grafikhaus
Kraft durch Freude
…I attended my first Blades game. Bank Holiday Monday, April 23rd 1962, Manchester United v The Blades at Old Trafford. My mum and dad took me across the Pennines for the match and a big crowd was assured (it was 30,072 – the Munich air disaster had been just four years earlier). I was only seven and – in case I got lost in the crowd – mum thought it would be a good idea to have me wearing…a bright red jumper! Needless to say, I did get lost in the crowd but – to mum’s horror – a kindly stranger handed me back! Back then, Harold Macmillan was Prime Minister, JFK was US President and a Derek ‘Doc’ Pace goal saw us beat Manchester United 1-0 in the top flight. Hey! This Blades-supporting lark was going to be easy, wasn’t it?
Well, no. The return game was played the following day at Bramall Lane and although Pace and Hodgson scored, we lost the game 2-3 (‘Nobby’ Stiles got the winner) in the penultimate game of the season and we finished the season with a 2-0 defeat at Arsenal’s Highbury. Ne’er mind, we ended my inaugural (part-) season in fifth place – with only Everton, Spurs, Burnley and Alf Ramsey’s excellent Champions Ipswich Town - in their first-ever season in the First Division – above us.
For a few years after, I can’t remember going to all the games. My dad took me (2/6d for adults, 1/3d for kids, if I remember) and we used to stand at the ‘cricket pitch’ end of the kop.
But nothing – nothing – could have prepared me for what followed. Since then, I’ve been present at all the following games:
May 11th 1968. United 1 v. Chelsea 2. Winning at half-time in this last-game of the season match. This saw us relegated from the top flight by one point and started the ’13 year curse’*. (Although we were relegated at the end of the 1956 season – 12 years earlier).
(I missed the Man. United 2 Blades 0 ‘George Best’ game on October 2, 1971 as, at just 16 years old, my mum thought I was too young to go.)
Apr. 29 1975 where an estimated 8,000 Blades fans descended on St. Andrews for this Tuesday night game v. Birmingham. Opinion is divided as to whether a win would have seen us play in Europe but it’s irrelevant as a tepid display saw us draw 0-0.
Never mind! The next season would herald a bright new dawn. For the opening game of the 1975-76 v. Derby, the new South Stand would open and 31,316 attended, full of hope. £3 or £3.50 a seat if I remember. We drew this game 1-1 and would finish the season rock-bottom with a pitiful 22 points out of a possible 84. Back down to the second tier…
October 9th, 1976 stands out - away to Nottingham Forest. How proud I was to see convoys of Blades fans arrive in ‘Sheffield United Tours’ coaches. And how pissed off I was to return home on one of those coaches after we’d been spanked 6-1…
December 26th 1979, pigs 4 Blades 0. The laughably-named ‘Boxing Day Massacre’. Contrary to S6 legend, two shockingly-poor teams (ours included Jeff Bourne, Butlin, Cutbush, Len deGoey and Les Tibbott…) were watched by an astonishing 49,309. There were no buses that day and I walked there and back from Greystones.
2nd May, 1981 and the ’13 year curse’* again reared its head. United and Walsall were both trying to avoid the dreaded drop to the fourth tier and the teams met at Bramall Lane. Shit weather? Tick. Last minute drama? Tick. We lost 0-1 thanks to Don Givens missing a late, late penalty. Think Millwall a few days ago x 100.
3rd April 1993. We lost 1-2 to the pigs in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley.
7th May, 1994 and our old friend ‘The Curse’* made its third appearance. Away to Chelsea, five minutes from the final whistle and we were safe from relegation until events elsewhere, er, conspired against us and we lost 2-3 and were relegated from the Premier League.
May 26th 1997 and a last-minute wonder strike by David Hopkin saw us lose the play-off final against Crystal Palace which would have seen us back in the top flight. We lost this game 0-1 at the old Wembley.
5/4/1998 and a 0-1 loss in the FA Cup semi-final v Newcastle in the FA Cup at Old Trafford.
2003 and the ‘Triple Assault’ season turned into…’Triple Disappointment’.
A thrilling League (Worthington) Cup run saw us beat Leeds, Sunderland and Crystal Palace before beating Liverpool in the first-leg of the semi-final on one of ‘those’ nights at Bramall Lane. Big-nose twat Phil Thompson said ‘Wait till we get them back to our place’ and he was right. Liverpool’s goalie – Kirkland – should have been sent off, the ref. was the usual ‘homer’ and we succumbed on January 21 to a 0-2 defeat at Anfield in front of 43,837.
A similarly-superb run in the FA Cup ended on April 13 in the semi-final v. Arsenal at Old Trafford. We lost 0-1 but could be proud of our display – a second-tier team had pushed The Mighty Arsenal all the way, unlike…
26th May 2003 and our usual ‘no show’ at Cardiff for the play-off final v Wolves saw us lose 0-3 and fail to return to the top flight.
Did I mention ‘Curse’*? Well, it had been 13 years…
It returned with a vengeance on 13th May 2007. A cold, rainy, shitty day when the usual controversies saw us lose at home to Wigan 1-2 and our one year stay in the Premier League was over – by one goal. Of course, a simple loss wouldn’t be good enough for the Blades. West Ham played their part by fielding Carlos Tevez. They stayed up, we didn’t.
* For younger viewers, the ‘Thirteen year curse’ is where disastrous events conspire against us on the last day of the season every 13 years. Coincidence? Paranoia? I’ll get back to you after the final game of next season…
25th May, 2009 and another play-off final this time at the new Wembley versus Burnley. For once, the day was glorious but again our performance wasn’t. 0-1 to Burnley.
May 7th 2011 and Swansea delivered the coup de grâce to the sick old nag that was United. Blackwell, Speed, Carver and Micky Adams had displayed their managerial prowess that season and this 0-4 defeat saw us back down to the third tier, where we would remain for 6 long years.
Our first season back in League One (2011-12) looked promising for an immediate return to The Championship. Top-scorer Ched Evans had fired us into the promotion auto places with 29 league goals. What could possibly go wrong? Well, after 5 straight wins towards the end of the season, we were due to play at MK Dons. Before this game, Ched was arrested – accused of rape (later overturned) and he played no further part in that season. United’s form collapsed and just 2 points from the last 9 saw us slip out of the auto places to be replaced by…Sheffield Wednesday. An aggregate win over two legs against Stevenage in the play-off semis meant we were in the play-off final at Wembley v Huddersfield on 26th May 2012. A dire performance (0-0 a.e.t.), in front at one time in the penalty shoot-out, saw us ultimately – and predictably – miss out.
Since then? One of the truly darkest periods in living memory. 6 years in the third tier where the fans stood by us (an average home crowd of 19,387 over this six years – truly remarkable) but too many of the managers and players didn’t. Play-off defeats to Swindon and Yeovil. Home defeats to the likes of Bury, Colchester, Walsall, Crewe, Peterborough, Burton, Scunthorpe, Milton Keynes Dons, Fleetwood, Hartlepool, Yeovil, Crawley (I’ll say that again – on 12/1/13 we lost at home to Yeovil and on 9/4/13 we lost at home to Crawley) make Chris Wilder’s resurrection of our beloved club all the more amazing and enjoyable.
Every football fan experiences the ‘ups’ and the ‘downs’, but I doubt if any other clubs’ fans have seen the consistent heartache and failures that we Blades have.
But has it all been worth it? Of course it has!
Good times
27 April 1971 and 42,963 packed into three-sided Bramall Lane for the penultimate game of the season under the Tuesday night floodlights. We were in second place in the race back to the top flight and the visitors – Cardiff – were in third. A stunning 5-1 win saw us promoted with one game left.
Sept. 4, 1973. Blades 5 Arsenal 0 – the night TC sat on the ball.
5th May, 1990 and a 5-2 win at Leicester saw us promoted back to the top tier.
Of course there have been many other good/bad times but, in the overall scheme of things, mere ‘blips’ that didn’t have any ultimate effect. The 1-2 home loss to Hull on 9/3/1971 where we thought we’d blown promotion. The 0-5 loss at West Ham in the same season in the League Cup (the only one I didn't attend – school night). The 0-4 loss at Elland Road on Bank Holiday Monday, April 16th 1990 where we thought our dreams of going up to the top tier were over…
The heroic FA Cup games at Norwich (18/2/1989) and the Wembley semi against Hull (13/4/2014), the penalty shoot-out with Blackburn (16/3/1993) counted for nothing in the end. Even promotions from the fourth division, Darlington away – 1/15/1982, and from the third tier (1988-89 and 2016-17) - only rescued us from positions where a club of our standing should never have been in the first place.
Best game? Without a doubt, 15th May 2003 play-off semi-final second leg v. Nottingham Forest:
Worst game? Too many for any one recounting. But one does stand out for me. It was so bad, I can’t even remember our opponents (could have been Southend). It was at Bramall Lane. Date? Year? It’s been erased from my memory. Probably late 90s/early 00s. It was so dire that – after about fifteen minutes – I thought ‘Fuck this! Life’s too short’ and decided to leave. I left the South Stand via the Bramall Lane exit. The steward opened the gate for me and said ‘If you leave, you won’t be able to get back in.’ I said ‘I don’t fucking want to get back in!’
Still, ‘What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’ and all that. I’ve got my ST for next season and will be back for another dose. It’s been a rollercoaster, with a few more thrills before this season is over. This season has definitely got a ‘Dave Bassett’, ‘1989/90’, ‘Leicester away’ vibe about it…
Well, no. The return game was played the following day at Bramall Lane and although Pace and Hodgson scored, we lost the game 2-3 (‘Nobby’ Stiles got the winner) in the penultimate game of the season and we finished the season with a 2-0 defeat at Arsenal’s Highbury. Ne’er mind, we ended my inaugural (part-) season in fifth place – with only Everton, Spurs, Burnley and Alf Ramsey’s excellent Champions Ipswich Town - in their first-ever season in the First Division – above us.
For a few years after, I can’t remember going to all the games. My dad took me (2/6d for adults, 1/3d for kids, if I remember) and we used to stand at the ‘cricket pitch’ end of the kop.
But nothing – nothing – could have prepared me for what followed. Since then, I’ve been present at all the following games:
May 11th 1968. United 1 v. Chelsea 2. Winning at half-time in this last-game of the season match. This saw us relegated from the top flight by one point and started the ’13 year curse’*. (Although we were relegated at the end of the 1956 season – 12 years earlier).
(I missed the Man. United 2 Blades 0 ‘George Best’ game on October 2, 1971 as, at just 16 years old, my mum thought I was too young to go.)
Apr. 29 1975 where an estimated 8,000 Blades fans descended on St. Andrews for this Tuesday night game v. Birmingham. Opinion is divided as to whether a win would have seen us play in Europe but it’s irrelevant as a tepid display saw us draw 0-0.
Never mind! The next season would herald a bright new dawn. For the opening game of the 1975-76 v. Derby, the new South Stand would open and 31,316 attended, full of hope. £3 or £3.50 a seat if I remember. We drew this game 1-1 and would finish the season rock-bottom with a pitiful 22 points out of a possible 84. Back down to the second tier…
October 9th, 1976 stands out - away to Nottingham Forest. How proud I was to see convoys of Blades fans arrive in ‘Sheffield United Tours’ coaches. And how pissed off I was to return home on one of those coaches after we’d been spanked 6-1…
December 26th 1979, pigs 4 Blades 0. The laughably-named ‘Boxing Day Massacre’. Contrary to S6 legend, two shockingly-poor teams (ours included Jeff Bourne, Butlin, Cutbush, Len deGoey and Les Tibbott…) were watched by an astonishing 49,309. There were no buses that day and I walked there and back from Greystones.
2nd May, 1981 and the ’13 year curse’* again reared its head. United and Walsall were both trying to avoid the dreaded drop to the fourth tier and the teams met at Bramall Lane. Shit weather? Tick. Last minute drama? Tick. We lost 0-1 thanks to Don Givens missing a late, late penalty. Think Millwall a few days ago x 100.
3rd April 1993. We lost 1-2 to the pigs in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley.
7th May, 1994 and our old friend ‘The Curse’* made its third appearance. Away to Chelsea, five minutes from the final whistle and we were safe from relegation until events elsewhere, er, conspired against us and we lost 2-3 and were relegated from the Premier League.
May 26th 1997 and a last-minute wonder strike by David Hopkin saw us lose the play-off final against Crystal Palace which would have seen us back in the top flight. We lost this game 0-1 at the old Wembley.
5/4/1998 and a 0-1 loss in the FA Cup semi-final v Newcastle in the FA Cup at Old Trafford.
2003 and the ‘Triple Assault’ season turned into…’Triple Disappointment’.
A thrilling League (Worthington) Cup run saw us beat Leeds, Sunderland and Crystal Palace before beating Liverpool in the first-leg of the semi-final on one of ‘those’ nights at Bramall Lane. Big-nose twat Phil Thompson said ‘Wait till we get them back to our place’ and he was right. Liverpool’s goalie – Kirkland – should have been sent off, the ref. was the usual ‘homer’ and we succumbed on January 21 to a 0-2 defeat at Anfield in front of 43,837.
A similarly-superb run in the FA Cup ended on April 13 in the semi-final v. Arsenal at Old Trafford. We lost 0-1 but could be proud of our display – a second-tier team had pushed The Mighty Arsenal all the way, unlike…
26th May 2003 and our usual ‘no show’ at Cardiff for the play-off final v Wolves saw us lose 0-3 and fail to return to the top flight.
Did I mention ‘Curse’*? Well, it had been 13 years…
It returned with a vengeance on 13th May 2007. A cold, rainy, shitty day when the usual controversies saw us lose at home to Wigan 1-2 and our one year stay in the Premier League was over – by one goal. Of course, a simple loss wouldn’t be good enough for the Blades. West Ham played their part by fielding Carlos Tevez. They stayed up, we didn’t.
* For younger viewers, the ‘Thirteen year curse’ is where disastrous events conspire against us on the last day of the season every 13 years. Coincidence? Paranoia? I’ll get back to you after the final game of next season…
25th May, 2009 and another play-off final this time at the new Wembley versus Burnley. For once, the day was glorious but again our performance wasn’t. 0-1 to Burnley.
May 7th 2011 and Swansea delivered the coup de grâce to the sick old nag that was United. Blackwell, Speed, Carver and Micky Adams had displayed their managerial prowess that season and this 0-4 defeat saw us back down to the third tier, where we would remain for 6 long years.
Our first season back in League One (2011-12) looked promising for an immediate return to The Championship. Top-scorer Ched Evans had fired us into the promotion auto places with 29 league goals. What could possibly go wrong? Well, after 5 straight wins towards the end of the season, we were due to play at MK Dons. Before this game, Ched was arrested – accused of rape (later overturned) and he played no further part in that season. United’s form collapsed and just 2 points from the last 9 saw us slip out of the auto places to be replaced by…Sheffield Wednesday. An aggregate win over two legs against Stevenage in the play-off semis meant we were in the play-off final at Wembley v Huddersfield on 26th May 2012. A dire performance (0-0 a.e.t.), in front at one time in the penalty shoot-out, saw us ultimately – and predictably – miss out.
Since then? One of the truly darkest periods in living memory. 6 years in the third tier where the fans stood by us (an average home crowd of 19,387 over this six years – truly remarkable) but too many of the managers and players didn’t. Play-off defeats to Swindon and Yeovil. Home defeats to the likes of Bury, Colchester, Walsall, Crewe, Peterborough, Burton, Scunthorpe, Milton Keynes Dons, Fleetwood, Hartlepool, Yeovil, Crawley (I’ll say that again – on 12/1/13 we lost at home to Yeovil and on 9/4/13 we lost at home to Crawley) make Chris Wilder’s resurrection of our beloved club all the more amazing and enjoyable.
Every football fan experiences the ‘ups’ and the ‘downs’, but I doubt if any other clubs’ fans have seen the consistent heartache and failures that we Blades have.
But has it all been worth it? Of course it has!
Good times
27 April 1971 and 42,963 packed into three-sided Bramall Lane for the penultimate game of the season under the Tuesday night floodlights. We were in second place in the race back to the top flight and the visitors – Cardiff – were in third. A stunning 5-1 win saw us promoted with one game left.
Sept. 4, 1973. Blades 5 Arsenal 0 – the night TC sat on the ball.
5th May, 1990 and a 5-2 win at Leicester saw us promoted back to the top tier.
Of course there have been many other good/bad times but, in the overall scheme of things, mere ‘blips’ that didn’t have any ultimate effect. The 1-2 home loss to Hull on 9/3/1971 where we thought we’d blown promotion. The 0-5 loss at West Ham in the same season in the League Cup (the only one I didn't attend – school night). The 0-4 loss at Elland Road on Bank Holiday Monday, April 16th 1990 where we thought our dreams of going up to the top tier were over…
The heroic FA Cup games at Norwich (18/2/1989) and the Wembley semi against Hull (13/4/2014), the penalty shoot-out with Blackburn (16/3/1993) counted for nothing in the end. Even promotions from the fourth division, Darlington away – 1/15/1982, and from the third tier (1988-89 and 2016-17) - only rescued us from positions where a club of our standing should never have been in the first place.
Best game? Without a doubt, 15th May 2003 play-off semi-final second leg v. Nottingham Forest:
Worst game? Too many for any one recounting. But one does stand out for me. It was so bad, I can’t even remember our opponents (could have been Southend). It was at Bramall Lane. Date? Year? It’s been erased from my memory. Probably late 90s/early 00s. It was so dire that – after about fifteen minutes – I thought ‘Fuck this! Life’s too short’ and decided to leave. I left the South Stand via the Bramall Lane exit. The steward opened the gate for me and said ‘If you leave, you won’t be able to get back in.’ I said ‘I don’t fucking want to get back in!’
Still, ‘What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’ and all that. I’ve got my ST for next season and will be back for another dose. It’s been a rollercoaster, with a few more thrills before this season is over. This season has definitely got a ‘Dave Bassett’, ‘1989/90’, ‘Leicester away’ vibe about it…
