Sheffield United Match of My Life

Nick Johnson

Description

A dozen Sheffield United legends come together to tell the stories behind their favourite ever games for the club - enabling Blades fans of all ages to relive these magic moments through the eyes and emotions of the men who were there, playing their hearts out for the red-and-white shirt...Tony Currie recalls scoring the goal of his career in a 1975 victory against West Ham; Alan Kelly recounts his penalty shoot-out heroics which secured an FA Cup semi-final place. Dane Whitehouse waxes lyrical about scoring to beat Wednesday at Hillsborough - while Phil Jagielka takes us back to that joyous Bramall Lane afternoon when United beat Hull to set up promotion back to the Premier League. Blades greats Colin Grainger, Len Badger and cult hero Bob Booker also turn in characteristic star performances, winding back the clock to relive treasured memories of the Match of Their Lives for Sheffield United.

Sujets

• Condado de Yorkshire (Reino Unido)
• Yorkshire

Informations

• Publié par: Pitch Publishing Ltd
• Date de parution: 01 septembre 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781909178144
• Langue: English

Extrait

This edition first published by Pitch Publishing 2012
Pitch Publishing A2 Yeoman Gate Yeoman Way Durrington BN13 3QZ www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
© Nick Johnson 2012
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Acknowledgements
IT WOULD NOT have been possible to write this book without the co-operation of the players, past and present, who kindly agreed to be interviewed. I would therefore like to take this opportunity to thank all the interviewees for sparing the time to talk to me and sharing some wonderful memories from their time at Bramall Lane.
I am also grateful to publisher Simon Lowe for inviting me to write this book. Simon’s patience and understanding was much appreciated when the deadline had to be extended following unforeseen delays in arranging the final interviews.
I would like to thank Sheffield United media manager Andy Pack for putting me in touch with a couple of former players and thanks go to long-standing Blades fan Terry Maguire for the loan of various books and programmes.
I also wish to acknowledge the help of staff in the local studies department at Sheffield Central Library as I conducted my research. I was further aided by referring to A Complete Record of Sheffield United Football Club , an excellent book written by Denis Clarebrough and Andrew Kirkham.
Finally, a big thank you to the legendary Derek Dooley for writing the foreword. ‘Legend’ is an overused word in football, but the term is entirely appropriate in Derek’s case and I was delighted when he readily accepted my invitation.
Nick Johnson
Contents
FOREWORD by Derek Dooley MBE
INTRODUCTION
1. COLIN GRAINGER Barnsley 1 Sheffield United 6 League Division Two Saturday 1 September 1956
2. TOMMY HOYLAND West Ham United 0 Sheffield United 3 League Division Two Monday 9 September 1957
3. ALAN HODGKINSON Newcastle United 1 Sheffield United 3 FA Cup sixth round Saturday 4 March 1961
4. LEN BADGER Sheffield United 5 Cardiff City 1 League Division Two Tuesday 27 April 1971
5. TONY CURRIE Sheffield United 3 West Ham United 2 League Division One Saturday 22 March 1975
6. GARY HAMSON Sheffield United 1 Liverpool 0 League Cup second round Monday 28 August 1978
7. TONY KENWORTHY Sheffield United 1 Arsenal 0 League Cup second round first leg Tuesday 7 October 1981
8. KEITH EDWARDS Sheffield United 4 Gillingham 0 League Division Three Saturday 27 August 1983
9. BOB BOOKER Leicester City 2 Sheffield United 5 League Division Two Saturday 5 May 1990
10. DANE WHITEHOUSE Sheffield Wednesday 1 Sheffield United 3 League Division One Wednesday 11 March 1992
11. ALAN KELLY Sheffield United 1 Coventry City 1 FA Cup sixth round replay Tuesday 17 March 1998
12. PHIL JAGIELKA Sheffield United 3 Hull City 2 The Championship Saturday 8 April 2006
Foreword
by Derek Dooley
I KNOW NICK Johnson personally, having been interviewed by him on a number of occasions, so I had no hesitation when he asked me to write the foreword for this book.
Match of My Life brings together accounts of 12 memorable Blades matches over the last half-century, as told by players who featured prominently in those games. From Fifties and Sixties stars Colin Grainger, Alan Hodgkinson and Len Badger, via the likes Tony Currie, Keith Edwards and Alan Kelly, to current favourite Phil Jagielka, this collection of stories will provide readers with a unique account of events that have gone down in Blades folklore.
One of the most memorable days for me personally was the promotion-winning game at Leicester. You couldn’t have written the script for that game.
Unbeknown to Dave Bassett, I’d arranged for the players’ wives to come back to the directors suite at Bramall Lane for a drink after the game. I told everyone not to let Dave know what I’d organised because he’d have crucified me. I was sat in the directors’ box at Leicester and when they scored first, I felt so deflated. But I needn’t have bothered because the players rolled their sleeves up and made it a great day. When we came back up the M1, cars were passing us, with fans tooting their horns. We went back to Bramall Lane and when Dave Bassett got off the coach, he had a few tears in his eyes, as we all did. They’re the sort of days that you savour.
Bob Booker, who gives his account of the Leicester match in this book, thought he was going at the end of that season. But we gave him a new deal and not long afterwards, there was a knock on my door and in walked Bob who said, ‘I just wanted to thank you for giving me another contract.’ That made a welcome change because usually when players knocked on my door, it was to complain that they weren‘t being paid enough!
Before the away game against Wednesday in 1992, Bobby Davison joined us on loan. I’d arranged the loan agreement and we were paying him more than we were paying the others because you basically had to take the player’s contract over. I spoke to fellow director Alan Laver before the game and he asked me whether we could afford the deal. ‘No, not really,’ I replied. Alan expressed doubts about the signing, but after Davison scored two goals, he came up to me and said he’d changed his opinion!
I can clearly recall the tension and drama of another game featured, the FA Cup quarter-final replay against Coventry, which went to a penalty shoot-out. They were brilliant penalties and of course Alan Kelly made some great saves. More recently, it was a tremendous finish to the game against Hull towards the end of last season, picking up three points to virtually seal promotion.
Coming from the other side of the city, I was a little bit apprehensive when I first started working at Bramall Lane in 1974, wondering how Unitedites would react to me. I expected them to be saying, ‘Bloody Wednesdayite’ and things like that, but they were really good and made me feel welcome. I think it’s a bit unique that I’m respected by both sets of supporters in Sheffield and I have to pinch myself sometimes.
I am proud to have been involved with United for over thirty years. After joining the club as commercial manager, I worked my way up to the boardroom, taking on the role of managing director and then chairman. When promotion was secured at the end of last season, I thought it was a fitting time to announce my retirement. We were one of the founder members of the Premier League and it was nice to get back there. Hopefully we can stay there, but I’ve been in football long enough to just accept what happens. I consider myself fortunate to have worked with Dave Bassett for eight years and Neil Warnock for six-and-a-half years. My relationship with both of them certainly helped to make my job easier.
You tend to forget about certain events until you read about them and it’s nice to jog the memory. I am pleased to introduce this book which will provide fans with a reminder of some marvellous moments in the history of Sheffield United.
Derek Dooley MBE
Introduction
WHEN I WAS handed the task of writing this book, several memorable individual contributions immediately sprang to mind. Gary Hamson’s match-winning role in the League Cup win over mighty Liverpool in 1978 was one. Another obvious choice was Alan Kelly for his penalty shoot-out heroics in the FA Cup quarter-final victory against Coventry City. And it was impossible to overlook Tony Currie’s performance against West Ham in 1975, when his ‘quality goal from a quality player’ was thankfully captured by the Match of the Day cameras.
Currie is one of several former players featured who enjoy legendary status at the Lane. TC’s old team-mates, classy full-back Len Badger and long-serving goalkeeper Alan Hodgkinson, would feature in any list of all-time United greats, along with prolific striker Keith Edwards. I should mention that although Len is busy running his own pub, he kindly came over to my local, ‘The Barrack‘ at Apperknowle, where we chatted over a couple of pints. (That plug must be worth a few pints, John!)
With the great Jimmy Hagan now parading his skills on that great football pitch in the sky, two of his former team-mates, Colin Grainger and Tommy Hoyland, share their memories of playing alongside him. Similar glowing tributes are also paid to another Blades legend, Joe Shaw, who was sadly unavailable due to ill-health.
Cult-hero Bob Booker would be the first to acknowledge that he wasn’t blessed with the ability to compare with the likes of Hagan and Shaw, but he is fondly remembered by fans for his admirable battling qualities. I was sorry to learn of his departure from Brighton & Hove Albion just a few weeks after taking time out to meet me on the eve of their game at Nottingham Forest.
No book featuring memorable Blades matches would be complete without an account of a victory over Wednesday. I considered contacting Bobby Davison to talk to him about his remarkable two-goal debut at Hillsborough, but instead decided to interview the scorer of the first goal that night, Dane Whitehouse. Dane’s sheer joy at scoring in that game was still apparent as he described the goal in clear detail.
Born and bred in the Norton area of Sheffield, I started supporting the Blades as a boy. My first full season was the 1981/82 campaign, when United were in the bottom division for the first time in the proud history of the club. The League Cup victory over Arsenal that season was a particularly memorable match for me personally