JJ Sefton
Live, Laugh, Love
The strong league performance had been good news financially for the Blades who posted a profit of £1,066. For the coming season they invested £1,390 on a new covered area on the Shoreham Street stand. The decision was also taken to print programmes for home games. The first one stated that the club’s aim for the 1897-1898 season “is to gain the Championship of the League”. They showed this intent by splashing out on Preston centre forward John Cunningham who was brought in to partner Almond up front.
For the first match of the season 2,500 turned out in pouring rain at Bramall Lane to watch United beat a Derby County side including England legend Steve Bloomer 2-1. The scores were level with ten minutes to go, with Bennett scoring for the Blades and Derby having missed a penalty. With time ticking by Almond struck the ball so hard into the Derby goal that it went straight through the netting. The referee waved away United’s appeals and refused to look at the net. Instead he consulted the nearest linesman who was also the Derby trainer. The goal was disallowed. With a few minutes left, Needham struck a free kick from 25 yards. The Derby keeper fumbled it and the ball trickled over the line. Other first day news was mixed. The good news was that Wednesday were hammered 5-2 but the bad news was that it was rivals and League favourites Aston Villa who had done the hammering.
Three days later United were away at Preston. Played in poor weather again United recorded an impressive 3-1 victory with Priest scoring and Walter Bennett netting two. United were awarded a penalty and Bennett was nominated to take it to complete his hat trick but he struck the ball so hard that it burst. He missed the penalty and a hat trick. On September 11th United faced Stoke at Bramall Lane. 10,000 attended this match but were stunned when the Blades found themselves two goals down after five minutes. In a dramatic game Morren and Bennett scored and McKay struck twice. United came away 4-3 winners.
A run of 1-1 draws followed. Away to Nottingham Forest Almond scored United’s goal, and at the Lane Priest scored for the draw against Bury. On the same day Villa had gone into their game against a pointless Blackburn Rovers at the top of the table, the only team to have taken maximum points so far. It came as a shock then when Blackburn ran out 4-3 winners to send the Blades back to the top as the only team still unbeaten. On October 2nd Almond again hit the Blades solitary goal away to Wolverhampton Wanderers with a stunning hook shot ten minutes from the end but Wolves had given United a scare and Foulke had been largely responsible for saving the point.
If United had had trouble scoring at the end of September October got off to a flying start with the Blades hitting ten goals in two games. At home to Blackburn Rovers on the 4th Bennett and Almond were on the score sheet again for United and Needham rounded off the scoring for the Blades with a hat trick, including a penalty and two strikes from distance, to give United a thrilling 5-2 victory. This match was Cunningham’s debut but Mick Witham’s last for the club with Harry Thickett returning. Five days later United hit five past Bury at Gigg Lane in another 5-2 win. Bennett, Almond, Morren, Cunningham and Needham were the scorers. The program suggested that such results may have gone to the players heads.
“We have a lot of fine players – every one of them wanting sugar plums every time they play. Men of that stamp are no good to us”
The 16th saw United away at Olive Grove trying to keep the run going against Wednesday. The program had urged
“Let the keynote of your trumpeting on Saturday next at Olive Grove be Play Up, United! Display your colours prominently and do not strike them whether fortune smiles or frowns”
The Blades were less free scoring in a cagey match in which Foulke again stood out. The match was won for the Blades in the fourth minute by a brilliant cross shot by Bennett who also rattled the bar with a powerful shot after a mazy run from his own half. The attendance of 24,000 brought record gate receipts of £620. The following week Preston were visitors to an injury hit Lane but McKay and Needham, who had been shunted out to the left wing, were the scorers in a 2-1 win. Harry Johnson played his first match and would figure later in the season.
On October 30th United travelled to Merseyside along with a thousand fans to play third place Everton and continued the excellent run with a 4-1 win. Everton took the lead with a goal from Bell, a former Wednesday player, but a goal from Cunningham and two from Almond sent the Blades into the break with a 3-1 lead. Shortly after the restart a long clearance up the field by Foulke found Bennett who “touched it between the backs, and scored a brilliant fourth goal”. The match became bad tempered towards the end as the ex-Wednesdayite Bell had gone out with the intention of nobbling Foulke, or as the Telegraph put it, he played “a fearless and dashing game with apparently one idea and one only, namely that of capsizing Foulke”. As he charged at the United keeper Foulke fell “full length on Bell” As Foulke recalled
“Just as I was reaching for a high ball Bell came at me, and the result of the collision was that we both tumbled down, but it was his bad luck to be underneath, and I could not prevent myself from falling with both knees in his back.
At the time I weighed about twenty-two-and-a-half-stone, and I knew I must have hurt him, but when I saw his face I got about the worst shock I ever have had on a football field. He looked as if he was dead. I picked him up in my arms as tenderly as a baby, and all I could say was ‘Oh dear! Oh dear!’”
A newspaper reported that “the old Wednesday man had to be carried off the field badly shaken. An interruption took place at this point, the referee cautioning the crowd for throwing stones at the United custodian”.
United went on another run of draws following the win at Everton. Away to Derby County McKay scored for the Blades in another game where Foulke was man of the match and in another 1-1 draw Cunningham netted away at Blackburn. The next match, at home to Nottingham Forest on December 4th, saw yet another 1-1 draw with Almond scoring United’s goal. Villa’s four defeats however, including the indignity of losing to Wednesday, meant United were still top and two points clear.
December was a bad month for the Blades with their worst dip in form of the season so far. On the 11th their fourteen match unbeaten start to the League season came to an end with a 2-1 defeat away at Stoke. This ended a five match losing run for Stoke who had gone into the game second from bottom and the Stoke players were carried off on chairs at the end of the game. On the 27th Wednesday visited Bramall Lane looking for revenge. An entertaining match, it set a new attendance record of 37,389 and brought in the blockbusting total of £962. Wednesday pressed hard and United were somewhat fortunate that Earp of Wednesday scored an own goal to level the score at 1-1. Two days later at Bramall Lane, on a pitch described as a “sludge heap”, Liverpool inflicted United’s second league defeat of the season, 2-1, and Villa went top again.
As 1898 dawned Unitedites were wondering if they were about to see more of the same with United getting off to a flying start before tailing off. Although United were only one point behind Villa with two games in hand, two of these were against the League leaders in back to back games. Also, the chase for the title had become much closer. Villa had 24 points to United’s 23, but Wolves and West Brom had 22 points each, Wednesday had 21, and Everton were on 20. New Years Day saw a welcome boost of confidence with a 3-1 win over Notts County at the County Ground which sent the Blades back to the top. The goals came from Bennett and the new man Ralph Gaudie, who scored twice on his league debut to put United top by one point with a game in hand.
Next up was the double header against Villa first at home then away. Villa had yet to play in the New Year and came off the back of three games without a win. Both sides made meticulous preparations, United going to Matlock baths and Villa travelling to the Droitwich baths.
23,587 packed the three sides of the Lane on January 8th for the first match where Walter Bennett “slipped by Evans, evaded Crabtree, and shot with tremendous force into the roof of the net” to secure a crucial 1-0 win for the Blades which put them three points clear at the top with a game in hand.
A week later United travelled to Birmingham for the return leg. A huge crowd of 43,000 witnessed one of the games of the season. “Luck seemed against us early in the game” Needham recalled, “and we soon lost the services of our centre forward (Gaudie), who retired with a broken nose. He did not return till ten minutes from the finish”. Both teams hit the woodwork in the first half, but at half time the score was 0-0. With so much to play for in a virtual title decider it had been a rough game and during the break the United dressing room looked like a hospital ward. Bennett had picked up a limp, Rab Howell had a nasty gash above his eye and Foulke had to “pick the skin off his knees, where it hung in shreds”. United started the second half with ten men.
Early on Villa scored from a penalty but there was controversy when the Blades were only awarded a free kick at the other end although one spectator claimed that “the offence was clearly within the fatal line”. Gaudie returned to the pitch and United pushed forward for the vital equalizer. Eighty minutes were on the clock with Villa still holding a one goal lead when Howell pushed forward and struck a cross into the Villa box. McKay rose and nodded the ball towards the goal. Cunningham had read the move, and as the Villa defenders scrambled back, he slammed the ball into the roof of the net to level the scores.
The crowd was in hysterics for the last ten minutes as both sides went all out for the winner. Wheldon of Villa had a good chance but drew a stunning save from Foulke. “It wanted less than a minute to the end”, an observer said,
“when Gaudie, Priest and Cunningham outmanoeuvred Bowman. He half cleared, but not sufficiently and ere he had a chance of recovering himself, the ball was at Cunningham’s toe, and sped into the net before the crowd had realised the possibility of another goal”.
United had beaten Villa 2-1 but Gaudie collapsed again at the final whistle. Such was the excitement that a woman sitting in the Directors box “who had had the gift of an elaborate box of chocolates before the match, incontinently flung the contents over the Villa committee as she waved the box delightedly at the victorious team”.
United won much praise for their performance. The league’s founder, William McGregor, hailed the Blades “all round excellence. No player”, he said, “unless it be Needham, overshadowing another”. Prior the match one Birmingham paper had branded the United half back line “midgets” but McGregor claimed that they were “unequalled as a trio by any other team in England”. United had now opened up a four point lead and had effectively seen off Villa’s challenge as results from elsewhere saw them slump to fourth. Villa’s neighbours West Brom beat Preston 3-1 to overtake Villa and move into second and Sunderland’s fifth straight victory, 2-1 over Bury, saw them go third. United beat Wolves 2-1 at home with goals from Almond and McKay to keep a five point gap over Sunderland who were now second.
Sheffield United’s F.A Cup exploits that year were a splash of cold water. They were drawn at home against Burslem Port Vale in the first round and Needham’s penalty secured a 1-1 draw. The replay was played in gale force winds and United lost 2-1. The match was a one sided affair in United’s favour, so much so that Foulke wandered up to the half way line to watch the game. Suddenly Port Vale were on the break and Foulke was stranded out of his goal speed not being one of his strengths. Port Vale scored their winner and afterwards Stokes described Foulke’s walkabout as a “tactical error”. United’s goal was scored by Harry Thickett, a popular player who had just recovered from a year out with Typhoid Fever.
Three days after the F.A. Cup defeat United travelled to Anfield looking to avenge the defeat at the Lane in December. They bounced back from the Cup setback and beat Liverpool 4-0 with goals from Cunningham, Johnson and two from Logan. Two days later United were back in Sheffield playing host to Bolton Wanderers. Priest and Bennett scored for the Blades with Logan getting two for the second game in a row in another 4-0 win. A 1-1 draw in a friendly against Southern League side Tottenham Hotspur, in which Morren scored for United, was followed by two disappointing home results with a 1-0 defeat against Notts County and a 0-0 draw with Everton. Things looked worse going into a vital match with second place side Sunderland when United were thrashed 4-1 by Wednesday in a friendly at the Lane with Cunningham scoring the Blades only goal.
The match against Sunderland at their new Roker Park ground on March 5th was a nightmare for United. The north east club went into the match unbeaten in nine games and 30,000 fans arrived, so many that the roof of the wooden shed United were using as a changing room was filled with fans craning for a view of the pitch and, unable to take this weight, the roof collapsed. During the match the spectators pushed up to the touchline and play was stopped four times when the crowd spilled onto the pitch. It was a personal nightmare for defender Rab Howell who turned two innocuous crosses into his own net. It marked the end of his time with club and he only appeared one more time before being packed off to Liverpool to be replaced by Harry Johnson. Bearing in mind Howell’s financial troubles it has been suggested that this might not have been entirely accidental, that was certainly the furious Foulke’s belief. In the end Sunderland were 3-1 victors United’s consolation predictably coming from the boot of Cunningham. With five matches left to play, Sunderland were only three points behind with a game in hand.
United’s title ambitions looked to be stumbling but the 1-0 win over Scottish Champions Celtic at Bramall Lane came as a welcome boost. The Scot Ralph Gaudie scored the winner. It was more grim news two weeks later however when United were beaten 2-0 away by West Bromwich Albion. With Sunderland up next, United had now failed to win in four league games, while the Mackems had stretched their unbeaten run to eleven matches. They were now only one point behind with a game in hand.
April 2nd saw the biggest game of the league season so far when Sunderland came to Bramall Lane looking for the victory which would send them top with two matches left. The game had caused controversy even before a ball had been kicked. This game clashed with a full program of home nation’s football and Needham was away playing for England. However Teddy Doig and Hugh Wilson, two of Sunderland’s star players, had been called up for Scotland but had been refused by the Roker Park club owing to the importance of the Sheffield United match. Though quite within their rights to do this it created a feeling of unsporting behaviour prior to the game.
25,000 crowded into the Lane to watch a tense game between two evenly matched teams with the Championship in their sights. There was little to separate the sides in the first half but in the second United put Sunderland under pressure with “one of the most brilliant expositions of football ever seen”. Another reporter described the match as “a brilliant attack against a brilliant defence” and only an excellent display by Doig in the Sunderland goal kept the scores level. Another Sunderland player who impressed in this match was Peter Boyle, a tough Irish full back who would join United at the end of the season. Fourteen minutes from the end Fred Priest swung a free kick into the box which was half cleared but fell to Johnson who struck through a crowd of players to score the winner. With two games to play United had a two point advantage.
A large travelling contingent swelled the crowd to nearly 20,000 for United’s visit to Bolton on April 8th, Good Friday, while Sunderland were playing just up the road at relegation strugglers Bury. These two matches would decide the title. The day started badly for Sunderland who were reduced to nine men after twenty minutes of play. At Bolton United had problems as well as their forward George Hedley, an amateur, missed the match when his employer refused to release him. This was forgotten when Needham scored a fantastic goal for United, weaving through the Bolton defence and slotting the ball past the Bolton keeper, Sutcliffe, even stopping to ask him “Which side would you have it?” before knocking it in. It was the only goal of the game and when United fans got home they heard that Sunderland had been beaten 1-0 by Bury.
Despite the setbacks of late February and March United had seen off challenges by Aston Villa and then Sunderland to secure the League for the first time and break the Sunderland/Aston Villa stranglehold which had existed since Everton won the League in 1891. Sheffield United were Champions elect of English football.
On the 11th Bennett scored both United’s goals in a 2-0 victory over West Bromwich Albion at Bramall Lane in the last league match of the season. They started this game, true to form, with only ten men as Simpson, their reserve full back, “couldn’t get to the game in time”. United finished the season with 17 wins from 30 to second place Sunderland’s 16. The difference was that United had drawn 8 games while Sunderland had dropped points, particularly in a poor start to the season, drawing only 5 but losing 9 to United’s 5. It must also be noted that that many of the Blades 1-1 draws were kept so by Foulke’s excellent form in goal. Walter Bennett had been the season’s top scorer in the league with 12 goals and Almond was just behind him with nine.
A Wednesday player, Fred Spikesley, claimed that United had invented a new style of football this season with “Long swinging passes from the centre to the outside forwards, and wide passing from the halves, backed up with tremendous dash and strength”. On the 16th Sheffield United turned out to play Celtic at Parkhead in the second leg of the ‘Championship of Great Britain’. Celtic led for much of the game, but in the last minute John Almond scored for the Blades and they were 2-1 winners on aggregate. A banquet in the team’s honour was held in the Cutler’s Hall and the players were rewarded with a medal and a bonus of £3.
There was more good news for United in the close season when it was announced that the Duke of Norfolk was willing to sell the Bramall Lane ground to them for £10,125, far below its true market value. A company was set up to run the ground with the stated intention
“To promote and practise the play of cricket, football, lacrosse, lawn tennis, bowls, bicycling, and tricycling, running, jumping, physical training, and the development of the human frame, and other athletic sports, games and exercises of every description, and any other game, pastime, sport, recreation, amusement or entertainment, but not pigeon shooting, rabbit coursing, or racing for money”.
A loan of £10,000 was taken out at 3% interest and was finally paid back in 1947.
For the first match of the season 2,500 turned out in pouring rain at Bramall Lane to watch United beat a Derby County side including England legend Steve Bloomer 2-1. The scores were level with ten minutes to go, with Bennett scoring for the Blades and Derby having missed a penalty. With time ticking by Almond struck the ball so hard into the Derby goal that it went straight through the netting. The referee waved away United’s appeals and refused to look at the net. Instead he consulted the nearest linesman who was also the Derby trainer. The goal was disallowed. With a few minutes left, Needham struck a free kick from 25 yards. The Derby keeper fumbled it and the ball trickled over the line. Other first day news was mixed. The good news was that Wednesday were hammered 5-2 but the bad news was that it was rivals and League favourites Aston Villa who had done the hammering.
Three days later United were away at Preston. Played in poor weather again United recorded an impressive 3-1 victory with Priest scoring and Walter Bennett netting two. United were awarded a penalty and Bennett was nominated to take it to complete his hat trick but he struck the ball so hard that it burst. He missed the penalty and a hat trick. On September 11th United faced Stoke at Bramall Lane. 10,000 attended this match but were stunned when the Blades found themselves two goals down after five minutes. In a dramatic game Morren and Bennett scored and McKay struck twice. United came away 4-3 winners.
A run of 1-1 draws followed. Away to Nottingham Forest Almond scored United’s goal, and at the Lane Priest scored for the draw against Bury. On the same day Villa had gone into their game against a pointless Blackburn Rovers at the top of the table, the only team to have taken maximum points so far. It came as a shock then when Blackburn ran out 4-3 winners to send the Blades back to the top as the only team still unbeaten. On October 2nd Almond again hit the Blades solitary goal away to Wolverhampton Wanderers with a stunning hook shot ten minutes from the end but Wolves had given United a scare and Foulke had been largely responsible for saving the point.
If United had had trouble scoring at the end of September October got off to a flying start with the Blades hitting ten goals in two games. At home to Blackburn Rovers on the 4th Bennett and Almond were on the score sheet again for United and Needham rounded off the scoring for the Blades with a hat trick, including a penalty and two strikes from distance, to give United a thrilling 5-2 victory. This match was Cunningham’s debut but Mick Witham’s last for the club with Harry Thickett returning. Five days later United hit five past Bury at Gigg Lane in another 5-2 win. Bennett, Almond, Morren, Cunningham and Needham were the scorers. The program suggested that such results may have gone to the players heads.
“We have a lot of fine players – every one of them wanting sugar plums every time they play. Men of that stamp are no good to us”
The 16th saw United away at Olive Grove trying to keep the run going against Wednesday. The program had urged
“Let the keynote of your trumpeting on Saturday next at Olive Grove be Play Up, United! Display your colours prominently and do not strike them whether fortune smiles or frowns”
The Blades were less free scoring in a cagey match in which Foulke again stood out. The match was won for the Blades in the fourth minute by a brilliant cross shot by Bennett who also rattled the bar with a powerful shot after a mazy run from his own half. The attendance of 24,000 brought record gate receipts of £620. The following week Preston were visitors to an injury hit Lane but McKay and Needham, who had been shunted out to the left wing, were the scorers in a 2-1 win. Harry Johnson played his first match and would figure later in the season.
On October 30th United travelled to Merseyside along with a thousand fans to play third place Everton and continued the excellent run with a 4-1 win. Everton took the lead with a goal from Bell, a former Wednesday player, but a goal from Cunningham and two from Almond sent the Blades into the break with a 3-1 lead. Shortly after the restart a long clearance up the field by Foulke found Bennett who “touched it between the backs, and scored a brilliant fourth goal”. The match became bad tempered towards the end as the ex-Wednesdayite Bell had gone out with the intention of nobbling Foulke, or as the Telegraph put it, he played “a fearless and dashing game with apparently one idea and one only, namely that of capsizing Foulke”. As he charged at the United keeper Foulke fell “full length on Bell” As Foulke recalled
“Just as I was reaching for a high ball Bell came at me, and the result of the collision was that we both tumbled down, but it was his bad luck to be underneath, and I could not prevent myself from falling with both knees in his back.
At the time I weighed about twenty-two-and-a-half-stone, and I knew I must have hurt him, but when I saw his face I got about the worst shock I ever have had on a football field. He looked as if he was dead. I picked him up in my arms as tenderly as a baby, and all I could say was ‘Oh dear! Oh dear!’”
A newspaper reported that “the old Wednesday man had to be carried off the field badly shaken. An interruption took place at this point, the referee cautioning the crowd for throwing stones at the United custodian”.
United went on another run of draws following the win at Everton. Away to Derby County McKay scored for the Blades in another game where Foulke was man of the match and in another 1-1 draw Cunningham netted away at Blackburn. The next match, at home to Nottingham Forest on December 4th, saw yet another 1-1 draw with Almond scoring United’s goal. Villa’s four defeats however, including the indignity of losing to Wednesday, meant United were still top and two points clear.
December was a bad month for the Blades with their worst dip in form of the season so far. On the 11th their fourteen match unbeaten start to the League season came to an end with a 2-1 defeat away at Stoke. This ended a five match losing run for Stoke who had gone into the game second from bottom and the Stoke players were carried off on chairs at the end of the game. On the 27th Wednesday visited Bramall Lane looking for revenge. An entertaining match, it set a new attendance record of 37,389 and brought in the blockbusting total of £962. Wednesday pressed hard and United were somewhat fortunate that Earp of Wednesday scored an own goal to level the score at 1-1. Two days later at Bramall Lane, on a pitch described as a “sludge heap”, Liverpool inflicted United’s second league defeat of the season, 2-1, and Villa went top again.
As 1898 dawned Unitedites were wondering if they were about to see more of the same with United getting off to a flying start before tailing off. Although United were only one point behind Villa with two games in hand, two of these were against the League leaders in back to back games. Also, the chase for the title had become much closer. Villa had 24 points to United’s 23, but Wolves and West Brom had 22 points each, Wednesday had 21, and Everton were on 20. New Years Day saw a welcome boost of confidence with a 3-1 win over Notts County at the County Ground which sent the Blades back to the top. The goals came from Bennett and the new man Ralph Gaudie, who scored twice on his league debut to put United top by one point with a game in hand.
Next up was the double header against Villa first at home then away. Villa had yet to play in the New Year and came off the back of three games without a win. Both sides made meticulous preparations, United going to Matlock baths and Villa travelling to the Droitwich baths.
23,587 packed the three sides of the Lane on January 8th for the first match where Walter Bennett “slipped by Evans, evaded Crabtree, and shot with tremendous force into the roof of the net” to secure a crucial 1-0 win for the Blades which put them three points clear at the top with a game in hand.
A week later United travelled to Birmingham for the return leg. A huge crowd of 43,000 witnessed one of the games of the season. “Luck seemed against us early in the game” Needham recalled, “and we soon lost the services of our centre forward (Gaudie), who retired with a broken nose. He did not return till ten minutes from the finish”. Both teams hit the woodwork in the first half, but at half time the score was 0-0. With so much to play for in a virtual title decider it had been a rough game and during the break the United dressing room looked like a hospital ward. Bennett had picked up a limp, Rab Howell had a nasty gash above his eye and Foulke had to “pick the skin off his knees, where it hung in shreds”. United started the second half with ten men.
Early on Villa scored from a penalty but there was controversy when the Blades were only awarded a free kick at the other end although one spectator claimed that “the offence was clearly within the fatal line”. Gaudie returned to the pitch and United pushed forward for the vital equalizer. Eighty minutes were on the clock with Villa still holding a one goal lead when Howell pushed forward and struck a cross into the Villa box. McKay rose and nodded the ball towards the goal. Cunningham had read the move, and as the Villa defenders scrambled back, he slammed the ball into the roof of the net to level the scores.
The crowd was in hysterics for the last ten minutes as both sides went all out for the winner. Wheldon of Villa had a good chance but drew a stunning save from Foulke. “It wanted less than a minute to the end”, an observer said,
“when Gaudie, Priest and Cunningham outmanoeuvred Bowman. He half cleared, but not sufficiently and ere he had a chance of recovering himself, the ball was at Cunningham’s toe, and sped into the net before the crowd had realised the possibility of another goal”.
United had beaten Villa 2-1 but Gaudie collapsed again at the final whistle. Such was the excitement that a woman sitting in the Directors box “who had had the gift of an elaborate box of chocolates before the match, incontinently flung the contents over the Villa committee as she waved the box delightedly at the victorious team”.
United won much praise for their performance. The league’s founder, William McGregor, hailed the Blades “all round excellence. No player”, he said, “unless it be Needham, overshadowing another”. Prior the match one Birmingham paper had branded the United half back line “midgets” but McGregor claimed that they were “unequalled as a trio by any other team in England”. United had now opened up a four point lead and had effectively seen off Villa’s challenge as results from elsewhere saw them slump to fourth. Villa’s neighbours West Brom beat Preston 3-1 to overtake Villa and move into second and Sunderland’s fifth straight victory, 2-1 over Bury, saw them go third. United beat Wolves 2-1 at home with goals from Almond and McKay to keep a five point gap over Sunderland who were now second.
Sheffield United’s F.A Cup exploits that year were a splash of cold water. They were drawn at home against Burslem Port Vale in the first round and Needham’s penalty secured a 1-1 draw. The replay was played in gale force winds and United lost 2-1. The match was a one sided affair in United’s favour, so much so that Foulke wandered up to the half way line to watch the game. Suddenly Port Vale were on the break and Foulke was stranded out of his goal speed not being one of his strengths. Port Vale scored their winner and afterwards Stokes described Foulke’s walkabout as a “tactical error”. United’s goal was scored by Harry Thickett, a popular player who had just recovered from a year out with Typhoid Fever.
Three days after the F.A. Cup defeat United travelled to Anfield looking to avenge the defeat at the Lane in December. They bounced back from the Cup setback and beat Liverpool 4-0 with goals from Cunningham, Johnson and two from Logan. Two days later United were back in Sheffield playing host to Bolton Wanderers. Priest and Bennett scored for the Blades with Logan getting two for the second game in a row in another 4-0 win. A 1-1 draw in a friendly against Southern League side Tottenham Hotspur, in which Morren scored for United, was followed by two disappointing home results with a 1-0 defeat against Notts County and a 0-0 draw with Everton. Things looked worse going into a vital match with second place side Sunderland when United were thrashed 4-1 by Wednesday in a friendly at the Lane with Cunningham scoring the Blades only goal.
The match against Sunderland at their new Roker Park ground on March 5th was a nightmare for United. The north east club went into the match unbeaten in nine games and 30,000 fans arrived, so many that the roof of the wooden shed United were using as a changing room was filled with fans craning for a view of the pitch and, unable to take this weight, the roof collapsed. During the match the spectators pushed up to the touchline and play was stopped four times when the crowd spilled onto the pitch. It was a personal nightmare for defender Rab Howell who turned two innocuous crosses into his own net. It marked the end of his time with club and he only appeared one more time before being packed off to Liverpool to be replaced by Harry Johnson. Bearing in mind Howell’s financial troubles it has been suggested that this might not have been entirely accidental, that was certainly the furious Foulke’s belief. In the end Sunderland were 3-1 victors United’s consolation predictably coming from the boot of Cunningham. With five matches left to play, Sunderland were only three points behind with a game in hand.
United’s title ambitions looked to be stumbling but the 1-0 win over Scottish Champions Celtic at Bramall Lane came as a welcome boost. The Scot Ralph Gaudie scored the winner. It was more grim news two weeks later however when United were beaten 2-0 away by West Bromwich Albion. With Sunderland up next, United had now failed to win in four league games, while the Mackems had stretched their unbeaten run to eleven matches. They were now only one point behind with a game in hand.
April 2nd saw the biggest game of the league season so far when Sunderland came to Bramall Lane looking for the victory which would send them top with two matches left. The game had caused controversy even before a ball had been kicked. This game clashed with a full program of home nation’s football and Needham was away playing for England. However Teddy Doig and Hugh Wilson, two of Sunderland’s star players, had been called up for Scotland but had been refused by the Roker Park club owing to the importance of the Sheffield United match. Though quite within their rights to do this it created a feeling of unsporting behaviour prior to the game.
25,000 crowded into the Lane to watch a tense game between two evenly matched teams with the Championship in their sights. There was little to separate the sides in the first half but in the second United put Sunderland under pressure with “one of the most brilliant expositions of football ever seen”. Another reporter described the match as “a brilliant attack against a brilliant defence” and only an excellent display by Doig in the Sunderland goal kept the scores level. Another Sunderland player who impressed in this match was Peter Boyle, a tough Irish full back who would join United at the end of the season. Fourteen minutes from the end Fred Priest swung a free kick into the box which was half cleared but fell to Johnson who struck through a crowd of players to score the winner. With two games to play United had a two point advantage.
A large travelling contingent swelled the crowd to nearly 20,000 for United’s visit to Bolton on April 8th, Good Friday, while Sunderland were playing just up the road at relegation strugglers Bury. These two matches would decide the title. The day started badly for Sunderland who were reduced to nine men after twenty minutes of play. At Bolton United had problems as well as their forward George Hedley, an amateur, missed the match when his employer refused to release him. This was forgotten when Needham scored a fantastic goal for United, weaving through the Bolton defence and slotting the ball past the Bolton keeper, Sutcliffe, even stopping to ask him “Which side would you have it?” before knocking it in. It was the only goal of the game and when United fans got home they heard that Sunderland had been beaten 1-0 by Bury.
Despite the setbacks of late February and March United had seen off challenges by Aston Villa and then Sunderland to secure the League for the first time and break the Sunderland/Aston Villa stranglehold which had existed since Everton won the League in 1891. Sheffield United were Champions elect of English football.
On the 11th Bennett scored both United’s goals in a 2-0 victory over West Bromwich Albion at Bramall Lane in the last league match of the season. They started this game, true to form, with only ten men as Simpson, their reserve full back, “couldn’t get to the game in time”. United finished the season with 17 wins from 30 to second place Sunderland’s 16. The difference was that United had drawn 8 games while Sunderland had dropped points, particularly in a poor start to the season, drawing only 5 but losing 9 to United’s 5. It must also be noted that that many of the Blades 1-1 draws were kept so by Foulke’s excellent form in goal. Walter Bennett had been the season’s top scorer in the league with 12 goals and Almond was just behind him with nine.
A Wednesday player, Fred Spikesley, claimed that United had invented a new style of football this season with “Long swinging passes from the centre to the outside forwards, and wide passing from the halves, backed up with tremendous dash and strength”. On the 16th Sheffield United turned out to play Celtic at Parkhead in the second leg of the ‘Championship of Great Britain’. Celtic led for much of the game, but in the last minute John Almond scored for the Blades and they were 2-1 winners on aggregate. A banquet in the team’s honour was held in the Cutler’s Hall and the players were rewarded with a medal and a bonus of £3.
There was more good news for United in the close season when it was announced that the Duke of Norfolk was willing to sell the Bramall Lane ground to them for £10,125, far below its true market value. A company was set up to run the ground with the stated intention
“To promote and practise the play of cricket, football, lacrosse, lawn tennis, bowls, bicycling, and tricycling, running, jumping, physical training, and the development of the human frame, and other athletic sports, games and exercises of every description, and any other game, pastime, sport, recreation, amusement or entertainment, but not pigeon shooting, rabbit coursing, or racing for money”.
A loan of £10,000 was taken out at 3% interest and was finally paid back in 1947.
