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Big Bad Billy - a Blades legend.

Cleared a pub (the Cricketers?) of Wendies with a baseball bat single-handed.

Started a ruck in a friendly with a foreign team at the Lane (who was it?) by elbowing the mascara off one of their star defenders.

Responsible for the best-ever Bassett instructions - "Billy, go and cause some bollocks".

George
 

Ray Hankin. Played for my local club Peterborough United who I watched at the time. He turned out for a total of 33 games in which he was sent off 5 times. A right thug who had a touch of class.
 
What was Wally Downes games to card ratio for United?
 
As a previous poster mentioned - Terry Hurlock! Lad I used to work with played for the useful Lincoln side of the early eighties and he said Hurlock scared the shit out of him. Also said Steve Thompson was a nasty barsteward rather than 'hard' but a fellow named Clive Wiggington (Sheffield lad who also played with Grimsby) was a true hardman, quiet but effective like!
Played against Big Bad Billy a couple of times in his pre pro non league days and he was, formidable, to say the least......
 
I remember Simon Tracey's testimonial evening. Gary Sinclair did the karaoke, and Billy properly went for it. By the look of the other ex-players there none of them were either brave enough or drunk enough to even try to take the microphone off him.

As for hardest on the pith, recently it's been Morgs by a country mile. In one match he slid off the pitch after a tackle and took out a pitch-side ad hoarding, putting a hole in it. And remember the time he shrugged Tevez off as you might do a fly?
 
good thread this lads! loved the bassett era for the tough tackling etc as for billy whitehurst id say he was the hardest, he was manager at Frickley Athletic and got a load of abuse 1 particular match from this moaning old git, well Billy must have heard enough when he went and gripped the man by scruff and threatened to shut him up ha ha
 
Birmingham had a proper team of thugs at one time with Tony Coton ,Mark Dennis ,Noel Blake ,Pat van den Hauwe ,Mick Harford,Julian Dicks ,Tarantini and Martin Kuhl amongst others ,maybe the hardest team ever ?
 
cooperblade said:
Reading that book at the moment. Lake goes on to say that Whitehurst took his revenge throughout the match including by sinking his teeth into Lake's shoulder so hard that the blood came through his shirt. He said Whitehurst shook his hand at the end of the game and said 'Well played kid, you're tougher than you look'

On Shearer, yes he had an edge about him but he was also a coward as he showed when he studded Tracey in his chest. Was a disgraceful challenge and a sign of how refs thought about United when he was only booked. Someone told me afterwards that the TV commentator said 'great to see Alan's knee stood up to that' (it was after his bad injury) but Strachan who was the pundit said he should've been sent off.

Bradshaw remains my favourite ever United player to this day and part of that was the way he made Pearce et al look like a bunch of pussycats. Bradshaw was proper Sheffield United to me, scared of no-one, bit of swagger but still a grafter and he could also play. He was our best player by a country mile the season we got relegated from the Prem.
Click to expand...
Which book is this and where can i get it? Thanks.
 
LSF said:
Naw.... Bark was always worse than bite, as his sad pathetic role on Football Heaven sort of bears out...
Mick Fitzpatrick & Roy Young made Brian look a pussy cat ;)
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Me dad played football with brain at i think it was Ball albion or Arthur lees, he just told me a few stories.
 

TAMUS said:
I think our own Mr Cresswell is very hard , he will put his head [eventually ] where most people would not put a foot .
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Yep, he'll run through a brick wall and just dust himself down, well at least once he's popped his shoulder back in. Sometimes the criticism of Cressy winds me up, he never hides and always wants to be in the thick of it. You need players like this even if they don't have the talent, skill or the youth of some players, they can set the tone for the rest of the team.

Cresswell is hard, no denying it, but he's in a different category. Here are my categories:

Out and out hardmen - Whitehurst and Morgs
Hard but with balls the size of coconuts - Bradders, hartfield
Tough men - Cresswell, Brian Gayle
 
Former Everton winger Pat Nevin. I've heard of grown full backs who pulled their own legs off rather than mark Nevin. Even Whitehurst was frightened of Nevin...
 
th

What? This Pat Nevin? Seen here with shamed presenter Angus Deayton??
 
We need a new Morgs or Whitehurst.

I wonder what they'd have made of the Hartlepool and Yeovil performances. They certainly wouldn't let it happen again!

I heard that Blackman wore gloves today. That's be an instant substitution for lack of hardness.
 
GAZBLADE said:
What? This Pat Nevin? Seen here with shamed presenter Angus Deayton??
Click to expand...

No, this one...

Nevin.jpg


He was a Glaswegian and not only that, he was Scottish too. It's a well known fact that Scottish Glaswegians are psychopaths and are usually only employed by bad men who are hell bent on world domination through nefarious means. That Jaws guy from The Spy Who Loved Me grew up on the same estate as Nevin. I think.

I think I read somewhere that during one match at Goodison Park, Tony Cottee was baring down on goal with Nevin unmarked at the far post. Instead of squaring the ball to Nevin for an easy tap in, Cottee tried a speculative shot from an acute angle and put it into the side netting. Nevin was furious and went ballistic. Carrying his fury into the half time break, it's said that he nipped into the sponsors lounge and put 3 or 4 pool balls into a spare sock. He went looking for Cottee and and found him in the toilets where he set about him with his pugil sock, repeatedly hitting him about the head and smashing his face into the sink while shouting "Who's the daddy now..? Who's the daddy now...?" Needless to say, Cottee never came back out for the second half and never played again for the rest of the season. Fortunately for Everton and the manager Colin Harvey, Cottee had been carried off just before half time with a broken leg so they were able to cite that for his non appearance to the unsuspecting media and fans. Only a few people knew what really happened.

Whitehurst? Don't make me laugh....
 
That Graeme Le Saux was a nasty little fucka!
 
Hardest United 11 then:

1. Fatty Foulkes
2. Bradders
3. Joe Bolton
4. Vinnie
5. Morgs
6. Trevor Hockey
7. Hartfield
8. Martin Kuhl
9. Big Bad Billy (Captain)
10. George Santos
11. Dane

I think we need a good ref for this one...!
 
metalblade said:
Vinnie Jones hahahahahaha
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Yeah quite right, there's hard & dirty - two very different things.

Billy is the man - no contest. The Thurnscoe clouter. Billy comes from an adjoing town to me & stories about him are legendary and could (should) fill a book. He played for Mexborough when my mate's dad managed them, I'm glad I didn't have to sub him!
Others that I haven't seen mentioned include Joe Jordan & John Fashanu. Fash is scary man, gives the impression of a calm/posh lunatic. A Hannibal Lecter of the football world.

There are some good shouts on this thread regarding United players: Charlie Hartfield, Bradders & Kammy have rightly been mentioned.
I'm surprised nobody mentioned the Udinese match (Anglo-Italian cup??) at the Lane when Charlie decked (right to the chin) one of the Italians & got a straight red if I remember right. Bassett also followed him off the pitch after a massive "w*nker" gesture to the ref. Great times.........The footballl wasn't the best but that team had characters and battlers.
Off topic, but Bradders also provided a few comic moments: like the time he threw a bucket of water at one Mr Gascoigne in a cup tie against Spurs :). Gazza didn't know if to laugh or cry (again).
 
TAMUS said:
I think our own Mr Cresswell is very hard , he will put his head [eventually ] where most people would not put a foot .
Click to expand...

Seriously? A modern footballer described as "hard"? Cresswell is a diving pussy who's about as hard as a soft lump of shit. Shaking my head at that one, the bloke's never been "hard", just an ugly bastard who looks like he's had a few slaps. too many.
 

I don't think we have had a proper hard man since Chris Morgan.

The hardest player we have had has got to be Billy Whitehurst, but the hardest act I have seen on the pitch is in the relegation game against Wigan when Jon Stead scored and was involved in a sickening collision with the Wigan keeper, got knocked out cold was then when he came round just got up and on with it.
 
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