Joe's dummy header

[Isaw Joeshaw]

Please spare me the puns.

In my conversation with my perceptive Wednesdayite friend 'Les ' as mentioned in the Hagan Turn thread, I asked him what he most remembered about Joe Shaw, to which he immediately replied " the dummy header".

This came as a big surprise since, whilst it is one of the things about him that I remember in awe and admiration, it is not something I would have expected a Wednesdayite to be aware of ,particularly since I have mentioned this several times over the years to fellow Blades of my generation and who just stared at me blankly, clearly having no recollection of this technique. Let me explain.

In those days, most teams had a big centre forward who was good in the air and, whilst not being particularly tall by today's standards, were a good bit taller than 'Little Joe' as he was affectionately known ( Tony Hately and Trevor Ford spring to mind )

Such teams would constantly launch high balls into the box hoping for the big centre forward to get on the end of it. Joe's technique for dealing with this, being at a height disadvantage, was to feign to go up with them and then, at the last second, pull away and wherever the ball was directed to, he was there to cooly drop it off his chest, glide effortlessly past two or three players and give a simple but telling pass to an attacking player.

Pure genius, and for a Wednesdayite to recognise this and remember it after all these years deserves maximum respect in my book.

 

[finlaytheblade]

Great memories of Joe was a one off being small and able to dominate strapping forwards with pure class and invention.
Players with the ability to read the game are an elite bunch,Paul McGrath was another he was knackered when playing for us but had the natural ability to pinch the ball.
I spotted this ability in Harry McGuire who as an 18 year old used to make up for his lack of pace with good positional sense.he is being recognised for it now with man Utd chasing him.It's a rare gift which experience helps but Harry excells at it.
We may have another coming through in Callum Semple who looks to have this exceptional ability to read the game,shall we call it the Joe Shaw way ,keep your eyes on this lad, he's had a ACL which cost him a year in his development,still only 18; I think,we sure turn out some good defenders .In the premiership perhaps we will be able to keep em