JJ Sefton
Live, Laugh, Love
Going into the 1924 – 1925 season Blades fans were looking forward to the club pushing on and challenging for honours while Wednesday continued to languish in Division Two. But not all was rosy in the garden. That summer of 1924 33 year old Harold Gough decided to take steps to set himself up in his retirement by buying the Railway Hotel in Castleford. As licensed premises this was anathema to the tee total Charles Clegg who ordered him to get rid of the property. Gough admitted that he had “acted in ignorance” and offered to repay the wages he had received over the summer, but refused to give the hotel up as he wouldn’t actually be living there. The United board dug their heels in and destroyed Gough’s career. In September 1924 Gough was suspended by the FA and October brought the cancellation of his FA registration. The coup de grace was delivered the following August when Gough was told that United were demanding a fee for him of £2,400, enough to put off any potential buyers. Gough’s appeal to the Football League for a reduction was turned down and he was told he could not even re-register as an amateur to play for local clubs. He resumed his career in 1927 when United, their point made, sold him to Oldham for £500.
Coupled with Ernest Blackwell’s final retirement Gough’s banishment left United in desperate goal keeping straights and they were eventually forced to spend £2,400 on Rotherham keeper Charles Sutcliffe. As a young man he had missed sailing on the Titanic’s doomed maiden voyage after catching a cold and the experience may well have affected him as he was remembered as a bag of nerves in goal and he smoked a pipe prior to kick off to calm himself down.
In the event the season itself was something of an anti climax. A poor start saw the Blades win just two games before the second half of November. A few more points had been picked up by the New Year which made relegation unlikely but also put any attempt for the League out of the question. When the first round of the Cup came round United faced the once great Corinthians side, now a shadow of their Victorian prime, and they were duly battered 5-0 with Harry Johnson bagging another four. Their opponents in the next round on January 31st were Sheffield Wednesday facing United in a competitive game for the first time in over five years.
Rain had been bucketing down all week and the Bramall Lane pitch was little more than a swamp. Wednesday began attacking the Shoreham Street end with the wind and rain assisting them and a blistering start saw them two goals up inside ten minutes. Tenacious play by George Wilson won the ball and he found Jimmy Trotter, on a powerful run through the defence, who dodged Leonard Birk’s tackle and slotted past Sutcliffe. Soon after George Green misread a cross which went over him and fell to Trotter again who put the Owls two goals up.
United were in trouble but kept their composure. In the early years of the twentieth century it was United who were seen as the classier footballing side while Wednesday had a reputation as ‘cloggers’. A few years previously, the Telegraph’s correspondent had commented on one derby that “(Wednesday) hustle to some tune, and Saturday put United out of their stride by these tactics”.
With twenty minutes played United clawed a goal back when a Tunstall shot was spooned into the path of Sampy who netted from a few yards. This fired the Blades up and the equaliser came from a lovely bit of football. Pantling passed to Gillespie who gave the slightest flick between his legs into the path of George Green who scored.
The light was fading fast and conditions refused to let up so both teams ditched the half time break and just swapped ends. Wednesday may have regretted this as the Blades snatched what proved to be the winner 90 seconds after the restart. Harry Johnson’s forceful goal bound run was blocked but he threaded the ball through to Tommy Sampy who dragged the ball out wide, swivelled, and cracked a tight angled shot past Jack Brown. The misery continued for Wednesdayites, only Brown’s excellent performance kept the lead to a single goal.
United faced Everton at Bramall Lane in the third round in front of a record crowd of 51,745. The match was won after three minutes when Fred Tunstall reacted quickest to a quick throw in to smash a stunning shot which the Everton keeper got a hand to but couldn’t stop.
The reward was another home tie but against West Brom, one of the top sides in the First Division. The attendance record set the previous round was smashed with 57,197 fans bringing in £3,741. Gillespie, in charge of team tactics in his role as captain, gave a master class in this game, playing West Brom’s man marking against them. Mercer and Tunstall dragged the Baggies half backs out of position and Sampy and Gillespie did the same to the full backs leaving Reid, the West Brom centre half, at the mercy of Harry Johnson. This first half chess match paid off after the interval when Tunstall and Johnson scored to put United in the semi final for the second time in three years. Gillespie won more plaudits, one observer calling him “a football genius, a law unto himself, yet a brilliant individual the essence of whose play is unselfishness. His wonderful powers as a strategist are well known but rarely controlled”.
United had fought their way to the semi final where they faced Southampton at Stamford Bridge in their 100th Cup tie. In what one newspaper branded “One of the worst semi finals ever played” the Saints collapsed and Tom Parker, Southampton’s captain, put through his own net just before the break. As the ball fell for the Southampton keeper, “Sampy and Johnson charged him immediately”, reported the Athletic News, “He lost possession and a tangle ensued. Parker thrust his foot out to intercept Sampy, a potential scorer, but the ball shot from it at a tangent just inside the post”.
Fortunately Parker had a chance to make amends early in the second half when a Pantling handball gave the Saints a penalty but Parker hit it straight at Sutcliffe. Five minutes later
“The ball rolled harmlessly down the Sheffield left. Tunstall followed up but never dreaming of such a gift as came his way. Shelley could have played safety easily. It seemed he was intimidated by Allen coming out. Of a surety Allen’s place was beneath the bar, not the edge of the penalty area. Thereby arose a misunderstanding of which Tunstall was swift to avail himself, by sliding betwixt cross purposes, and trickling the ball into an unguarded goal”.
Going into the Final against Cardiff City Bill Cook was the only link with the 1915 side but Tommy Boyle, son of Cup winner Peter Boyle, was picked at the last minute ahead of the unfortunate Tommy Sampy.
George Waller had taken four United sides to the Cup final and he drew on all his experience in preparing for the game. The United players only arrived at Wembley twenty minutes before kick off and Ernest Milton remembered that
“When we got to the ground, we could see the Cardiff lads were already stripped and waiting, while we didn’t have any time to think or get nervous. Waller said he had never forgotten the mistake Wednesday made when he played for them in the 1890 final and they arrived so early that they were nervous wrecks by the time they went out to play”
The Blades, in front of 91,000 fans, knew that Cardiff would have identified the left side of Green, Gillespie and Tunstall as United’s main threat so, to scupper whatever countering tactics the Welshmen had devised, Gillespie funnelled play down the right for the first part of the game. Suddenly, on 31 minutes, Gillespie finally hit a long pass out wide to the left and caught Wake, the Cardiff right half, by surprise. “Wake was the only player in the vicinity”, according the Daily News, “Tunstall was coming up a dozen yards away. The half back saw the forward’s approach but allowed the ball to roll on, intending possibly to feint and secure a more helpful clearance up the Cardiff right wing”. But as Wake waited for the ball to come onto his stronger right foot, he miscalculated Tunstall’s explosive speed. The Athletic News described how Wake
“…waited one second too long. Tunstall charged up, took the ball off his toe, and had a clear course for goal. He moved forward a few strides and shot the ball a foot or do inside the far post”
With the lead United began to play with more freedom and turned in a wonderful display. According to the Telegraph
“United never let the ball stop. If it was held it was held running. But generally it was swept swiftly from centre to wing, and from one flank like lightning to the other. No sooner had the Cardiff defenders turned in one direction than they must wheel about to meet a shifted peril.
As for the Cardiff forwards – well, ‘tis a plain fact, not to be denied, that you cannot play football without a ball. And the ball was a will o’ the wisp to them. They ran when they saw it. Hey presto! ‘twas gone. It vanished as quickly as the conjurors coin. Some fellow wearing a red and white shirt had flickered for a moment in the vision, and the next thing you knew was that the storm centre of the game was different. The ball had gone far down the field, where the other fellows in red and white shirts were proving ownership”
The Sunday Pictorial affirmed that United “were by far the most enterprising and go ahead team at Wembley yesterday”.
Playing in his only Cup final Gillespie shone. According to the Athletic News
“Never has Gillespie’s generalship been more marked. No player on view trapped the ball so surely, retained it with such good judgement, and exhibited such power and precision in sending it either to the left or right wing or more delicately down the middle. Sheffield United played wonderfully well but special praise is due to Gillespie, the man who waves a wand and whose influence has played such a vital part in United’s capture of the Cup”
Bernard Wilkinson travelled to London with his 1902 winners medal for luck and said that “Sometimes he (Gillespie) was making three Cardiff men go for the ball, with none of them getting it: his tactics were wonderful”.
Unitedites could now have the celebration they had been denied in the dark days of 1915.
“Detonators rang out as the train bringing home the victorious Sheffield United football team steamed into Victoria Station. It was Tuesday, April 28th 1925, and hundreds of thousands of people were assembled in the city streets to give a rousing welcome to their heroes who, three days earlier, had beaten Cardiff City 1-0 in the FA Cup Final at Wembley.
Escorted by mounted police, a procession of coaches carrying the players, their wives, and officials slowly made its way through a city centre emblazoned with the United colours of red and white. On one coach a band played “See the conquering hero comes” but hardly anyone could hear for the deafening applause. Flags fluttered, scarves and hats were waved, and confetti bombarded onto the coaches all the way to the town hall where the team was greeted by the Lord Mayor, Alderman AJ Bailey. Outside the town hall a crowd estimated at 10,000 went wild with delight when United’s captain, Billy Gillespie, raised the FA Cup for all to see. There were special cheers for Fred Tunstall who had clinched victory with the only goal of the match. As the Sheffield Independent said the next morning: “It was a great occasion: it was a great reception – one befitting such an outstanding event”
Coupled with Ernest Blackwell’s final retirement Gough’s banishment left United in desperate goal keeping straights and they were eventually forced to spend £2,400 on Rotherham keeper Charles Sutcliffe. As a young man he had missed sailing on the Titanic’s doomed maiden voyage after catching a cold and the experience may well have affected him as he was remembered as a bag of nerves in goal and he smoked a pipe prior to kick off to calm himself down.
In the event the season itself was something of an anti climax. A poor start saw the Blades win just two games before the second half of November. A few more points had been picked up by the New Year which made relegation unlikely but also put any attempt for the League out of the question. When the first round of the Cup came round United faced the once great Corinthians side, now a shadow of their Victorian prime, and they were duly battered 5-0 with Harry Johnson bagging another four. Their opponents in the next round on January 31st were Sheffield Wednesday facing United in a competitive game for the first time in over five years.
Rain had been bucketing down all week and the Bramall Lane pitch was little more than a swamp. Wednesday began attacking the Shoreham Street end with the wind and rain assisting them and a blistering start saw them two goals up inside ten minutes. Tenacious play by George Wilson won the ball and he found Jimmy Trotter, on a powerful run through the defence, who dodged Leonard Birk’s tackle and slotted past Sutcliffe. Soon after George Green misread a cross which went over him and fell to Trotter again who put the Owls two goals up.
United were in trouble but kept their composure. In the early years of the twentieth century it was United who were seen as the classier footballing side while Wednesday had a reputation as ‘cloggers’. A few years previously, the Telegraph’s correspondent had commented on one derby that “(Wednesday) hustle to some tune, and Saturday put United out of their stride by these tactics”.
With twenty minutes played United clawed a goal back when a Tunstall shot was spooned into the path of Sampy who netted from a few yards. This fired the Blades up and the equaliser came from a lovely bit of football. Pantling passed to Gillespie who gave the slightest flick between his legs into the path of George Green who scored.
The light was fading fast and conditions refused to let up so both teams ditched the half time break and just swapped ends. Wednesday may have regretted this as the Blades snatched what proved to be the winner 90 seconds after the restart. Harry Johnson’s forceful goal bound run was blocked but he threaded the ball through to Tommy Sampy who dragged the ball out wide, swivelled, and cracked a tight angled shot past Jack Brown. The misery continued for Wednesdayites, only Brown’s excellent performance kept the lead to a single goal.
United faced Everton at Bramall Lane in the third round in front of a record crowd of 51,745. The match was won after three minutes when Fred Tunstall reacted quickest to a quick throw in to smash a stunning shot which the Everton keeper got a hand to but couldn’t stop.
The reward was another home tie but against West Brom, one of the top sides in the First Division. The attendance record set the previous round was smashed with 57,197 fans bringing in £3,741. Gillespie, in charge of team tactics in his role as captain, gave a master class in this game, playing West Brom’s man marking against them. Mercer and Tunstall dragged the Baggies half backs out of position and Sampy and Gillespie did the same to the full backs leaving Reid, the West Brom centre half, at the mercy of Harry Johnson. This first half chess match paid off after the interval when Tunstall and Johnson scored to put United in the semi final for the second time in three years. Gillespie won more plaudits, one observer calling him “a football genius, a law unto himself, yet a brilliant individual the essence of whose play is unselfishness. His wonderful powers as a strategist are well known but rarely controlled”.
United had fought their way to the semi final where they faced Southampton at Stamford Bridge in their 100th Cup tie. In what one newspaper branded “One of the worst semi finals ever played” the Saints collapsed and Tom Parker, Southampton’s captain, put through his own net just before the break. As the ball fell for the Southampton keeper, “Sampy and Johnson charged him immediately”, reported the Athletic News, “He lost possession and a tangle ensued. Parker thrust his foot out to intercept Sampy, a potential scorer, but the ball shot from it at a tangent just inside the post”.
Fortunately Parker had a chance to make amends early in the second half when a Pantling handball gave the Saints a penalty but Parker hit it straight at Sutcliffe. Five minutes later
“The ball rolled harmlessly down the Sheffield left. Tunstall followed up but never dreaming of such a gift as came his way. Shelley could have played safety easily. It seemed he was intimidated by Allen coming out. Of a surety Allen’s place was beneath the bar, not the edge of the penalty area. Thereby arose a misunderstanding of which Tunstall was swift to avail himself, by sliding betwixt cross purposes, and trickling the ball into an unguarded goal”.
Going into the Final against Cardiff City Bill Cook was the only link with the 1915 side but Tommy Boyle, son of Cup winner Peter Boyle, was picked at the last minute ahead of the unfortunate Tommy Sampy.
George Waller had taken four United sides to the Cup final and he drew on all his experience in preparing for the game. The United players only arrived at Wembley twenty minutes before kick off and Ernest Milton remembered that
“When we got to the ground, we could see the Cardiff lads were already stripped and waiting, while we didn’t have any time to think or get nervous. Waller said he had never forgotten the mistake Wednesday made when he played for them in the 1890 final and they arrived so early that they were nervous wrecks by the time they went out to play”
The Blades, in front of 91,000 fans, knew that Cardiff would have identified the left side of Green, Gillespie and Tunstall as United’s main threat so, to scupper whatever countering tactics the Welshmen had devised, Gillespie funnelled play down the right for the first part of the game. Suddenly, on 31 minutes, Gillespie finally hit a long pass out wide to the left and caught Wake, the Cardiff right half, by surprise. “Wake was the only player in the vicinity”, according the Daily News, “Tunstall was coming up a dozen yards away. The half back saw the forward’s approach but allowed the ball to roll on, intending possibly to feint and secure a more helpful clearance up the Cardiff right wing”. But as Wake waited for the ball to come onto his stronger right foot, he miscalculated Tunstall’s explosive speed. The Athletic News described how Wake
“…waited one second too long. Tunstall charged up, took the ball off his toe, and had a clear course for goal. He moved forward a few strides and shot the ball a foot or do inside the far post”
With the lead United began to play with more freedom and turned in a wonderful display. According to the Telegraph
“United never let the ball stop. If it was held it was held running. But generally it was swept swiftly from centre to wing, and from one flank like lightning to the other. No sooner had the Cardiff defenders turned in one direction than they must wheel about to meet a shifted peril.
As for the Cardiff forwards – well, ‘tis a plain fact, not to be denied, that you cannot play football without a ball. And the ball was a will o’ the wisp to them. They ran when they saw it. Hey presto! ‘twas gone. It vanished as quickly as the conjurors coin. Some fellow wearing a red and white shirt had flickered for a moment in the vision, and the next thing you knew was that the storm centre of the game was different. The ball had gone far down the field, where the other fellows in red and white shirts were proving ownership”
The Sunday Pictorial affirmed that United “were by far the most enterprising and go ahead team at Wembley yesterday”.
Playing in his only Cup final Gillespie shone. According to the Athletic News
“Never has Gillespie’s generalship been more marked. No player on view trapped the ball so surely, retained it with such good judgement, and exhibited such power and precision in sending it either to the left or right wing or more delicately down the middle. Sheffield United played wonderfully well but special praise is due to Gillespie, the man who waves a wand and whose influence has played such a vital part in United’s capture of the Cup”
Bernard Wilkinson travelled to London with his 1902 winners medal for luck and said that “Sometimes he (Gillespie) was making three Cardiff men go for the ball, with none of them getting it: his tactics were wonderful”.
Unitedites could now have the celebration they had been denied in the dark days of 1915.
“Detonators rang out as the train bringing home the victorious Sheffield United football team steamed into Victoria Station. It was Tuesday, April 28th 1925, and hundreds of thousands of people were assembled in the city streets to give a rousing welcome to their heroes who, three days earlier, had beaten Cardiff City 1-0 in the FA Cup Final at Wembley.
Escorted by mounted police, a procession of coaches carrying the players, their wives, and officials slowly made its way through a city centre emblazoned with the United colours of red and white. On one coach a band played “See the conquering hero comes” but hardly anyone could hear for the deafening applause. Flags fluttered, scarves and hats were waved, and confetti bombarded onto the coaches all the way to the town hall where the team was greeted by the Lord Mayor, Alderman AJ Bailey. Outside the town hall a crowd estimated at 10,000 went wild with delight when United’s captain, Billy Gillespie, raised the FA Cup for all to see. There were special cheers for Fred Tunstall who had clinched victory with the only goal of the match. As the Sheffield Independent said the next morning: “It was a great occasion: it was a great reception – one befitting such an outstanding event”
