Forest FA Cup tie. Newcastle fans, angry at losing 3-1 , decided a mass pitch invasion, the ref stopped play while the fans were cleared off the pitch. When play resumed, Newcastle spectacularly fought back to win 4-3. Before my dad drove me back to school I watched the highlights of the match at home and I was pleased that John Tudor scored with a brilliant diving header!

 
12/3/1974

Blades 0 Ipswich 3 (Johnson, Morris, Hamilton)

The attendance was only 10,832, I think it was our last ever midweek afternoon match. I dont remember if my dad was at the match, I dont recall receiving a "match report" letter from him.

I tried to find out the score of the match during tea time at school and during prep time but had no luck. I had to wait until the next morning, We werent allowed to go into the school classroom until after breakfast and after we have made our beds and brushed our school. I couldnt wait so I got up early, got washed and dressed before going to the corridor that linked the Manor House and the first form classrooms. I could see the 4th former who was delivering the papers into the classrooms so I dashed down the steps to my classroom thinking no one had noticed me. I was gutted to find that we had lost 3-0. I sadly went back up the steps back to the Manor House and then got a second bombshell. The senior matron had caught me sneaking into the classroom before breakfast, she angrily told me that she would punish me for breaking a rule. The punishment was that I will be missing the school talent contest that was going to be held on the evening of my birthday meaning I would go to bed early on my own in my dormitory!

It was John Hope's last match for us.

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From the programme

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Bunked off Ashleigh School to watch this. If you walked across the playing fields and and went behind the tennis courts, there was a path onto Gleadless Road that couldn't be seen from the school buildings. I remember Trevor Whymark was brilliant for Ipswich that day....
 
14/3/1974

We sign Jim Brown from Chesterfield and Tony Field from Blackburn on deadline day. I was surprised when I found out in the papers at school in the next day that we had signed two players. I knew about Jim Brown as I remember seeing him making good saves for Chesterfield in a midweek match I went to in the previous year. Tony Field was a familiar name when I would look at the goalscorers in the classified football results in the papers but I dont think I knew what he looked like.

Field was signed after The Star were circulated in mid afternoon and the transfer was completed around 4.50pm, ten minutes before the 5pm deadline.

Mick Speight turned down a move to Chesterfield.



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16/2/1974

Blades 0 Stoke 0

The previous day was my school's Open Day and my parents met some of my teachers. Nearly all of the teachers told my parents that I need to work harder at school! :tumbleweed:

I was home for the weekend so I was able to go to the match. The only memory I have of the match is when the ref gave Mick Speight the marching orders after he clashed with Stoke's John Mahoney in the centre of the pitch.

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


From the programme

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Christ on a bike. A choice up front between Terry Garbett and Steve Camack or Jim Bone and Dave Staniforth!!*%??!! And to think that we complain about McB, Archer and Brewster 🤣 Good job the internet wasn't around in those days, this place would have gone up in smoke. 🤣🤣
 
16/3/1974

Manchester City 0 Blades 1 (Salmons)

It was Old Pupils Day at my school. There was the annual football match between the school team and the old pupils also a hockey match between the schoolgirls team and the old pupils. I was fascinated to see faces that were pupils at the school before my time. Over the later years I got to know some of the old pupils and they would tell me interesting stories that happened at school before my time.

Back to the Blades, I remember being pleasantly surprised that we had won at Maine Road. I got to find out in the papers in the next day that Geoff Salmons had scored the goal but I couldnt find any match report of the match. A few days later I got a letter from my dad and he was telling me that he decided to go to see the new signings at Maine Road. He said Jim Brown had a brilliant debut making several saves (I was home the following weekend and my dad was showing me impressions of Brown's saves), the goal was an inswinging corner by Salmons that flew over the stunned Joe Corrigan. I was fascinated that it wasnt just Woody who could score direct from corners!

Highlights of the match were shown on Granada TV and YTV but sadly in the last 50 years I still have not seen footage of the goal. Greenwich Blade posted in here two years ago saying "I remember seeing the footage on the ITV highlights the next day, but have never seen it since. In my memory, it was a normal high, inswinging corner that bent like a banana into the far top corner, after which Salmons nonchalantly jogged back to halfway grinning from ear to ear."

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

 
23/3/1974

Blades 1 (Field) West Ham 0

I was home for the weekend and my schoolmate David (Norwich fan) was invited to our house for the weekend. It was his second visit to my house also it was his second visit to BDTBL. I asked him this week what he remembered about the weekend, his recollection was the same as me, we still can picture Tony Field's jubilation after heading in the goal at the far post in the Lane End but dont remember much about the rest of the match. Field held his arms aloft acknowledging the cheers from the fans in the BLUT and then he was pumping his fists (my dad, David and I were sat in the A row of the BLUT).

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It was the last time I saw TC for the season as he was due to be booked in for a knee operation at the end of the month. I dont remember being aware of this at the time. Had England qualified for the 1974 World Cup, TC will not have been involved.

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

From the programme
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23/3/1974

Blades 1 (Field) West Ham 0

I was home for the weekend and my schoolmate David (Norwich fan) was invited to our house for the weekend. It was his second visit to my house also it was his second visit to BDTBL. I asked him this week what he remembered about the weekend, his recollection was the same as me, we still can picture Tony Field's jubilation after heading in the goal at the far post in the Lane End but dont remember much about the rest of the match. Field held his arms aloft acknowledging the cheers from the fans in the BLUT and then he was pumping his fists (my dad, David and I were sat in the A row of the BLUT).

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It was the last time I saw TC for the season as he was due to be booked in for a knee operation at the end of the month. I dont remember being aware of this at the time. Had England qualified for the 1974 World Cup, TC will not have been involved.

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

From the programme
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When I read these posts I’m immediately transported back to the time / the smell of the Lane Line Up programme , the smell of the rubbing oils just before the teams came out (I stood at the side of the wire meshed tunnel , at the very front , hanging onto the railings ) .

Great days - what a fantastic time to start your Utd journey
 
23/3/1974

Blades 1 (Field) West Ham 0

I was home for the weekend and my schoolmate David (Norwich fan) was invited to our house for the weekend. It was his second visit to my house also it was his second visit to BDTBL. I asked him this week what he remembered about the weekend, his recollection was the same as me, we still can picture Tony Field's jubilation after heading in the goal at the far post in the Lane End but dont remember much about the rest of the match. Field held his arms aloft acknowledging the cheers from the fans in the BLUT and then he was pumping his fists (my dad, David and I were sat in the A row of the BLUT).

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It was the last time I saw TC for the season as he was due to be booked in for a knee operation at the end of the month. I dont remember being aware of this at the time. Had England qualified for the 1974 World Cup, TC will not have been involved.

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

From the programme
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My first ever game at BDTBL, which brings back so many memories. Thanks, Silent Blade
 

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