Bob Hatton

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Hatton was a good player who I enjoyed watching. scored 18 when we got relegated to the 4th and then was excellent in Div 4

just looked at the stats for 80-81

We scored 65 goals - more than 2 of the promoted teams
relegated with a plus 2 goal difference
 
Bob has got his hat on,
Hip hip hooray,
Bob has got his hat on and he's going to score today.


(To the tune of some reet old number).
 
blade67 said:
http://www.englishfootballleaguetables.co.uk/final/f1981-82.html

Just found this. Some really amazing stats in here

Our average home gates were 14,892 that year

Newcastle's were 17, 276 in division 2. Toon army indeed.

Our average gate was better than 4 top flight teams and all 3 teams promoted to the top flight. Only 3 teams in Div 2 had better average gates than us
Click to expand...
Yes and i was one of the 14892 , been a Blade too long , and in the best season ever ............. well you know the rest FFS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Scored v Oxford at the Lane on 23rd August 1980 in 1-0 win. Just setting off for the match when our lass decided to go into labour with my daughter Becky. She was born at 2 o'clock and our lass caught me looking at my watch( kick off at 3 i'm thinking). "Don't even think of it" said our girt! Oh well.
 
Funny reading this post it triggered a strange memory that was on that dusty old shelf in the back corner of my brain. When he was with us he scored his 200th goal. I'm sure that he was given a car by bentley's vauxhall. It was a mk2 cavalier in gold as I can remember. I was only young but the reg number I'm sure was OAK200X.
 
derfblade.3 said:
Scored v Oxford at the Lane on 23rd August 1980 in 1-0 win. Just setting off for the match when our lass decided to go into labour with my daughter Becky. She was born at 2 o'clock and our lass caught me looking at my watch( kick off at 3 i'm thinking). "Don't even think of it" said our girt! Oh well.
Click to expand...
Header from a Martin Peters cross. I was sat near the directors box in the John Street stand and Harry Haslam kept smoking a cigarette after the other!
 
I was really taken by Bob Hatton as a kid and spent hours in the park trying to perfect the Bob Hatton turn....The much heralded Cruyff turn was a piece of piss by comparison.
 
blade67 said:
http://www.englishfootballleaguetables.co.uk/final/f1981-82.html

Just found this. Some really amazing stats in here

Our average home gates were 14,892 that year

Newcastle's were 17, 276 in division 2. Toon army indeed.

Our average gate was better than 4 top flight teams and all 3 teams promoted to the top flight. Only 3 teams in Div 2 had better average gates than us
Click to expand...


Also, whilst in the 4th division on 30th March 1982 we were at home to Bradford City. A match that we drew 1-1 after being a goal up. If memory serves right, I think Trusson scored for us.

Anyway, the real point I'm trying to make is that our attendance that night was 24,593.

On that same night, Liverpool (who were on their way to winning the first division title) were at home to Birmingham City. Their attendance was 24,224.

In the context of the time, when attendances across the board were much lower than they are now, our attendances for that season were truly astonishing. We did not register anything in the league below 11,000. I think the lowest was early in the season against Colchester where it was around 11,200.
 



Bugboyblade said:
Funny reading this post it triggered a strange memory that was on that dusty old shelf in the back corner of my brain. When he was with us he scored his 200th goal. I'm sure that he was given a car by bentley's vauxhall. It was a mk2 cavalier in gold as I can remember. I was only young but the reg number I'm sure was OAK200X.
Click to expand...

He did score his 200th (think it was league goal) for us. Think it might have been in the home game against Tranmere.
 
Bugboyblade said:
Funny reading this post it triggered a strange memory that was on that dusty old shelf in the back corner of my brain. When he was with us he scored his 200th goal. I'm sure that he was given a car by bentley's vauxhall. It was a mk2 cavalier in gold as I can remember. I was only young but the reg number I'm sure was OAK200X.
Click to expand...
Didn’t Hatton score his 200th and Edwards score his 100th in the same game.

If not then very close together
 
Can anyone remember a game I think it was v Bradford City ( maybe the one mentioned above) when the Bradford fan threw loads of ticker tape type stuff ?? Think it was gold and silver shiny stuff ( might be wrong as I know the colours aren’t that) but just got this memory of a game when this happened)? Probably totally wrong as I was only a nipper but there seemed to be loads of the stuff from the away end ! None of my facts may be correct as my memory is usually shite but it my head it is like a Boca v River plate game ! Reality is it was probably a few toilet rolls and some Argos ordering tickets !!
As ever UTB
 
blade67 said:
Hatton was a good player who I enjoyed watching. scored 18 when we got relegated to the 4th and then was excellent in Div 4

just looked at the stats for 80-81

We scored 65 goals - more than 2 of the promoted teams
relegated with a plus 2 goal difference
Click to expand...

Has anyone else ever been relegated with a positive goal difference?

We're quite good at achieving unusual disasters. More recently we failed to get promoted via the playoffs without losing any of the three playoff matches and also without conceding a goal in any of those matches. I'm pretty sure no-one else has managed to do that!
 
wavy-blade said:
Yes and i was one of the 14892 , been a Blade too long , and in the best season ever ............. well you know the rest FFS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Click to expand...

Ah, but were you one of the 16001 that saw us lose on the final day at home to Walsall the previous season and thus usher in that fourth division season.

I think everyone who attended that match thinks of themselves as being the 1 in that 16001 attendance.

I have very mixed feelings about that fourth division season. I will always regard it as a stain in the club's history, but in the end it turned around our fortunes after several years of decline. And at times we played football that would not have been out of place in the first division. But at other times we were awful and lucky to get anything out of the game.

Without getting all 'massive' about it, I think it is fair to say that a club of our stature should never have sunk so low as the fourth division and when the full time whistle went at the end of that game against Walsall I was the nearest I've ever been to crying about a football match. I think it was probably particularly hard to take because the speed of our decline to that level had been so quick.

The 4th division season itself wasn't straightforward.

I remember that after the first game against Hereford I felt almost as depressed as after the Walsall game. Neville headed home the quickest goal of that particular season, then only a few minutes later we went 2-0 up. Only to be pegged back in the second half with all the old frailties evident. To watch that game I had ridden 150 miles on a 125cc motorbike that couldn't do more than about 50mph. The ride home seemed very, very long!

We followed up with a win at Wigan (which I didn't attend) and a home 1-0 win against Colchester. Bob Hatton headed home the winner and the kop celebrated like we'd won the cup. It was good to win, but we were far from convincing.

There then followed defeats at Hull City and Stockport County. We were firmly mid table in the lowest league division. At that stage things weren't looking great.

I couldn't believe the extent to which things had deteriorated. Only a few years earlier I would have rated our chances against literally any side in the country and yet now I was worrying that we might lose to Scunthorpe in our next league game. Fortunately we didn't and our form got better.

We moved up the table and also had a great morale boosting home leg win in the league cup against Arsenal. Bob Hatton again stepping up with the only goal of the game. We also signed Keith Edwards just before the Scunthorpe game and him and Hatton seemed to compliment each other perfectly although Edwards was cup tied so couldn't play in the games against Arsenal.

When you look at the final table, promotion looks as though it was a formality. We got 96 points, lost only 4 games and were undefeated at home. But it really wasn't that simple. We never dominated the division and there were times when it looked touch and go. We drew quite a lot of games that season and at times looked as though we were going to lose games we should expect to win comfortably. We struggled at home against both Hartlepool and Halifax. I think it took a late equaliser to salvage a point against one (possibly both?) of those sides.

I think a couple of things happened that proved crucial to the outcome of that season. Firstly, we signed Colin Morris. Somehow he seemed to set us free in the way that we played. His crosses were a joy to behold! Coupled with that, we won at home against Port Vale.

That might seem an odd take on things. But around the time of that game we had had a hiccup or two and had just lost at Scunthorpe. Also I think many Blades supporters of that time were conscious of the fact that previous recent seasons had seemed to see a sharp decline in our fortunes in the new year. In that Port Vale game we went a goal down. That goal was scored as a result of a penalty. However, Waugh actually saved the initial penalty, but for some reason a retake was awarded and Port Vale scored. Maybe it's just my take on things, but it felt to me that the season was in the balance right there.

Fortunately, we put in a great second half performance and won 2-1, ironically one of our goals coming from the penalty spot. Ex Wednesdayite King also played very well for us in that game - as he did for most of the time he was with us.

That Port Vale game was the start of a 19 game unbeaten run that lasted until the end of the season. But even given that run promotion was not arithmetically certain until after the 44th game of the season. We beat Rochdale 3-1 on a Tuesday evening. Peterborough were 5th but didn't play until Wednesday evening. They lost to (I think) Hereford and we were up! Our first success after what I regard as our worst ever period.
 
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