SHEFFIELD STEEL
The derby rivalry
RICHARD CROOKS REFLECTS ON THE RIVALRY BETWEEN WEDNESDAY AND UNITED…
THE next Sheffield derby is scheduled for Monday, March 4 at 7.45pm - or rather it has been rescheduled to accommodate the requirements of Sky TV who have chosen it for live broadcasting to the nation. It didn’t use to be like that. I’ve not missed a Sheffield derby since my first one in September 1965 – it is the game above all others I must be at. With the derby upcoming, it started me thinking about that first one.
Nine years old and my first visit to Bramall Lane. We lived in the Heeley district of Sheffield in one of the old Victorian terraced houses built for the steelworkers on which the local economy depended at the time. Ten minutes’ walk to the Lane with Dad.
Queue up for the Boys’ turnstile on Shoreham Street – a long queue, Dad quickly though the Adults’ turnstile. Cash only for entry – 6d for me (2.5p), 1s. 0d (5p) for Dad.
Once through, then up the slope that led to the top of the covered Shoreham Street Kop - down below to our right the cricket nets used in the summer when Bramall Lane hosted cricket for the Sheffield United Cricket and Football Club – next season’s county champions Yorkshire played games there.
Indeed, the football ground was three-sided, the fourth side open and leading across the cricket field to the pavilion in the far distance.
We made our way down the terraced steps on the covered Kop – settling for a position just below half-way down and to the right of goal as we looked.
Straight ahead, the covered Bramall Lane terracing which housed predominantly Wednesday supporters, to our right the covered John Street Stand – seats at the back, terrace at the front.
There was no segregation of supporters, mainly United supporters at the home end with some Wednesdayites amongst them – Dad and I included. No evident police presence inside or outside the ground. There was no trouble in the crowd.
And the game? United won – one goal in it, scored in the second-half at our end by Alan Birchenall, the Blades’ blond forward nicknamed “Sherman” (after the tank).
Was it a good goal? Almost by definition, it could not be from a Wednesday- ite’s point of view. All I saw was Birchenall strike the ball in the area and it headed goalwards.
I could not see the ball hit the back of the net. I saw arms waving, bodies jumping, red and white scarves waving, men and young lads shouting and cheering – the self-same with their red and white favours. No doubt United had scored. And the Kop at that point for a young Wednesday supporter is a very lonely place to be.
Lost 1-0. There’s always next season, Dad said.
And so there was – this time I went with a group of lads from our Junior School at Anns Road, the same short walk, each of us wearing our respective colours as we walked to the ground. We thought nothing of it.
And the Unitedites came with us to the predominantly Wednesday supporters end on the Bramall Lane terrace – we walked round the ground in front of the cricket pavilion as you could do then.
If the ground had not been so tightly-packed with spectators, I’m sure that many United and Wednesday supporters would have walked to swap ends to be behind the goal their team was attacking in each half.
The game? Lost 1-0. This time it was the unheralded Bill Punton who scored the winner for the Blades at the Shoreham Street end. Same outcome, same disappointment. And interesting to reflect on something in the
programme for that game – “We have all heard stories of Wednesday fans who refused to eat streaky bacon, and United die-hards who beat their wives if the team failed to do justice to the occasion.”
And the derbies televised? No chance. The only domestic club game televised live was the FA Cup final in the 1960s. Recorded highlights? No. The only way to see what happened was to be there.
In the following years I did see Wednesday win – many times, and United win many times.
The grounds have changed – no cricket at Bramall Lane, it has been a four-sided ground since 1975, games are now all-ticket, strict segregation is enforced, and there’s a high-profile police presence in and outside the grounds.
Nowadays, there is a raw edge to the games, some supporters of both clubs taking the rivalry beyond reasonable boundaries.
The game at Bramall Lane this season was similar to last season – a 0-0 draw yes, but the same oppressive atmosphere for the away supporters contained in the lower tier of the Bramall Lane Stand… the Blades supporters in their red and white favours to the front on the Shoreham Street Kop, to the right and left of us and behind us in the upper tier of the Bramall Lane Stand.
We feel like invaders in a foreign field – in their ground, in our city. The same no doubt applies to Unitedites at Hillsborough – they feel the same isolation and alienation in the ground and in their city.
It did not use to be like this – away supporters are now a small proportion of the all-ticket crowd. Ticket allocation is determined by holding a season ticket or membership at the club and attending games. No more cash on the day at the turnstile. Saturday 3pm kick-off was the traditional day and time for the derby – as with all games. The Sheffield derby has not been party to that tradition since well before the end of the last century. But there is one thing that does not change. It is the derby itself. It is the one game above all others that you want your team to win – to beat THEM. It is the same for supporters of United and Wednesday. The anticipation, the tingling expectation, the adrenaline, the hope, the fear, the tribal belonging, the history, the present. And now the nation can see it live. There is nothing – but nothing – like the Sheffield derby. Richard Crooks is the author of “Wednesday v United, The Sheffield Derby”, published by Pitch Publishing