JJ Sefton
Live, Laugh, Love
Early in 1891 a chance encounter in the billiard room of a Southport hotel helped United on the path to the top of the football tree. Charles Stokes overheard two men saying that Preston North End, one of the top sides in the country, were about to release a number of players. The next day Stokes travelled to Preston and agreed to bring inside forward Sammy Dobson, outside left Jack Drummond and centre half Billy Hendry to Bramall Lane.
Hendry was born by the river Tay in Scotland and had previously been at West Brom, Stoke and Preston. Hendry was perhaps United’s first hero with Charles Stokes immediately naming him captain. One journalist wrote that United left him in charge
“both as to the arrangement and formation of the team. The club relied heavily on his ability as a player, as a captain and as an advisor”.
As a player he was highly regarded too “with fine ball control; an artist who headed the ball superbly”, one colleague described him as “the best player Sheffield ever had”. He introduced a style of play which saw long cross field passes used to pull the opposition defence out of shape with fast wingers hitting in a stream of crosses. This tactic was kept up by a succession of United players, Ernest Needham, George Utley and Billy Gillespie, throughout the next 40 years.
United were busy exploring other avenues of finding new players. Centre forward Harry Hammond came from Everton and full back Bob Cain from the other Merseyside club Bootle. Looking locally United managed to find two eighteen year olds who would go on to play a major role in the club’s success in the coming years. Harry Thickett played five games towards the end of the season, but went to Doncaster at the end of the season. Fortunately Ernest Needham was a more permanent addition.
Born in Chesterfield in 1873 ‘Nudger’ Needham had played for the Sheffield Association already and had caught Stones’ eye in the two games United played against Staveley, Needham’s village side, the previous season. United initially played him at outside right but he was soon moved to the left half slot where he would go on to earn the accolade ‘The Prince of Half Backs’. Initially he played alongside Hendry who groomed Needham as his successor. He did an excellent job and Needham would go on to become one of United’s greatest ever players.
Needham earned his famous nick name for his tough style of tackling, leading with the shoulder which was lawful at the time. Needham once said that “It’s no use fiddling about with the ball in midfield in a Cup tie. Take the quickest route to goal and have a pot”.
But there was more to his game than this. At the height of his fame in 1901 Needham published a book called ‘Association Football’. In contrast to today’s lurid football memoirs, Needham’s book was considered look at the tactics of the game and he spoke in favour of the passing game.
“Combination is the soul of the game, and success almost invariably attends it. It pays from the standpoint of the players, and there is nothing which the crowd so much appreciates”
Alfred Gibson, a sports writer of the time, wrote
“There is one thing which has made Earnest Needham stand out of the common run of halves; he is neither a constructive nor a destructive half-back alone; he is both at once. One moment you will see him falling back to the defence of his own goal, or checking the speedy rush of his wing; the next, he is up with his forwards, feeding them to a nicety, and always making the best of every opening. Where he gets his pace from is a mystery. He never seems to be racing, yet he must be moving at racing pace; he never seems to be exhausted, yet in a big game he is practically doing three men's work”
Gibson also paid tribute to Needham’s ball skill.
"This is one of the secrets of his greatness for very seldom when he has the ball is he deprived of it, whilst the accuracy of his wing passes, and the telling force of his punches straight across the field to an unprotected wing, spell danger to any kind of defence."
He was also a top class cricketer representing Derbyshire between 1901 and 1912 scoring 6550 runs in 186 appearances. In 1904 he played in the historic match in Chesterfield when Derbyshire overturned a massive first innings total of 597 to beat Essex.
United attempted to move up the football ladder by applying to join the Football Alliance but they were turned down on the basis that the Alliance would only accept one team from a town and it already had Wednesday, a ridiculous argument as both Birmingham and Manchester had two teams in the Alliance. Certainly Charles Stokes believed that United’s application had been spiked by Wednesday. Either way United had to turn instead to the Northern League.
The games development continued as well. The old system of two umpires on the pitch and a referee on the touchline was replaced by one referee on the field aided by two linesmen. Penalty kicks were also introduced and quickly caused United problems. In a match against Sunderland Albion on September 12th, Albion were awarded a controversial penalty but United still won 4-3. After the game though, the referee had the chance to talk with other officials who agreed that that the penalty should not have been given. The ref was persuaded and took the unprecedented step of revising the final result to 4-2.
Another innovation were goal nets and these caused great amusement for the fans during the Sheffield derby on October 26th at Bramall Lane. Believing that the goalkeepers looked like hens in a hen run the crowd began taunted the goalkeepers with clucking noises throughout the game.
In front of 23,000 Hammond and Dobson scored two each and Tom Brandon, Wednesday’s big money buy from Blackburn, stuck it into his own net. United ran out 5-0 winners but once again crowd trouble flared up. One outbreak was only ended when “the United team leapt the railings” and restored order with the help of 40 police officers. The rivalry between fans of the two clubs had intensified in a remarkably short space of time and R. A. Sparling, who would go on to become the Telegraph’s sports editor, recalled that
“Unfortunately there were feelings in the town akin to human hate and passion. Business relationships were influenced; private friendships shattered and even families divided owing to the claims of jealous football clubs…there was between the partisans of United and Wednesday, jealousy, rancour and uncharitableness”.
United fans celebrated the win by printing spoofs of the then popular funeral cards to commemorate the defeat.
In Loving Remembrance of
the
SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY FOOTBALL TEAM
who were safely put to rest on Monday October 26th
at Bramall Lane
Poor old Wednesday were fairly done,
When United beat them five to none;
Although they lost, they did their best,
So let them quietly take their rest
There was further bad feeling between United and Wednesday when the Wharncliffe Charity Cup Final was abandoned after Wednesday refused to play at Bramall Lane.
The nearest team in the Northern League was Darlington but United had a good season finishing third. As well as the trouncing of Wednesday United beat Darlington 7-1 and South Bank and Stockton 6-0 in the League and the Casuals 7-2 in a friendly. Set against this was the 8-1 trouncing at the hands of Mount St Mary’s, but for the first time United managed to keep such results to a minimum and finished third. Mick Witham and Harry Lilley were impressive enough to become United’s first internationals in March 1892 when they lined up on the same day in separate England sides to face Ireland and Wales respectively. Bolton, whose chairman J.J. Bentley was well disposed towards United, came to the Lane again for “bare expenses” and United continued to show improvement against the League side, beating them 4-3 at home and drawing 3-3 away. Attendances were on the up as well with 10,000 attending the Lincoln game in the F.A. Cup and 8,000 seeing the Stockton match.
For the 1892-1893 season the Football League was to be expanded from 14 to 16 teams and a vote was held to determine who would join. The results were; Wednesday 10, Nottingham Forest 9, Accrington 7, Stoke 6 and Newton Heath 6. United won only 5 votes but shortly afterwards a newspaper reported that they had actually received 7. The United Secretary asked to see the ballot papers but was told they had been burnt. Instead, United were offered a place in a newly created Second Division of the Football League along with the likes of Small Heath, Darwen, Grimsby, Ardwick, Burton Swifts, Northwich Victoria, Bootle, Lincoln, Crewe, Burslem and Walsall. United decided to hedge their bets and accept the Second Division offer and keep a side in the Northern League as well.
United’s first Football League match was against Lincoln City on September 3rd 1892. Lincoln arrived late and the kick off was delayed by thirty five minutes but after only three minutes Jack Hammond scored United’s first. Lincoln quickly equalised but United had a surprisingly comfortable 4-2 win with Hammond completing a hat trick. United recorded a number of impressive League victories this season notably an 8-3 win over Bootle in which Hammond scored five out of his season total of 32.
On December 10th United beat Burslem Port Vale 10-0, to this day the only occasion in League football when double figures have been reached by a visiting team. The Telegraph reported that “the ground was several inches deep in snow and at the opening of the game, snow was falling heavily”. Drummond scored after just two minutes and “No sooner had the game been restarted than the visitors by good passing put on a second, Wallace putting the last touch on the ball. Not to be outdone, Hammond added a third, these three goals being registered in six minutes.”
United were 5-0 up at the interval and added to the tally in the second half, the Telegraph commenting that “the light Burslem men could do nothing at all…The whole of the visiting forwards played a surprisingly fast game on the heavy ground”. After Hammond scored United’s ninth “the spectators loudly called upon the Sheffielders to make the score into double figures” and Hammond soon obliged. The Burslem fans who had stuck it out this far were cheered up when one of their former players, who had “imbibed freely if not wisely”, ran on to the pitch and attempted to assault Howlett. After being ordered off several times Hendry dragged him from the pitch and threw him in a pile of snow. The Telegraph report also referred to United as the “Blades” for the first time.
This sort of form kept United in the chase for a test match which could send them up to the First Division. United won their final home game of the season 2-1 against Ardwick with two goals from Needham, the winner only four minutes from the end. At the final whistle Needham was carried from the pitch by fans celebrating a result which left them second in the table.
It was a difficult run in however, with all four games away from home in order to give the pitch time to recover for the start of the cricket season. The penultimate game of the season was a lively encounter away at Crewe. Hammond was sent off for kicking a Crewe player but the crowd was angry and surged onto the pitch to punish him themselves. They were only persuaded to return to the stands when they were told that Hammond had left the ground. He had had to shin over a wall to escape and met the other United players at Crewe station still wearing his kit. United’s last game was away at bottom side Walsall and a win would have seen them win the Championship. As it was United drew the game and earned a test match against First Division Accrington in which the prize would be top flight football. Birmingham side Small Heath topped the table but were rewarded with a tougher test match against Newton Heath.
The play off was in Nottingham and two special trains were laid on to take the United fans but Accrington is a small place and the club had few fans so the disappointing attendance of 6,000 were mostly Unitedites. Even so the First Division side piled on the pressure throughout the first half and Howlett received an ovation at the break. In the second half United were a bit brighter and ten minutes after the interval Drummond scored the only goal of the game, hitting home a powerful shot after a long run down the left which saw him pass two defenders. Needham later called it the best goal he ever saw and it was certainly one of the most important for Sheffield United as it propelled them into the First Division.
At United’s General Meeting in July it became clear how important the goal was. In the three years since football began at the Lane United had lost £800 and the deficit stood at £1,477. Promotion to the First Division had earned United a stay of execution but the Committee made it clear that the club would “wash its hands of football” if it did not start pulling its financial weight. In the end Ellison lightened the mood, announcing “I am sorry we had anything to do with football…we must go on for a further year”.
Nevertheless United got off to a flyer in Division One in 1893. The first game was away against Everton on September 2nd and United won 3-2. First Division football brought big crowds throughout an unbeaten run which carried them into mid October. 6,500 saw Bolton beaten 4-2 at the Lane with goals from Needham, Gallacher, Fleming and Hill, 10,000 were at the Villa game to see United win 3-0 and Sunderland were beaten 1-0 in front of 14,000. On October 16th Wednesday visited the Lane attracting a huge crowd of 27,000, so many that “most people only had a view of the collar or hat of the man in front…and took their football second hand on the instalment plan”. In a dirty game Wednesday were reduced to ten men for the second half but a 1-1 draw saw United remain top of the table. After this however, United went on a run of three successive League defeats against West Brom, Aston Villa and Derby after which they had dropped to third. United’s League form was sporadic from then on and they finished the season tenth in the table, but Needham had been as impressive as ever and won his first cap in April 1894. Even the F.A. Cup provided little solace as the Blades crashed out in the first round after losing away at Newcastle United.
For the start of the 1894-1895 season United moved to strengthen the side in a bid to avoid a repeat of the poor second half to the previous season and Harry Thickett returned from Doncaster and slotted in alongside new signing Bob Cain in the full back positions. Years later a journalist who remembered Cain described him as “…a bit of human oak. His game was strength personified. He kicked brilliantly without a semblance of effort. He tackled shrewdly and generally fairly”. Thickett was big but deceptively quick and would go on to become a Blades legend. Ernest Needham wrote
“He has more dash and energy than any back I have ever had the pleasure of seeing, and he is one of the speediest. He is always a pillar of strength to his side, while some of the games he has played have been marvellous performances. Perhaps not one of the safest kicks, he, however, soon recovers after a mistake, and no one shows to better advantage when in a difficult corner”
Thickett won a raft of honours with the club and two England caps before leaving in 1904 to become Bristol City manager, taking them to within sniffing distance of the League in 1907 and the Cup final in 1910. In every one of his 299 games for United he played at right back.
Another new signing was the legendary goalkeeper Bill ‘Fatty’ Foulke. He was recommended as a replacement for Howlett by a referee and Harry Stones and Joe Tomlinson travelled to Derbyshire to watch Foulke play for his village side Blackwell in a Derbyshire Cup tie against Ilkeston. They were impressed by his size, 6ft 2 inches, but also by his agility. After the game Stones approached Foulke and offered him “£1 per day and when the season expires we will talk about next year. In the meantime, come and see how you like us at our place”. Foulke agreed and became a United player. 30 minutes later a representative of Nottingham Forest arrived to sign him but was too late.
Born in Shropshire in 1874, Foulke would become a Bramall Lane legend partly by virtue of his skill, but also for his weight which climbed to over 20st in his time at the club. The reason for his mammoth bulk isn’t hard to fathom.
“On one occasion he got into the dining room before the rest of the team and polished off all eleven breakfasts. In response to the remonstrations of his team mates he only replied: ‘I don’t care what you call me, so long as you don’t call me late for lunch’”
As a contrast to the rather staid Needham, the light hearted attitude of Foulke was vital to the morale of the great side which was coming together. “Once when we were very disappointed I begged some black stuff from the engine driver and rubbed it over my face” he remembered in 1913.
“There I was sitting on the table and playing some silly game, with all the team round me, laughing like kiddies at a Punch and Judy show, when some grumpy committeeman looked in. Ask the old team…if a bit of ‘Little Willie’s’ foolery didn’t help to chirp ‘em up before a tough match”
Ernest Needham agreed and, commenting on Foulke years later, said “A merry heart goes a long way on a football field”
Stories abounded of crossbars breaking when he swung on them, doing handstands or grabbing opposing players by their collars and throwing them into his net, each one greeted with wild cheers by United fans. His reputation also made him a target for away fans. The popular chant ‘Who ate all the pies?’ is originally said to have been directed at Foulke and he was often the target for more than abuse, on one occasion “oranges, pipe stems, together with the bowls, and other devotional acts of unkindness”.
His lager than life persona made Foulke one of the early superstars of the game but he was not universally popular. His temper was volatile at times and the Athletic News carried one story about Foulke eating bread and cheese on a train when a clergyman walked in and said sarcastically, “I see you are an epicure”
“Foulke, stunned by the word, regained his speech and answered: ‘Oh am I? Then you’re a ****’”
In the press he was urged to “restrain his inclination to argue with the spectators” and despite being the outstanding goalkeeper of the time Foulke’s antics were too much for the staid gentlemen of the F.A. As the Telegraph put it
“It is a pity that Foulke cannot curb the habit of pulling down the crossbar, which on Saturday ended in his breaking it in two. On form, he is well in the running for international honours, but the Selection Committee are sure to prefer a man who plays the game to one who unnecessarily violates the spirit of the rules”
Bill Foulke won only one England cap, against Wales in 1897, and kept a clean sheet.
Another important addition joined off the pitch with appointment of George Waller as first team trainer, a position he would occupy until 1930. Waller had played for Pitsmoor and Wednesday helping the Olive Grove side to the Cup final in 1890. Needham would go on to pay tribute to Waller saying “I am certain that Sheffield United owe a great deal to their trainer”. Reflecting on the successes that United would soon have Needham wrote “it was nothing but good judgement on his part that put them in a position to win”.
Hendry was born by the river Tay in Scotland and had previously been at West Brom, Stoke and Preston. Hendry was perhaps United’s first hero with Charles Stokes immediately naming him captain. One journalist wrote that United left him in charge
“both as to the arrangement and formation of the team. The club relied heavily on his ability as a player, as a captain and as an advisor”.
As a player he was highly regarded too “with fine ball control; an artist who headed the ball superbly”, one colleague described him as “the best player Sheffield ever had”. He introduced a style of play which saw long cross field passes used to pull the opposition defence out of shape with fast wingers hitting in a stream of crosses. This tactic was kept up by a succession of United players, Ernest Needham, George Utley and Billy Gillespie, throughout the next 40 years.
United were busy exploring other avenues of finding new players. Centre forward Harry Hammond came from Everton and full back Bob Cain from the other Merseyside club Bootle. Looking locally United managed to find two eighteen year olds who would go on to play a major role in the club’s success in the coming years. Harry Thickett played five games towards the end of the season, but went to Doncaster at the end of the season. Fortunately Ernest Needham was a more permanent addition.
Born in Chesterfield in 1873 ‘Nudger’ Needham had played for the Sheffield Association already and had caught Stones’ eye in the two games United played against Staveley, Needham’s village side, the previous season. United initially played him at outside right but he was soon moved to the left half slot where he would go on to earn the accolade ‘The Prince of Half Backs’. Initially he played alongside Hendry who groomed Needham as his successor. He did an excellent job and Needham would go on to become one of United’s greatest ever players.
Needham earned his famous nick name for his tough style of tackling, leading with the shoulder which was lawful at the time. Needham once said that “It’s no use fiddling about with the ball in midfield in a Cup tie. Take the quickest route to goal and have a pot”.
But there was more to his game than this. At the height of his fame in 1901 Needham published a book called ‘Association Football’. In contrast to today’s lurid football memoirs, Needham’s book was considered look at the tactics of the game and he spoke in favour of the passing game.
“Combination is the soul of the game, and success almost invariably attends it. It pays from the standpoint of the players, and there is nothing which the crowd so much appreciates”
Alfred Gibson, a sports writer of the time, wrote
“There is one thing which has made Earnest Needham stand out of the common run of halves; he is neither a constructive nor a destructive half-back alone; he is both at once. One moment you will see him falling back to the defence of his own goal, or checking the speedy rush of his wing; the next, he is up with his forwards, feeding them to a nicety, and always making the best of every opening. Where he gets his pace from is a mystery. He never seems to be racing, yet he must be moving at racing pace; he never seems to be exhausted, yet in a big game he is practically doing three men's work”
Gibson also paid tribute to Needham’s ball skill.
"This is one of the secrets of his greatness for very seldom when he has the ball is he deprived of it, whilst the accuracy of his wing passes, and the telling force of his punches straight across the field to an unprotected wing, spell danger to any kind of defence."
He was also a top class cricketer representing Derbyshire between 1901 and 1912 scoring 6550 runs in 186 appearances. In 1904 he played in the historic match in Chesterfield when Derbyshire overturned a massive first innings total of 597 to beat Essex.
United attempted to move up the football ladder by applying to join the Football Alliance but they were turned down on the basis that the Alliance would only accept one team from a town and it already had Wednesday, a ridiculous argument as both Birmingham and Manchester had two teams in the Alliance. Certainly Charles Stokes believed that United’s application had been spiked by Wednesday. Either way United had to turn instead to the Northern League.
The games development continued as well. The old system of two umpires on the pitch and a referee on the touchline was replaced by one referee on the field aided by two linesmen. Penalty kicks were also introduced and quickly caused United problems. In a match against Sunderland Albion on September 12th, Albion were awarded a controversial penalty but United still won 4-3. After the game though, the referee had the chance to talk with other officials who agreed that that the penalty should not have been given. The ref was persuaded and took the unprecedented step of revising the final result to 4-2.
Another innovation were goal nets and these caused great amusement for the fans during the Sheffield derby on October 26th at Bramall Lane. Believing that the goalkeepers looked like hens in a hen run the crowd began taunted the goalkeepers with clucking noises throughout the game.
In front of 23,000 Hammond and Dobson scored two each and Tom Brandon, Wednesday’s big money buy from Blackburn, stuck it into his own net. United ran out 5-0 winners but once again crowd trouble flared up. One outbreak was only ended when “the United team leapt the railings” and restored order with the help of 40 police officers. The rivalry between fans of the two clubs had intensified in a remarkably short space of time and R. A. Sparling, who would go on to become the Telegraph’s sports editor, recalled that
“Unfortunately there were feelings in the town akin to human hate and passion. Business relationships were influenced; private friendships shattered and even families divided owing to the claims of jealous football clubs…there was between the partisans of United and Wednesday, jealousy, rancour and uncharitableness”.
United fans celebrated the win by printing spoofs of the then popular funeral cards to commemorate the defeat.
In Loving Remembrance of
the
SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY FOOTBALL TEAM
who were safely put to rest on Monday October 26th
at Bramall Lane
Poor old Wednesday were fairly done,
When United beat them five to none;
Although they lost, they did their best,
So let them quietly take their rest
There was further bad feeling between United and Wednesday when the Wharncliffe Charity Cup Final was abandoned after Wednesday refused to play at Bramall Lane.
The nearest team in the Northern League was Darlington but United had a good season finishing third. As well as the trouncing of Wednesday United beat Darlington 7-1 and South Bank and Stockton 6-0 in the League and the Casuals 7-2 in a friendly. Set against this was the 8-1 trouncing at the hands of Mount St Mary’s, but for the first time United managed to keep such results to a minimum and finished third. Mick Witham and Harry Lilley were impressive enough to become United’s first internationals in March 1892 when they lined up on the same day in separate England sides to face Ireland and Wales respectively. Bolton, whose chairman J.J. Bentley was well disposed towards United, came to the Lane again for “bare expenses” and United continued to show improvement against the League side, beating them 4-3 at home and drawing 3-3 away. Attendances were on the up as well with 10,000 attending the Lincoln game in the F.A. Cup and 8,000 seeing the Stockton match.
For the 1892-1893 season the Football League was to be expanded from 14 to 16 teams and a vote was held to determine who would join. The results were; Wednesday 10, Nottingham Forest 9, Accrington 7, Stoke 6 and Newton Heath 6. United won only 5 votes but shortly afterwards a newspaper reported that they had actually received 7. The United Secretary asked to see the ballot papers but was told they had been burnt. Instead, United were offered a place in a newly created Second Division of the Football League along with the likes of Small Heath, Darwen, Grimsby, Ardwick, Burton Swifts, Northwich Victoria, Bootle, Lincoln, Crewe, Burslem and Walsall. United decided to hedge their bets and accept the Second Division offer and keep a side in the Northern League as well.
United’s first Football League match was against Lincoln City on September 3rd 1892. Lincoln arrived late and the kick off was delayed by thirty five minutes but after only three minutes Jack Hammond scored United’s first. Lincoln quickly equalised but United had a surprisingly comfortable 4-2 win with Hammond completing a hat trick. United recorded a number of impressive League victories this season notably an 8-3 win over Bootle in which Hammond scored five out of his season total of 32.
On December 10th United beat Burslem Port Vale 10-0, to this day the only occasion in League football when double figures have been reached by a visiting team. The Telegraph reported that “the ground was several inches deep in snow and at the opening of the game, snow was falling heavily”. Drummond scored after just two minutes and “No sooner had the game been restarted than the visitors by good passing put on a second, Wallace putting the last touch on the ball. Not to be outdone, Hammond added a third, these three goals being registered in six minutes.”
United were 5-0 up at the interval and added to the tally in the second half, the Telegraph commenting that “the light Burslem men could do nothing at all…The whole of the visiting forwards played a surprisingly fast game on the heavy ground”. After Hammond scored United’s ninth “the spectators loudly called upon the Sheffielders to make the score into double figures” and Hammond soon obliged. The Burslem fans who had stuck it out this far were cheered up when one of their former players, who had “imbibed freely if not wisely”, ran on to the pitch and attempted to assault Howlett. After being ordered off several times Hendry dragged him from the pitch and threw him in a pile of snow. The Telegraph report also referred to United as the “Blades” for the first time.
This sort of form kept United in the chase for a test match which could send them up to the First Division. United won their final home game of the season 2-1 against Ardwick with two goals from Needham, the winner only four minutes from the end. At the final whistle Needham was carried from the pitch by fans celebrating a result which left them second in the table.
It was a difficult run in however, with all four games away from home in order to give the pitch time to recover for the start of the cricket season. The penultimate game of the season was a lively encounter away at Crewe. Hammond was sent off for kicking a Crewe player but the crowd was angry and surged onto the pitch to punish him themselves. They were only persuaded to return to the stands when they were told that Hammond had left the ground. He had had to shin over a wall to escape and met the other United players at Crewe station still wearing his kit. United’s last game was away at bottom side Walsall and a win would have seen them win the Championship. As it was United drew the game and earned a test match against First Division Accrington in which the prize would be top flight football. Birmingham side Small Heath topped the table but were rewarded with a tougher test match against Newton Heath.
The play off was in Nottingham and two special trains were laid on to take the United fans but Accrington is a small place and the club had few fans so the disappointing attendance of 6,000 were mostly Unitedites. Even so the First Division side piled on the pressure throughout the first half and Howlett received an ovation at the break. In the second half United were a bit brighter and ten minutes after the interval Drummond scored the only goal of the game, hitting home a powerful shot after a long run down the left which saw him pass two defenders. Needham later called it the best goal he ever saw and it was certainly one of the most important for Sheffield United as it propelled them into the First Division.
At United’s General Meeting in July it became clear how important the goal was. In the three years since football began at the Lane United had lost £800 and the deficit stood at £1,477. Promotion to the First Division had earned United a stay of execution but the Committee made it clear that the club would “wash its hands of football” if it did not start pulling its financial weight. In the end Ellison lightened the mood, announcing “I am sorry we had anything to do with football…we must go on for a further year”.
Nevertheless United got off to a flyer in Division One in 1893. The first game was away against Everton on September 2nd and United won 3-2. First Division football brought big crowds throughout an unbeaten run which carried them into mid October. 6,500 saw Bolton beaten 4-2 at the Lane with goals from Needham, Gallacher, Fleming and Hill, 10,000 were at the Villa game to see United win 3-0 and Sunderland were beaten 1-0 in front of 14,000. On October 16th Wednesday visited the Lane attracting a huge crowd of 27,000, so many that “most people only had a view of the collar or hat of the man in front…and took their football second hand on the instalment plan”. In a dirty game Wednesday were reduced to ten men for the second half but a 1-1 draw saw United remain top of the table. After this however, United went on a run of three successive League defeats against West Brom, Aston Villa and Derby after which they had dropped to third. United’s League form was sporadic from then on and they finished the season tenth in the table, but Needham had been as impressive as ever and won his first cap in April 1894. Even the F.A. Cup provided little solace as the Blades crashed out in the first round after losing away at Newcastle United.
For the start of the 1894-1895 season United moved to strengthen the side in a bid to avoid a repeat of the poor second half to the previous season and Harry Thickett returned from Doncaster and slotted in alongside new signing Bob Cain in the full back positions. Years later a journalist who remembered Cain described him as “…a bit of human oak. His game was strength personified. He kicked brilliantly without a semblance of effort. He tackled shrewdly and generally fairly”. Thickett was big but deceptively quick and would go on to become a Blades legend. Ernest Needham wrote
“He has more dash and energy than any back I have ever had the pleasure of seeing, and he is one of the speediest. He is always a pillar of strength to his side, while some of the games he has played have been marvellous performances. Perhaps not one of the safest kicks, he, however, soon recovers after a mistake, and no one shows to better advantage when in a difficult corner”
Thickett won a raft of honours with the club and two England caps before leaving in 1904 to become Bristol City manager, taking them to within sniffing distance of the League in 1907 and the Cup final in 1910. In every one of his 299 games for United he played at right back.
Another new signing was the legendary goalkeeper Bill ‘Fatty’ Foulke. He was recommended as a replacement for Howlett by a referee and Harry Stones and Joe Tomlinson travelled to Derbyshire to watch Foulke play for his village side Blackwell in a Derbyshire Cup tie against Ilkeston. They were impressed by his size, 6ft 2 inches, but also by his agility. After the game Stones approached Foulke and offered him “£1 per day and when the season expires we will talk about next year. In the meantime, come and see how you like us at our place”. Foulke agreed and became a United player. 30 minutes later a representative of Nottingham Forest arrived to sign him but was too late.
Born in Shropshire in 1874, Foulke would become a Bramall Lane legend partly by virtue of his skill, but also for his weight which climbed to over 20st in his time at the club. The reason for his mammoth bulk isn’t hard to fathom.
“On one occasion he got into the dining room before the rest of the team and polished off all eleven breakfasts. In response to the remonstrations of his team mates he only replied: ‘I don’t care what you call me, so long as you don’t call me late for lunch’”
As a contrast to the rather staid Needham, the light hearted attitude of Foulke was vital to the morale of the great side which was coming together. “Once when we were very disappointed I begged some black stuff from the engine driver and rubbed it over my face” he remembered in 1913.
“There I was sitting on the table and playing some silly game, with all the team round me, laughing like kiddies at a Punch and Judy show, when some grumpy committeeman looked in. Ask the old team…if a bit of ‘Little Willie’s’ foolery didn’t help to chirp ‘em up before a tough match”
Ernest Needham agreed and, commenting on Foulke years later, said “A merry heart goes a long way on a football field”
Stories abounded of crossbars breaking when he swung on them, doing handstands or grabbing opposing players by their collars and throwing them into his net, each one greeted with wild cheers by United fans. His reputation also made him a target for away fans. The popular chant ‘Who ate all the pies?’ is originally said to have been directed at Foulke and he was often the target for more than abuse, on one occasion “oranges, pipe stems, together with the bowls, and other devotional acts of unkindness”.
His lager than life persona made Foulke one of the early superstars of the game but he was not universally popular. His temper was volatile at times and the Athletic News carried one story about Foulke eating bread and cheese on a train when a clergyman walked in and said sarcastically, “I see you are an epicure”
“Foulke, stunned by the word, regained his speech and answered: ‘Oh am I? Then you’re a ****’”
In the press he was urged to “restrain his inclination to argue with the spectators” and despite being the outstanding goalkeeper of the time Foulke’s antics were too much for the staid gentlemen of the F.A. As the Telegraph put it
“It is a pity that Foulke cannot curb the habit of pulling down the crossbar, which on Saturday ended in his breaking it in two. On form, he is well in the running for international honours, but the Selection Committee are sure to prefer a man who plays the game to one who unnecessarily violates the spirit of the rules”
Bill Foulke won only one England cap, against Wales in 1897, and kept a clean sheet.
Another important addition joined off the pitch with appointment of George Waller as first team trainer, a position he would occupy until 1930. Waller had played for Pitsmoor and Wednesday helping the Olive Grove side to the Cup final in 1890. Needham would go on to pay tribute to Waller saying “I am certain that Sheffield United owe a great deal to their trainer”. Reflecting on the successes that United would soon have Needham wrote “it was nothing but good judgement on his part that put them in a position to win”.
