50 years ago today

[Keen Blade]

My seat was A85 in the BLUT from 1971 to 1977 then stopped having season ticket. Occasionally Kop for 1977-78 season and then occasionally South Stand for 1978-79 and 1979-80 seasons. Dont think my dad was in the South Stand often until the 1980s and why would he be the first in the queue for when the New Stand opened?

The BLS was opened in 1967 - that's the "new" stand that I meant - it was almost impossible to get a good seat in the old John Street stand , so the only chance one had was to get a ST in the BLS - I was presuming (wrongly it seems) that to get a front row seat bang behind the goal , your STs must have been bought the minute the BLS opened.
Though I've not lived in or near Sheffield since 1976 , when my own son was old enough for football , I took him on the most forward row available bang centre in the BLS , superb view + quiet enough for little lads.
I can never understand why the BLUT doesn't sell out first !

 

[Silent Blade]

The BLS was opened in 1967 - that's the "new" stand that I meant - it was almost impossible to get a good seat in the old John Street stand , so the only chance one had was to get a ST in the BLS - I was presuming (wrongly it seems) that to get a front row seat bang behind the goal , your STs must have been bought the minute the BLS opened.
Though I've not lived in or near Sheffield since 1976 , when my own son was old enough for football , I took him on the most forward row available bang centre in the BLS , superb view + quiet enough for little lads.
I can never understand why the BLUT doesn't sell out first !

Season ticket sales werent as high as it is nowadays

 

[reedy63]

I remember me and my brother were in the usual place on the kop. with our dad and uncles. one of the best ever games we went to. walking down John st after the match. Dad told us to get the bus home. we lived in Walkley. however, in our excitement, we got the bus right number 82.but in the wrong direction. we got off. could not get on another bus because we had no money. luckily my brother is older than me. knew the way home. after walking a while we saw the ponderosa so I knew where we were.
No idea what time it was when we arrived home. but nowt was said because we on schools holiday. this was the last home game for a few years.emigrated to Sydney Austrailia.

 

[XM657]

17/8/1971

Blades 3 (Flynn, Dearden, Colquhoun) Leeds 0

What a night even though I do not remember much of the goalless first half like I did against the same opposition in the League Cup in the previous year. We attacked the Kop end first which what we did often with success in the early 1970s. Tom Fenoughty (ex-Blade now Chesterfield) was sat next to me and my dad. My dad and Tom exchanged their thoughts throughout the match and it was obvious he was rooting for us to win.

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Not long after the break Flynn headed in the first goal at the far post from a Woody corner.
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I know I have already seen us beat Leeds the season before but I thought Leeds would be much tougher to beat in the first division fixture (it did seem we didnt really dominate like the last time). I was on a high and was in the BLUT front row talking loudly to my dad about my disbelief, then my dad told me to turn round and look at Gary Sprake. I turned round and was surprised he was looking straight at me not looking amused and probably didnt like the tone of my excitement. Tom Fenoughty and the fans near our seats noticed this too and they all burst out laughing at Sprake. There was a lovely sight of red and white scarves being held aloft all over the Kop and the Blades fans all around the ground sang in unison.

Leeds threatened to equalise at times and then in the last 10 minutes, Peter Lorimer got tripped inside our penalty box, the ref waved away appeals from the Leeds players, and then there were many Leeds players hassling the ref, one of our players then played a long pass to Stewart Scullion on the left and there was only Paul Reaney and Paul Madeley defending, Scullion then found Bill Dearden running unmarked on the right, passed the ball to him , Sprake was all at sea. It did seem that the pass had made it a tight angle for Dearden to shoot with Madeley closing him down but Dearden did find the angle to put us two up.

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Near the end Colquhoun made it three heading in a head back from Flynn from another Woody corner.

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Football results that evening

1971-08-17

From the programme

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Top notch SB, with an exceedingly excellent for the Colour Photo.
Like a bus queue with Gary "bbutterfingers" Sprake hiding as usual.
Leeds certainly got took for a ride that night.

Edit, there was a song "Butterfingers" always reminds of Mr Sprake. I had thought it was sung by Michael Holliday but on looking it up it was Tommy Steel.

 

[Teofilo Cubillas]

Top notch SB, with an exceedingly excellent for the Colour Photo.
Like a bus queue with Gary "butterfingers" Sprake hiding as usual.

But when the bus queue includes Tony Currie, Eddie Colquhoun and Billy Bremner, and they are all stood in front of the kop ... everything, all of sudden, becomes mythical.

Well done Silent!

 

[Pittsburg Blade]

4/8/1071

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Had to Google this one….they’re the old Mechelen

 

[XM657]

But when the bus queue includes Tony Currie, Eddie Colquhoun and Billy Bremner, and they are all stood in front of the kop ... everything, all of sudden, becomes mythical.

Well done Silent!

Not much mythical about Eddie Colquhoun bearing down on ye whilst defending a corner.
TC touched almost God like mythical status whilst at the Lane, granted.
As for BB, tremendous winning footballer, soiled himself by being DR's Lieutenant.

 

[Hagansbootlaces]

Not much mythical about Eddie Colquhoun bearing down on ye whilst defending a corner.
TC touched almost God like mythical status whilst at the Lane, granted.
As for BB, tremendous winning footballer, soiled himself by being DR's Lieutenant.

Footballs hard man,, and Billy Bremner

 

[Teofilo Cubillas]

Not much mythical about Eddie Colquhoun bearing down on ye whilst defending a corner.

Exactly... Bremner looks scared shitless!

 

[Pittsburg Blade]

Exactly... Bremner looks scared shitless!

So does Mr. Bean the Ref

 

[ancientblade]

Footballs hard man,, and Billy Bremner

the era of the hard men if they were playing nowadays they wouldnt get passed the first half hour lol

 

[Silent Blade]

21/8/1971

Everton 0 Blades 1 (Woodward)

My family travelled throughout the night on route to the Butlin's holiday camp at Ayr for a week's holiday. It included a sleep on a layby not too far from the Scotland border. It was our first time in Scotland. Luckily on the Saturday Ayr United were playing at home to Celtic in a League Cup group match. After spending a few hours and settling in the holiday camp, my dad and I set off for the match at Somerset Park. It was a lovely sunny day and Celtic easily beat Ayr 3-0. The only goal I could remember was the 3rd one. Kenny Dalglish took the penalty but the Ayr keeper had saved it and Dalglish scored from the rebound. I cant remember how my dad and I found out that the Blades had won at Everton but I can remember my dad laying down on the bed later in the evening saying "Wonder who scored for us?"

The photo below is of my family at the holiday camp later that week. Little did I know that my future wife would be from Scotland!






Woody receiving congratulations after scoring

 

[Silent Blade]

The scores, scorers, line ups and tables can be seen in this link

1971-08-21

www.englishfootballleaguetables.co.uk

Below are the match report (there is a mention of us winning at Everton) and photos of the Ayr v Celtic match I went to. John Hughes played in the match. He then moved to Palace and destroyed us in front of the MOTD cameras in December


Ayr's keeper saves Dalglish penalty



Dalglish showing disappointment



But recovers quickly to score from the rebound

 

[Freddie]

Just beautiful

 

[Bert]

The next couple of months were the best times Bert has ever had as a Unitedite.

 

[reedy63]

Brilliant Silent Blade. Blades are top of the league after 3 games. my last day in Sheffield. leaving on the midnight train to London.

 

[Teofilo Cubillas]

Silent,

In all seriousness, these pre-decimalisation, hyper-multimedia match reports are a revelation (with a special note to HodgyB... we all know you led the way!).

We get pre-match/after match fan-reaction, we see "action replays", and some of the photos are even in colour. We even get to read proper press reports...

Fabulous, fabulous and best of all United even win!

If only your new-fangled modern contemporaries could understand there is the possibility of winning, or better still, that the innovation's associated with the Digital Revolution and the requirements of contemporary communication go well beyond them...

Well done again Silent!

 

[Silent Blade]

24/8/1971

Arsenal 0 Blades 1 (Scullion)

I remember being sat down on a chair watching my parents dancing with other holidaymakers at the dance hall in the Ayr Butlins camp. After 9.15pm I was trying my best to signal my dad to remind him that we needed to go to a tv room to catch the football results near the end of the 9 O'Clock news programme. Eventually my dad stopped dancing and we then walked to the tv room at a different building. On entering the darkened TV room we realised that our watches were a few minutes slow which meant we only saw the very end of the tv news. I briefly got disappointed that we wont find out the score at Highbury till the next morning. My dad then quietly asked a group of men in the room if they caught the football scores. After that he told me to be quiet and leave the room quickly before saying outside "Arsenal 0 United 1". It was a fantastic feeling and I wanted to scream with joy!

I got up early in the next morning with the money from my dad to buy the newspaper from the paper shop in the camp. All the way to the shop I was wondering who had scored. It was our new signing Stewart Scullion!









Scores, line ups and tables that evening

1971-08-24

www.englishfootballleaguetables.co.uk

 

[reedy63]

I was somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean cruising onboard The Ellinis-chadris line. on our way to Cape Town South Africa.no mobile phones or internet then. you had to rely on. newspapers for results then. just before I discovered BBC World Service.

 

[ancientblade]

I was somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean cruising onboard The Ellinis-chadris line. on our way to Cape Town South Africa.no mobile phones or internet then. you had to rely on. newspapers for results then. just before I discovered BBC World Service.

i was in the buccaneer on leopold street loved that pub even drinking out of plastic pots lol

 

[Karaoke Blade]

24/8/1971

Arsenal 0 Blades 1 (Scullion)

I remember being sat down on a chair watching my parents dancing with other holidaymakers at the dance hall in the Ayr Butlins camp. After 9.15pm I was trying my best to signal my dad to remind him that we needed to go to a tv room to catch the football results near the end of the 9 O'Clock news programme. Eventually my dad stopped dancing and we then walked to the tv room at a different building. On entering the darkened TV room we realised that our watches were a few minutes slow which meant we only saw the very end of the tv news. I briefly got disappointed that we wont find out the score at Highbury till the next morning. My dad then quietly asked a group of men in the room if they caught the football scores. After that he told me to be quiet and leave the room quickly before saying outside "Arsenal 0 United 1". It was a fantastic feeling and I wanted to scream with joy!

I got up early in the next morning with the money from my dad to buy the newspaper from the paper shop in the camp. All the way to the shop I was wondering who had scored. It was our new signing Stewart Scullion!

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Scores, line ups and tables that evening

1971-08-24

www.englishfootballleaguetables.co.uk

Looking back on those amazing reports and photos, seeing us top of the league, now seems so unreal.
However, at the time, as a naive eleven year old who had not witnessed the many years of heartache following the Blades, it felt like our time had come and it would be like this for ever. (Deep sigh).

 

[Pedro Verde]

21/8/1971

Everton 0 Blades 1 (Woodward)

My family travelled throughout the night on route to the Butlin's holiday camp at Ayr for a week's holiday. It included a sleep on a layby not too far from the Scotland border. It was our first time in Scotland. Luckily on the Saturday Ayr United were playing at home to Celtic in a League Cup group match. After spending a few hours and settling in the holiday camp, my dad and I set off for the match at Somerset Park. It was a lovely sunny day and Celtic easily beat Ayr 3-0. The only goal I could remember was the 3rd one. Kenny Dalglish took the penalty but the Ayr keeper had saved it and Dalglish scored from the rebound. I cant remember how my dad and I found out that the Blades had won at Everton but I can remember my dad laying down on the bed later in the evening saying "Wonder who scored for us?"

The photo below is of my family at the holiday camp later that week. Little did I know that my future wife would be from Scotland!

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Woody receiving congratulations after scoring

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Went to the Everton game on the Football Special
Great win the locals werent very happy it was mayhem on way back to Lime Street station

 

[HodgysBrokenThumb]

The next couple of months were the best times Bert has ever had as a Unitedite.

Indeed they were. But looking back, I can’t erase the memory of where we were by 1981.

 

[Isaw Joeshaw]

24/8/1971

Arsenal 0 Blades 1 (Scullion)

I remember being sat down on a chair watching my parents dancing with other holidaymakers at the dance hall in the Ayr Butlins camp. After 9.15pm I was trying my best to signal my dad to remind him that we needed to go to a tv room to catch the football results near the end of the 9 O'Clock news programme. Eventually my dad stopped dancing and we then walked to the tv room at a different building. On entering the darkened TV room we realised that our watches were a few minutes slow which meant we only saw the very end of the tv news. I briefly got disappointed that we wont find out the score at Highbury till the next morning. My dad then quietly asked a group of men in the room if they caught the football scores. After that he told me to be quiet and leave the room quickly before saying outside "Arsenal 0 United 1". It was a fantastic feeling and I wanted to scream with joy!

I got up early in the next morning with the money from my dad to buy the newspaper from the paper shop in the camp. All the way to the shop I was wondering who had scored. It was our new signing Stewart Scullion!

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Scores, line ups and tables that evening

1971-08-24

www.englishfootballleaguetables.co.uk

After the Arsenal match , the highly regarded Brian Granville of the Sunday Times wrote one of the most complimentary reports I’ve ever read about a Blades team .

He said that on current form we were the best team in the country and waxed lyrical about our style of play , organisation and individual players such as TC , Woody and a few others .

Wonderful , wonderful days and both an honour and a privilege to have been able to witness them .

 

[Silent Blade]

28/8/1971

Blades 0 WBA 0

Came back home from an enjoyable week at Butlin's holiday camp a few hours before the kick off. I played plenty of football on the holiday camp football pitch during the week and so did many of the holiday makers. Watched Celtic beat Ayr 3-0 on the Saturday and Rangers beat Ayr 4-0 on the Wednesday (both at Somerset Park). Years later (probably in 1978) my dad told me that we had met Ayr's manager Ally MacLeod (later was Scotland's manager and well known for the 1978 World Cup campaign) that week but I do not remember meeting him (I probably didnt have a clue who he was). My dad remembered him being a good player for Blackburn in the early 1960s.

It rained a lot during the WBA match. YTV cameras were there probably expecting goals! I think we attacked the Lane end in the first half because I remember there were so many photographers taking their positions behind the Lane End goal. As for the match, I do not really remember much
apart from when Hockey returned to the pitch through the tunnel with a bandage on his head, which brought loud cheers from the crowd, and later on I was being frustrated that we didnt score

Apologies for the first two parts of the Green Un report being blurry!













Morning Telegraph



Scores, line ups and scorers that day and we were still at the top!

1971-08-28

www.englishfootballleaguetables.co.uk

From the programme

 

[Dnblade]

I remember being at the front of the Kop, soaked through with the rain.. Disappointed with the result, but the great times watching the Blades back then.

 

[Half Man Half Blade]

My first Blades match. All I can remember, apart from the score, is my grandad telling me how loud and boisterous the crowd would be when we scored and leaving the ground at the end wondering what he'd been on about. Didn't stop me wanting to go back, though.

 

[reedy63]

I was a few thousand miles away on board ship a day or before we arrived in Cape Town.I was given a short wave radio and found BBC. World Service. thats how I found out we drew,0-0.came very handy for the next few years in Sydney Australia.

 

[HodgysBrokenThumb]

Today has been a bit of a re-run of 50 years ago. United draw 0-0, and Wednesday lose 1-0 on the Lancashire coast (at Blackpool 50 years ago). The 0-0 draw doesn’t leave us top of the Premier League, unfortunately…

 

[Silent Blade]

31/8/1971

Blades 3 (Dearden 2, Woodward (pen)) Huddersfield 1 ( Jimmy Lawson)

I remember our goals but not Huddersfield's. We went two up early in the game with a Dearden header



and then a Woody penalty that sent keeper David Lawson the wrong way



In the 2nd half Jimmy Lawson (no relation to the keeper) pulled a goal back before Dearden made sure of the win with a brave goal, he dived in mid air to hit a pass by Currie past the keeper and he got injured by Roy Ellam's challenge. He received congratulations by his team mates as he laid almost motionless on the ground. He got a big round of applause from the crowd as he got carried off and replaced by sub Gil Reece.



I remember thinking that we are still at the top of the league after beating a team who comfortably won the 2nd division the previous year.

Years later my dad and I were talking about David Lawson (I think he was playing for Everton at the time) and my dad called him a "big head". I asked him why he thought that. He recalled being outside the players entrance after our 3-1 win in 1971 as I was autograph hunting (I do not remember this and it wasnt often that I went autograph hunting after a night match , maybe it made sense as it was still the school summer holiday and I didnt need to get up early in the next morning). When David Lawson came out of the players entrance to make his way to the coach, my dad said to him "that was a great save from a Woody shot!", the keeper looked straight at my dad with a quizzical look saying "Woodward?!", shrugged his shoulders then looked away shaking his head saying "Alan?!". Although I do not remember the save but I agree with my dad that it was a twattish behaviour by Lawson!





Scores, scorers and line ups that evening

1971-08-31

www.englishfootballleaguetables.co.uk

From the programme