Mark Dempsey

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Bergen Blade

Bergen Blade

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Mark Dempsey has been coaching and managing in Norway for a while. He's apparently favourite to take over at Start and a Blade/Start fan wondered how he did for us as a player in the 80s. Anybody got any memories of him?
 

If you can get hold of the 100 years 100 goals video there's a little section on him at the end wit a few goals. Recall him as quite an elegant technical player who took a decent free-kick. WalthamstowBlade has put a few of these old vids on here in the past, not sure if this was one of them?
 
Bergen Blade said:
Mark Dempsey has been coaching and managing in Norway for a while. He's apparently favourite to take over at Start and a Blade/Start fan wondered how he did for us as a player in the 80s. Anybody got any memories of him?
Click to expand...
Long haired pretty boy ,didn't we get him from Man Utd or have I dreamt that. Anyway he had ability but was a bit nesh ,decent player but didn't stand out.
 
Piked off v. quickly by Bassett as I recall, as far removed from a Bassett player as you could imagine.
 
sitwell said:
Long haired pretty boy ,didn't we get him from Man Utd or have I dreamt that. Anyway he had ability but was a bit nesh ,decent player but didn't stand out.
Click to expand...

That's the one, perhaps our best player between 86 and 88, but that wasn't saying much. I remember any little thing he did was made out to be something special, he scored a couple of decent goals but he certainly wasn't missed when he left.

But GLTTL and all that...
 
Very high-pitched voice. Fans used to sing "We love you Dempsey, we do" in ridiculous high-pitched voices at away games to him to which he would smile or mouth "fcuk off" and smile.

dempsey_mark.jpg
 
Blade for Sale said:
If you can get hold of the 100 years 100 goals video there's a little section on him at the end wit a few goals. Recall him as quite an elegant technical player who took a decent free-kick. WalthamstowBlade has put a few of these old vids on here in the past, not sure if this was one of them?
Click to expand...

Think there's a couple on here...

 
The direct free kick in the cup against non-league Maidstone, was it? Thus sparing our blushes and allowing us to squeak through 1-0 after they had missed the worst open goal of all time at the Bramall Lane end.
 

not my favorite player bout 8 stone wet through ,odd decent free kick and yes was in potters picture palace
 
Grecian2000 said:
Yes, ex Man Utd.

Did quite well on loan and looked the business, didn't really follow it up when we signed him permanent.
Sitters nails him, tidy but nesh. Could take a good "bender" from the edge of the area.

Didn't really rate him myself. Seen worse, seen a lot better.
Click to expand...

Agree with the review but please note that in these PC times, you can't say that someone can take a good bender. His sexuality was and remains his business.
 
sitwell said:
Long haired pretty boy ,didn't we get him from Man Utd or have I dreamt that. Anyway he had ability but was a bit nesh ,decent player but didn't stand out.
Click to expand...
Pretty much sums him up
 
Bergen Blade said:
Mark Dempsey has been coaching and managing in Norway for a while. He's apparently favourite to take over at Start and a Blade/Start fan wondered how he did for us as a player in the 80s. Anybody got any memories of him?
Click to expand...

Yes I have. Although why this should be of interest or relevance to what he's doing now I don't know. I do hope you won't take my words as an employment reference.

So, Dempsey came from Man Utd if I recall. He was a young slip of a lad, with lots of curly black hair. My recollection of him was that he was a talented attacking midfield player. He'd definitely got a touch of class about him, in stark contrast to some of the others around him in the team at that time. However, he was rather lightweight. Not physically very strong and he'd have some games where he'd have us purring at his ability and others where he'd just get knocked off the ball all the time. I can't remember now how long he played for us but I think it's fair to say that it wasn't for long and he didn't really mature into the player that some of us thought we might have at the beginning.
 
His technical play and the fact that he was a small lad playing in an attacking midfield role didn't really suit the style we adopted when Bassett came in. In another team at another time he might have done alright for us, but you weren't going anywhere with Bassett if you weren't willing to put a crunching tackle in.
 
EddieColquhoun said:
Very high-pitched voice. Fans used to sing "We love you Dempsey, we do" in ridiculous high-pitched voices at away games to him to which he would smile or mouth "fcuk off" and smile.

dempsey_mark.jpg
Click to expand...

He looks like someone who was in an early line up of Def Leppard but got binned off prior to them cracking America.
 
He played one league game for Man Utd before joining us.

He was in that 1986-7 team that finished 9th in Division 2. That wasn't a very exciting season - the "highlight" was the 4 sendings off in the Portsmouth home game, which hadn't happened in England since 1955. The team was competent but didn't do anything particularly well. Defence was okay, Burridge played ok, midfield a bit lightweight, attack very lightweight. Beagrie was the only real standout. Dempsey was okay, as there was a bit of end product, and as others have said he did take a mean free kick, but he wasn't a physical player.

He did have a good shot on him: as well as the Reading and Maidstone goals mentioned above he got a good one in the League Cup v Bristol City and a good equaliser against Villa on Boxing Day in the relegation season - a shot from about 15 yards. He also scored direct from a corner when we lost 3-2 at Oldham earlier that year, although Paul Stancliffe, who scored the other goal from another corner and had never scored twice in his life, swore he got a touch.

He was not a Bassett player. Mark Todd replaced him after Bassett came in. Todd was "busier".
 
secretchief said:
The direct free kick in the cup against non-league Maidstone, was it? Thus sparing our blushes and allowing us to squeak through 1-0 after they had missed the worst open goal of all time at the Bramall Lane end.
Click to expand...

Steve Butler and his open goal miss!
 
Revolution said:
He also scored direct from a corner when we lost 3-2 at Oldham earlier that year
Click to expand...

Didn't know that. This adds to the list of Blades players who have scored direct from a corner. The other ones I know about are

Woodward v Newcastle (h) in League Cup, Sept 1969
Woodward v Leicester (a) Sept 1971
Woodward v Coventry (h) Nov 1971
Woodward v Norwich (h) Jan 1973
Salmons v Man City (a) March 1974
Unsworth v Derby (h) Sept 2005
 
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