JJ Sefton
Live, Laugh, Love
After the excitement of the Cup win the Blades focused on the League for 1899-1900 and they got off to an unbelievable start going on an unbeaten run of 22 league matches equaling Preston’s run in their 1889 double winning season. Everton, one of the top sides in the League, were stuffed 5-0 on the opening day at Bramall Lane. By mid January United had faced every team in the Division at least once and were top of the League, four points clear with a game in hand over second place Aston Villa. The Blades faced Bury on January 20th needing only to avoid defeat to break Preston’s record. Bury went all out to beat United and the score was 1-1 when Fred Priest went off injured. With United down to ten men Bury snatched a winner. Afterwards Foulke said “We’ve not only been beaten; we’ve been badly shaken” and to this day Bury have been known as ‘The Shakers’.
Nevertheless United were still top of the table when they faced Second Division Wednesday in the FA Cup for the first time on February 10th. The recent shift in the fortunes of the two clubs, with Wednesday’s homelessness and relegation and United’s League and Cup winning success, had stoked the already bitter rivalry to fever pitch. The Telegraph noted that “No football match in local history has been so heavily (and heatedly) discussed, or so eagerly awaited”. Wednesday were top of Division Two but experts were still tipping United to win. Despite freezing cold weather a crowd of 32,381 brought in gate receipts of £1,183 but with the score 0-0 the match was abandoned five minutes into the second half due to renewed snowfall.
A week later the match was finally held at the Lane but only thanks to the last minute efforts of volunteers clearing snow from the pitch. The conditions did little to encourage flowing football but neither did the aggressive attitude of the two teams. Early on George Hedley put the ball in the net for United but it was disallowed for handball. After twenty minutes Wednesday took the lead when Brash’s shot beat Foulke. In the second half the ill tempered game degenerated into little better than a punch up when Wednesday’s keeper, Massey, and wing legend Fred Spikesley were injured. Plenty of niggles, digs and hacks followed before John Almond equalised for United with ten minutes left.
The replay, just two days later, was United’s first visit to Owlerton. The Independent was concerned about the bad feeling the previous match had generated and worried that two days was not enough for tempers to calm. The Telegraph echoed this, pleading with both sets of players to “bury the hatchet”. The pleas fell on deaf ears and 23,000 fans witnessed “a disgrace…a game of wild excitement that sadly tarnished the image of Sheffield football”. Wednesday’s centre forward Harry Millar was missing due to an injury from the first game, but after 38 minutes Harry Thickett scythed into his replacement, George Lee, who was carried off with a broken leg. As before football went out of the window as both teams clattered whichever opposing player was closest.
Straight after the break Bennett cut into the penalty area but was hacked down by Langley and Needham put United ahead from the resulting penalty. Twenty minutes from the end John Pryce lunged at George Hedley and both went off, Pryce after a red card, Hedley for treatment. With five minutes to go Langley went after Bennett again and was sent off with Bennett, like Hedley and Lee, leaving the field for treatment. Billy Beer managed to score a second but the Telegraph complained that “Under the circumstances, there was no very great glory attached to the victory, with one goal scored when Wednesday had ten men and the other when they had only eight”. In the next round United were knocked out after a replay by eventual Cup winners and bogey team, Bury.
Wednesday’s move to Owlerton on the north eastern fringes of the city solidified the footballing divisions in Sheffield. As previously discussed, in the early days many football fans had been to see whichever team was at home that weekend but support increasingly took on a geographical character with support broadly divided between almost exclusively Wednesday areas such as Parson Cross, Wadsley Bridge and Hillsborough, and United strongholds in the south and centre of the city, notably Heeley, the Manor and Handsworth. Other factors besides geography have been suggested. The most resilient has been the idea of Wednesday as the city’s artists while United represent the artisans an idea which has been supported by Wednesday’s long history of fiscal incontinence. Even as late as 2003 then Blades manager and life long Unitedite Neil Warnock explained that United
“…are traditionally the city’s underdogs. Most of our fans are from the bread and marge end of the city. Wednesday were posh, with bigger houses and more money. United have always been a bit muck and nettles”
This may have a little more truth in it. The prevailing winds in Sheffield are westerly, blowing in from the west, and so the smoke and soot poured out by the steel works in Attercliffe and Tinsley ended up falling on the east. Thus, Wednesday’s move to the clean and desirable west end with its better off residents brought them better off fans. This idea has stuck, though anyone who has ever walked through Parson Cross may argue with the image of urbane sophistication.
Wednesday’s new home also gave them their nickname; Owls. Until United’s formation, and for some time after, both clubs had been known as ‘Blades’ or ‘Cutlers’ owing to the steel industry. Reporters who wish to differentiate the two teams sometimes used the terms ‘Laneites’ and ‘Groveites’. Eventually United won the monopoly on the Blades moniker.
This partisanship saw football support develop some of the characteristics we now commonly associate with it. Blades fans soon had a terrace song adapted from music hall;
“Now, boys, now, boys, now for a jolly spree,
Ran, san, tiddly-ann, come and have a round with me;
Come and have a round or two, I don’t care what you do,
But I say, clear the way, for the rowdy dowdy boys”
The Cup battles with Wednesday may well have depleted the Blades towards the latter stages of the season but quite simply they were beaten into second place by an Aston Villa side which was back to its unstoppable best. A bright spot was the signing of Bert Lipsham in February. Lipsham came from Crewe and took Fred Priest’s slot at outside left. He was a powerful runner who was capable of shooting with some power and he quickly became a crowd favourite.
The 1900-1901 season was ultimately disappointing for United. They never really got going in the League and finished 14th and even the progress in the Cup proved illusory. The Cup run started against Sunderland on a freezing cold early February morning. Sunderland were second in the table and United were coming off the back of a 4-0 drubbing against Stoke but the Blades showed their trademark inconsistency to beat Sunderland 2-1 with Foulke saving a penalty. They made the trip to Roker Park in the League a week later and were beaten 3-0. The reward was another tie against First Division opponents, this time Everton, but two Walter Bennett goals saw the Blades victorious at Bramall Lane.
It was typical of United’s season that they played Wolverhampton Wanderers in the next round the week after being beaten by Preston and turned in their most impressive display of the season. In a scintillating first half Priest, Hedley and Bennett added to an own goal from Barker to put United four up at half time, a score they held. The Wolves and England goalkeeper, Tom Baddeley, asked afterwards “What chance has a fellow against such forward play as that? We ought to have had two goalkeepers”. In fairness Wolves had their chances, particularly when, at 1-0, they were awarded a penalty which Foulke saved.
Indeed, with two saved penalties in three rounds Foulke had been one of United’s best Cup players that season but all was not well with him. The club was forced to print a statement that
“The attention of the committee has been drawn to the most iniquitous and scandalous treatment of our players by certain sections of the crowd behind the Bramall Lane goal. Their language is most dirty, to say nothing of the bitterness with which they taunt Foulke and Bennett. It has become so warm that today a large staff of detectives has been engaged to catch the delinquents, and it will go hard with the wrongdoers”
The fans were probably infuriated by the teams inconsistency; nevertheless, Foulke was dropped for the first time in December.
If the Blades were to repeat the Cup success of two years previously they were going to have to do it the hard way as their semi final draw was against Aston Villa on April 6th at the City Ground in Nottingham. Prior to kick off United were weakened by the terrible news that Harry Thickett’s wife had died.
Nevertheless United went in front in a thrilling match when Lipsham slammed in a cross which Hedley flicked on perfectly to Priest who blasted the ball in off the underside of the bar. But Villa were not the top side in Britain for nothing and their equaliser was stunning. Garraty picked the ball up from John Devey and went right past Johnson and Beer before firing an unstoppable long range shot past Foulke. United fought back and just before half time Walter Bennett crossed for Fred Lipsham to score but United were unable to keep Villa out and Devey scored a late equaliser to earn a replay.
The Blades spent the week training in Skegness before facing Villa at Derby the following Thursday. United turned in a classy display as two goals from Fred Priest and one from Walter Bennett did away with an Aston Villa side at the top of its game to take the Blades to the final.
Ever popular Skegness was the venue for pre match training with a program of “regular diet, short walks, and being kept together”. Even so, London newspapers were branding the side “A TEAM OF CRIPPLES” which prompted a reply in the match program
“After tea we while away the time, and another visit is paid to the piers, and Foulke throws, and nearly knocks a gull from its perch…The cripples are certainly looking and feeling A1, while Foulke says he could eat the ‘blooming ball’”
The stage was now set for United’s second appearance in the Cup final when they faced Tottenham Hotspur at Crystal Palace in front of a crowd of over 110,000 on April 20th 1901. Spurs were the first professional side from London to reach the final and were technically a non League side but they played in the Southern League which many considered to be as strong as the Football League and contained no player from south of Nottingham. Even so United were favourites.
Early on United justified it, piling pressure on Spurs and just before the 20 minute mark Priest struck a low shot from middle distance which put the Blades in front. Spurs fought back and won a free kick about 20 yards which found Sandy Brown unmarked to equalise. In the second half Spurs came out passing the ball around smoothly and quickly and within five minutes they had taken the lead. Spurs player/manager John Cameron broke down the right and cut his pass back inside to Sandy Brown who turned past Thickett and hit a vicious shot at the underside of the bar. Within two minutes though United had controversially equalised. Lipsham crossed from the left wing and the ball was safely caught by George Clawley, the Tottenham keeper, but Bennett crashed into him and the ball spilled into the goal. One reporter claimed that the ball was “fetched out smartly” by Clawley and hadn’t crossed the line but the referee, Mr. Kingscott, allowed the goal to stand.
“The Tottenham supporters did not let MrKingscott off the hook. They kept up a running commentary that was rustically to the point, on his looks, walk, mannerisms, and parentage”
The match finished 2-2 but for the rest of the game “Every United shot was accompanied by ironic shouts of ‘Goal!’”.
In contrast to the beautiful weather of the first game the replay, held a week later at Bolton’s Burnden Park, was played in gloomy showers. This, coupled with the rebuilding of Bolton station and the refusal of the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Company to offer cheap tickets, led to a disappointing attendance of just 20,000. “All the elaborate police and other arrangements which had been made to control and restrain an expected gathering of at least 50,000 persons went for nothing” one paper complained “…the contingent of local firemen who had brought up their hosepipes in order to play on the mob should it prove unruly were denied any greater pleasure than a free view of the play”. In expectation of vast crowds of hungry fans descending on Bolton local caterers had prepared
“…a mountain of meat pies baked, acres of sandwiches cut and buttered, hundreds of hams roasted and spiced, tons of German sausage, black puddings and saveloys…and sufficient beer to float a line of battleships”
They were disappointed and there was so much unsold food afterwards that the day passed into local legend as ‘Pie Saturday’.
The match was also a damp squib as far as United were concerned. Spurs kept up the pace of their passing and Clawley didn’t have a save to make until 25 minutes were up whilst Foulke was kept busy. Even so, five minutes before the break, United snatched the lead when Needham started a quick move by knocking the ball out wide to Bert Lipsham who zipped his cross in first time to find Fred Priest who stabbed it home. Sadly, in the second half, United collapsed and Tottenham scored three goals, dominating the play in doing so. The Times commenting that “the match on Saturday did honour to both teams. It was the best football seen in the final tie for some time”.
Nevertheless United were still top of the table when they faced Second Division Wednesday in the FA Cup for the first time on February 10th. The recent shift in the fortunes of the two clubs, with Wednesday’s homelessness and relegation and United’s League and Cup winning success, had stoked the already bitter rivalry to fever pitch. The Telegraph noted that “No football match in local history has been so heavily (and heatedly) discussed, or so eagerly awaited”. Wednesday were top of Division Two but experts were still tipping United to win. Despite freezing cold weather a crowd of 32,381 brought in gate receipts of £1,183 but with the score 0-0 the match was abandoned five minutes into the second half due to renewed snowfall.
A week later the match was finally held at the Lane but only thanks to the last minute efforts of volunteers clearing snow from the pitch. The conditions did little to encourage flowing football but neither did the aggressive attitude of the two teams. Early on George Hedley put the ball in the net for United but it was disallowed for handball. After twenty minutes Wednesday took the lead when Brash’s shot beat Foulke. In the second half the ill tempered game degenerated into little better than a punch up when Wednesday’s keeper, Massey, and wing legend Fred Spikesley were injured. Plenty of niggles, digs and hacks followed before John Almond equalised for United with ten minutes left.
The replay, just two days later, was United’s first visit to Owlerton. The Independent was concerned about the bad feeling the previous match had generated and worried that two days was not enough for tempers to calm. The Telegraph echoed this, pleading with both sets of players to “bury the hatchet”. The pleas fell on deaf ears and 23,000 fans witnessed “a disgrace…a game of wild excitement that sadly tarnished the image of Sheffield football”. Wednesday’s centre forward Harry Millar was missing due to an injury from the first game, but after 38 minutes Harry Thickett scythed into his replacement, George Lee, who was carried off with a broken leg. As before football went out of the window as both teams clattered whichever opposing player was closest.
Straight after the break Bennett cut into the penalty area but was hacked down by Langley and Needham put United ahead from the resulting penalty. Twenty minutes from the end John Pryce lunged at George Hedley and both went off, Pryce after a red card, Hedley for treatment. With five minutes to go Langley went after Bennett again and was sent off with Bennett, like Hedley and Lee, leaving the field for treatment. Billy Beer managed to score a second but the Telegraph complained that “Under the circumstances, there was no very great glory attached to the victory, with one goal scored when Wednesday had ten men and the other when they had only eight”. In the next round United were knocked out after a replay by eventual Cup winners and bogey team, Bury.
Wednesday’s move to Owlerton on the north eastern fringes of the city solidified the footballing divisions in Sheffield. As previously discussed, in the early days many football fans had been to see whichever team was at home that weekend but support increasingly took on a geographical character with support broadly divided between almost exclusively Wednesday areas such as Parson Cross, Wadsley Bridge and Hillsborough, and United strongholds in the south and centre of the city, notably Heeley, the Manor and Handsworth. Other factors besides geography have been suggested. The most resilient has been the idea of Wednesday as the city’s artists while United represent the artisans an idea which has been supported by Wednesday’s long history of fiscal incontinence. Even as late as 2003 then Blades manager and life long Unitedite Neil Warnock explained that United
“…are traditionally the city’s underdogs. Most of our fans are from the bread and marge end of the city. Wednesday were posh, with bigger houses and more money. United have always been a bit muck and nettles”
This may have a little more truth in it. The prevailing winds in Sheffield are westerly, blowing in from the west, and so the smoke and soot poured out by the steel works in Attercliffe and Tinsley ended up falling on the east. Thus, Wednesday’s move to the clean and desirable west end with its better off residents brought them better off fans. This idea has stuck, though anyone who has ever walked through Parson Cross may argue with the image of urbane sophistication.
Wednesday’s new home also gave them their nickname; Owls. Until United’s formation, and for some time after, both clubs had been known as ‘Blades’ or ‘Cutlers’ owing to the steel industry. Reporters who wish to differentiate the two teams sometimes used the terms ‘Laneites’ and ‘Groveites’. Eventually United won the monopoly on the Blades moniker.
This partisanship saw football support develop some of the characteristics we now commonly associate with it. Blades fans soon had a terrace song adapted from music hall;
“Now, boys, now, boys, now for a jolly spree,
Ran, san, tiddly-ann, come and have a round with me;
Come and have a round or two, I don’t care what you do,
But I say, clear the way, for the rowdy dowdy boys”
The Cup battles with Wednesday may well have depleted the Blades towards the latter stages of the season but quite simply they were beaten into second place by an Aston Villa side which was back to its unstoppable best. A bright spot was the signing of Bert Lipsham in February. Lipsham came from Crewe and took Fred Priest’s slot at outside left. He was a powerful runner who was capable of shooting with some power and he quickly became a crowd favourite.
The 1900-1901 season was ultimately disappointing for United. They never really got going in the League and finished 14th and even the progress in the Cup proved illusory. The Cup run started against Sunderland on a freezing cold early February morning. Sunderland were second in the table and United were coming off the back of a 4-0 drubbing against Stoke but the Blades showed their trademark inconsistency to beat Sunderland 2-1 with Foulke saving a penalty. They made the trip to Roker Park in the League a week later and were beaten 3-0. The reward was another tie against First Division opponents, this time Everton, but two Walter Bennett goals saw the Blades victorious at Bramall Lane.
It was typical of United’s season that they played Wolverhampton Wanderers in the next round the week after being beaten by Preston and turned in their most impressive display of the season. In a scintillating first half Priest, Hedley and Bennett added to an own goal from Barker to put United four up at half time, a score they held. The Wolves and England goalkeeper, Tom Baddeley, asked afterwards “What chance has a fellow against such forward play as that? We ought to have had two goalkeepers”. In fairness Wolves had their chances, particularly when, at 1-0, they were awarded a penalty which Foulke saved.
Indeed, with two saved penalties in three rounds Foulke had been one of United’s best Cup players that season but all was not well with him. The club was forced to print a statement that
“The attention of the committee has been drawn to the most iniquitous and scandalous treatment of our players by certain sections of the crowd behind the Bramall Lane goal. Their language is most dirty, to say nothing of the bitterness with which they taunt Foulke and Bennett. It has become so warm that today a large staff of detectives has been engaged to catch the delinquents, and it will go hard with the wrongdoers”
The fans were probably infuriated by the teams inconsistency; nevertheless, Foulke was dropped for the first time in December.
If the Blades were to repeat the Cup success of two years previously they were going to have to do it the hard way as their semi final draw was against Aston Villa on April 6th at the City Ground in Nottingham. Prior to kick off United were weakened by the terrible news that Harry Thickett’s wife had died.
Nevertheless United went in front in a thrilling match when Lipsham slammed in a cross which Hedley flicked on perfectly to Priest who blasted the ball in off the underside of the bar. But Villa were not the top side in Britain for nothing and their equaliser was stunning. Garraty picked the ball up from John Devey and went right past Johnson and Beer before firing an unstoppable long range shot past Foulke. United fought back and just before half time Walter Bennett crossed for Fred Lipsham to score but United were unable to keep Villa out and Devey scored a late equaliser to earn a replay.
The Blades spent the week training in Skegness before facing Villa at Derby the following Thursday. United turned in a classy display as two goals from Fred Priest and one from Walter Bennett did away with an Aston Villa side at the top of its game to take the Blades to the final.
Ever popular Skegness was the venue for pre match training with a program of “regular diet, short walks, and being kept together”. Even so, London newspapers were branding the side “A TEAM OF CRIPPLES” which prompted a reply in the match program
“After tea we while away the time, and another visit is paid to the piers, and Foulke throws, and nearly knocks a gull from its perch…The cripples are certainly looking and feeling A1, while Foulke says he could eat the ‘blooming ball’”
The stage was now set for United’s second appearance in the Cup final when they faced Tottenham Hotspur at Crystal Palace in front of a crowd of over 110,000 on April 20th 1901. Spurs were the first professional side from London to reach the final and were technically a non League side but they played in the Southern League which many considered to be as strong as the Football League and contained no player from south of Nottingham. Even so United were favourites.
Early on United justified it, piling pressure on Spurs and just before the 20 minute mark Priest struck a low shot from middle distance which put the Blades in front. Spurs fought back and won a free kick about 20 yards which found Sandy Brown unmarked to equalise. In the second half Spurs came out passing the ball around smoothly and quickly and within five minutes they had taken the lead. Spurs player/manager John Cameron broke down the right and cut his pass back inside to Sandy Brown who turned past Thickett and hit a vicious shot at the underside of the bar. Within two minutes though United had controversially equalised. Lipsham crossed from the left wing and the ball was safely caught by George Clawley, the Tottenham keeper, but Bennett crashed into him and the ball spilled into the goal. One reporter claimed that the ball was “fetched out smartly” by Clawley and hadn’t crossed the line but the referee, Mr. Kingscott, allowed the goal to stand.
“The Tottenham supporters did not let MrKingscott off the hook. They kept up a running commentary that was rustically to the point, on his looks, walk, mannerisms, and parentage”
The match finished 2-2 but for the rest of the game “Every United shot was accompanied by ironic shouts of ‘Goal!’”.
In contrast to the beautiful weather of the first game the replay, held a week later at Bolton’s Burnden Park, was played in gloomy showers. This, coupled with the rebuilding of Bolton station and the refusal of the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Company to offer cheap tickets, led to a disappointing attendance of just 20,000. “All the elaborate police and other arrangements which had been made to control and restrain an expected gathering of at least 50,000 persons went for nothing” one paper complained “…the contingent of local firemen who had brought up their hosepipes in order to play on the mob should it prove unruly were denied any greater pleasure than a free view of the play”. In expectation of vast crowds of hungry fans descending on Bolton local caterers had prepared
“…a mountain of meat pies baked, acres of sandwiches cut and buttered, hundreds of hams roasted and spiced, tons of German sausage, black puddings and saveloys…and sufficient beer to float a line of battleships”
They were disappointed and there was so much unsold food afterwards that the day passed into local legend as ‘Pie Saturday’.
The match was also a damp squib as far as United were concerned. Spurs kept up the pace of their passing and Clawley didn’t have a save to make until 25 minutes were up whilst Foulke was kept busy. Even so, five minutes before the break, United snatched the lead when Needham started a quick move by knocking the ball out wide to Bert Lipsham who zipped his cross in first time to find Fred Priest who stabbed it home. Sadly, in the second half, United collapsed and Tottenham scored three goals, dominating the play in doing so. The Times commenting that “the match on Saturday did honour to both teams. It was the best football seen in the final tie for some time”.
