One For The Older Blades .. 1974/75 Season

[Maidenhead]

We beat Leeds 1-0 at Elland Road after we had been relegated, scorer Woodward.

The rest of it has been erased from my memory bank.

 

[Silent Blade]

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.

Just had a look at the 1973-74 stats, Salmons played 41 league games. The only league match he missed was the 2-1 defeat at Norwich

 

[Silent Blade]

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.

Harris signed Eddy, Connaughton, Warboys, Bone, Nicholl and Franks. Furphy signed Garbett, Field, Brown before signing Guthrie and Calvert.

 

[GRUMPY BLADE]

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.

I shudder as well.

Get a CF in everytime.

 

[Moan? Nope-I saw Longhorn]

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.

"Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it"[Satayana]

just a thought for [all] those folk that think that the Premiership coin is unlimited & will [also] fund considerable ground improvements.

 

[Silent Blade]

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.

Furphy did try to sign Lee in summer 1975 but didnt know Harris tried to sign him too

 

[Moan? Nope-I saw Longhorn]

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.

Field signed from Blackburn - but as noted elsewhere still one of Furphy's former clubs
Cracking [solo] goal in front of kop [3-1 Ipswich]

Field & Keith Eddy [a decent laker to be fair] joined Furphys at New York Cosmos - alongside Pele !?!?!

 

[Silent Blade]

I thought we had a great team in the year 1973.

The usual team was

McAlister
Badger
Hemsley
Flynn
Colquhoun
Eddy
Woodward
Salmons
Dearden
Currie
Bone


We beat Man U (at OT), Spurs and Derby twice also won at Stamford Bridge and then a few days later beat Arsenal 5-0

 

[Silent Blade]

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]

I thought we had a great team in the year 1973.

The usual team was

McAlister
Badger
Hemsley
Flynn
Colquhoun
Eddy
Woodward
Salmons
Dearden
Currie
Bone


We beat Man U (at OT), Spurs and Derby twice also won at Stamford Bridge and then a few days later beat Arsenal 5-0

There won’t be many seasons in a lifetime as a Blade you’d see those results !!!

 

[Radders]

I thought we had a great team in the year 1973.

The usual team was

McAlister
Badger
Hemsley
Flynn
Colquhoun
Eddy
Woodward
Salmons
Dearden
Currie
Bone


We beat Man U (at OT), Spurs and Derby twice also won at Stamford Bridge and then a few days later beat Arsenal 5-0

Geoff Salmons was one of my favourites from that era. He tends to get a bit overshadowed by people remembering Alan Woodward on the other wing. It was great to see Salmons sprinting down the left wing. He'd get a decent cross in more often than not. I was not a happy bunny when he was sold to Stoke.

 

[grafikhaus]

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 ??.

History:

The Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, sometimes referred to as the European Fairs Cup, Fairs Cities' Cup, or simply as the Fairs Cup, was a European football competition played between 1955 and 1971. The competition was the idea of Swiss pools supremo Ernst Thommen, Ottorino Barassi from Italy, and the English Football Association general secretary Stanley Rous, all of whom later became senior officials of football's world governing body, FIFA. As the name suggests, the competition was set up to promote international trade fairs. Friendly games were regularly held between teams from cities holding trade fairs and it was from these games that the competition evolved. The competition was initially only open to teams from cities that hosted trade fairs and where these teams finished in their national league had no relevance. Early competitions also featured a one city, one team rule. After 1968, it was sometimes referred to as the Runners-up Cup, with teams now qualifying based on league position. In 1971, it came under the auspices of UEFA and was replaced by the UEFA Cup.

Back then, I well remember my dad raging against this. It should have been held between clubs from cities which had held Trade Fairs which - my dad insisted - Sheffield hadn't. Wednesday thought they were 'above' entering this fledgling European trophy so declined entry - until they realised they couldn't let United 'get one over' on them.

'Sir' Stanley Rous was the Sepp Blatter of his time and Wednesday's Eric Taylor was his Michel Platini - utterly corrupt, and that's why Wednesday were gifted (and had their stadium built for them) the 1966 World Cup.

Some things don't change.

 

[10-0 win]

Salmons didn't take part in the team that nearly reached europe, basically the same team that ended 6th 1975 was the one relegated a year on. Main reasons , very few injuries to the starting IX 74/75 ( Keith Eddy was immense in midfield with Currie that year), a core of the best players aged 30+,the team really overachieved but played some lovely football., august 1975 we drew with Derby , Currie was approached by Leeds(knowing our dire economic situation), Flynn dislocated his shoulder, a mainstay defender that worked so good with Colquhoun, no suitable reserve, Eddy was moved into defence wich left Currie almost on his own. Our old gold Badger(Golding) Hemsly(Ogden) Dearden(Cammack)Flynn(Faulkner)Colquhon (McKenzie) had rusty cover. The reserves at the time simply wasn't up to it. Looking back we simply didn't find the local talent provided to us by the late scout Archie( forgot his surname) who had died a few years before. The only real investment in the summer of 75 was Guthrie. Stainrod,Kenworthy and Speight came through our new youthsystem that year but all to late as 1976 gave us one of our worst seasons in the topflight. Little did we know how bad things would turn at the end of the decade. Uptil then 11th in divie two was our worst season.

 

[JJ Sefton]

 

[SouthEssexBlade]

Furphy did try to sign Lee in summer 1975 but didnt know Harris tried to sign him too

As I was told at a later date, Harris wanted someone to play with Dearden and identified Lee as a possibility, the board said he was too expensive. He was also wanting to find a replacement for Dearden, who was reaching the end of his career. Again I was told he'd identified Bob Latchford, then at Birmingham. Again said to be too expensive and I think he went to Everton in 1974 for £300,000.

 

[super_pig]

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 ?

john flynn broke his leg AFAIR and the bloody black stripe edgings on the shirt

 

[super_pig]

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.

we played Derby off the park on a red hot day.. really disappointing result

 

[metalblade]

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!

Spot on, this is why some of us older blades are very very critical of player sales having seen quality sold and replaced by "run of the mill or worse" players. The younger Blades fans don't quite get it like we do, short term it might work (Brooks for e.g) longer term or continually doing it heads the club in only one direction ................ down.

 

[United Aren't Back.]

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.

My debut in Bramall Lane stand, above a standing area( was Aug 31 1974 , the Tony Field show v Ipswich.
Woody's winner v Liverpool another great memory.

 

[super_pig]

'the' team.. and that kit though

 

[Moan? Nope-I saw Longhorn]

My debut in Bramall Lane stand, above a standing area( was Aug 31 1974 , the Tony Field show v Ipswich.
Woody's winner v Liverpool another great memory.

Aye
TC (60 yard) diagonal ball from in front of John Street to Woody on opposite wing - BOOM - (Kop end) - 1- 0 win

 

[themaninblack]

Many many thanks for that. I was the same age then as my son is now and although I can’t claim that it seems like yesterday, those clips have brought back loads of great memories. Strange to think that when my lad is an old codger he will be looking back on the Wilder era with the same feelings!
I loved Morris and Edwards, the Deane and Agana team too but I think these last three seasons have been the best since I was a kid. There’s a fantastic feeling about BDTBL and that special link between players and fans is there again. I just hope that we avoid the mistakes we have made in the past, bring in some quality players and give it a real go next season. There’s a huge opportunity waiting for us...it’s a great time to be a Blade!

 

[I should coco]

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.

We were so skint after buiding it that the internal works were delayed for years. The players continued changing in the John Street until well into the 1980s (Silent Blade ?).

Those of us who joined the Blades Revival in 1986, may remember training in the old 'gym' (aka draughty leaky tin shed) as they couldn't afford to clear it and develop the car park.

Talk about done on a shoe string. Only in S2....

 

[Fulwood Blade]

What went wrong was, in part at least, the cost of building the South Stand.

I think you are right here.

The older ones on here might want to comment, but from thinking back the SS was built with very few penalties included in contracts. These days, buildings are costed generally on a design and build contract with everything costed upfront. I worked for a Construction group in Leeds and the factory producing ground-up arm worked on margins of 4% maximum - sometimes it could be as low as 2% if a few things went tits up, buit it's all watertight in contracts.

In the 70's it wasn't like that and I am sure SS cost more to build than what was expected and United had to fund the extra. I believe there were long delays for weather related issues - perhaps some on here remember more?

Think back to Wembley - the Australian company lost a fortune due to the extra costs, but they had to fund it, not the FA.

As for our demise - they were bad, really bad days.

UTB

 

[United Aren't Back.]

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

He had also previously got a trio of headers in a game v Halifax Town.
Namely for Southend United.
Probably still the only player to have got two hat tricks of headers against the same club, for different teams..both SUFC though.

 

[HodgysBrokenThumb]

Spot on, this is why some of us older blades are very very critical of player sales having seen quality sold and replaced by "run of the mill or worse" players. The younger Blades fans don't quite get it like we do, short term it might work (Brooks for e.g) longer term or continually doing it heads the club in only one direction ................ down.

I think there is a difference (all opinions, not proof, of course). We have recently sold good young players (Brooks, Adams, Calvert-Lewin, Ramsdale) to enable us to acquire players to bring us up from lower leagues to the top league, and it has worked. The test will now be whether we keep our most talented players, or at the very least least sell them for ridiculously high prices so that they can be properly replaced. And the evidence so far is that current management is good at evaluating players to bring in. I am more optimistic now than I have been since... well, can't remember when. But it can so easily go wrong.

 

[Moan? Nope-I saw Longhorn]

He had also previously got a trio of headers in a game v Halifax Town.
Namely for Southend United.
Probably still the only player to have got two hat tricks of headers against the same club, for different teams..both SUFC though.

Wow , just WOW (genuine appreciation - none of this post ironic shite?
that's a proper twatstat -can I appropriate for (all) my future discussions about CG?



*

 

[cahill]

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.

I was going to mention Scullion and Currie, both from Watford who were like our feeder club. The rise of Watford to today and coincidental decline ( up to now) of clubs like us, Leeds and Wendy mirrors the economic differences between the south-east and the North.

 

[Jon Bon II]

Seem to recall that after relegation confirmed we 'rallied' a little @ the end of the [wretched] season

From memory, we beat Leeds 1-0 at Elland Road and Norwich 3-0 at Carrow Road. Too little, too late.

 

[Nick Jansky]

From memory, we beat Leeds 1-0 at Elland Road and Norwich 3-0 at Carrow Road. Too little, too late.

But notable for the introduction of Tony Kenworthy, who absolutely cemented Norman Hunter at Leeds.