Tony Kenworthy....on That day

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For people that aren't old enough.

Boxing Day 1979 was their equivilent to our Mark Duffy Bouncing Day.

In the 70's United were the fashionable local team to support. We had much bigger crowds and better players.
We were undisputed top dogs of the city with SWFC a bit of an embarrassment struggling in league 1 with a crap team.
We were relegated to league 1 for the 1st time in our history in 1979 and were seen as the "big team" of that division.
We were top of the league on Boxing Day and most Blades were very confident we'd beat them.
So to lose 4-0 was a massive shock, like an earthquake that had reverbertions on the local scene for many years.

That result was so significant that it was sliding doors situation, after that match top of the league United struggled badly hardly winning another game
where as SW went on a wining run up the league and were promoted that season and it wasn't long before they were back in the top flight.

In more recent years we'd just spent a depressing SIX consecutive years in league 1.
I remember that last game of the season home defeat to Scunthorpe thinking, "we could be another Notts County and spend years in the bottom divisions"
but Wilder came along and saved us. When we played SWFC at Hillsboro on Bouncing Day their fans were so so confident with their big money signings.

However on that day, it wasn't just the 4-2 win at Hillsboro, it was more about the performance where were taught them a footballing lesson.
The scoreline was unjust and actually flattered SWFC. After that match Wednesday fans were walking around in a daze for weeks
where as Blades were waling around with a permenent smile on their faces for weeks.

Wednesday had dominated Sheffield football for a few years but after that match you knew the tide had turned it was Sheff Utd turn to dominate the local scene.
 
Sheffsteel said:
For people that aren't old enough.

Boxing Day 1979 was their equivilent to our Mark Duffy Bouncing Day.

In the 70's United were the fashionable local team to support. We had much bigger crowds and better players.
We were undisputed top dogs of the city with SWFC a bit of an embarrassment struggling in league 1 with a crap team.
We were relegated to league 1 for the 1st time in our history in 1979 and were seen as the "big team" of that division.
We were top of the league on Boxing Day and most Blades were very confident we'd beat them.
So to lose 4-0 was a massive shock, like an earthquake that had reverbertions on the local scene for many years.

That result was so significant that it was sliding doors situation, after that match top of the league United struggled badly hardly winning another game
where as SW went on a wining run up the league and were promoted that season and it wasn't long before they were back in the top flight.

In more recent years we'd just spent a depressing SIX consecutive years in league 1.
I remember that last game of the season home defeat to Scunthorpe thinking, "we could be another Notts County and spend years in the bottom divisions"
but Wilder came along and saved us. When we played SWFC at Hillsboro on Bouncing Day their fans were so so confident with their big money signings.

However on that day, it wasn't just the 4-2 win at Hillsboro, it was more about the performance where were taught them a footballing lesson.
The scoreline was unjust and actually flattered SWFC. After that match Wednesday fans were walking around in a daze for weeks
where as Blades were waling around with a permenent smile on their faces for weeks.

Wednesday had dominated Sheffield football for a few years but after that match you knew the tide had turned it was Sheff Utd turn to dominate the local scene.
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We've heard this "football works in cycles" malarkey for a while now (or at least I have) and you refer above to a sliding doors situation regards the 4-0.

Considering the current situation of both clubs and by that I mean how both clubs are run, the current first team, the academy prospects and even current league positions, do we see another sliding doors moment on the near horizon? The tide turned when Mark Duffy scored. I think it's a heck of a long way back for that tide. Personally speaking of course.

They've been out of the top division for 22 years now. I think that's also a marker for where both clubs are at. Barring our 6 years in league 1, I feel we've always been challenging at the right end of the table.
 
Sheffsteel said:
For people that aren't old enough.

We were top of the league on Boxing Day and most Blades were very confident we'd beat them.
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I wasn't at all confident we'd beat them. Nothing of the sort.

It was my first chance to see a Sheffield derby and at the start of the season I was obviously looking forwards to it. At some point early in the season we went on a great run, and I remember thinking this would be a great time to play them, why do we have to wait till Boxing Day.

Then that run came to a grinding halt - I've always wondered why that was, I wasn't old enough to be following all the details of injuries, transfers etc - and we had a significant dip in form.

We stuttered along for a few matches playing nothing like we had earlier in the season. I didn't expect we'd get beaten 4-0 but a loss was a distinct possibility.

The way I saw it at the time the rot had set in before, and it just continued.

Looking back at the records, we went on a run of winning 9 in 10, then lost 4 in 5, at that point it was pretty clear whatever had gone right earlier in the season, something had now gone wrong. It clearly didn't help, but I'm not sure Boxing Day made that much difference. We had been poor for a while.


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The 5 April return game v the pigs was my first trip to bdtbl - I remember ringing the club and asking for a ticket in the United end. Those fixtures were coming thick and fast weren't they at the end of the season. 3 games in 5 days.
 
Thankfully I was only 7 months old un Boxing Day 1979 but apparently I cried uncontrollably for hours on the day! ;)

Thing is, we put 4 past them at Hillsborough and prior to that neither team had ever scored 4 away in a derby match between the two. 1992 Bobby Davison is still my favourite because we were huge outsiders then, much more so than when we won 4 - 2 with Duffy. They were going on an on how they were going to stuff us only for Bobby Davison and co to do them over well and truly. They almost won the league that season had it not been for us winning twice them so for me that season was the most significant over any other season. Neither team got promoted in the season we won 4 - 2 but as I said it was significant to put four past them.

Anyway no doubt Wednesday will be singing about it today away at Fleetwood Town!
 
Richeee said:
The 5 April return game v the pigs was my first trip to bdtbl - I remember ringing the club and asking for a ticket in the United end. Those fixtures were coming thick and fast weren't they at the end of the season. 3 games in 5 days.
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It was only my 2nd game at BDTBL and 2nd ever, aged 9

I was too busy reading the programme when MacPhail scored and accidentally got smacked in the face by the blade celebrating next to me!
 
My dad before the game "We will win this"

We stood in Leppings Lane corner.

Losing 1-0, he said "We still will win"

Curran scores their second "We will pull back 2-2"

King scores the 3rd goal, I turn round to my dad who then shook his head slowly.

Wendy get a penalty, Smith places the ball on the penalty spot, my dad taps on my shoulder and said "Richardson will save this! Wrong again!
 
Silent Blade said:
My dad before the game "We will win this"

We stood in Leppings Lane corner.

Losing 1-0, he said "We still will win"

Curran scores their second "We will pull back 2-2"

King scores the 3rd goal, I turn round to my dad who then shook his head slowly.

Wendy get a penalty, Smith places the ball on the penalty spot, my dad taps on my shoulder and said "Richardson will save this! Wrong again!
Click to expand...
Is your dad HighfieldBlade - the most positive Blade on here and I love him for it in fairness!
 

Ned the Donkey said:
For completeness - these are the results from the start of the league season. Link here https://www.11v11.com/teams/sheffield-united/tab/matches/season/1980/ in case anyone wants to really immerse themselves in some misery porn.

View attachment 150011
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Interesting read that. I think mine and most people's recollections is that the wheels fell off following Boxing Day, but looking at the results listed, the wheels actually fell off between the Brentford and Millwall games in late October. Does anyone older than me know if there was a major factor such as an injury to a key player?
 
Cheets said:
Interesting read that. I think mine and most people's recollections is that the wheels fell off following Boxing Day, but looking at the results listed, the wheels actually fell off between the Brentford and Millwall games in late October. Does anyone older than me know if there was a major factor such as an injury to a key player?
Click to expand...
I think the reason was that we started off very confident as we thought we were a decent side for that level. Then after a defeat or two, we realised that we were actually total dog shit filled with generally dog shit players.
 
Lane Ender said:
We levelled things up with Bobby Davidson day and Bouncing Day.
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Im afraid I was there in 79 and nothing will ever level that day up was stuff of nightmares and the fact there was nearly 50k there to witness it makes it even worse. The Bobby Davison match was by far n away best away match after leicester I’ve ever been to. The thousands of yellow balloons flags n flares we had with 7.5k blades behind net was some sight
 
SRA76 said:
Im afraid I was there in 79 and nothing will ever level that day up was stuff of nightmares and the fact there was nearly 50k there to witness it makes it even worse. The Bobby Davison match was by far n away best away match after leicester I’ve ever been to. The thousands of yellow balloons flags n flares we had with 7.5k blades behind net was some sight
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More than levelled it up for we’re in credit with those two
 
Lane Ender said:
More than levelled it up for we’r
Lane Ender said:
More than levelled it up for we’re in credit with those two
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I like your way of thinking But unfortunately I was there in 79 and that was pain let me tell you Was even worse than Wembley fa cup semi final which was agony if you remember how you felt after that game. Well Boxing Day was far worse than that. But we’ve had our days in the sun aswell with em Swings n roundabouts as they say
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i was confident on boxing day 79 and was devastated by the result most sheffield derby fixtures were usually sept/oct with return feb/march if we had played em earlier that season we would have beaten em it was a mudbath that day at the sty and suited charltons cloggers much more than our style sabella was so much part of our play that season but once jeff king had booted him 6 foot in the air in the 3rd minute he wasnt seen again he didnt want to know charlton did a number on us that day
 
15,000 Blade Fans on leppings lane for that boxing day match. Richardson had a nightmare that day. Sabella got kicked all over the place the wendy defenders would not have got away with it these days.
 
Cheets said:
Interesting read that. I think mine and most people's recollections is that the wheels fell off following Boxing Day, but looking at the results listed, the wheels actually fell off between the Brentford and Millwall games in late October. Does anyone older than me know if there was a major factor such as an injury to a key player?
Click to expand...

In my view, it is a myth that the wheels fell off following Boxing Day.

As you say, our form had been patchy for a couple of months prior to Boxing Day. Also, after that game we had two very difficult fixtures within a week - against Grimsby and Blackburn (both of whom got promoted). We drew with Grimsby and beat Blackburn. Hardly what you'd expect if the wheels had just come off.

In truth, outside of a good run throughout September and into October our form was pretty patchy all season. And in that run almost all the sides we beat finished either mid table, relegated or close to relegation.

One of our main problems was that we lost the ability to win away. Brentford was our last away win in the season and that was in October.
Poor away results had plagued us for several seasons and continued to do so into the next (relegation) season.
 
Last edited:
yes would agree with you we had a great start and a fantastic september and october in 79 but once we hit november as you say our form was patchy if we had played wednesday in september or october which was the norm for derby games we would have beat em im certain of that but boxing day at hillsborough played on a bog of a pitch suited wednesday and charltons cloggers down to the ground they did to us that day what dave bassetts team used to do to them they bullied us lot of the match illegally and some of united players just shrunk especially alex sabella with jeff king booting him all over the sty having said that if the chance where we hit the crossbar then bolder miraculously saved mcphails follow up had gone in it could have been a completely different result
 
Two turning points of ‘that day ‘ was Speight going off injured & MacPhail ( I think ) shooting straight at Bolder after Bournes chip had come back off the bar when it was 1-0 , Ah we’ll still had Bobby Davison night & Bouncing Day to more than cover that ⚔️
 
dublin 10 blade said:
All in all I went to 35 of those fixtures home and away , some stories from some of those games
I can tell ya
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I went to the lot, Mansfield , Blackpool and Plymouth stand out. Boxing day is the only match I have ever left early. I walked home after their 2nd all the way to Abbeydale with the right kite on.
 
oldblade said:
In my view, it is a myth that the wheels fell off following Boxing Day.

As you say, our form had been patchy for a couple of months prior to Boxing Day. Also, after that game we had two very difficult fixtures within a week - against Grimsby and Blackburn (both of whom got promoted). We drew with Grimsby and beat Blackburn. Hardly what you'd expect if the wheels had just come off.

In truth, outside of a good run throughout September and into October our form was pretty patchy all season. And in that run almost all the sides we beat finished either mid table, relegated or close to relegation.

One of our main problems was that we lost the ability to win away. Brentford was our last away win in the season and that was in October.
Poor away results had plagued us for several seasons and continued to do so into the next (relegation) season.
Click to expand...
Away wins after finishing 6th in 74-5

75-6 2
76-7 5
77-8 3
78-9 2
79-80 5
80-81 2

So 19 out of 138. About 15% win rate. As you say, appalling.
 
sitwell said:
I went to the lot, Mansfield , Blackpool and Plymouth stand out. Boxing day is the only match I have ever left early. I walked home after their 2nd all the way to Abbeydale with the right kite on.
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Me , dad and younger brother both darksiders ,
Got the coach from Felbrig off Norfolk Park because of early kickoff,
Stayed till end , missed coach ( deliberately) then walked into town , before getting 71 home with a few mates / Blades fans , dreading walking through door ,
Enjoy game Daz , surprisingly not father ,
even Aunties when they showed up over Xmas (all Pigs 🐷 ) mentioned game
Imagine Shoutbox with this result 😳😳
 

I've mentioned this before (probably even on this thread) but it's something that will always make me chuckle.

As we all filed out wit' face on, behind us one bloke said to his mate, "We've had to watch THAT, and then we've got our Auntie Doreen coming round this afternoon."
 
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