Just remember, our failed play-off promotion attempts weren't our lowest play-off moments...

[TopBoy]

My first away game, drove down there with my mates in my XR2. So much trouble that day in and around Bristol culminating with running battles outside the ground with opposition fans and the police.

 

[Silent Blade]

Play off heartbreaks ? Pah!

Imagine what it was like for a 9 year old in 1950 to wait anxiously for the Green ‘Un to arrive and find out that , by securing a 0-0 draw against the champions Spurs , the Pigs had beaten us to promotion to the First Division by 0.008 on goal average .

Yer don’t know yer born .

 

[Revolution]

Play off heartbreaks ? Pah!

Imagine what it was like for a 9 year old in 1950 to wait anxiously for the Green ‘Un to arrive and find out that , by securing a 0-0 draw against the champions Spurs , the Pigs had beaten us to promotion to the First Division by 0.008 on goal average .

Yer don’t know yer born .

A 1-1 draw in that game would have seen a statistical dead heat: there was to have been a playoff between the two Sheffield teams if that had happened.

Of course this was only 4 seasons after United had beaten Spurs 6-1 at home in the last game to push Wednesday into third and steal promotion from them....

 

[Silent Blade]

A 1-1 draw in that game would have seen a statistical dead heat: there was to have been a playoff between the two Sheffield teams if that had happened.

More wins would have put us in 2nd place

 

[Revolution]

More wins would have put us in 2nd place

That’s not my understanding

 

[Revolution]

1892/3 season Accrington Stanley 0 Blades 1 at Trent Bridge. It was known as a test match not a play off in those days. It was the first season of the Second division, now Championship.

We had been told we'd be put into the top division after applying to join the league. Pigs were automatically put into the top one and we went into the second. Rumour has it the Pig representatives at the FA were concerned that we would take the limelight away from them so engineered us being put in the lower division. They argued they were the bigger and better club. We achieved our position in the top flight through merit finishing second in the lower division and winning the play off. Not through an old boys network and possible back handers.

We made the view that they were bigger and better look foolish as we won 2 FA cups, 1 league title and 1 GB cup win over the next 10 years compared to their one solitary FA Cup win in 1895. We won the title before they did. In those 10 years we were at our peak being one of the top clubs in the country along with Villa, Blackburn and Sunderland finishing runners up in the league and cup also.

So to lift the curse of the play offs I recommend we all refer to them as Test matches .

I have read several different versions of how the two clubs got into the league and whilst they are difficult to reconcile this definitely isn’t correct.

No one was “put” anywhere. There was a vote. Wednesday finished top of the vote and were elected to division 1. They got 10 votes. Forest and Newton Heath (now Man U) were also elected.

Different sources say United either fell one vote short or were put in the ballot for the second division, which saw them elected to that.

Wednesday are recorded as lobbying well, and trying to be objective I’d have voted for them. They’d been in the Cup final in 1890 and won the Football Alliance, the strongest league outside the EFL, the same year. They’d just finished 4th in the same league. They were extending Olive Grove and let everyone know it. Their average gates in the Alliance were double ours in the Northern League.

In the 3 seasons there’d been a league Wednesday had knocked 5 league teams out of the cup. We’d beaten one and lost 13-0 to Bolton (who Wednesday beat 2-1 in the semi) and 9-1 to Notts County (who Wednesday beat the year before).

It sticks in my craw to say it, but they were the better objective choice, though we passed them fast as you say (thanks Ernest Needham!).

 

[Silent Blade]

That’s not my understanding

It was in the 1970s, not sure about 1950

 

[Addison]

I have read several different versions of how the two clubs got into the league and whilst they are difficult to reconcile this definitely isn’t correct.

No one was “put” anywhere. There was a vote. Wednesday finished top of the vote and were elected to division 1. They got 10 votes. Forest and Newton Heath (now Man U) were also elected.

Different sources say United either fell one vote short or were put in the ballot for the second division, which saw them elected to that.

Wednesday are recorded as lobbying well, and trying to be objective I’d have voted for them. They’d been in the Cup final in 1890 and won the Football Alliance, the strongest league outside the EFL, the same year. They’d just finished 4th in the same league. They were extending Olive Grove and let everyone know it. Their average gates in the Alliance were double ours in the Northern League.

In the 3 seasons there’d been a league Wednesday had knocked 5 league teams out of the cup. We’d beaten one and lost 13-0 to Bolton (who Wednesday beat 2-1 in the semi) and 9-1 to Notts County (who Wednesday beat the year before).

It sticks in my craw to say it, but they were the better objective choice, though we passed them fast as you say (thanks Ernest Needham!).

Agree they were a better objective choice based on their record at the time. That doesn't takeaway the fact that politics prevented us being elected to the league. All 3 teams elected were members of the Football Alliance a league that the FA wanted to merge with the Football League to bring all teams under one association. Yes there was a vote but as Armstrong and Garrets book suggests the engineering to prevent us getting the required number of votes took place;

"Under the guidance of club secretary J.B. Wostinholm, the football committee still wanted to improve the standard of matches played by United and so opted to leave the Midland Counties League and seek election to The Football League instead.[3] They were unsuccessful in their attempt, amidst accusations that local rivals The Wednesday had voted against their acceptance and had even petitioned other clubs to vote against their entry."

At that time the Chairman of the FA Charles Clegg was also the President of The Wednesday.

 

[Revolution]

Agree they were a better objective choice based on their record at the time. That doesn't takeaway the fact that politics prevented us being elected to the league. All 3 teams elected were members of the Football Alliance a league that the FA wanted to merge with the Football League to bring all teams under one association. Yes there was a vote but as Armstrong and Garrets book suggests the engineering to prevent us getting the required number of votes took place;

"Under the guidance of club secretary J.B. Wostinholm, the football committee still wanted to improve the standard of matches played by United and so opted to leave the Midland Counties League and seek election to The Football League instead.[3] They were unsuccessful in their attempt, amidst accusations that local rivals The Wednesday had voted against their acceptance and had even petitioned other clubs to vote against their entry."

At that time the Chairman of the FA Charles Clegg was also the President of The Wednesday.

There were definite moves by the FL to take the Alliance clubs for various reasons, including player poaching (notably by Wednesday). There was a move at one point to take them en masse.

Yes, there was lobbying. There were even rumours in some places (Denis Clarebrough mentions this) that United had got enough votes to get in but some chicanery took place. And I’m sure Wednesday wanted to keep us out. The two clubs did not get on at all at that time. But it’s not true that Wednesday were put in. They won a vote.

And Wednesday definitely did not vote against United. They had no vote. They were not league members. Thats what happened when United tried to join the football Alliance the year before.