60 years ago this month...

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Chilttheblade said:
Because he was bald iif I remember correctly .
But also not that good a player, but my money is on account he was bald
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He certainly was the most bald player at the Lane from my early days; only rivalled by Cliff Mason, who was a reserve who did not play regularly.
 
HodgysBrokenThumb said:
Tuesday October 31, 1961
Sheffield XI 5-8 Select XI
Hillsborough
Attendance: 25202

I fear further calls for my resignation. In searching in vain for the Utd v Villa programme the other day, I came across the programme for the match above, which strictly should be in a new thread called ‘60 Years Ago Last Month’ 🤣
The match was a benefit match for Doug McMillan, a teenager who had a leg amputated as a result of an accident to the Wednesday team bus on its way back from Arsenal the previous Boxing Day. There were awful echoes of what had happened to Derek Dooley 7 years previously. Dooley’s injury occurred before I had been to a football match, but I remember my Dad listening to the radio putting to one side any anti-Wednesday sentiments when updates were given on his injury. It made an impression on me for many years, as I often felt anxious when I cut my knee on a football pitch - I assumed there was something dangerous in the grass and mud which could lead to serious problems.
With Doug McMillan, I was older, and more affected emotionally knowing that a youngster close to making his debut would never play football again. I also felt bad that we had celebrated Wednesday losing the match at Arsenal.
Until seeing the programme, I had forgotten going to this game, which is pretty surprising in view of the Select XI lineup. And it is not every day that you witness an 8-5 score!
Two memories brought back by the programme:
1. There was something very unsettling about seeing Joe Shaw wearing blue-and-white stripes.
2. The linesman with the red flag was, I am sure, Don Payne, who my Dad played cricket with for many years. I think he was for a time a league referee, probably only in the lower leagues.
Pictures of the programme:
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HodgysBrokenThumb said:
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In the bald head stakes, Bill Punton is a good shout. He had no problem with the crowd, I think, partly because he was an emergency buy, and mainly because of his winning goal v Wednesday. That was enough to gain him legendary status, but it was his only league goal in 16 appearances for us, and I suspect that is why he has always been well regarded. Though he did manage Gt Yarmouth for 21 years, which is also worthy of respect.
 
HodgysBrokenThumb said:
In the bald head stakes, Bill Punton is a good shout. He had no problem with the crowd, I think, partly because he was an emergency buy, and mainly because of his winning goal v Wednesday. That was enough to gain him legendary status, but it was his only league goal in 16 appearances for us, and I suspect that is why he has always been well regarded. Though he did manage Gt Yarmouth for 21 years, which is also worthy of respect.
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Remember him scoring twice in a 3-1 FA Cup replay win over Fulham.
Resurrected his career in the mid-90s playing Frasier....
 
ancientblade said:
wasnt that the replay that was postponed twice ?
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Well remembered. The programme was one of several where the date of the match was changed on the cover each time the game was postponed. This was because of heavy rain the previous Wednesday and Monday:
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HodgysBrokenThumb said:
The Smith showing in the programme as our number 10 takes some tracking down. I had never heard of him, and it appears that he did not play in that match when it eventually took place!
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Played in our 2-0 home win against Southampton, scored in the 2-1 win at WBA, then played in the 1-1 draw in the FA Cup match at Fulham, never played again and went back to play in Scottish non-league.

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Silent Blade said:
We wore all white in the match
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teams used to do that a lot in the 60s didnt they silent all white in both games for us and all red for fulham my future brother in law was on motd at craven cottage celebrating behind the goal where mick jones scored our goal strangely enough thought one of the replays was called off through fog must just be me getting ancient 😀😀😀
 
November 25, 1961
United 3-1 Birmingham City
Attendance: 16838

We may have had 4 away defeats in a row, but at least the home form had improved, and now with 3 wins and a draw in the last 4 home matches, United had again moved away from the 2 relegation places. They were still close, though, and despite the fact that plenty of teams above us were not far ahead in terms of points, avoiding relegation remained the main problem. But at least we were scoring goals, and on a day when Pace could not find the back of the net, it was satisfying that 3 different players scored in the one game.
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From the match reports, it appears to have been a comfortable win. 1-0 up at half-time, kicking towards the Kop in the second-half saw us go 3-0 up, before Birmingham scored a late consolation goal. The one direct memory I have of the game is Ron Simpson’s goal; he was having one of his best spells at the Lane, and his goal was typical - well outside the area, in the inside-left position, he drove the ball hard and low, with bend taking it into the bottom left-hand corner. Again, a perfect goal for those of us standing on the Kop a few yards to the left of the goal. It was a goal from the moment his left boot connected with the ball.
There are several points surrounding this match which show how little (in some respects) the game has changed. Fred Walters’ report (included below in the following post) is horrified at 2 botched attempts at short corner routines; the crowd reaction would have been the same today. The crowd was again low, and this chimes in with the appointment by the Football League of expensive consultants to address the issue of falling attendances. Some of the points made in the syndicated article in the programme (see below, again) are appropriate (reducing the number of meaningless league games), though the final paragraph on Jimmy Greaves might draw a reaction from Bert 🤣
So, with confidence again restored, it was away again the following week hoping to stop the run of away defeats. Unfortunately, it was to Burnley, league leaders and scorers of 55 goals in 18 matches. Details of how that went next week…
 
December 2nd, 1961
Burnley 4-2 Utd
Attendance: 20827

The pattern of win at home/lose away continued at league-leaders Burnley, with this 4-2 defeat including an own goal by both sides, as in the previous away match in Lancashire at Bolton.
I was planning to go to this game, but an overnight stomach bug (you really don’t want to know the details) meant that travel over the Pennines was not an option. From the reports, it seems I missed a good game, but another disappointing defeat. My brother went, so the player-ratings are his. As I will explain shortly, he seems to have been spot-on.
The newspaper reports (thanks again Silent Blade ) suggest a good performance which merited at least a share of the points. Some earlier games had been lost because of an inability to score goals, but now United were scoring more, but in the eternal problem with football, scoring goals AND not conceding goals is really hard to achieve. And so we were again pushed back towards the relegation places:
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If you need a reminder that nothing lasts for ever in football, just look at the bottom 3: Chelsea, ManU, Man City; or the top 2: Burnley, Ipswich.
My brother’s player-ratings were as follows:
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The 2 lowest rated players were Pace and Hartle, and these find confirmation elsewhere. For the following match Hartle was dropped after a run of games in the side, suggesting a loss of form. And the report by John Hathaway (see next post, below), focussed almost entirely on Pace’s loss of form and relatively poor scoring record in recent weeks, which again suggests that he did indeed have a poor game. But if there are 2 things we know about football fans, it is that they are pessimists, and often wrong. In the next 14 games, Pace scored 14 goals; how often do strikers score goals in clusters, and than have a lean spell? I wonder if John Hathaway ever mentioned his analysis of Pace again…
And looking back, the pessimistic Blade that I now am would assume that we were in a relegation battle for the rest of the season. In fact, having lost on December 2nd, we did not lose again in December. Or January. Or February. Match after match, in the League, the Cup, the League Cup, we remained unbeaten in 16 games, until we went to Ipswich in early March. ‘It’s a funny old game’, as someone once famously said.
Reports/programme in next post
 
cahill said:
Why would we wear all white ? Given Fulham’s strip I mean ?
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FA Cup rules state that if there is a colour clash then both clubs wear their 2nd kit

See below Derby v Leeds in 1973 FA Cup as an example

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