Dirtiest Players

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One from the 80's, Mick Henderson. Hard but not particularly dirty (but could be). Never shirked a challenge.
 



God I’d forgot him CB ..Jesus he was shite .. def make my Blades worst 11 .. think his number was up when he got booed off when he got subbed and gave the rods to the Kop


I remember him first appearing at Forest in the late 1960s. He was a teenager and regarded as a very good prospect.

When he played for us in our fourth division season, it took me until Christmas to realise it was the same player! There didn't seem to be a lot of evidence of whatever promise he had previously possessed.
 
Although Peter Crouch scored the first goal in our 4-3 against Pompey in February 2002, Curle had him in his pocket with the niggly fouls that the ref didnt see
Tbh, couldn't stand him as a player but I'd rather have him in the tent pissing out...
 
I remember him first appearing at Forest in the late 1960s. He was a teenager and regarded as a very good prospect.

When he played for us in our fourth division season, it took me until Christmas to realise it was the same player! There didn't seem to be a lot of evidence of whatever promise he had previously possessed.

God he was shite in the 4th wasn’t he , perhaps he picked up rickets between your first & last viewing OB ? Lol
 



God he was shite in the 4th wasn’t he , perhaps he picked up rickets between your first & last viewing OB ? Lol


Put it this way, whenever he was in possession of the ball I always felt there was a pretty good chance that the opposition would soon have received it back from us!

I never actually saw him live against us when he was with Forest. I think he came into their side after we were relegated from the first division. My memory of him is from television highlights and written reports. But at the time I think general consensus was that he was a good prospect for them.
 
Brian who played for us in the late 1950s and early 1960s. My dad said he was a real hard man. Brian is one of the only 4 regular players from the 1960-61 team that is still alive. The others are Gerry Summers, Billy Russell and Billy Hodgson

Not heard of him. I was thinking of Paul Richardson who was in the Porterfield 4th division team. He was a dirty so and so too!
 
I'm too young to remember this era, but didn't Micky Speight have a reputation in those days?

I dare say there haven't been any genuine hard men or proper dirty players for 20 years or more!?
 
Hooray for Larry Lloyd..
A dirty tackle and a smile

(sang to the tune of Hooray for Harold Lloyd TV show theme)

Former Liverpool and Cov player, but most renowned as one half of Cloughie's enforcer duo along with Kenny Burns.

He's let himself go a bit these days.
fat larry.jpg
 
God I’d forgot him CB ..Jesus he was shite .. def make my Blades worst 11 .. think his number was up when he got booed off when he got subbed and gave the rods to the Kop

I don't remember that incident tbh - (I remember Nyron Nosworthy doing it as an away game though).

I remember Richardson joining us from Stoke. And I suppose that wasn't a positive for a start. Those of you of a certain vintage will know that, for years, Stoke had a reputation as a horrible clogging team. This goes back certainly to the days of the early 1970's, but maybe before that? One of the players I suggested already in this thread is Dennis Smith of Stoke. One of the dirtiest (or was he just one of the hardest?) players I've seen in all my years of watching. If you're not familiar with Smith then you may find this interesting from wiki...

During Smith's 14 seasons with Stoke, he became known for his fearless mentality which led to him sustaining a large number of injuries. These included five broken legs, breaking his nose four times, a cracked ankle, broken collar bone, chipped spine, breaking most of his fingers and toes and needing more than 200 stitches. The sequence saw him named in the Guinness Book of Records as the most injured man in football. Early into his career Smith soon developed a reputation as a "hard player", who would launch himself at opponents determined to either block a shot and win the ball, which is how he picked up most of his injuries. He was known as Stoke's "hitman", and relished going toe to toe with the biggest and most feared opposition players.

I remember that guy playing for Stoke against us at Bramall Lane in the early 1970's. He was an animal! And I've seen Bremner (cheating little git), Hunter (hard man), Tommy Smith (very hard man) and Dave Mackay (another very hard man) - but none of them compared to the insanely aggressive Dennis Smith. Ask thi fatha?

Back to Paul Richardson though and you have to understand we'd been spoiled during the Woody/Currie era watching the Blades. We had a proper "hard man" then in Trevor Hockey, but that lad was hard as nails but fair and sporting with it. In fact, Trev was always the first to go and shake hands or put an arm around an opponent after a very tough battle. There's something about being a Blade in that era which was about playing football the right way, attractive attacking football, and doing it fairly. It's like an ethos we grew up on and made us proud of our club.

Some years later and this guy Paul Richardson turns up from Stoke and he's just a horrible footballer. Technically poor and all he seems to have in his locker were dirty fouls. I remember standing there cringing as he flew into opponents and thinking..."this isn't my Sheffield United going off like that!".

To give him his due he had one good game. Away at Peterboro in the old 4th division. We turned up that night with a depleted team and Peterboro had threatened to spank us. Richardson was in the team that night and along with 10 others had a storming game, during which we demolished Peterboro 4-0. (And repeated the scoreline at Bramall lane later that season). I conceded Richardson played well that night.

But I never liked him.
 
Hooray for Larry Lloyd..
A dirty tackle and a smile

(sang to the tune of Hooray for Harold Lloyd TV show theme)

Former Liverpool and Cov player, but most renowned as one half of Cloughie's enforcer duo along with Kenny Burns.

He's let himself go a bit these days.
View attachment 33821

Remember him playing for Wigan at Bramall Lane in the old 4th division days. He got plenty of stick from the kop and dropped his shorts to show us his arse! Make no mistake though, he was a very good centre half.
 
Keith Curle knew how to hurt his opponents without the ref noticing it

I seem to remember that against West Brom in the Battle of Bramall Lane, he didn't give a shit about what the ref saw. He was already on a yellow and both he and the ref knew if he was carded again, the game would be off. The ref bottled it and Curle kept kicking their players up in the air. Ginger Pig was doing his nut!

An absolutely hilarious game and it made me proud to be a Blade. No one likes us, we don't care etc.
 
I seem to remember that against West Brom in the Battle of Bramall Lane, he didn't give a shit about what the ref saw. He was already on a yellow and both he and the ref knew if he was carded again, the game would be off. The ref bottled it and Curle kept kicking their players up in the air. Ginger Pig was doing his nut!

An absolutely hilarious game and it made me proud to be a Blade. No one likes us, we don't care etc.
After Warnock whispered a few words in his ear in front of the tv cameras
 



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