Dave Bassett gave debuts to the following players who came through our youth system or made their professional debut with us:
Chris Downes (sub v Pompey, FA Cup 1988). Played 2 league and 2 cup games. Only made 17 total league appearances. All his games for us were away. I never laid eyes on him.
Paul Wood (sub v WBA, league 1988). His only appearance. Played another 5 league games in total. He was the first of 2 Paul Woods, and his United career lasted about 3 minutes by my reckoning.
Dane Whitehouse (v Blackpool, league 1988). 231 league appearances, 38 goals. 278 appearances and 51 goals overall in his 10 seasons. A great servant to the club.
Mitch Ward (sub v Wolves, Zenith cup, 1989) 154 league appearances, 11 goals. 182 appearances and 16 goals overall in his 9 seasons. Played 136 games for other clubs. Dane’s last appearance for us v Port Vale was also Ward’s last appearance (and Carl Tiler’s). I’d forgotten that.
Richard Lucas (v Villa, league 1990) 10 league and 2 cup appearances. Played 223 league games in the lower divisions after leaving us. Did alright in difficult circumstances but we had better full backs.
Charlie Hartfield (v Palace, league 1991) came through Arsenal’s youth set up but made his league debut for us. 65 total games in 6 seasons, a handful elsewhere. Never rated him as a player. His only goal, v Bristol City, was a good one.
Ashley Fickling (v Wigan, League Cup 1991). 6 games, all in cups. Played 100 odd lower league games after we let him go. Only played for United in midweek.
John Reed (sub v Wimbledon, league 1992) 15 league games, 17 games total. 2 league goals, 3 total. Played nearly 50 other league games, mostly on loan from us. Often injured.
I’m not going to count Paul Rogers as he had played at a decent non league standard for years before we picked him up (He was in the Sutton team that knocked Coventry out of the FA Cup) for several years.
The Scott brothers (75 league games 7 goals, 87 games 12 goals total for Andy, 6 league games 1 goal, 10 games 1 goal total for Rob) I will give you, as Sutton were a division below the conference when they appeared and they came to us very young. Andy (debut v the Pigs as a sub, 1993) had a purple patch mid 1994-5, played 275 league games after leaving us, and has been very successful in football post retirement. Rob (debut v Piacenza, AIC 1994) played over 300 league games after he left us and managed afterwards. He was not well liked at Grimsby.
Graham Anthony (v Ancona, AIC 1994). Made 3 league sub appearances and 3 cup appearances. Played 70 odd league games after that. I thought he was a little hard done by, as he was decent v Burnley on his league debut.
Mark Blount (v Piacenza, 1994 AIC). 13 league games, 17 appearances total. Came from Gresley Rovers and was not very good. 5 league games after leaving us.
Mark Foran (v Stockport, League Cup 1994) 11 league appearances, one goal, 2 more cup appearances. Millwall trainee who made his league debut for us. Big lad, better than Blount, scored a nice header v Wolves in the memorable 3-3 draw in 1995 but did not build on a few decent appearances that season. Last start was Bassett’s last game. 110 league appearances elsewhere after us.
Ross Davidson (v Udinese, AIC 1994). 2 league and 2 Anglo Italian appearances. Signed from Walton and Hersham. Decent v Grimsby in last game of 1994-5 but wretched v Derby the following season and that was that. 100 or so league games after he left.
Tony Battersby (v Piacenza, AIC 1994) 10 league games, 1 goal, 5 cup games, 1 goal. A disappointment as there was speculation he could be as good as Clive Mendonca. Played 250 league games after leaving us, scored 40 odd goals.
Matt Hawthorne and Matthew Foreman (3 games each) and Sal Bibbo (2) all made their professional debuts in the Anglo Italian Cup after the Udinese fiasco when Bassett was treating it as a reserve competition. Bibbo played a few games for Reading (one against us) a few years later, the other two did nothing of note.
Steve Hawes (sub v WBA, 1995) our youngest ever Football League player on his debut. 4 league games only and another 31 elsewhere.
What is there to say about this lot?
There were two really good players - Mitch and Dane. Andy Scott was decent and he and Hartfield had their moments at a high level. The rest were not good enough or squad filler at best.
Only Mitch Ward played at a higher level than United after leaving us, though a few (Scotts, Lucas, Battersby, Foran, Davidson) had solid lower division careers. With the exception of Ward, who was never as good elsewhere as he was with us anyway, we didn’t really give up on anyone too early.
Ward (750 grand) Battersby (around 150 grand) Foran (40 grand) A Scott (75 grand) Rob Scott (30 grand) and Lucas (40 grand) went for fees.
Not much of a youth crop for nearly 8 years, but Bassett was not really one to promote players from youth level. He used the transfer market, often to good effect, to fill holes.
