1974-75 match reports and photos (50 years ago today)

[Alan Birchenall's hair]

I believe the Burnley game was one of Brian Flynn's first for them. He looked about 12 years old, but played very, very well. So much so, that when he was subbed in the second half, the Kop clapped him off.

 

[ZLB]

Oh man. I loved that season. A lot.

 

[Silent Blade]

23/11/1974

Chelsea v Blades postponed. Think due to waterlogged pitch

 

[John Street West Terrace]

74-75 was a 3 seasons before my first appearance at The Lane league table suggests it was a hell of a title race with only 5 points separating top 7 teams

 

[Silent Blade]

74-75 was a 3 seasons before my first appearance at The Lane league table suggests it was a hell of a title race with only 5 points separating top 7 teams

Had the scores for our home gave v Derby been reversed then a win in our last game of the season at Birmingham would have seen us being the champions!

 

[John Street West Terrace]

Had the scores for our home gave v Derby been reversed then a win in our last game of the season at Birmingham would have seen us being the champions!

Wow didn’t realise we we that close ! … bet there were a few ppl glewed

Had the scores for our home gave v Derby been reversed then a win in our last game of the season at Birmingham would have seen us being the champions!

to radio at matches in latter stages of that season .. Was that Dave Mackays first season at Derby as manager ?

 

[Bell4]

Had the scores for our home gave v Derby been reversed then a win in our last game of the season at Birmingham would have seen us being the champions!

Just how close we were hey

That 2-1 home defeat where we outplayed Derby but still managed to lose and the drab chance less 0-0 at st Andrew’s

Almost hey

 

[Silent Blade]

Wow didn’t realise we we that close ! … bet there were a few ppl glewed


to radio at matches in latter stages of that season .. Was that Dave Mackays first season at Derby as manager ?

He was manager of Swindon and then came back to Derby after Clough left in October 1973. 1974-75 was Mackay's first full season as Derby's manager

 

[GreasyChipBeattie]

74-75 was a 3 seasons before my first appearance at The Lane league table suggests it was a hell of a title race with only 5 points separating top 7 teams

I was at the Birmingham away game when we drew 0-0, thinking a win would see us 4th and European football, but looking at the table, we would have gone above Stoke into 5th, but not above Everton due to goal difference? Although I think it was goal average back then, which I never did understand, so maybe that was why we could have got 4th

 

[Silent Blade]

I was at the Birmingham away game when we drew 0-0, thinking a win would see us 4th and European football, but looking at the table, we would have gone above Stoke into 5th, but not above Everton due to goal difference? Although I think it was goal average back then, which I never did understand, so maybe that was why we could have got 4th

Yes, it was goal average back then and we would have finished 5th instead of Stoke if we had won at Birmingham. Stoke thought they had qualified for the UEFA Cup because the rule at the time was that only one club per city apart from London can play in any of the European completions. Everton appealed against the ruling and won the appeal leaving Stoke disappointed

 

[GreasyChipBeattie]

Yes, it was goal average back then and we would have finished 5th instead of Stoke if we had won at Birmingham. Stoke thought they had qualified for the UEFA Cup because the rule at the time was that only one club per city apart from London can play in any of the European completions. Everton appealed against the ruling and won the appeal leaving Stoke disappointed

I didn't know that mate. Sounds like we have more in common with Stoke than just red and white stripes!
What with Everton taking their European place, and then Hans Segers....

 

[Silent Blade]

27/11/1974

League Cup 4th round replay

Norwich 2 (Goodwin 2) Blades 1 (Dearden)

We appealed against Colquhoun's suspension for the sending off with Phil Boyer but Norwich didnt appeal. Colquhoun was allowed to play in the replay but Boyer was suspended. Boyer's replacement, Steve Goodwin, scored both goals for Norwich after we were leading with a Dearden goal. In total, Goodwin played only 2 league matches plus one as sub for Norwich before moving to Southend at the end of the season!

Vikram, the head boy at my school told me that he would find out the score for me and said I could go into his room in the next morning to find out the score. As soon as I got up at 7am, I went straight to the head boy bedroom, followed by my Norwich supporting mate, David. Vikram then told me we had lost 2-1 so I turned round and grudgingly told David the score and he didnt hide his delight!

 

[Silent Blade]

30/11/1974

Blades 0 Spurs 1 (Duncan)

I was home for the weekend and I invited a friend from school to stay over at my house. Inviting him was a mistake as he wasnt really a close friend of mine. He wasnt really into football despite that he wasnt a bad player playing for the same school football team. He didnt really understand the culture of being a football fan and couldnt really understand my bad mood walking back to the car after the match. A few months earlier he was telling me that he was feeling sad about being unable to go home for the weekend (he lived in Wigan) so I promised him that I would talk to my parents about it. My parents were rather surprised when I asked them if the boy from Wigan could stay for the weekend. His parents werent keen on the arrangement and they were quite rude to my parents when they phoned them on their son's arrival at my house. After that weekend my friendship with him ended rather quickly. I have met him and spoke to him once or twice after we left school. He doesnt bother responding to invites for my school year's reunions as he has cut off ties with anyone from my year.

The only memory I have of the match was Pat Jennings' world class save from a Woody shot from close range at the Lane End in the second half.







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

1974-11-30

From the programme

 

[Silent Blade]

7/12/1974

Manchester City 3 (Hammond, Bell, Marsh) Blades 2 (Currie, Field)

I remember watching the BBC Grandstand programme in my school's tv room that afternoon, just before the classified football results came up, Grandstand presenter Frank Bough paused for a few seconds as he was listening to his earpiece. Not that often I could lipread presenters but this time Frank spoke slowly and I perfectly lipread him saying "Sheffield Wednesday 4 Manchester United 4". There were gasps in the tv as it was expected that top of the table Man U would thrash Wendy who were struggling near the bottom of the second division. I knew that TC was one our scorers because a photo of him appeared during the round up after the Results service.

Rodney Marsh scoring the third goal to put City 3-1 up









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

1974-12-07

 

[ancientblade]

7/12/1974

Manchester City 3 (Hammond, Bell, Marsh) Blades 2 (Currie, Field)

I remember watching the BBC Grandstand programme in my school's tv room that afternoon, just before the classified football results came up, Grandstand presenter Frank Bough paused for a few seconds as he was listening to his earpiece. Not that often I could lipread presenters but this time Frank spoke slowly and I perfectly lipread him saying "Sheffield Wednesday 4 Manchester United 4". There were gasps in the tv as it was expected that top of the table Man U would thrash Wendy who were struggling near the bottom of the second division. I knew that TC was one our scorers because a photo of him appeared during the round up after the Results service.

Rodney Marsh scoring the third goal to put City 3-1 up

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

1974-12-07

was at that 4 - 4 game in south stand 15k man utd fans on wednesdays kop never seen owt like it and only time ive ever seen a police horse go in to the crowd on the kop

 

[Silent Blade]

was at that 4 - 4 game in south stand 15k man utd fans on wednesdays kop never seen owt like it and only time ive ever seen a police horse go in to the crowd on the kop

 

[ancientblade]

the horse that went on to the east bank was a white one and saved the small mob of about 200 wednesday fans in the bottom right hand corner getting absolutely battered by the thousands of man utd fans converging on em

 

[bornablade]

Monday December 9th 1974.

50 years ago I was living in the centre of Birmingham and on this night I attended an All Stars X1 v a West Midlands X1 at St Andrews, Birmingham City's ground.

The two teams were managed by Joe Mercer and Don Revie and had been arranged to help those victims who had suffered from the IRA bombings of the two pubs in Birmingham city centre.

I can't recall very much about the game. Tony Currie was in the programme team line-up for the All Stars X1.

The IRA bombing had taken place on November 21st 1974 and I can remember the sirens of the emergency vehicles sounding throughout the night.

The next night (Friday) I went into one of my locals the Prince of Wales (behind the Birmingham Rep), an Irish pub run by a great couple Paddy and Margaret. It was empty and it probably took some time for the pub to regain its business.

This was before the time of charity singles and football was seen as a vehicle to raise funds for wothwhile causes.

 

[Silent Blade]

14/12/1974

QPR 1 (Rogers) Blades 0

That evening I attended the school xmas party and the party started around 4.30pm which meant I had to miss the results service on BBC Grandstand. I dont remember how I got to find out the score. There were highlights of the game shown on MOTD that evening but I have not seen footage of the goal and I couldnt find it in youtube.





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

1974-12-14

 

[Silent Blade]

20/12/1974

Blades 1 (Dearden) Coventry 0

The start of my school xmas holiday. In the morning a coachload took many pupils to Newbury train station, most of us caught the train to Paddington station in London before splitting up to travel by tube to go to the other train stations in London for the second leg of the train journey to their respective home towns. I remember the luggage I was carrying was quite heavy and it was a big effort carrying it up the steps at St Pancras station (I was 12 at the time)
. It is strange that we put a man on the moon before we thought of putting wheels on luggage!

Got home in a good time to have steak and chips with bread and butter (my favourite at the time) for tea and then my dad and were off to the Lane for the Friday night match. It was hoped that we would get a good crowd on the Friday night because the next day was the last Saturday before Xmas. The experiment failed as the attendance was less than 15,000!










Scores that night in below link

1974-12-20

From the programme

 

[ancientblade]

remember this game well silent as i was rat arsed after stanleys warehouse christmas do in the pitsmoor club that afternoon rum and black was my undoing was also in the bad books as i took my fiance now wife to her first game at the lane in the blut bit steep up there when your seing 22 players on each side and 2 refs 50 years ago unbelievable merry christmas silent thanks for all these memories for us oldies

 

[Bell4]

27/11/1974

League Cup 4th round replay

Norwich 2 (Goodwin 2) Blades 1 (Dearden)

We appealed against Colquhoun's suspension for the sending off with Phil Boyer but Norwich didnt appeal. Colquhoun was allowed to play in the replay but Boyer was suspended. Boyer's replacement, Steve Goodwin, scored both goals for Norwich after we were leading with a Dearden goal. In total, Goodwin played only 2 league matches plus one as sub for Norwich before moving to Southend at the end of the season!

Vikram, the head boy at my school told me that he would find out the score for me and said I could go into his room in the next morning to find out the score. As soon as I got up at 7am, I went straight to the head boy bedroom, followed by my Norwich supporting mate, David. Vikram then told me we had lost 2-1 so I turned round and grudgingly told David the score and he didnt hide his delight!

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I quickly learned to keep out of head boys bedrooms tbh

 

[Long Time Lurker]

Great to read the article on a young Kenworthy. He was a great player for us in the 80s.

 

[Greenwich Blade]

. It is strange that we put a man on the moon before we thought of putting wheels on luggage!

And yet I distinctly remember way back in the days of SUISA/Viewpoints, a certain Crouchy saying, in an early 21st Century version of the Twats Thread, or maybe it was a prototype What Winds You Up? discussion: "Wheels on suitcases! Just f*****g carry it!" (Webbo wouldn't let us swear!)

 

[Crouchy]

And yet I distinctly remember way back in the days of SUISA/Viewpoints, a certain Crouchy saying, in an early 21st Century version of the Twats Thread, or maybe it was a prototype What Winds You Up? discussion: "Wheels on suitcases! Just f*****g carry it!" (Webbo wouldn't let us swear!)

Cunts.

 

[Silent Blade]

 

[Silent Blade]

14/12/1974

QPR 1 (Rogers) Blades 0

That evening I attended the school xmas party and the party started around 4.30pm which meant I had to miss the results service on BBC Grandstand. I dont remember how I got to find out the score. There were highlights of the game shown on MOTD that evening but I have not seen footage of the goal and I couldnt find it in youtube.

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

1974-12-14

Found a photo from the match

 

[Silent Blade]

26/12/1974

Middlesbrough 1 (Armstrong) Blades 0

I have not seen any photos of this match so I dont know if we wore the all blue away kit in this match like we did at Newcastle in August and at Stoke in October also at Liverpool and Arsenal 3 months later.

My dad decided not to go to the match because we had a family party at my house on Xmas Day and with all the beer he had been drinking would not have been safe for him to drive in the next day so my Uncle Pete said he would take me to watch Wendy v Bolton. Bolton won 2-0 and Wendy played poor. I remember they had Bobby Brown and Fred McIver who didnt look like footballers.




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

1974-12-26

 

[finlaytheblade]

the south stand was definetly needed but yes it was the start of our decline we played some fantastic attacking football in the second half of the 74/75 season and with 2 or 3 quality signings we could have been challenging for the title 75/76 instead we bought cheap changed our playing style to accomadate chris guthrie and were as good as down by christmas it was the beginning of the end

As you say the stand was needed unfortunately it came a generation too late.
Having being held back by a board that was happy for the club to trundle along between 1st and 2nd division.We had no vision of what was to come , a set of aging directors( not all aging of course)who really wanted a club steeped in cricket ( yorkshire were formed in sheffield) as much as football.
We stood still while clubs developed there stadiums ( including the pigs) a situation which really held us back.
Realism finally broke out as I say a generation late.
Money was tight as revenues from football were low due to a stadium with few seats and a stadium keeping cricket going which was a millstone round the clubs neck.
The decision was made and stand built to be greeted by relegation due to lack of investment in the team ( that has a familiar ring ) revenues collapsed and TC was sold to cover the mortgage and keep the wolf from the door
All that was nearly 50 years ago with occasional forays into the top division always cut short by a board short of a wealthy man able to push us on.
Brearley had a go and was knocked back by the sheffield council which at the time had a group of pigs running the show (we know who they were ) and it goes on promotions and relegations due to lack of funds to push us forward.
We now reach the point of no return (that's not strictly true ).
We have just had an owner who did his best to break the cycle lack of wealth short circuited him! But hang on American owners come in with possibilities to push us on!
Hopefully they are put in the picture. regarding our history! !
It will either drive em on or scare them away !!

 

[ancientblade]

that 74/75 team was 2nd only to the 70/72 side in my time watching united but didnt get the chance to develop due as you say to an aged boardroom with no vision the south stand did hamper us no doubt about it but it did need building for me just 2 quality division 1 players in the summer of 75 and we would have definetly been challenging for the title