Your favourite Blades

[itsinyerblood]

Might as well throw my fav's in......defensively, well you need to go a long, long way to see better than McGrath. As for G/K, it has to be Kelly, consistent and reliable, what else do you want from a keeper? In midfield, of course Currie was exceptional and should have played more often for England. I really liked Cowans too, and Speed as well. That's not a sentimental nudge towards Gary, but he brought quality to the team which made so much difference. Don't ask why, I also enjoyed Cockerill when he played for us. Same goes for Hodges. As for forwards, well I can't exclude Woody, simply a quality player we were lucky to have. Deane was a great threat, mostly on his first stay with us. Really enjoyed Colin Morris too.....there are many others I could write about, but that list should do for now.

 

[Paqamaq]

Alan Woodward, Tony Currie, Tony Kenworthy, Bob Hatton, Kieth Edwards, Alan Kelly, Dane Whitehouse, Vas Borbokis, Paul Devlin and Michael Brown. Some very happy memories from that lot.

 

[HillmortonBlade]

Unfortunately I'm just a bit young to have seen Currie and Woodward etc. When I started going, Tony Kenworthy was my favourite. I also liked King Keith, Bob Hatton and also Mike Trusson and Keith Waugh, who seemed to save a lot of penalties and had an unbelievable game v Arsenal in the League Cup.

Later it was Deane. Funnily enough my fondest memory of Deano was not him scoring but a sublime piece of skill which was incredible for a player of his build. FA Cup 4th Round replay v Charlton at the Lane. It was a very wet night with a greasy pitch, Deano chased a high ball heading towards the touchline with a defender right on top of him, in one movement he trapped the ball and spins leaving the defender on his arse and keeps the ball in play right on the touchline.... then puts in a great cross and we all then wished we had another Brian Deane to get on the end of it!

Safest keeper I've seen is Alan Kelly.

My first match. Fond memories.

 

[Lord Bos of Eckington.]

Alan Hodgkinson, Joe Shaw, TC, Len Allchurch, "Doc" Pace, Alan Woodward, Trevor Hockey, Billy Dearden, Brian Deane, Gerry Summers, Geoff Salmons, Mick Jones, "Sherman" Birchenall, Laughing Ted Hemsley, Dave Powell, sure I've missed a few.

Good list of players . Always did like our full backs Badger and Shaw . Thinking back , were they ahead of there time or was it our tactics.

UTB

 

[Cyprus Blade]

Good list of players . Always did like our full backs Badger and Shaw . Thinking back , were they ahead of there time or was it our tactics.

True - I forgot Gilbert Reece as well.

 

[yamyamblade]

Doug Hodgson always brings a smile to my face but for me you can't beat a local lad playing for his club so Whitehouse shades it as my favourite blade

Always liked Browny from the moment we were taking the mick of him as he warmed up as a young lad with City and he had a laugh back with us, shame how he turned out but his goal that Friday night is up there as my favourite...

 

[Fulwood Blade]

mick jones and alan birchenall were my first love

then billy dearden , the quiet assassin

Currie was different gravy more worship

For those of us privileged to have seen Billy Dearden, he was a great player for us - quite, unassuming and a lovely footballer. Very underrated at the time. Think John Harris classed Dearden as his 2nd best signing after TC.

Again, for those privileged to have seen TC - he was just.............different class.

UTB

 

[Wapping Blade]

Bob Hatton and Colin Morris. My late dad's favourite was Mick Jones.

Snap on "Bobby's got his Hat-ton" from when I started going regularly n 1981.

 

[davidpinder]

started watching in 1989 so from then on i'd say Deane, Agana, John Francis (after that brighton game), Bradshaw, Whitehouse, then on to Brown, McCall and BT

 

[Grecian2000]

Anybody who scored for us against the pigs.

and whilst that's an entirely admirable sentiment it does bring this lot to the party who, quite frankly, probably aren't the favourites in their own family!

Mick Hill, Billy Punton, Andy Scott, Bobby Ford, Akinbadbuy and Lauren the Jaffa.

 

[Darren]

and whilst that's an entirely admirable sentiment it does bring this lot to the party who, quite frankly, probably aren't the favourites in their own family!

Mick Hill, Billy Punton, Andy Scott, Bobby Ford, Akinbadbuy and Lauren the Jaffa.

Scott never scored against Wednesday

The roll call since 1961 is (league, FA Cup, League Cup and ZDS only)

A. Birchenall 6
D Pace 5
B. Deane 3
D. Whitehouse 3
R. Davison 2
M. Brown 2
G. Shaw 1
R. Simpson 1
R. Matthewson 1
M. Jones 1
A. Woodward 1
W. Punton 1
M. Hill 1
E. Colquhoun 1
W. Dearden 1
J. Tudor 1
J. MacPhail 1
R. Hatton 1
R. Booker 1
A. Littlejohn1
A. Cork 1
G. Hodges 1
R. Ford 1
L. D'jaffo 1
C. Asaba 1
S. Kabba 1
W. Allison 1
A. Quinn 1
M. Tonge 1
A. Akinbiyi 1
J. Beattie 1
A. Lupoli 1
J. Ward 1
D. Henderson 1
L. Williamson 1
S. Quinn 1
C. Evans 1

 

[Grecian2000]

Bugger me, thought he'd scored when we lost 3-1 at the Sty in the relegation from the Prem season. Thinking about it, did he get brought down when about to score and we scored from a penalty? That would be the third Whitehouse goal as I can see the other 2 quite clearly but not number 3.

PS. Easily replaced by Henderson on my list then, quite liked Scott, couldn't stand the big useless lump (until last season that is).

 

[Hodgyman]

Alan Hodgkinson, Joe Shaw, TC, Len Allchurch, "Doc" Pace, Alan Woodward, Trevor Hockey, Billy Dearden, Brian Deane, Gerry Summers, Geoff Salmons, Mick Jones, "Sherman" Birchenall, Laughing Ted Hemsley, Dave Powell, sure I've missed a few.

I can't argue against any on that list - good shout!
I would have to add Tony Currie and Alan Woodward too

 

[Darren]

Bugger me, thought he'd scored when we lost 3-1 at the Sty in the relegation from the Prem season. Thinking about it, did he get brought down when about to score and we scored from a penalty? That would be the third Whitehouse goal as I can see the other 2 quite clearly but not number 3.

PS. Easily replaced by Henderson on my list then, quite liked Scott, couldn't stand the big useless lump (until last season that is).

That's the one. Not sure how we got the pen, but Whitehouse scored in the last min when we were 3-0 down.

Scott did make his debut v SWFC - as sub on 21/4/93.

 

[HighfieldBlade]

Anybody who scored for us against the pigs.

Remember Bobby (Bobby, Bobby) Da-vis-on's 2 goals against them at their place...think we'd only just got him on loan from Leeds. An instant Blades hero overnight.

 

[Grecian2000]

It's all coming back like a dreadful dream that I'd put to the back of my mind.

At 3-0 Scott broke through and was taken out by Walker (possibly in the area) but didn't get a free kick or anything. A goal, and a sending off, then would have given us a glimpse of hope but the ref bollocksed us up (ten minutes or so from the end).
Penalty was a bit of a sop when the result was in no doubt and might have been a tug on Flo in injury time.

As an aside, who had died in the week previous and got a minutes silence as it wasn't very well observed on the away end, anyone remember?

 

[Mustela Putorius Furo]

First hero/favourite: Dave Powell
superseded by long term favourites: Woodward, Currie, Hockey.
(favourite other club players: Steve Heighway, Frank Worthington with a nod to Clyde Best cos my old man thought he was great)

 

[DiggerBlade]

Tony Currie 100% for me followed by Tony Field who always reminded me of Columbo for some strange reason and Vas Borbokis.

 

[Jan Age]

I really liked Jan's middle name. That extra "a" in Aage gave him a real Nordic mystique.

Hutchison came with a huge reputation as a quality goal-scoring midfielder. Unfortunately he left the quality and goal-scoring at his previous clubs. He was rhubarb for us.

care to comment on the other two?

 

[Silent Blade]

Good list of players . Always did like our full backs Badger and Shaw . Thinking back , were they ahead of there time or was it our tactics.

UTB

My dad didnt rate Bernard Shaw. "Not even half as good as his brother, Graham", he said

 

[Silent Blade]

Absolutely agree about Kelly. He was head and shoulders above Tracey, who was also very good apart from the days his head was not right. .

Disagree, Tracey was the better all round keeper, his kicking was excellent, very good at one to ones, had a great understanding with the defence. Kelly was a good shot stopper but his kicking was poor (especially dealing with back passes) and his understanding with the defence (especially with Roger Nilsen) wasnt good. We have won more matches with Tracey in the team than with Kelly in the team.

My best keepers since 1970

1. Tracey
2. Kelly
3. Kenny

 

[DazBlade88]

Vas Borbokis
Dane Whitehouse
Paul Devlin
Alan Kelly

 

[Lord Bos of Eckington.]

My dad didnt rate Bernard Shaw. "Not even half as good as his brother, Graham", he said

No mention for the other brothers Wagstaff , Fenoughty . Wonder why

UTB

 

[wizadry]

Disagree, Tracey was the better all round keeper, his kicking was excellent, very good at one to ones, had a great understanding with the defence. Kelly was a good shot stopper but his kicking was poor (especially dealing with back passes) and his understanding with the defence (especially with Roger Nilsen) wasnt good. We have won more matches with Tracey in the team than with Kelly in the team.

My best keepers since 1970

1. Tracey
2. Kelly
3. Kenny

My recollection of the two was that Tracey made a lot more errors than Kelly, so on my vague memory alone I'll plump for Kelly. You're right about Kellys' shot stopping though, it was one of the best about at the time.

 

[Silent Blade]

My recollection of the two was that Tracey made a lot more errors than Kelly, so on my vague memory alone I'll plump for Kelly. You're right about Kellys' shot stopping though, it was one of the best about at the time.

Winning more games is more important. Kelly didnt command his area like Tracey did. Tracey's accurate kicking often landed on our strikers heads

 

[coaxingstar71]

My recollection of the two was that Tracey made a lot more errors than Kelly, so on my vague memory alone I'll plump for Kelly. You're right about Kellys' shot stopping though, it was one of the best about at the time.

Without getting into an argument about who was the best out of Tracey and Kelly, one thing you can say is that we had two top class keepers in the squad at the same time. Say what you like about Harry, but he found us some quality keepers very cheaply. Was it £12,500 for Tracey and £150,000 for Kelly? You can also add the late Mel Rees too - another quality keeper and wasn't he free?

 

[Silent Blade]

I did an article for Flashing Blade in agreement with "Handsworth Blade" explaining why I thought Tracey was the better keeper. I will do another analysis and will post it in here. The only time I thought Kelly was the better keeper was during the 1994-95 season when Tracey seemed to have "lost it"

 

[Maidenhead]

Morris and Edwards for me. Plenty of others in the Bassett sides but those two were the big players when I was an impressionable youth. Tony Kenworthy too.

snap, although Currie, Woodward, Sabella and Cockerill were great too

Without getting into an argument about who was the best out of Tracey and Kelly, one thing you can say is that we had two top class keepers in the squad at the same time. Say what you like about Harry, but he found us some quality keepers very cheaply. Was it £12,500 for Tracey and £150,000 for Kelly? You can also add the late Mel Rees too - another quality keeper and wasn't he free?

To this day I'm still not sure which of Tracey and Kelly was the better keeper.

We were incredibly lucky to have them both at the same time.

 

[sitwell]

My Grandad ,2 sons ,daughter and Richard and Neil
Playing wise Reece Edwards and Kenworthy.
Manager Warnock
Forum operators Foxy and Linz
Lacky Rooks
and everyone else who knows me .)

 

[eric_oulthwaite]

I'd have to say Supervas-exciting, top name, always look knackered. I used to love the cry of skin em' vas.
Shaun Murphy- It may be rose tinted specs but always seemed to win headers. Whenever crosses came in, me and my brother would shout " Murphys"
Morgs- Just for being Morgs
Devlin- That brief period when he could be anyone was exciting
Peschi- just loved him, that goal too

Most are from when i was a teenager. I may have seen better players but these stuck with me!