Michael Palin on Football Focus

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Michael Palin has mentioned it several times on his documentary series and like someone said he had a Blades sticker on his suitcase IIRC and tried to explain to one local where he was at the time what team the Blades was.

He mentions Wednesday a couple of times but in the same vein of interest that most on here do, did they win ( :( ) or lose ( :D )

Screenshot 2022-03-27 104659.jpg

Not quite Blades related but the colours are there and do a search on Golden Gordon on Youtube and there is definitely a Blades influence in the shirts and kit also its very funny series :

 
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Silent Blade said:
He was hoping for a place in the Cup Winners Cup final team against Gornik Zabrze that was to be played in the following week. He was the sub again and came on in the 1st half replacing the injured Mike Doyle and got the winners medal.
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I started watching Man City in 1975 so it's before my time as a fan, but I did once discuss that match with a player who was in our team that night. This match had just been discussed on SUISA, I think, so when I spoke to the guy at a supporters' event shortly after, I asked about it.

He told me that the City players wanted to avoid getting injured before the ECWC final in Vienna the following week, so didn't try to make any tackles. But in the second half, the Wednesday defender Colin Prophett committed a poor foul on Mike Summerbee, who had to go off - and indeed subsequently missed the final against Gornik.

My source said the City players were so pissed off at Prophett's attitude that they decided to teach him a lesson by starting to play properly. Because they were a much better side than the S6 porkers, they duly turned the game round.

He also denied that Doyle missed the penalty on purpose. Of course, Franny Lee usually took them for us back then, but he was out that night with a minor injury.

Doyle's penalty style was quite laconic and relied on sending the keeper the wrong way. Apparently, Grummitt simply read the dummy. I'll dig out footage of a Doyle spot kick and you'll see what I mean.

Anyway, make of that what you will. That's what I was told, though.

EDIT -

The clip below has Mike Doyle scoring a penalty (against Gordon Banks, no less), starting from around 50 seconds. Quite easy to imagine, looking at that one, that if he didn't put the ball right in the corner and the 'keeper guessed right, he could look a bit of an idiot, though.

 
petrusha said:
I started watching Man City in 1975 so it's before my time as a fan, but I did once discuss that match with a player who was in our team that night. This match had just been discussed on SUISA, I think, so when I spoke to the guy at a supporters' event shortly after, I asked about it.

He told me that the City players wanted to avoid getting injured before the ECWC final in Vienna the following week, so didn't try to make any tackles. But in the second half, the Wednesday defender Colin Prophett committed a poor foul on Mike Summerbee, who had to go off - and indeed subsequently missed the final against Gornik.

My source said the City players were so pissed off at Prophett's attitude that they decided to teach him a lesson by starting to play properly. Because they were a much better side than the S6 porkers, they duly turned the game round.

He also denied that Doyle missed the penalty on purpose. Of course, Franny Lee usually took them for us back then, but he was out that night with a minor injury.

Doyle's penalty style was quite laconic and relied on sending the keeper the wrong way. Apparently, Grummitt simply read the dummy. I'll dig out footage of a Doyle spot kick and you'll see what I mean.

Anyway, make of that what you will. That's what I was told, though.

EDIT -

The clip below has Mike Doyle scoring a penalty (against Gordon Banks, no less), starting from around 50 seconds. Quite easy to imagine, looking at that one, that if he didn't put the ball right in the corner and the 'keeper guessed right, he could look a bit of an idiot, though.

Click to expand...

Hi,

Do you by chance have footage of Geoff Salmons (I met him last night) scoring direct from a corner at Maine Road in March 1974? The match was televised by Granada but I never saw the footage because Sunday walks were compulsory at my boarding school unless if the weather was very bad.
 
"He's not a blade, he's a very very naughty boy",
ok i know he didnt say those words.....but

Lovely man is Michael, had the pleasure to meet him a couple of times.....
 
Silent Blade said:
Hi,

Do you by chance have footage of Geoff Salmons (I met him last night) scoring direct from a corner at Maine Road in March 1974? The match was televised by Granada but I never saw the footage because Sunday walks were compulsory at my boarding school unless if the weather was very bad.
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Oh, I saw the picture of Geoff Salmons last night on the Facebook group for 1970s football. I didn't realise it was you meeting him. :)

I'm sorry. but I've never seen his goal at Maine Road and the match isn't listed as among those available in the selection for 1973/74 on the best list of MCFC video resources I've seen, which is here: Man City Video Archive 1973/74. Unfortunately, most of the ITV footage from City matches in the seventies comes from a Granada TV video released in the 1990s which contains 200 goals, but all scored by us. It doesn't show any for the opposition.

The best hope for seeing it might lie with the current trend for ITV4 to screen old editions of London's The Big Match if brief highlights were shown at the end after the main London game. They usually took games from two other ITV regions but I suspect you might be out of luck even here.

I checked the site for ITV regional football highlights 1968-1983. Their main game that day was West Ham v Coventry, while I suspect they'll also have chosen to screen highlights of another London team, Fulham, away at Sunderland and shown on Tyne Tees plus the Birmingham v Man United relegation battle (arf!), which ATV screened. City v Blades was a bit of a midtable affair.

I'll ask around the City fans I know who are most knowledgeable about this stuff and see if I can find anything out. I don't hold outr great hope but you never know. If I have any luck, I'll be in touch.

PS - Line-ups and a report from The Guardian are here: Manchester City v Sheffield United 1973/74. The game took place on 16 March 1974.
 
petrusha said:
Oh, I saw the picture of Geoff Salmons last night on the Facebook group for 1970s football. I didn't realise it was you meeting him. :)

I'm sorry. but I've never seen his goal at Maine Road and the match isn't listed as among those available in the selection for 1973/74 on the best list of MCFC video resources I've seen, which is here: Man City Video Archive 1973/74. Unfortunately, most of the ITV footage from City matches in the seventies comes from a Granada TV video released in the 1990s which contains 200 goals, but all scored by us. It doesn't show any for the opposition.

The best hope for seeing it might lie with the current trend for ITV4 to screen old editions of London's The Big Match if brief highlights were shown at the end after the main London game. They usually took games from two other ITV regions but I suspect you might be out of luck even here.

I checked the site for ITV regional football highlights 1968-1983. Their main game that day was West Ham v Coventry, while I suspect they'll also have chosen to screen highlights of another London team, Fulham, away at Sunderland and shown on Tyne Tees plus the Birmingham v Man United relegation battle (arf!), which ATV screened. City v Blades was a bit of a midtable affair.

I'll ask around the City fans I know who are most knowledgeable about this stuff and see if I can find anything out. I don't hold outr great hope but you never know. If I have any luck, I'll be in touch.

PS - Line-ups and a report from The Guardian are here: Manchester City v Sheffield United 1973/74. The game took place on 16 March 1974.
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Goodness me, there's a name from the past, petrusha . And Silent Blade , I remember seeing the footage on the ITV highlights the next day, but have never seen it since. In my memory, it was a normal high, inswinging corner that bent like a banana into the far top corner, after which Salmons nonchalantly jogged back to halfway grinning from ear to ear.
 
petrusha said:
Oh, I saw the picture of Geoff Salmons last night on the Facebook group for 1970s football. I didn't realise it was you meeting him. :)
Click to expand...
Yes, it was me, I will post the photo in the 50 years ago today thread next week. Last night I told Geoff about him doing something spectacular in a match that was 50 years ago next week. A friend of his (who is a Blade) backed me describing the spectacular moment but it seemed Geoff had forgotten about it! Dont think he follows football much nowadays but he still goes to promotion 71 reunions and I was told he was at TC's recent book launch.

Thank you for the links
 
Greenwich Blade said:
Goodness me, there's a name from the past, petrusha . And Silent Blade , I remember seeing the footage on the ITV highlights the next day, but have never seen it since. In my memory, it was a normal high, inswinging corner that bent like a banana into the far top corner, after which Salmons nonchalantly jogged back to halfway grinning from ear to ear.
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My dad was at the match and he said in his letter to me that Geoff's inswinging corner had bamboozled Corrigan and the defenders
 
Darren said:
in a footnote says something to the effect that he generally supports both Sheffield teams (something considered a hanging offence in Sheffield), but his preference is for United.
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Agree.....Palin was interviewed on Radio Sheffield about 3 year ago....so this is straight from the horses mouth.

He said he lived in in Ranmoor as a child and one of his relatives (think it was an uncle) took him regularly to Bramall Lane as a boy.
He also mentioned that he developed an affection for Hallam FC and went to see them a few times too.

They asked him to settle the argument about which Sheffield team he supported. He refused to commit himself to one club and explained that maybe its because he spends so much time away from Sheffield because he now genuinely wants both clubs to do well.

Probably explains why if Sheff Wed were in a cup final he'd wear a blue and white scarf wanting SW to win
and if we got to a final he'd be wearing a red and white scarf wanting SU to win.
However as he admits his boyhood club was United he's obviously more a Blade than an Owl....as you say, his preference is for United.
 
Sheffsteel said:
Agree.....Palin was interviewed on Radio Sheffield about 3 year ago....so this is straight from the horses mouth.

He said he lived in in Ranmoor as a child and one of his relatives (think it was an uncle) took him regularly to Bramall Lane as a boy.
He also mentioned that he developed an affection for Hallam FC and went to see them a few times too.

They asked him to settle the argument about which Sheffield team he supported. He refused to commit himself to one club and explained that maybe its because he spends so much time away from Sheffield because he now genuinely wants both clubs to do well.

Probably explains why if Sheff Wed were in a cup final he'd wear a blue and white scarf wanting SW to win
and if we got to a final he'd be wearing a red and white scarf wanting SU to win.
However as he admits his boyhood club was United he's obviously more a Blade than an Owl....as you say, his preference is for United.
Click to expand...
Yep he's pretty close to a glory supporter as one can be.

Whichever Sheffield team is next in the Premier league or cup final he will come out publicly supporting.
 
Silent Blade said:
Yes, it was me, I will post the photo in the 50 years ago today thread next week. Last night I told Geoff about him doing something spectacular in a match that was 50 years ago next week. A friend of his (who is a Blade) backed me describing the spectacular moment but it seemed Geoff had forgotten about it! Dont think he follows football much nowadays but he still goes to promotion 71 reunions and I was told he was at TC's recent book launch.

Thank you for the links
Click to expand...

Silent Blade said:
My dad was at the match and he said in his letter to me that Geoff's inswinging corner had bamboozled Corrigan and the defenders
Click to expand...

I think I saw Geoff play at Maine Road for Stoke and also I think Leicester, but as I was 8 or 9 at the time, I don't recall too many opposition players from those days unless they were especially famous so I deliberately kept an eye out for them. I know he's very well thought of among the older fans at Stoke, though. Not the first ex-player from that era I've heard about who doesn't take that much of an interest in the modern game, but I'm glad he keeps up with his old teammates.

Corrigan at that time was going through a rough spell and Keith MacRae had been signed to replace him. I suppose the last thing Joe needed when he next got a chance in the senior team was to give away a goal like that!
 
jono_t2000 said:
Yep he's pretty close to a glory supporter as one can be.

Whichever Sheffield team is next in the Premier league or cup final he will come out publicly supporting.
Click to expand...

That's a very unkind reading of the situation. Years ago there wasn't always the level of antipathy that there is now.

In the 80s I used to go to Hillsborough now and again. I wasn't particularly fussed about the result but it was common enough for fans to attend the other's games. I know several Blades did the same and I'm sure it was more prevalent in previous eras too.

These days I can't stand the Wednesday attitude (a generalisation, of course) and mock them whenever I can but for fans who follow United, with less commitment, his attitude is entirely reasonable.
 



petrusha said:
I started watching Man City in 1975 so it's before my time as a fan, but I did once discuss that match with a player who was in our team that night. This match had just been discussed on SUISA, I think, so when I spoke to the guy at a supporters' event shortly after, I asked about it.

He told me that the City players wanted to avoid getting injured before the ECWC final in Vienna the following week, so didn't try to make any tackles. But in the second half, the Wednesday defender Colin Prophett committed a poor foul on Mike Summerbee, who had to go off - and indeed subsequently missed the final against Gornik.

My source said the City players were so pissed off at Prophett's attitude that they decided to teach him a lesson by starting to play properly. Because they were a much better side than the S6 porkers, they duly turned the game round.

He also denied that Doyle missed the penalty on purpose. Of course, Franny Lee usually took them for us back then, but he was out that night with a minor injury.

Doyle's penalty style was quite laconic and relied on sending the keeper the wrong way. Apparently, Grummitt simply read the dummy. I'll dig out footage of a Doyle spot kick and you'll see what I mean.

Anyway, make of that what you will. That's what I was told, though.

EDIT -

The clip below has Mike Doyle scoring a penalty (against Gordon Banks, no less), starting from around 50 seconds. Quite easy to imagine, looking at that one, that if he didn't put the ball right in the corner and the 'keeper guessed right, he could look a bit of an idiot, though.

Click to expand...

Love the old style, low key goal celebrations..unlike today's where they simulate the discovering of cure to cancer or just get straight into a full on all in on pitch gangbang.
 
gordoncharles said:
That's a very unkind reading of the situation. Years ago there wasn't always the level of antipathy that there is now.

In the 80s I used to go to Hillsborough now and again. I wasn't particularly fussed about the result but it was common enough for fans to attend the other's games. I know several Blades did the same and I'm sure it was more prevalent in previous eras too.

These days I can't stand the Wednesday attitude (a generalisation, of course) and mock them whenever I can but for fans who follow United, with less commitment, his attitude is entirely reasonable.
Click to expand...

Great point.....when I was a kid in the 70's there was loads of old'uns who went to see both clubs.
Away travel wasn't really a thing....so it was Bramall Lane one week and Hillsboro the next week.
Also if there was a big team in town...or a big name, someone like Stanley Matthews of Blackpool in town.
Then plenty of Sheffielders would go.....regardless of which Sheffield team they supported.

Also in the mid to late 80's Sheffield hadn't seen top flight football for over 10 years.
So even though I'm a big Blade....when Wednesday were playing against Liverpool, Arsenal etc....I went to the odd game, probably 1 game a season (with Wednesday friends) at Hillsboro...obviously not to see Wednesday...but to see the top quality opposition live.
 
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gordoncharles said:
That's a very unkind reading of the situation. Years ago there wasn't always the level of antipathy that there is now.

In the 80s I used to go to Hillsborough now and again. I wasn't particularly fussed about the result but it was common enough for fans to attend the other's games. I know several Blades did the same and I'm sure it was more prevalent in previous eras too.

These days I can't stand the Wednesday attitude (a generalisation, of course) and mock them whenever I can but for fans who follow United, with less commitment, his attitude is entirely reasonable.
Click to expand...

Historically there wasn't much football on TV.

So when either Sheffield club played, lets say Blackpool or Stoke, everyone wanted to see the legendary Stanley Matthews in the flesh.
So 1000's of Wednesday fans would go to Bramall Lane and 1000's of Blades would go to Hillsboro.

In the mid 80's I'd never seen Liverpool (a team I admired due to their European success) so when SW were promoted to the top flight in the mid 80's I went to see the opposition. Also has a few friends at work who were Wednesday fans and every now and then they'd persuade me to go to an attractive match.
Saw Wednesday play Arsenal and Everton too in the mid 80's and a guy at work was a massive Watford fan and at that time Watford were in the top flight so a group of us used to go to support Watford every time SW played them at Hillsboro.

It wasn't so unusual and the weird thing is I kind of enjoyed it more. I always felt nervous and tense watching United (I'm still he same now ha ha) but going to Hillsboro I wanted the opposition to win but it wasn't such a big deal, so I wasn't nervous or tense.
 
I've worked with many older Wednesday fans (born in the 1950's I would guess) who've freely admitted to attending Blades matches at BDTBL just so they could see Tony Currie play. It must be a generational thing - can you imagine any of us lot going to Hillsborough in the 90's just to watch Chris Waddle play?!
 
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