grafikhaus
Kraft durch Freude
Sorry for late posting - hopefully back to normal soon!
The first stirrings of my lifelong love affair with football began in the early ‘60s. Back then, the double-winning Tottenham Hotspur team of Blanchflower, Dave Mackay, Cliff Jones etc. really stood out as a historic team under the management of Bill Nicholson. My links to Spurs have been reinforced down the years as my oldest and best friend Andy (who I’ve known since I was five years old) is a Spurs fan, influenced by his London-born dad.
Fast-forward to 1st February 1968 and we signed Tony Currie from Watford for £26,500. February 26th, 1968 and I was among the 27,008 who watched as Tony Currie made his Blades debut v. Spurs in a fantastic night match at Bramall Lane. We won the game 3-2 with a goal from TC (Barry Wagstaff and Gil Reece got the others). This season would end with relegation from the top-flight for The Blades.
Here’s TC in action at White Hart Lane with the East Stand in the background. Geoff Salmons is our number 8. I’m guessing 15th September 1973?
On 18th January, 1975 I paid my first visit to WHL to see the Blades win 3-1 in a match televised for Match of the Day. I stood on ‘The Shelf’ (East Stand) and, wandering ‘downstairs’ at half-time I saw a makeshift MotD ‘studio’ – a wire cage -with cards made up with Letraset(!) to put in front of the camera. Any likely score was there, but not 3-1 to The Blades!
Saturday 27th March, 1976 and I arranged to meet Andy at White Hart Lane before an overnighter in London. I didn’t get to meet Andy (we hooked up later), we lost the game 5-0 but a night at Ronnie Scott’s dispelled the gloom.
Saturday sees our first meeting in the league for almost thirteen years and our first visit to the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
The last time we met Spurs was in 2015 – a 2-leg (Capital One) League Cup Semi-Final. We narrowly lost the first leg 0-1 on January 21
before succumbing in a classic 2-2 draw at Bramall Lane a week later. In this second leg, a sublime free-kick by Christian Eriksen had put Spurs 1-0 up on the half-hour. The late introduction of Che Adams saw him score two goals (77 & 79 mins.) to put the Blades 2-1 up until a late heart-breaker by Eriksen (88 mins.) saw United go out 2-3 on aggregate. After the game, snow began to fall and I ended up walking halfway back to Lodge Moor.
We lost our final meeting in the Premier League at White Hart Lane 0-2 on 22nd August 2006:
And one for Silent (!), our very first meetings with Spurs came in the 1901 Cup Final:
Plenty more ‘Memries of Spurs’ – over to you!
The first stirrings of my lifelong love affair with football began in the early ‘60s. Back then, the double-winning Tottenham Hotspur team of Blanchflower, Dave Mackay, Cliff Jones etc. really stood out as a historic team under the management of Bill Nicholson. My links to Spurs have been reinforced down the years as my oldest and best friend Andy (who I’ve known since I was five years old) is a Spurs fan, influenced by his London-born dad.
Fast-forward to 1st February 1968 and we signed Tony Currie from Watford for £26,500. February 26th, 1968 and I was among the 27,008 who watched as Tony Currie made his Blades debut v. Spurs in a fantastic night match at Bramall Lane. We won the game 3-2 with a goal from TC (Barry Wagstaff and Gil Reece got the others). This season would end with relegation from the top-flight for The Blades.
Here’s TC in action at White Hart Lane with the East Stand in the background. Geoff Salmons is our number 8. I’m guessing 15th September 1973?On 18th January, 1975 I paid my first visit to WHL to see the Blades win 3-1 in a match televised for Match of the Day. I stood on ‘The Shelf’ (East Stand) and, wandering ‘downstairs’ at half-time I saw a makeshift MotD ‘studio’ – a wire cage -with cards made up with Letraset(!) to put in front of the camera. Any likely score was there, but not 3-1 to The Blades!
Saturday 27th March, 1976 and I arranged to meet Andy at White Hart Lane before an overnighter in London. I didn’t get to meet Andy (we hooked up later), we lost the game 5-0 but a night at Ronnie Scott’s dispelled the gloom.
Saturday sees our first meeting in the league for almost thirteen years and our first visit to the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
The last time we met Spurs was in 2015 – a 2-leg (Capital One) League Cup Semi-Final. We narrowly lost the first leg 0-1 on January 21
before succumbing in a classic 2-2 draw at Bramall Lane a week later. In this second leg, a sublime free-kick by Christian Eriksen had put Spurs 1-0 up on the half-hour. The late introduction of Che Adams saw him score two goals (77 & 79 mins.) to put the Blades 2-1 up until a late heart-breaker by Eriksen (88 mins.) saw United go out 2-3 on aggregate. After the game, snow began to fall and I ended up walking halfway back to Lodge Moor.
We lost our final meeting in the Premier League at White Hart Lane 0-2 on 22nd August 2006:
And one for Silent (!), our very first meetings with Spurs came in the 1901 Cup Final:
Plenty more ‘Memries of Spurs’ – over to you!
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