It is good to be a Blade today, after another good home win, in a season which is going to keep us interested to the end. 60 years ago today, as the Beatles didn't quite sing, United were embarking on one of those weeks that long stay in the memory, for the right reasons. Valentine's Day 1959, as an 11-year old in love with the Blades and no idea what Valentine's Day was (Mrs HBT would add that I still haven't), I was one of many thousands who had caught Cup fever. Here was the best competition in world football, the final of which I began watching on TV in 1953 at a neighbour's house, and United were in with a chance of getting into the 6th round for the first time in my 'career'. There was the little matter of Arsenal away to negotiate first. They were second in League 1 only because Wolves had a better goal difference, and we were on the fringes of the League 2 promotion race. But the previous season in the 4th round we had gone to the about-to-be-mighty Spurs, and demolished them 3-0, with a master plan of Bill Hodgson (think Montgomery at his best) standing next to Danny Blanchflower for 90 minutes, so that he would never get a kick. Blanchflower commented afterwards that he was never lonely that day, as he always had the little Scottish terrier by his side to talk to!
The Midland Station was packed with United supporters (had 'fans' been invented in 1959?), a red-and-white sea of scarves, rosettes, woolly hats and rattles. For my Dad's generation, this was the chance to right the injustice of the 1936 Final, where it was generally agreed that second Division United had outplayed the Mighty Arsenal, but lost 1-0. There was a huge number of Blades in the crowd of over 55,000, so Highbury was totally red-and-white (and of course, grey - this was still the 1950s). United were at full strength, except for the continuing absence of Richardson, whereas Arsenal were without Tommy Docherty (suspended) and Jimmy Bloomfield (injury), thus missing 2 of their key players. And both teams were managed by ex-Arsenal players (George Swindin, and Archie Clarke, who was still our acting manager).
The match turned out to be one of our great Cup performances. Their manager said afterwards that they were lucky to scrape a draw, and the newspapers all wrote glowingly of United's superiority on the day. Our forwards were dangerous throughout, and the 2 Shaws excelled in defence. Just as at Tottenham the season before, we started off with great purpose, and in the 2nd minute Pace lived up to his name with a run out wide (in general the surname 'Sharp' would have reflected his qualities better than 'Pace'), put in a perfect cross, and the photos to be included in the next post show Simpson running in with perfect body shape to volley into the net. We continued to dominate, but Arsenal equalised with a soft penalty for an alleged foul by Coldwell. In the second half the Unitedites continued to roar the team on, and on 65 minutes were celebrating another classy goal - a hard cross from the teenager Lewis, and a beautiful glancing header from Pace. Cue 'Ilka Moor...'. And despite creating further chances (see the pic 'The slide that could have meant 3-1), United conceded an equaliser in the last 10 minutes. If you will allow me the little joke, the match ended in a 2-2 victory for us.
Meanwhile, a few miles away, little 3rd Division Norwich were drawing at White Hart Lane, which meant a lot of colourful celebrations around the railway stations in London. When the Cup draw was made on the Monday, Arsenal and Spurs fans will have been looking forward to a north London derby, but strange things happen in the Cup. United's replay with Arsenal was on the Wednesday evening, not all-ticket, but on a working day it would be difficult for many Arsenal supporters to make it to Bramall Lane. Everything was set for a rousing Cup replay. Oh, and did I mention that Wednesday were coming to the Lane 3 days later? This was going to be some week... Pictures to follow shortly, below.