JJ Sefton
Live, Laugh, Love
This is the prologue ffrom my abandoned history of Sheffield United *
In his first 47 years my great grandfather saw Sheffield United win the FA Cup four times, finish as runners up twice, win the League once, and finish as runners up on another occasion. I’ve often wondered if, as he walked out of Wembley following United’s loss to Arsenal in the 1936 Cup final, he thought “Well, I’ll live another 43 years and never see them win another major title or even appear in a final” But that is exactly what happened. In the year he died Sheffield United dropped to the third tier for the first time in their then 90 year history.
Since Sheffield United won the FA Cup in 1925, their last major honour, Arsenal, Aston Villa, Birmingham City, Blackburn Rovers, Blackpool, Bolton Wanderers, Burnley, Cardiff City, Charlton Athletic, Chelsea, Coventry City, Derby County, Everton, Huddersfield Town, Ipswich Town, Leeds United, Leicester City, Liverpool, Luton Town, Manchester City, Manchester United, Middlesbrough, Newcastle United, Norwich City, Nottingham Forest, Oxford United, Portsmouth, Preston North End, Queens Park Rangers, Sheffield Wednesday, Southampton, Stoke City, Sunderland, Swansea City, Swindon Town, Tottenham Hotspur, West Bromwich Albion, West Ham United, Wigan Athletic, Wimbledon, and Wolverhampton Wanderers have won either the League/Premier League, FA Cup, or League Cup, 41 clubs in all. In addition, while Sheffield United have lost all four FA Cup semi-finals and the one League Cup semi-final they have played in since their last final appearance in 1936, a further 10 clubs have been losing finalists in either cup final; Bradford City, Brighton & Hove Albion, Crystal Palace, Fulham, Millwall, Oldham Athletic, Rochdale, Rotherham United, Tranmere Rovers, and Watford. They have lost each of the four promotion play offs and the one relegation play off they have played in. Sheffield United are the great underachievers of English football.
This story of failure has been told before, most notably by Denis Clarebrough and Gary Armstrong. A number of other writers, such as Keith Farnsworth and Percy Young, have told much of the sorry tale in works on Sheffield football more generally. So why another trip down misery lane?
There are three reasons. First, there have been moments of great triumph and joy punctuating the despair and disaster and, as a Unitedite, they are fun to write about. There are great matches, great players, and great victories which are as much a part of the Sheffield United story as the inevitable defeats in big games. It is these that keep us going; the memory of a League Cup semi-final win over Liverpool or first league victory of the season over Forest just before Christmas are what push Unitedites to buy next week’s ticket after a 2-0 home defeat to Yeovil.
Second, this book has a thesis, namely that on several occasions in their history Sheffield United have been on the verge of re-establishing themselves as one of the top English clubs, which they once were, only to blow it by breathtaking ineptitude or have it snatched away by sadistic fate. This is why the chapters in this book, following United’s fall from the top rank of football powers in the late 1920s and early 1930s at any rate, follow a pattern of opening with opportunity spread out in front of us and end with it all going belly up.
Third, the traditional approach has been to focus on the football. Obvious, you might think, when writing about a football club, but what I want to do in writing this book is to glance over my shoulder from time to time, back into the Kop or John Street, to try and record the feelings, thoughts, and experiences of the fans of this club whose utter devotion through thin and thinner is its real bedrock.
This is easier the closer you come to the present day. There were no football message boards when Needham, Gillespie, and Hagan were in their pomp and United were nearly 100 years old before fanzines got going. Thus, despite my best efforts and wishes, the earlier parts of this book are more in the vein of traditional football history than I would have wished. The post war period is much closer to my vision.
And neither these fans nor the club existed in a vacuum so I’ve included some more general social, economic, and political history as it pertains to Sheffield United. When you stand on the Kop you are standing not only where men and women who watched Foulke, Tunstall, and Edwards stood, but where men and women who lived through Britain’s decline from imperial dominance, via wars and booms and busts, to middling also ran, also stood. A trajectory much like Sheffield United’s in fact.
My original epigraph for this book came from Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part II; “Is it strange that desire should so many years outlive performance?” But the fact that Gary Armstrong had already used it in one of his books about United lead me to go with a line from Kipling;
“If you can meet with triumph and disaster,
And treat those two imposters just the same”
Over the years that is just what Sheffield United’s supporters, Unitedites or Blades, have done; from Cup final wins and League titles to last minute relegations and the Fourth Division, from Wembley to the Feethams, they have kept on coming back for nearly 120 years. Is this commitment or masochism? I cannot answer, but I will try to explain.
* It got too depressing to write
In his first 47 years my great grandfather saw Sheffield United win the FA Cup four times, finish as runners up twice, win the League once, and finish as runners up on another occasion. I’ve often wondered if, as he walked out of Wembley following United’s loss to Arsenal in the 1936 Cup final, he thought “Well, I’ll live another 43 years and never see them win another major title or even appear in a final” But that is exactly what happened. In the year he died Sheffield United dropped to the third tier for the first time in their then 90 year history.
Since Sheffield United won the FA Cup in 1925, their last major honour, Arsenal, Aston Villa, Birmingham City, Blackburn Rovers, Blackpool, Bolton Wanderers, Burnley, Cardiff City, Charlton Athletic, Chelsea, Coventry City, Derby County, Everton, Huddersfield Town, Ipswich Town, Leeds United, Leicester City, Liverpool, Luton Town, Manchester City, Manchester United, Middlesbrough, Newcastle United, Norwich City, Nottingham Forest, Oxford United, Portsmouth, Preston North End, Queens Park Rangers, Sheffield Wednesday, Southampton, Stoke City, Sunderland, Swansea City, Swindon Town, Tottenham Hotspur, West Bromwich Albion, West Ham United, Wigan Athletic, Wimbledon, and Wolverhampton Wanderers have won either the League/Premier League, FA Cup, or League Cup, 41 clubs in all. In addition, while Sheffield United have lost all four FA Cup semi-finals and the one League Cup semi-final they have played in since their last final appearance in 1936, a further 10 clubs have been losing finalists in either cup final; Bradford City, Brighton & Hove Albion, Crystal Palace, Fulham, Millwall, Oldham Athletic, Rochdale, Rotherham United, Tranmere Rovers, and Watford. They have lost each of the four promotion play offs and the one relegation play off they have played in. Sheffield United are the great underachievers of English football.
This story of failure has been told before, most notably by Denis Clarebrough and Gary Armstrong. A number of other writers, such as Keith Farnsworth and Percy Young, have told much of the sorry tale in works on Sheffield football more generally. So why another trip down misery lane?
There are three reasons. First, there have been moments of great triumph and joy punctuating the despair and disaster and, as a Unitedite, they are fun to write about. There are great matches, great players, and great victories which are as much a part of the Sheffield United story as the inevitable defeats in big games. It is these that keep us going; the memory of a League Cup semi-final win over Liverpool or first league victory of the season over Forest just before Christmas are what push Unitedites to buy next week’s ticket after a 2-0 home defeat to Yeovil.
Second, this book has a thesis, namely that on several occasions in their history Sheffield United have been on the verge of re-establishing themselves as one of the top English clubs, which they once were, only to blow it by breathtaking ineptitude or have it snatched away by sadistic fate. This is why the chapters in this book, following United’s fall from the top rank of football powers in the late 1920s and early 1930s at any rate, follow a pattern of opening with opportunity spread out in front of us and end with it all going belly up.
Third, the traditional approach has been to focus on the football. Obvious, you might think, when writing about a football club, but what I want to do in writing this book is to glance over my shoulder from time to time, back into the Kop or John Street, to try and record the feelings, thoughts, and experiences of the fans of this club whose utter devotion through thin and thinner is its real bedrock.
This is easier the closer you come to the present day. There were no football message boards when Needham, Gillespie, and Hagan were in their pomp and United were nearly 100 years old before fanzines got going. Thus, despite my best efforts and wishes, the earlier parts of this book are more in the vein of traditional football history than I would have wished. The post war period is much closer to my vision.
And neither these fans nor the club existed in a vacuum so I’ve included some more general social, economic, and political history as it pertains to Sheffield United. When you stand on the Kop you are standing not only where men and women who watched Foulke, Tunstall, and Edwards stood, but where men and women who lived through Britain’s decline from imperial dominance, via wars and booms and busts, to middling also ran, also stood. A trajectory much like Sheffield United’s in fact.
My original epigraph for this book came from Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part II; “Is it strange that desire should so many years outlive performance?” But the fact that Gary Armstrong had already used it in one of his books about United lead me to go with a line from Kipling;
“If you can meet with triumph and disaster,
And treat those two imposters just the same”
Over the years that is just what Sheffield United’s supporters, Unitedites or Blades, have done; from Cup final wins and League titles to last minute relegations and the Fourth Division, from Wembley to the Feethams, they have kept on coming back for nearly 120 years. Is this commitment or masochism? I cannot answer, but I will try to explain.
* It got too depressing to write
