A look back at early 1982-3

[Revolution]

Before the current Dark Ages, we spent 5 seasons in Division 3. 4 of these are memorable in some way: there were 2 promotion seasons, 1 relegation season, and one season that, unfortunately, contains a date which is the Wednesday fan equivalent of 5 May 1990, so gets brought up a lot.

This leaves 1982-3 - an eleventh place finish after promotion - as the poor relation. Whilst browsing through the Complete Record book the other day, I noticed something about that season that was interesting (well, interesting to me at least). So I thought I’d write about it in the hope that it’s interesting to other people.

Pre season moves

The headline in Blades News read “New Boys add experience” and some of them certainly did. United bolstered their midfield - having lost John Matthews - with the signings of the experienced Ray McHale from Barnsley and Kevin Arnott from Sunderland: two players from a higher level. Mick Henderson also came from Cardiff as defensive cover.

Arnott and Henderson were free transfers and McHale cost a small fee, but there was real money spent on the forward line: despite scoring 94 goals in winning the Fourth Division, Porterfield thought we needed more up front, and we equalled our transfer record by signing Alan Young from Leicester and, more controversially, winger Terry Curran from Wednesday. This was big news - even Look Leeds covered it. Curran, instrumental in Wednesday’s promotion 3 years before but noted for wearing out his welcome wherever he went, had fallen out with Jack Charlton and we paid 100 grand to take him across the City. This remains the most high profile transfer deal between the clubs.

5 players signed, all from higher divisions (same as this season’s signings), on the back of a championship season. Hopes were high. The main problem was an unfortunate injury - Keith Waugh broke his collar bone (shades of Matt Done) in a Group Cup match at Lincoln, putting Steve Conroy back in as first choice having made only one appearance the previous season.

The first 8 games - parallels with this season

United began with an away fixture at Portsmouth, who were among the pre-season favourites and who had signed the highly rated Neill Webb from Reading. As at Gillingham this season, we had a rude awakening. United got humped 4-1 and Paul Garner got sent off.

What happened this year after Gillingham? We went on a good run, making a couple of key changes and reeling off 4 wins in a row. The 1982-3 team did almost as well, taking 10 points from the next 12. There were 3 home wins - a 2-1 win over Preston with Tony Kenworthy scoring the winner from the spot, a 2-0 win over Huddersfield with Curran scoring both goals, and a comfortable 3-1 win over Plymouth with a brace from Young - and a scoreless draw at Bournemouth. After 5 games we were in 5th place. Things were looking good.

Then, just like this season, reality bites: 3 straight defeats. We were well beaten at Cardiff (0-2) and Lincoln (0-3) when Glenn Cockerill tormented us, and then we lost at home for the first time since the Walsall game, 0-2 against Gillingham. This was the first time I had ever seen United lose - a strange feeling. I recall that the team played poorly and Conroy did not inspire confidence.

So, the first 8 games each season went like this:

1982-83: LWWDWLLL
2015-16: LWWWWLLD

6 of the 8 results match. We have 3 more points this time, but are certainly less confident than we were after the Swindon game, and for good reason.

What happened next?

Sadly, not a lot. The defeat at Gillingham left United in 16th place, and we spent the winter hanging around in lower mid table, with an upturn in the spring - we won 5 straight games at one point, and won 9 games in a row at home - pushing us briefly into the top 10. Home form was very good - we won 16 and drew 3 of 23 home games, but away form was a shocking mirror image, with only 3 wins and 16 defeats. This left us in 11th place, with a goal difference of minus 2 (62-64).

Ian Porterfield admitted that the blend of the team was never right. Good players performed badly, and Porterfield did not know what his best side was - like this season, the squad was too big, with too many underperforming players. The new players did not fare too well. Arnott and McHale started in midfield but were soon dropped and shipped out on loan. Henderson was mediocre at best. Young had talent and scored 7 league goals and a cup hat trick, but was constantly injured and played only 26 league games. Curran played 30 odd games but scored only one further goal, and was very disappointing - his one stellar performance, away at Stoke in a Cup replay, came on a day when many scouts were watching him, and he ended up at Everton on loan. People didn’t like him to begin with (“Superpig”) and he didn’t help his own cause.

Bob Hatton, superfluous to requirements, went to Cardiff, helped them win promotion and scored as many as Young and Curran combined (1 for us, 9 for Cardiff). Colin Morris came on well, but King Keith had a poor season by his standards (13 league goals being only partly compensated by 10 in the Cups).

The defence struggled. Waugh was an improvement on Conroy when he got fit but Tony Kenworthy’s run of good health ended and he missed a lot of games, meaning the likes of Stewart Houston played too much. Gary West looked promising at times but would have benefitted from someone better next to him. The midfield had high turnover and some players did not look the part.

So how did we get promoted the following year?

Porterfield did 3 things in the close season that improved the first team:

1. Signed 3 defenders - Paul Stancliffe, Tom Heffernan and Joe Bolton - who all played 40+ games the following season. We conceded 11 less goals.

2. Restored Arnott and McHale to the midfield. Both had their detractors but Arnott was ever present and McHale hardly missed a game.

3. Got reasonable money for Young and Curran and let Edwards and Morris get on with it. They scored 54 goals between them, and we scored 24 more goals - and were promoted on goals scored.

There was another flirtation with Trevor Ross, but the best in-season signing, Glenn Cockerill, really did improve the team. 2 young players - Tony Philliskirk and Paul Tomlinson - were introduced and arguably had their best ever seasons for us.

Porterfield kept it simple. He saw a weakness at the back and fixed it. He let a lot of dead wood go. He signed a leader in Stancliffe and used McHale’s skills in that area. He had a great goalscorer and a great winger and used them in tandem to great effect.

What can we learn from all this?

Again, not a lot. Things are very different now. If there are lessons to learn they are:

- a big squad is not so good if you can’t get a coherent side out of it.

- if you have a weak defence, signing better defenders is the way to go.

- don’t sign crocks

Here’s hoping the rest of 2015-16 turns out better than the rest of 1982-3 did.

 

[HighfieldBlade]

Look Leeds, very funny
I remember the Sunday morning football highlights programme - Goals Leeds on Sunday

 

[Silent Blade]

1982-83 season was probably the season I attended the least matches in my 46 years as a Blade fan. I struggle to remember which matches I went to. I think I went to less than half of the home games as I was playing football on Saturdays. Not a memorable season for me but interesting read Revolution

 

[BushBlade]

Before the current Dark Ages, we spent 5 seasons in Division 3. 4 of these are memorable in some way: there were 2 promotion seasons, 1 relegation season, and one season that, unfortunately, contains a date which is the Wednesday fan equivalent of 5 May 1990, so gets brought up a lot.

This leaves 1982-3 - an eleventh place finish after promotion - as the poor relation. Whilst browsing through the Complete Record book the other day, I noticed something about that season that was interesting (well, interesting to me at least). So I thought I’d write about it in the hope that it’s interesting to other people.

Pre season moves

The headline in Blades News read “New Boys add experience” and some of them certainly did. United bolstered their midfield - having lost John Matthews - with the signings of the experienced Ray McHale from Barnsley and Kevin Arnott from Sunderland: two players from a higher level. Mick Henderson also came from Cardiff as defensive cover.

Arnott and Henderson were free transfers and McHale cost a small fee, but there was real money spent on the forward line: despite scoring 94 goals in winning the Fourth Division, Porterfield thought we needed more up front, and we equalled our transfer record by signing Alan Young from Leicester and, more controversially, winger Terry Curran from Wednesday. This was big news - even Look Leeds covered it. Curran, instrumental in Wednesday’s promotion 3 years before but noted for wearing out his welcome wherever he went, had fallen out with Jack Charlton and we paid 100 grand to take him across the City. This remains the most high profile transfer deal between the clubs.

5 players signed, all from higher divisions (same as this season’s signings), on the back of a championship season. Hopes were high. The main problem was an unfortunate injury - Keith Waugh broke his collar bone (shades of Matt Done) in a Group Cup match at Lincoln, putting Steve Conroy back in as first choice having made only one appearance the previous season.

The first 8 games - parallels with this season

United began with an away fixture at Portsmouth, who were among the pre-season favourites and who had signed the highly rated Neill Webb from Reading. As at Gillingham this season, we had a rude awakening. United got humped 4-1 and Paul Garner got sent off.

What happened this year after Gillingham? We went on a good run, making a couple of key changes and reeling off 4 wins in a row. The 1982-3 team did almost as well, taking 10 points from the next 12. There were 3 home wins - a 2-1 win over Preston with Tony Kenworthy scoring the winner from the spot, a 2-0 win over Huddersfield with Curran scoring both goals, and a comfortable 3-1 win over Plymouth with a brace from Young - and a scoreless draw at Bournemouth. After 5 games we were in 5th place. Things were looking good.

Then, just like this season, reality bites: 3 straight defeats. We were well beaten at Cardiff (0-2) and Lincoln (0-3) when Glenn Cockerill tormented us, and then we lost at home for the first time since the Walsall game, 0-2 against Gillingham. This was the first time I had ever seen United lose - a strange feeling. I recall that the team played poorly and Conroy did not inspire confidence.

So, the first 8 games each season went like this:

1982-83: LWWDWLLL
2015-16: LWWWWLLD

6 of the 8 results match. We have 3 more points this time, but are certainly less confident than we were after the Swindon game, and for good reason.

What happened next?

Sadly, not a lot. The defeat at Gillingham left United in 16th place, and we spent the winter hanging around in lower mid table, with an upturn in the spring - we won 5 straight games at one point, and won 9 games in a row at home - pushing us briefly into the top 10. Home form was very good - we won 16 and drew 3 of 23 home games, but away form was a shocking mirror image, with only 3 wins and 16 defeats. This left us in 11th place, with a goal difference of minus 2 (62-64).

Ian Porterfield admitted that the blend of the team was never right. Good players performed badly, and Porterfield did not know what his best side was - like this season, the squad was too big, with too many underperforming players. The new players did not fare too well. Arnott and McHale started in midfield but were soon dropped and shipped out on loan. Henderson was mediocre at best. Young had talent and scored 7 league goals and a cup hat trick, but was constantly injured and played only 26 league games. Curran played 30 odd games but scored only one further goal, and was very disappointing - his one stellar performance, away at Stoke in a Cup replay, came on a day when many scouts were watching him, and he ended up at Everton on loan. People didn’t like him to begin with (“Superpig”) and he didn’t help his own cause.

Bob Hatton, superfluous to requirements, went to Cardiff, helped them win promotion and scored as many as Young and Curran combined (1 for us, 9 for Cardiff). Colin Morris came on well, but King Keith had a poor season by his standards (13 league goals being only partly compensated by 10 in the Cups).

The defence struggled. Waugh was an improvement on Conroy when he got fit but Tony Kenworthy’s run of good health ended and he missed a lot of games, meaning the likes of Stewart Houston played too much. Gary West looked promising at times but would have benefitted from someone better next to him. The midfield had high turnover and some players did not look the part.

So how did we get promoted the following year?

Porterfield did 3 things in the close season that improved the first team:

1. Signed 3 defenders - Paul Stancliffe, Tom Heffernan and Joe Bolton - who all played 40+ games the following season. We conceded 11 less goals.

2. Restored Arnott and McHale to the midfield. Both had their detractors but Arnott was ever present and McHale hardly missed a game.

3. Got reasonable money for Young and Curran and let Edwards and Morris get on with it. They scored 54 goals between them, and we scored 24 more goals - and were promoted on goals scored.

There was another flirtation with Trevor Ross, but the best in-season signing, Glenn Cockerill, really did improve the team. 2 young players - Tony Philliskirk and Paul Tomlinson - were introduced and arguably had their best ever seasons for us.

Porterfield kept it simple. He saw a weakness at the back and fixed it. He let a lot of dead wood go. He signed a leader in Stancliffe and used McHale’s skills in that area. He had a great goalscorer and a great winger and used them in tandem to great effect.

What can we learn from all this?

Again, not a lot. Things are very different now. If there are lessons to learn they are:

- a big squad is not so good if you can’t get a coherent side out of it.

- if you have a weak defence, signing better defenders is the way to go.

- don’t sign crocks

Here’s hoping the rest of 2015-16 turns out better than the rest of 1982-3 did.

My first season going to the Lane. More or less as I recall it.

Didn't Porterfield play five at the back at times in 83-4? I think Heffernan had scored twelve for Bournemouth in the season before we signed him. He was quite exciting but I thought he could be a bit reckless.

Cockerill was immense, a key signing, as was Stan.

 

[Karaoke Blade]

Cockerill was immense,

True. So we sold him to Southampton a year later. It's the Blades Way.

 

[Revolution]

My first season going to the Lane. More or less as I recall it.

Didn't Porterfield play five at the back at times in 83-4? I think Heffernan had scored twelve for Bournemouth in the season before we signed him. He was quite exciting but I thought he could be a bit reckless.

Cockerill was immense, a key signing, as was Stan.

We got good service out of Stan.

Cockerill was our best player by miles in 1984-5, when we struggled but stayed up. We sold him part way through the following year and he was a first division regular for some years after that. Fun fact - he was short sighted and wore glasses off the field.

Back 5? Not sure about that. The other centre half with Stan was either West or Kenworthy or Mick Henderson. Paul Garner was in the side too for the second half of the season so maybe he was at the back too. I was too young to appreciate it. The full backs did like to get forward.

Talk about consistency though - a 46 game season and 7 play over 40 games - Arnott, McHale, Stan, King Keith, Morris, Bolton and Heffernan. Only Morris and Edwards did that the year before.

 

[Darren]

We got good service out of Stan.

Cockerill was our best player by miles in 1984-5, when we struggled but stayed up. We sold him part way through the following year and he was a first division regular for some years after that. Fun fact - he was short sighted and wore glasses off the field.

Back 5? Not sure about that. The other centre half with Stan was either West or Kenworthy or Mick Henderson. Paul Garner was in the side too for the second half of the season so maybe he was at the back too. I was too young to appreciate it. The full backs did like to get forward.

Talk about consistency though - a 46 game season and 7 play over 40 games - Arnott, McHale, Stan, King Keith, Morris, Bolton and Heffernan. Only Morris and Edwards did that the year before.

For the cup game at Wrexham on 19/11/83, Porterfiedl did experiment with a 5 man defence - West, Henderson and Stan in the middle and Heffernan and Bolton as full backs. If memory serves, we kept that formation until Jan when Stan was injured and when he got back Henderson was dropped and we reverted to 4-4-2, with Garner coming in on left midfield with Morris on the right, Arnott and McHale in the middle and Edwards and Philliskirk, then Atkins then Cockerill up front.

 

[SUFC Handsworth]

The 82/82 season imo was one big wasted opportunity, where Porterfield signed the wrong players. The one area of the team that had been very good the previous season in the fourth division, and didn't need strengthening was the attack, with Edwards, Morris and Hatton being electric (in 82/83 Hatton eventually moved to Cardiff and spearheaded their promotion to the old, old second division, so he was still good enough). Although Curran was very much a signing of the Chairman, Porterfield brought in the injury prone Young and later right winger Tony Towner on loan from Rotherham - in one late season game he played an attack of Edwards, Young, Curran and Towner, with Morris playing centre mid! The balance of the team and squad was never right.

In summer 82/83 Porterfield would have been better suited strengthening the defence and midfield. At the time we were always linked with Stancliffe and Forrest at Rotherham, and midfielders Wilson (Chesterfield) and Glavin (Barnsley). If money had gone in that direction, rather than on forwards I think we'd have walked that division that season. The season after with Stan, Heffernan, Bolton and eventually Cockerill signed, and Young and Curran moved on, the team and squad was much better balanced. It was just a pity they lost Trusson midway through the season.

 

[Cheets]

We had also tried very hard to sign Barnsley's Trevor Aylott pre-season. The club was on a complete high following the division 4 title. Difficult to get home to younger fans what a massive deal us signing Curran was. Not only had he been a massive Wednesday hero but he made a point of goading our fans whenever he scored against us. In a pre-season Group Cup match against Grimsby, a sizeable proportion of our fans booed him when his name was announced (we lost 3-1 in a sign of things to come). In Curran's autobiography he said that Porterfield wasn't hostile to him but it was obvious that he was Brealey's signing so he never felt quite at home.

 

[Rodders]

We had also tried very hard to sign Barnsley's Trevor Aylott pre-season. The club was on a complete high following the division 4 title. Difficult to get home to younger fans what a massive deal us signing Curran was. Not only had he been a massive Wednesday hero but he made a point of goading our fans whenever he scored against us. In a pre-season Group Cup match against Grimsby, a sizeable proportion of our fans booed him when his name was announced (we lost 3-1 in a sign of things to come). In Curran's autobiography he said that Porterfield wasn't hostile to him but it was obvious that he was Brealey's signing so he never felt quite at home.

So.... Curran was a scapegoat then?

 

[Cheets]

So.... Curran was a scapegoat then?

Curran's signing was controversial but I wouldn't call him a scapegoat, no. Much later in the season Paul Richardson was booed by the United fans so he was probably more of a scapegoat in the McEveley mould.

 

[SouthEssexBlade]

Curran's signing was controversial but I wouldn't call him a scapegoat, no. Much later in the season Paul Richardson was booed by the United fans so he was probably more of a scapegoat in the McEveley mould.

...and then gave the Kop the rods. Full scale riot if a player did that today!

 

[Revolution]

The 82/82 season imo was one big wasted opportunity, where Porterfield signed the wrong players. The one area of the team that had been very good the previous season in the fourth division, and didn't need strengthening was the attack, with Edwards, Morris and Hatton being electric (in 82/83 Hatton eventually moved to Cardiff and spearheaded their promotion to the old, old second division, so he was still good enough). Although Curran was very much a signing of the Chairman, Porterfield brought in the injury prone Young and later right winger Tony Towner on loan from Rotherham - in one late season game he played an attack of Edwards, Young, Curran and Towner, with Morris playing centre mid! The balance of the team and squad was never right.

In summer 82/83 Porterfield would have been better suited strengthening the defence and midfield. At the time we were always linked with Stancliffe and Forrest at Rotherham, and midfielders Wilson (Chesterfield) and Glavin (Barnsley). If money had gone in that direction, rather than on forwards I think we'd have walked that division that season. The season after with Stan, Heffernan, Bolton and eventually Cockerill signed, and Young and Curran moved on, the team and squad was much better balanced. It was just a pity they lost Trusson midway through the season.

Yes, one point in Porterfield's defence is that he did try to sign Stan and Gerry Forrest in the close season. Took him a year to get Stan and Forrest eventually went to Southampton I think. No second choice defenders were signed to the teams detriment in 1982-3. Hmmm...

I always thought that although the transfers didn't happen at exactly the same time Trusson was a makeweight in the deal that got Stan to come to us. Much as I liked Trusson Cockerill, who ultimately replaced him, was a better player.

 

[Revolution]

We had also tried very hard to sign Barnsley's Trevor Aylott pre-season. The club was on a complete high following the division 4 title. Difficult to get home to younger fans what a massive deal us signing Curran was. Not only had he been a massive Wednesday hero but he made a point of goading our fans whenever he scored against us. In a pre-season Group Cup match against Grimsby, a sizeable proportion of our fans booed him when his name was announced (we lost 3-1 in a sign of things to come). In Curran's autobiography he said that Porterfield wasn't hostile to him but it was obvious that he was Brealey's signing so he never felt quite at home.

One thing I have learned recently via Edwards and Kenworthy's books is that they and the other players got on well with Curran. I always had this image of him as not likeable given how much he moved around and the fallings out he had, but perhaps that only extended to management.

Curran's book is supposed to be rather good, but there's too much about the Pigs in it for it to be of interest to me...

 

[Sirius]

True. So we sold him to Southampton a year later. It's the Blades Way.

IMO selling Cockeril was up there with the traitorous sales of Jones and Birchenall.

 

[metalblade]

The Curran signing was a strange one for me no doubt he was talented but I only remember him having one or two decent games for us, he never hit the same heights as he did for the pigs. I don't think many fans took to him at the lane and good proportion of the fans hated him as on the field he came across as a bit of a knobhead. A lot of the pig fans fell out with him too I can imagine how they felt he was the pigs version of Alan Woodward or Tony Currie. All in all he never really did it for us but he had a fun value as I never tired of winding the piggies up that we had bought there Superhero I certainly never gave it a second thought when he moved to Everton, probably his best days were behind him I don't recall him doing much for the toffees either.
Now Glenn Cockerill he was a player you could see straight away he was destined for the top as always with us though he was sold and not replaced

 

[Canterbury Blade]

In Blades history the 82-83 season may be best known for the development of casual culture.

There had been other 'groups' before of course, but my memory was that was the first real genesis of Tacchini, Ellesse and Fila clothing combined with that awful wedge or perm haircut occurred that year. I also recall the movement of 'groups' from the Kop towards either John St or later the H block to be nearer to the away fans occurred then too.

Some excellent trainer choices though (and I don't mean Porterfield et al!)

 

[Pollingtonblade]

My first 1st team game was 85/86 when we played the kiddie fiddlers at home and lost 1-0 my uncle said before the game Glenn Cockerill was our stand out player. Needless to say we sold him within a month of him saying that. Some things never change.

 

[SUFC Handsworth]

So.... Curran was a scapegoat then?

No, Curran was/is a cunt

Yes, one point in Porterfield's defence is that he did try to sign Stan and Gerry Forrest in the close season. Took him a year to get Stan and Forrest eventually went to Southampton I think. No second choice defenders were signed to the teams detriment in 1982-3. Hmmm...

I always thought that although the transfers didn't happen at exactly the same time Trusson was a makeweight in the deal that got Stan to come to us. Much as I liked Trusson Cockerill, who ultimately replaced him, was a better player.

You're quite right, if I remember correctly, they announced Stan as a summer signing for about £100k, then about 3 months later it transpired that it was some kind of loan deal and Truss went the other way as makeweight. Always felt if we'd have had Stan, Truss and Cockerill all season we'd have gone up much easier than relying on Burnley at the end of the season.

Curran's book is supposed to be rather good, but there's too much about the Pigs in it for it to be of interest to me...

Do what i did pal, go to Smiths (or Waterstones), and read the chapter or two on the Blades, only takes about 15/20 minutes. To be fair to King Pig after agreeing the deal with Brearley he did have chance to sign for Newcastle or re-signing for the pigs for more money, before the tribunal set the fee but stuck by his word. Still a pig through-and-through though

 

[Maidenhead]

I remember when Curran first appeared for us. Some fans tried to start a chant of "used to be a pig but he's alright now Terry, Terry " but they were outsung by "Curran is a bastard"

Most divisive moment I can remember in my 44 yrs of going to the Lane

 

[Cheets]

In Curran's autobiography he said that he was seeing a girl from Josephine's and one day Kenworthy had to warn him that his wife had turned up!

 

[Silent Blade]

I remember reading in the Star about Wendy fans causing a riot at Oldham just after Terry Curran got sent off after clashing with Oldham's ex-Blade Simon Stainrod. There was a photo of a smirking Stainrod with Curran looking at him in an angry way

 

[Cheets]

I remember reading in the Star about Wendy fans causing a riot at Oldham just after Terry Curran got sent off after clashing with Oldham's ex-Blade Simon Stainrod. There was a photo of a smirking Stainrod with Curran looking at him in an angry way

Stainrod, who later joined Wendy of course. As did Imre Varadi.

 

[Revolution]

I remember reading in the Star about Wendy fans causing a riot at Oldham just after Terry Curran got sent off after clashing with Oldham's ex-Blade Simon Stainrod. There was a photo of a smirking Stainrod with Curran looking at him in an angry way

I think it was George Tyson - never a friend to us or the Pigs - that sent Curran off, and Stainrod conned him.

Wednesday got punished for that by having the Kop closed for a game or too, and everyone had to sit in the North or South stands instead: plenty of capacity given their crowds at the time.

This introduced a few thousand Wednesdayites to something they'd never experienced at Hillsborough before: a roof.

 

[Silent Blade]

I think it was George Tyson - never a friend to us or the Pigs - that sent Curran off, and Stainrod conned him.

Wednesday got punished for that by having the Kop closed for a game or too, and everyone had to sit in the North or South stands instead: plenty of capacity given their crowds at the time.

This introduced a few thousand Wednesdayites to something they'd never experienced at Hillsborough before: a roof.

They were banned for two or three away matches too.