One For The Older Blades .. 1974/75 Season

[John Street West Terrace]

just a question for a few of the older Blades out there as it was a couple of seasons before my first appearance at the Lane in 77 .. the 74/75 season we finished 6th our highest top flight finish since the early 60’s just wondered what those of you who went at that time what your recollections were ?
It doesn’t seemed to get mentioned much in threads as much as the early 70’s ones , we must have been close to a UEFA cup spot & what went that far wrong that we were relegated following season ?

 

[benn5712]

This is one for Silent.
I have this idea that one UEFA ruling was that two teams in the same city could not be entered in euro-cups. Might be a million miles out, but that rule changed that season or we could have qualified.
A home match late on in the season - Brum ? saw us lose or draw so we missed out on points as well.

Salmons out with a leg break or such and then sold to Stoke ( Wilder would have loved him at LW/LWB) . Build a team around TC. Didn't happen.
Team seemed to disintegrate.

 

[Dkc]

Something went horribly wrong back then. Worse than relegation under Warnock followed by the Blackwell / Speed/ Adams season when we went down to L1.

In the 1970's / early 80's we dropped from the top flight to the fourth tier in the space of what, five seasons? Six?

What went wrong was, in part at least, the cost of building the South Stand. It meant we spunked all our money on it and couldn't afford decent players. Some of our top players departed for better wages at Leeds and elsewhere. Some said that we got our just desserts for turfing out YCCC after 100 years and turning Sheffield into a cricketing backwater.

 

[Silent Blade]

We had sold a key midfielder (also TC's friend) Geoff Salmons to Stoke in Summer 1974 because of the debts caused by building the South Stand. Some papers thought we would be relegation candidates and Blades fans weren't happy with the "3rd division" players Furphy had signed so attendances for the first few months of the season had dropped. We didn't really play attacking football as we did under John Harris but we got good results against Newcastle, Ipswich and Liverpool but results in November and December weren't good. After the New Year we won at Spurs, beat Chelsea at home, won at Ipswich and we lost only 1 game (at Arsenal where they were kicking TC black and blue) in the last 12 games finishing only 4 points behind champions Derby.

Shoot Summer Special did a feature on us in Summer 1975 with the headline that we would be contenders to win the league but after the first match of the following season (A late stunner by Charlie George of Derby denied us a win) our form had collapsed and we won only two league matches before April! Furphy was sacked in October, Jimmy Sirrel was brought in but he decided to change the team as he didn't get on well with few of the senior players.

 

[Silent Blade]

This is one for Silent.
I have this idea that one UEFA ruling was that two teams in the same city could not be entered in euro-cups. Might be a million miles out, but that rule changed that season or we could have qualified.
A home match late on in the season - Brum ? saw us lose or draw so we missed out on points as well.

Salmons out with a leg break or such and then sold to Stoke ( Wilder would have loved him at LW/LWB) . Build a team around TC. Didn't happen.
Team seemed to disintegrate.

Had we won at Birmingham in the last game of the season we would have finished 5th and thought that we were in the UEFA Cup instead of Stoke because of the two club in one city ruling (Everton finished 4th and Liverpool were 2nd). We drew at Birmingham so Stoke thought they were in the UEFA Cup. Everton appealed afainst the two club per city ruling and successfully got it abolished to Stoke's disappointment.

Salmons didn't break his leg when he played for us.

 

[metalblade]

And that about sums it up, a fantastic team but no real quality reserves if anyone got injured. Mounting debts due to the south stand, selling quality players and bringing in players who where good in division three meaning it was only a matter of time before these lower league stars got found out and dragged the rest down to their level. Dodgy chairmen even more dodgy managers i'm only surprised it took as long to hit the bottom.

 

[Moan? Nope-I saw Longhorn]

random [additional] recollections from relegation season

New record signing [£100k] Chris Guthrie ran then current England C/H Roy McFarland ragged on opening day in front of newly opened South Stand - 1-1 draw
Guthrie got an (all headed ?) hat-trick in 4-2 win @ Hafilax [my 1st 'proper' away game]t& then did next to nowt for remainder of season
Jimmy Sirrell signed a fat, fucked, [and inevitably] pissed Jimmy Johnstone from Celtic - embarrassing for all concerned although he did net a 'diving' header [as best his gut would allow] @ Lane end in a 1-4 hammering by Wolves. Did also sign Paul Garner who was a 'good servant' for years to come
Seem to recall that after relegation confirmed we 'rallied' a little @ the end of the [wretched] season
As a personal opinion the loss [sale] of Salmons was crucial & instrumental to our demise

** First season where we had black [pinstripes] on the Jersey = manufactured by Admiral**

NB any/ all of the above facts are subject to verification by someone less inebriated than myself

 

[Moan? Nope-I saw Longhorn]

Had we won at Birmingham in the last game of the season we would have finished 5th and thought that we were in the UEFA Cup .....

precipitating the [short lived] " Into Euuuuurope" chant for the last few games

 

[ucandomagic]

As I recall, there was going to be a huge supermarket or something under the South Stand to help cover the cost, but SYC changed its mind about planning. We went ahead anyway, which cost us Salmons, TC, and the 45 years before we managed to build another team with similar potential.

Broken Magic is Slow to Recover

 

[benn5712]

Had we won at Birmingham in the last game of the season we would have finished 5th and thought that we were in the UEFA Cup instead of Stoke because of the two club in one city ruling (Everton finished 4th and Liverpool were 2nd). We drew at Birmingham so Stoke thought they were in the UEFA Cup. Everton appealed afainst the two club per city ruling and successfully got it abolished to Stoke's disappointment.
Thought he was out for a stretch with an injury whilst at the Lane. Soon after regaining fitness, flogged for about £160,000. Decent money then.
Correct as necessary please.
Salmons didn't break his leg when he played for us.

 

[benn5712]

Thought he was out for a stretch with an injury whilst at the Lane. Soon after regaining fitness, flogged for about £160,000. Decent money then.
Correct as necessary please.

 

[benn5712]

Guthrie. Not bad in the air so needed a decent supply of crosses. Awful at shooting. I've not seen a CF miss the goals by such a margin, with so much power and with as much regularity.

 

[Speedracer]

He was a funny one Chris Guthrie, had the ideal physique for a centre forward & was pretty dominant aerially, & on his day looked top class. Sadly his days were few & far between so he rather flattered to deceive.

 

[John Street West Terrace]

Never thought of the time frame with the new stand ( I still call it the new stand nowadays ) , some really interesting incites from you lads that you don’t get off Wikipedia and alike.
I’d never heard about the UEFA two teams in a city rule of the time .
Sounds like the cost of the stand was a a lead weight around our necks sadly .
I was just looking at the league table and saw Carlisle in the top flight and Man U in second division.. had to check my eyesight & strength on the bottle of beer when I read that lol !!!

 

[South Bucks]

Didn't do many matches in 74/75 as I was at school and had very little pocket money and nobody in our family were blades, in fact I'd sometimes go to BDTBL and wait until they opened the gates 20 minutes before full time so I could then sneak in for free and watch the last minutes.

Remember it felt quite dangerous sometimes when the crowd surged and you'd get crushed. Was on the kop for the WHU united "quality goal from a quality player" match which was on MOTD also.

We had a decent well balance team that season and looked like we were in with a shout for European qualification until right near the end. Notice how their thighs are like tree trunks.

Salmons was key to that team, gave us strength and attacking potential down the left and when he had to be sold to raise money we were never the same afterwards and the great slide began. Its why when I hear about big ground developments I shudder and remember.

 

[SouthEssexBlade]

We were an efficient and effective, if slightly aged team. Harris had seen this and wanted to acquire players, but got blocked. He decided he'd had enough and Furphy was brought in. Didn't sign to the level that Harris envisaged, so we ended up with a decent 1st XI but sod all else. The McAllister leg break was a blow that meant signing Brown, when the money would've been better spent elsewhere. TC had requested a move the season before, indeed was all set to sign for Man Utd as replacement for Bobby Charlton, but the board persuaded him to stay with the promise of quality signings built around him, it never happened. Salmons leaving angered him, we didn't replace with any better with David Bradford playing quite a few games and never solved the problems up front, opting for the enigmatic Tony Field.

Finishing 6th was both surprising and disappointing at the same time. With a couple of close games, including a 1-2 defeat to champions Derby which could easily have gone the other way, positive results could well have seen us as unlikely champions. We needed replacements, had done for a few seasons, but the boards inertia and reluctance to spend having committed to the South Stand, saw us enter the next season with a pissed off and weighty Currie, an aged defence, no real midfield and the aforementioned Guthrie up front. Doomed!

 

[ucandomagic]

I think the one club in a city rule was because its full title began as The Inter City Fairs Cup. So I guess it was meant to be the best team in a City representing that City.

 

[cahill]

just a question for a few of the older Blades out there as it was a couple of seasons before my first appearance at the Lane in 77 .. the 74/75 season we finished 6th our highest top flight finish since the early 60’s just wondered what those of you who went at that time what your recollections were ?
It doesn’t seemed to get mentioned much in threads as much as the early 70’s ones , we must have been close to a UEFA cup spot & what went that far wrong that we were relegated following season ?

Not many recollections to be honest. Not sure why ? I think it was our fourth season in the 1st division and it just seemed matter of fact. We'd gone beyond the euphoria of 1971 promotion, and the first season in the 1st division where we did well. It just felt like " business as usual". Little did we know

 

[cahill]

Didn't do many matches in 74/75 as I was at school and had very little pocket money and nobody in our family were blades, in fact I'd sometimes go to BDTBL and wait until they opened the gates 20 minutes before full time so I could then sneak in for free and watch the last minutes.

Remember it felt quite dangerous sometimes when the crowd surged and you'd get crushed. Was on the kop for the WHU united "quality goal from a quality player" match which was on MOTD also.

We had a decent well balance team that season and looked like we were in with a shout for European qualification until right near the end. Notice how their thighs are like tree trunks.

Salmons was key to that team, gave us strength and attacking potential down the left and when he had to be sold to raise money we were never the same afterwards and the great slide began. Its why when I hear about big ground developments I shudder and remember.

Oh right, was that the season ?

Ok then, I remember hooliganism, lots of it,

 

[Yewsman]

My recollection (which may be wrong) is that we had Ken Furphy from Watford as the manager and he signed some poor players from Watford, his previous club who were then 3rd Division - like Feith Eddy ( who to be fair was ok), Colin Franks and Tony Field - who weren’t Division 1 players and the team got found out. So poor player recruitment. Geoff Salmons sale to Stoke was also a big blow.

 

[Grecian2000]

We were an efficient and effective, if slightly aged team. Harris had seen this and wanted to acquire players, but got blocked. He decided he'd had enough and Furphy was brought in. Didn't sign to the level that Harris envisaged, so we ended up with a decent 1st XI but sod all else. The McAllister leg break was a blow that meant signing Brown, when the money would've been better spent elsewhere. TC had requested a move the season before, indeed was all set to sign for Man Utd as replacement for Bobby Charlton, but the board persuaded him to stay with the promise of quality signings built around him, it never happened. Salmons leaving angered him, we didn't replace with any better with David Bradford playing quite a few games and never solved the problems up front, opting for the enigmatic Tony Field.

Finishing 6th was both surprising and disappointing at the same time. With a couple of close games, including a 1-2 defeat to champions Derby which could easily have gone the other way, positive results could well have seen us as unlikely champions. We needed replacements, had done for a few seasons, but the boards inertia and reluctance to spend having committed to the South Stand, saw us enter the next season with a pissed off and weighty Currie, an aged defence, no real midfield and the aforementioned Guthrie up front. Doomed!

You're either a very kind man SEB, or time has dimmed your memory.
You say Furphy "Didn't sign to the level that Harris envisaged"!!! Not half, he must have been directly responsible for the saying "Buy lower division players, end up in a lower division". Garbett, Field, Bradford and Guthrie were way below the level any of us imagined.
What pissed me off so much about the dreadful slide from Prem into L1 after 06/07 was its almost "carbon copy" of the idiocy that saw us drop the whole way in the 70's. We created a hideous blue print of "sell quality, replace with inferior" that was NEVER EVER "good business" as some would have us believe.

This whole discussion has darkened my euphoric mood of the last three seasons no end!

 

[Grecian2000]

My recollection (which may be wrong) is that we had Ken Furphy from Watford as the manager and he signed some poor players from Watford, his previous club who were then 3rd Division - like Feith Eddy ( who to be fair was ok), Colin Franks and Tony Field - who weren’t Division 1 players and the team got found out. So poor player recruitment. Geoff Salmons sale to Stoke was also a big blow.

Watford AND Blackburn (pre Jack Walker and proper shite at the time).

 

[Yewsman]

Watford AND Blackburn (pre Jack Walker and proper shite at the time).

Yes sorry had forgotten Furphy was Blackburn as well.

 

[grafikhaus]

Sounds like the cost of the stand was a a lead weight around our necks sadly .

We weren't the only ones. Aston Villa from Wikipedia:

On 26 May 1982, just three months after being appointed manager, Barton guided Villa to a 1–0 victory over Bayern Munich in the European Cup final in Rotterdam. As of January 2008, Villa remain one of only five English teams to have won the European Cup, along with Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United and Nottingham Forest. They were the underdogs in the final and were expected to lose.

The final was held in Feyenoord Stadium, Rotterdam, with an attendance of 39,776. Only nine minutes into the game, Villa lost their experienced goalkeeper Jimmy Rimmer to a shoulder injury. He was replaced by 23-year-old reserve goalkeeper Nigel Spink, who had only played one match for the club in five years since joining from Chelmsford. Spink went on to make one of his best performances for the club against the highly experienced Bayern strikeforce, which included Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. Other key players in this Villa side included Tony Morley, Gordon Cowans and Dennis Mortimer.

The win was not followed with more success and the team performed badly in the following seasons. At the AGM in October 1982, it was revealed that the club were in £1.6 million of debt, mainly due to escalating wages and building costs, including the construction of the North Stand.

Bradford City were similar. I remember them on MotD after they were promoted to the top flight (1998-89) where they lasted just one season. A huge new stand ('The Coral Windows' Stand, I think) was rising and I thought 'What the fuck are they wasting money on that for?'

At the end of the first season back in Division One, City were placed in administration with debts of nearly £13 million. Two years later, the club suffered a second spell in administration and a second relegation. Two top-half finishes followed, but the club were relegated for a third time in seven seasons in 2006–07 meaning the following season would be their first in the bottom tier for 26 seasons.

Football is littered with tales of hubris and 'pride before a fall' - Portsmouth, Birmingham, Blackburn, Blackpool, Bolton, QPR etc. etc. who thought throwing money at it would result in success. I hope some people will remember that when they're screaming at Mr. McCabe (or whoever is our owner) to 'splash the cash' next season.

 

[SouthEssexBlade]

You're either a very kind man SEB, or time has dimmed your memory.
You say Furphy "Didn't sign to the level that Harris envisaged"!!! Not half, he must have been directly responsible for the saying "Buy lower division players, end up in a lower division". Garbett, Field, Bradford and Guthrie were way below the level any of us imagined.
What pissed me off so much about the dreadful slide from Prem into L1 after 06/07 was its almost "carbon copy" of the idiocy that saw us drop the whole way in the 70's. We created a hideous blue print of "sell quality, replace with inferior" that was NEVER EVER "good business" as some would have us believe.

This whole discussion has darkened my euphoric mood of the last three seasons no end!

I was trying to be kind, or at least a bit generous. HE may have had no choice but shop from the basement, the board had blocked attempts by Harris to sign decent players (Francis Lee, for one) and the £500,000 debt for the stand scuppered the chance of any quality arriving. We also still had the Watford obsession, getting Currie and Scullion from them, and thinking this was a never ending supply of decent players. Eddy was OK, the rest that arrived, including Furphy, weren't.

 

[JOE SHAW 1956]

The Inter City Fairs Cup is the European Competition we were robbed of by Wednesday , its a long and detailed story , short version...we finished higher than the Pigs so qualified as the higher team of the City.. We had an old fashioned chairman ( Wragg he was also an F.A. chairman ) Wednesday had a more forward thinking man in Eric Taylor , he used the fact of the new Cantilever Stand as leverage with EUEFA ie. more money due to the extra seating !, he convinced them and won the first jaunt in to Europe for the Pigs. We were promised entry the following year , of course it never happened . Alan Hardaker who was F.A .Chairman at the time also didn't like johnny foreigner ( playing in Europe etc ) and it was on his insistence that forced Man U. back from Munich with the well known result !. Different times and remember , these old men were fighting and losing loved ones over in Europe 20 years earlier , not an excuse but it may have influenced there parochial type views ??.

 

[maidmarion]

75/76 was my first full season as a Blade. As I remember, Chris Guthrie wAs one of those tall players who became smaller every time he went up for a header. Wasn't Tony Field nicknamed Lino as he spent most of the time on the floor. And poor Jim Brown, he was a lovely man and he was a great shot stopper but not being very tall was not so good on crosses.

 

[Radders]

The south stand was the underlying problem, as others have said. Building it was a gamble but the board thought we'd be able to afford it, being an established top flight team. When it all went pear shaped on the pitch there was no money available for players and we just went into a downward spiral. Before then, being in the 3rd or 4th division would have been unimaginable.
If I remember correctly the relative decline of both Sheffield clubs at the time may also have been connected to economic problems in the city in the 70s and 80s. In other words there wasn't a lot of money around.

 

[Peter Dornan]

74/75 was the first season after I had left school. I had money in my pocket and went to every game home and away. Some terrific memories of away trips on the coach with Shred. One game not mentioned was a 3-2 win at Everton after being 2-0 down. Don't recall who scored the first - Eddy maybe?, then Dearden and Currie, I believe. Got a bit of a kicking after the match and the coach drove back to Sheffield with fewer windows than on the way there. Good times, before it all went wrong the following season.

 

[John Street West Terrace]

You're either a very kind man SEB, or time has dimmed your memory.
You say Furphy "Didn't sign to the level that Harris envisaged"!!! Not half, he must have been directly responsible for the saying "Buy lower division players, end up in a lower division". Garbett, Field, Bradford and Guthrie were way below the level any of us imagined.
What pissed me off so much about the dreadful slide from Prem into L1 after 06/07 was its almost "carbon copy" of the idiocy that saw us drop the whole way in the 70's. We created a hideous blue print of "sell quality, replace with inferior" that was NEVER EVER "good business" as some would have us believe.

This whole discussion has darkened my euphoric mood of the last three seasons no end!

Sorry Grecian you blame me one of the ‘young uns ‘ for asking