How good was he - Alan Woodward

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Zero dark thirty

Zero dark thirty

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I've not seen him live as for obvious reasons but how good was he against the likes of deane..agana etc.
 

Everytime we get a couple of decent strikers we always call them THENEWDEANEANDAGANA
 
Zero dark thirty said:
This lad
Click to expand...

As a daft kid, TC was my favourite player, but Woody was the model of consistency and was at the club a lot longer. Proabably the best wide player* I've seen in the 55 years I've been watching us.


* Yes, even better than De Goey, Curranpig and Starbug.
 

You would probably say that Woody didn't gave the out and out flair of TC (not many did!) and didn't reach the heights that Currie did when he was on song and fancied it (there was plenty of times he didn't!). But, Woody was more consistent out of the two and was just a very good consistent player. Currie could hit a ball well (Ray Clemence saw a particular Currie rocket go past him from distance) but Woody struck them harder and better.

Basically two very gifted and class players who were criminally underused or in Woodys case not selected by the England set up who even then were biased and clique. I seem to recall Brian Clough commenting once that he couldn't understand why Woodward wasn't in the England set up. He knew a thing or two about football.
 
Woodward was the best. Whenever it was a pen you knew it was a goal. Frankly when it was a corner there was a high chance of a goal. He could hit a ball so hard. But what I find amazing was he was quite a smoker. How the hell did he run so fast for so long?

My first away game (a local for me as I lived on the Isle of Wight) was a 5-1 win in a midweek game at Fratton Park where we tore them apart in the second half. Badger to Currie, long ball to Woodward and wow a good chance of a goal. Quite frankly he was just brilliant but played with really good other players (not average ones) like Gil Reece, Geof Salmons, Billy Dearden, John Tudor et al. We regularly scored 5 goals in a season. This season we struggle to score three !
 
Woody was a proper winger in the old fashioned sense and that was what played against him at a time when England was not playing with wingers otherwise he'd have had many caps.Never saw anybody take a corner kick better for united, his technique was superb and l think he actually scored direct from a couple of them.
Scored a ton of goals which for a winger was remarkable including 4 in 1 game against Ipswich which l had the pleasure of witnessing.
"Alan, Alan Woodward, Alan Woodward on the wing"
People of a certain vintage will remember that chant, one of the greatest to ever wear the red and white stripes.
 
Weasel said:
You would probably say that Woody didn't gave the out and out flair of TC (not many did!) and didn't reach the heights that Currie did when he was on song and fancied it (there was plenty of times he didn't!). But, Woody was more consistent out of the two and was just a very good consistent player. Currie could hit a ball well (Ray Clemence saw a particular Currie rocket go past him from distance) but Woody struck them harder and better.

Basically two very gifted and class players who were criminally underused or in Woodys case not selected by the England set up who even then were biased and clique. I seem to recall Brian Clough commenting once that he couldn't understand why Woodward wasn't in the England set up. He knew a thing or two about football.
Click to expand...
I agree Woody was perhaps the best winger in England but England did not play wingers and as you say Woody went about his job in a quiet way so consistently where as Currie was a show man and played to the crowd and how we loved it making defenders look stupid in his wake . Blowing kisses to the crowd while he skipped past half a dozen defenders ,sitting on the ball asking Alan Ball to try and take the ball of him . Woody and Currie were a remarkable double act as was Deane and Agarna but none could hit a ball like Woody .If his shot did not hit the back of the net they would have to retrieve the ball around Hunters Bar ha ha . His corner kicks were unreal as was all his dead ball efforts . Between then they took us to the top of the then called the first division (NOW THE PREM) and we stopped there for some time until George Best came up with a worldy at Old Trafford which was shown every bloody week on Match of the day. I was one of thousands shut out of Old Trafford on that day ended up listen to it on the radio in the car. I think we ended the season in 6th place if my memory serves me well and those two were the main actors but we also had many fine players in that team Badger ,Salmons , Reece ,and Hockey who was another one off .
 
petcharlie said:
I agree Woody was perhaps the best winger in England but England did not play wingers and as you say Woody went about his job in a quiet way so consistently where as Currie was a show man and played to the crowd and how we loved it making defenders look stupid in his wake . Blowing kisses to the crowd while he skipped past half a dozen defenders ,sitting on the ball asking Alan Ball to try and take the ball of him . Woody and Currie were a remarkable double act as was Deane and Agarna but none could hit a ball like Woody .If his shot did not hit the back of the net they would have to retrieve the ball around Hunters Bar ha ha . His corner kicks were unreal as was all his dead ball efforts . Between then they took us to the top of the then called the first division (NOW THE PREM) and we stopped there for some time until George Best came up with a worldy at Old Trafford which was shown every bloody week on Match of the day. I was one of thousands shut out of Old Trafford on that day ended up listen to it on the radio in the car. I think we ended the season in 6th place if my memory serves me well and those two were the main actors but we also had many fine players in that team Badger ,Salmons , Reece ,and Hockey who was another one off .
Click to expand...
Finished 10th
 

The Bear said:
Woodward was the best. Whenever it was a pen you knew it was a goal. Frankly when it was a corner there was a high chance of a goal. He could hit a ball so hard. But what I find amazing was he was quite a smoker. How the hell did he run so fast for so long?

My first away game (a local for me as I lived on the Isle of Wight) was a 5-1 win in a midweek game at Fratton Park where we tore them apart in the second half. Badger to Currie, long ball to Woodward and wow a good chance of a goal. Quite frankly he was just brilliant but played with really good other players (not average ones) like Gil Reece, Geof Salmons, Billy Dearden, John Tudor et al. We regularly scored 5 goals in a season. This season we struggle to score three !
Click to expand...
I would say it was my favourite Blades team of all time .So much talent in one team
 
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