Richard Crooks - Wednesday v United: The Sheffield Derby

First published by Pitch Publishing, 2018

Pitch Publishing

A2 Yeoman Gate

Yeoman Way

Durrington

BN13 3QZ

www.pitchpublishing.co.uk

Richard Crooks, 2018

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Print ISBN 978-1-78531-430-8

eBook ISBN 978-1-78531-484-1

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In memory of Dad Norman Lewis
Crooks who started the whole
interest in football and the Sheffield
derby for me.

M Y GRATEFUL appreciation to Jennifer Ann Wiles for her continued support in the writing of the book her thoughts, comments and suggestions have been unerringly helpful.

Thank you to Mike Firth at My Kind of Town magazine for his material and memories of the 1993 FA Cup semi-final.

To Jim McCalliog, thank you for the time you gave me to talk about Sheffield and the 1960s, and the derby.

To Richard Letts and John Brodie, thank you for providing me with copies of archive material that have been very useful.

Thank you to Clive Nicholson and John Higginbotham for permission to use their photos in the book.

The use of the Olive Grove derby image is Courtesy of the Don Dickinson Collection.

For the design of the cover thank you to Duncan Olner, and to Gareth Davis for editing the book. And thank you particularly to Paul and Jane Camillin at Pitch Publishing for their continued support and advice in producing this book.

Quotations used in this book are referenced by their source the book, author and publisher. Permission for quotations used in this book has been sought from the publisher.

Quotes from The Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell (Copyright George Orwell, 1937) are reprinted by permission of Bill Hamilton as the literary executor of the estate of the late Sonia Brownell Orwell.

Why write this book?

Grandson Charlie, ten years old, born and living in Surrey. Like his grandad hes a Wednesdayite. He has not been to a Sheffield derby.

Charlie lives nearly 200 miles away from Sheffield. He has no real tangible, first-hand understanding of the rivalry, the passion. the emotion, the tribal allegiance that the two clubs engender among their supporters.

And more, in conversation he refers to both clubs with the first name, Sheffield Wednesday/United. It is his way of identifying the two clubs. Anyone from the city refers to Wednesday or United.

For Charlie and everyone with an interest in the Sheffield derby, I wanted to write a book to convey that rivalry, that fervour, that deep-seated passion, and provide a comprehensive narrative on the history of the occasion.

Sitting down with Charlie, I mentioned I was going to write a book about the Sheffield derby and what would be in it.

Thats sounds interesting, Grandad.

Charlie has form when it comes to commenting on his grandads books this time his comment is the nearest thing Im likely to get to a ringing endorsement!

I N planning and preparing to write the book it was suggested, by people not familiar with the Sheffield derby, that I could approach my work in a neutral, dispassionate way. Any thought or attempt to do so in a book that conveys my own experiences would be fruitless the Sheffield divide is all about passion and deeply felt emotions. How you feel about your club and the other club. It is about the highs and lows and there have been many of both. The highs for me are Unitedites lows, my lows are their highs. It is a mirror reflection.

The book has my perspective on what its like growing up in the city, being passionate about football, with two rival clubs and their fervent supporters. An historical perspective is provided by a review of the league and cup (FA Cup, Football League Cup, ZDS Cup) games by decade.

My first Sheffield derby was at Bramall Lane in 1965 and Ive been fortunate to have seen every derby since. For me, it has everything the history, the present, the anticipation, the expectation, the hope, the doubt, the triumph, the disaster, the pride, the despair, the adrenalin, the emotion, the passion, the tribal belonging at its most acute, and so much more besides.

Just thinking about the Sheffield derby heightens the interest, the passion, the rivalry. In the weeks leading up to a derby there is a gradual build-up of anticipation; the week before the game it feels like how I imagine a rumbling volcano below ground would feel.

Derby day, a seething mass of emotions and feelings rolled together as one; your team is out there on the pitch representing you, in the stands you represent them, willing them on, and on, beseeching the players to give their all, to the last drop. At the end the players must be utterly spent with nothing left to give.

And being part of it all in the ground youve given everything for the cause. There is nothing but nothing like the Sheffield derby.

S UMMER 2017, enjoying a holiday abroad. But at the centre of my thoughts was only one thing the upcoming fixture release date for the EFL clubs for the 2017/18 season. It had to be. Wednesday had reached the play-offs for promotion to the Premier League in the previous two seasons, meaning expectations for the new season were high.

And of real import the other Sheffield team United had won promotion to the Championship, after six seasons in League One. Theyd achieved it with ease promoted as champions, that position assured weeks before the seasons end having been managed since the start of the 2016/17 season by the born and bred Blade, Chris Wilder. The first Sheffield league derbies for six seasons would be the highlight of the football calendar.

That was the immediate focus for the fixture release date sitting in a park, in some far-flung land, holiday irrelevant, iPad in hand, scrolling through the links on the BBC website. Jumping off the page was Sheffield Wednesday v Sheffield United, Saturday, 23 September at Hillsborough, with the return at Bramall Lane in the New Year on 13 January.

The most recent derby had taken place at Hillsborough in February 2012, with United in pole position in the League One table, and Wednesday some way behind. Wednesday won it 1-0 and for them it was joy unconfined, the same emotion for whichever team wins the derby. For Wednesday it was a crucial win in their quest for promotion.

Since then, Wednesday have been in the Championship, and were in the last two seasons real contenders to make the Premier League. United had been in the division below changing their manager five times since the last derby. The bragging rights had belonged to the blue-and-whites.

But by the summer of 2017 the two clubs were back in the same division. And does absence make the heart grow fonder? Hardly. But it does mean the Sheffield derby is back, and it does mean both clubs supporters have a laser-like focus on this fixture.