Forty years ago today

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Down the Channels said:
We won 2 out of the first 5, losing back to back games against Hull and Stockport. I remember getting back home from the Stockport game thinking the slump would never end.
I think we signed Edwards after that 5th game??
We then went on to win 9 and draw 1 in the next 10 league games.......what a season.
It was similar to the first Wilder season (and the first 3/4 of the first Wilson season), I didn't feel like we weren't going to win.
It was my first season for going to away games, loved going to Crewe, Hartlepool, Halifax etc (was it about £2 on the rail 'special'?)
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I think we played Hull on the Saturday, then Stockport on the Monday night. Went to the Hull game and if I remember right Edwards scored the winner for them late on, then celebrated in front the side terrace where our fans were??

I could have got this wrong but i think Edwards signed a day or two after the Stockport game. I recall going to the Lane for a reserve game the night after he'd signed. In those days they only opened the John Street Stand and part way through the game Edwards appeared on the old West Terrace below. My mate who'd I'd gone to the game with then kept shouting Keith until he turned around, then we both ducked down and hid behind the front wall. When my mate did it a second time Edwards gave us both a bit of bollocking, "I don't mind signing autographs lads, otherwise stop pissing about" or words to that effect.
 
Down the Channels said:
We won 2 out of the first 5, losing back to back games against Hull and Stockport. I remember getting back home from the Stockport game thinking the slump would never end.
I think we signed Edwards after that 5th game??
We then went on to win 9 and draw 1 in the next 10 league games.......what a season.
It was similar to the first Wilder season (and the first 3/4 of the first Wilson season), I didn't feel like we weren't going to win.
It was my first season for going to away games, loved going to Crewe, Hartlepool, Halifax etc (was it about £2 on the rail 'special'?)
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The season turned out to be one to remember with many enjoyable moments, but even though we only list 4 league games promotion was never a formality. Until very near the end of the season it looked to be in the balance.

As I remember it, for a good chunk of the season there were 6 or 7 clubs going for the 4 promotion places - Us, Bradford City, Wigan, Bournemouth, Peterborough., Colchester and possibly Bury. Of course in those days there weren't any play offs.

I think all of those sides at some stage in the season went on good league runs.

By March I think Colchester and Bury had faded away, but the other 5 sides all looked to have a good chance. There was little to choose between any of us and I seem to remember that Peterborough in particular were in very good form. Of course, so were we, but the way the last few seasons had unfolded meant a lot of us were still pretty nervous and convinced it was all going to go wrong.

The real crunch came with only 3 or 4 weeks of the season remaining. We travelled to Peterborough for a midweek evening game. They really did seem to be on a high and had just beaten Bradford City. I felt almost sick with nerves even though I wasn't going to the game and their manager was stoking the fires by making disparaging remarks about us. I thought a draw would be a good result and leave us in good shape. I don't think I even considered that we might win. How wrong I was!

We demolished them 4-0. Three of the goals came in the first half. I think it was only after that match that I really began to have a really solid belief that we would go up.

That match seemed to destroy Peterborough. Their form collapsed completely, but promotion was only secured mathematically with two matches to go.
We won a Tuesday evening game against Rochdale and Peterborough lost at Hereford the next evening. We had two matches left - home to Peterborough and away to Darlington, but Peterborough's defeat at Hereford meant they couldn't catch us.
 
On September 5th 1981 United won at Wigan 1-0. Unlike the 50th and 60th anniversary threads my memory isn't good enough to keep this going! But I do remember I was on holiday in Cornwall for this game. Obviously pre Internet it was difficult to find out the final result, we didn't have a car radio. Fortunately there was a car parked nearby and the guy was listening to Radio Two Sports Report. We hung around to try and find out, we couldn't hear what the result was but from the distinct inflection on James Alexander Gordon's voice we knew United had won! We got the details in the next morning's newspaper.
 
1973Blade said:
Sadly, the scenes in the carpark after the 5-2 defeat to Norwich showed that in the end we didn't take more care of Porterfield!
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You will find some took the protests into the press box looking for porterfield ,reported the next night in the star ,blades fans are animals .I couldn't possibly comment who was there 😂⚔️
 
Top of the league said:
You will find some took the protests into the press box looking for porterfield ,reported the next night in the star ,blades fans are animals .I couldn't possibly comment who was there 😂⚔️
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I wasn't aware of protests, he had only just become manager! Jokanovic would have been linched by now if we still had that attitude 😆
 
Top of the league said:
You will find some took the protests into the press box looking for porterfield ,reported the next night in the star ,blades fans are animals .I couldn't possibly comment who was there 😂⚔️
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Sorry just seen you were talking about the Norwich game, I thought you meant the Wigan game. I was surprised they were protesting so soon!
 
1973Blade said:
I wasn't aware of protests, he had only just become manager! Jokanovic would have been linched by now if we still had that attitude 😆
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He had been manager for 3 years it just all went pear shaped
1973Blade said:
I wasn't aware of protests, he had only just become manager! Jokanovic would have been linched by now if we still had that attitude 😆
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He managed 5 years it was 86 when lot went up at the Norwich game
 
A side note to the storming of the press box in 86 Norwich game ,two lads who where at the front are sadly no longer with us ,and they where top top blades .no names but 100%bladesmen .
Ken brown how do you do 🤔😂
 
Top of the league said:
A side note to the storming of the press box in 86 Norwich game ,two lads who where at the front are sadly no longer with us ,and they where top top blades .no names but 100%bladesmen .
Ken brown how do you do 🤔😂
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Wwrw you there for the anti McEwan protests when we lost 5-0 at home to Oldham?!
 

1973Blade said:
On September 5th 1981 United won at Wigan 1-0. Unlike the 50th and 60th anniversary threads my memory isn't good enough to keep this going! But I do remember I was on holiday in Cornwall for this game. Obviously pre Internet it was difficult to find out the final result, we didn't have a car radio. Fortunately there was a car parked nearby and the guy was listening to Radio Two Sports Report. We hung around to try and find out, we couldn't hear what the result was but from the distinct inflection on James Alexander Gordon's voice we knew United had won! We got the details in the next morning's newspaper.
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By the end of the season the win at Wigan turned out to be an excellent three points, as was the return game at the Lane when an Edwards goal deep into injury time secured another 1-0 win.
 
October 6th 1981 United beat Arsenal 1-0 in the League Cup 2nd Round first leg. I remember it was the first game that I sat in the South Stand. If I have remembered correctly Bobby Hatton was in on goal and scored the only goal. The first time I had seen us play a top flight team and we had win! (The first leg at least).
 
SUFC Handsworth said:
By the end of the season the win at Wigan turned out to be an excellent three points, as was the return game at the Lane when an Edwards goal deep into injury time secured another 1-0 win.
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Larry Lloyd player manager, had Wigan defence well drilled. Eventually it was a Morris/Edwards one-two to win the game.
Loved that season.
 
1973Blade said:
October 6th 1981 United beat Arsenal 1-0 in the League Cup 2nd Round first leg. I remember it was the first game that I sat in the South Stand. If I have remembered correctly Bobby Hatton was in on goal and scored the only goal. The first time I had seen us play a top flight team and we had win! (The first leg at least).
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Despite being dodgy with crosses, Keith Waugh caught a corner at the Lane End, he quickly punted the ball upfield and Bob Hatton got to the ball, he showed his experience on finding space against two defenders before firing a low shot past Pat Jennings. Lovely goal!
 
Silent Blade said:
Despite being dodgy with crosses, Keith Waugh caught a corner at the Lane End, he quickly punted the ball upfield and Bob Hatton got to the ball, he showed his experience on finding space against two defenders before firing a low shot past Pat Jennings. Lovely goal!
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Thanks Silent Blade that's just how I remembered it!
 
SUFC Handsworth said:
I think we played Hull on the Saturday, then Stockport on the Monday night. Went to the Hull game and if I remember right Edwards scored the winner for them late on, then celebrated in front the side terrace where our fans were??

I could have got this wrong but i think Edwards signed a day or two after the Stockport game. I recall going to the Lane for a reserve game the night after he'd signed. In those days they only opened the John Street Stand and part way through the game Edwards appeared on the old West Terrace below. My mate who'd I'd gone to the game with then kept shouting Keith until he turned around, then we both ducked down and hid behind the front wall. When my mate did it a second time Edwards gave us both a bit of bollocking, "I don't mind signing autographs lads, otherwise stop pissing about" or words to that effect.
Click to expand...
What a couple of days that was. It cost about 40p to get in at Hull City.
The Stockport County match on the Monday evening ended in defeat with that awful goal. The car had coins thrown at it as we left the car park. At least Edwards signed for us after that.
 
Today is coincidentally 40 years since we actually managed to beat Blackpool at Bramall Lane, a 3-1 win. I don't remember anything about it unfortunately! Looking back, yesterday was our first home defeat to Blackpool since 1977 when we were hammered 5-1.
 
On January 2nd 1982 United played their first match since December 5th, the winter weather putting paid to our festive matches. I mainly remember this match for a United fan hitting the ref with a snowball after he had sent off Paul Richardson! We ended up drawing 2-2 after being two nil up. This is the only time I have seen us play Halifax Town.
 
1973Blade said:
On January 2nd 1982 United played their first match since December 5th, the winter weather putting paid to our festive matches. I mainly remember this match for a United fan hitting the ref with a snowball after he had sent off Paul Richardson! We ended up drawing 2-2 after being two nil up. This is the only time I have seen us play Halifax Town.
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I was in the lower 6th at school that winter of 81 and the snow in Grenoside was pretty epic.
The thing I seem to remember about the Halifax game was the pitch was in a terrible state and Julian Broddle made his debut ? Silent Blade ?
 
Paisley Blade said:
I was in the lower 6th at school that winter of 81 and the snow in Grenoside was pretty epic.
The thing I seem to remember about the Halifax game was the pitch was in a terrible state and Julian Broddle made his debut ? Silent Blade ?
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That was his only league appearance for Utd, and at the time he was the youngest player to have played for Utd in the League. The crowd was 11663.
 
Paisley Blade said:
I was in the lower 6th at school that winter of 81 and the snow in Grenoside was pretty epic.
The thing I seem to remember about the Halifax game was the pitch was in a terrible state and Julian Broddle made his debut ? Silent Blade ?
Click to expand...
The amount of snow we had that winter was unbelievable!
 
dublin 10 blade said:
John Matthews our 100,000 pound signing from Arsenal, had a good shot on him pity he didn’t take “ that peno “
Was at that game as well ,
overnight trip on the ferry
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Fancy being able to sign a player not good enough for Arsenal

We couldn't sign one not good enough for Arsenal's seventh team nowadays, even if we were in the Premier League
 

1973Blade said:
On January 2nd 1982 United played their first match since December 5th, the winter weather putting paid to our festive matches. I mainly remember this match for a United fan hitting the ref with a snowball after he had sent off Paul Richardson! We ended up drawing 2-2 after being two nil up. This is the only time I have seen us play Halifax Town.
Click to expand...


Were teams cancelling games because they were scared of playing us?
 
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