As a football supporter, there are some matches that it is impossible to ever truly get over. Defeats that still leave a bad taste in the mouth, bring a shudder down the spine, and immediately transport you back to a dark place. Sheffield United fans of a certain age may want to look away now as the events of May 2, 1981 are raked over.
Relegation to the Football League basement for the first time in their history was bad enough for the Blades. But the circumstances that led to the drop on that fateful day in May added to the heartbreak. With five minutes remaining in the campaign, the club were clinging on for dear life; what followed brought the house of cards crashing down.
At the start of the 1980/81 season there had been hope. Managed by Harry Haslam, five wins in the opening seven matches saw the team climb to the top of Division Three, and even with inconsistent results, the club managed to stay in touch with the promotion places until November. But a disastrous run post-Christmas signalled the end for Haslam.
Dropping to 12th place after four defeats in five, and with Haslam ill, the decision was taken to move the manager upstairs to a PR Officer role, and promote England World Cup winner Martin Peters from the playing staff to the managerial hotseat. Peters had joined the club in the previous summer, and his succession was all part of the masterplan, as this club statement pointed out:
“When Martin Peters joined the club as player-coach, it was part of the transfer arrangement that he would become manager. The Board and Harry Haslam have agreed that the time is now right for Martin Peters to take over complete control of playing matters.”
“You can't live on memories,” Peters said. “My future lies in management.” Sadly, Peters was soon to discover football management could be a brutal affair. Brought in initially to steady the ship and keep heads above water, Peters’ Sheffield United would embark on a run that saw them sinking to the depths of a relegation scrap.
Just three wins in the next fifteen League matches opened the very real possibility that the club would be starting the next season as a Division Four outfit. It was not all doom and gloom; a draw on the final day of the season at Bramall Lane against fellow strugglers Walsall would ensure safety, and even a defeat would not be terminal, providing Swindon lost at home against Brentford.
For 85 minutes the crowd of 16,001 watched on as two teams riddled with nerves produced a dull affair. For a while it appeared as if the only incidents of note were going to be when referee George Flint was poleaxed by the ball, and Steve Conroy pulled off a fine save to deny the visitors a crucial goal. And then it all kicked off.
With just five minutes left in the season, Walsall player-manager Alan Buckley was brought down in the box by John MacPhail, Flint immediately pointing to the spot as the majority of hearts sunk within the stadium. Not for the last time during the afternoon, finding someone brave enough to shoulder the responsibility of a vital penalty kick proved difficult.
“I usually take them but my knee was causing problems,” Buckley revealed. “There wasn't a queue of volunteers either. But Don Penn stepped up and we thought that was it.” Sending Conroy the wrong way, Penn’s goal had seemingly saved Walsall and condemned Sheffield United to life in the basement. But then came the next twist in the tale.
As reality dawned on the home fans, some tried scaling the fences to invade the pitch, yet with just a minute to go in the season they were stopped in their tracks. Awarded what many felt was a soft penalty, Sheffield United now had a chance to seal their safety. Step forward Don Givens.
Republic of Ireland international Givens had only been at the club for two months, signed on transfer deadline day for £20,000 from Birmingham. However, the forward was about to leave an indelible mark in the history books of Sheffield United. With regular penalty taker Tony Kenworthy dropped by Peters, and deputy John Matthews unwilling to step up to the spot, Givens took the ball.
Many inside Bramall Lane could not bring themselves to watch as Givens struck the ball. Those who did saw Givens’ weak effort pounced upon by Walsall keeper Ron Green. “It seemed to take forever to leave his foot...and when it did, it rolled its way feebly, without a hope, towards the goalkeeper,” Cynthia Bateman wrote in the Guardian. A minute later, the Blades were down.
There was time for one last bitter pill to swallow. As many fans attacked Walsall players, an announcement was made stating that Swindon had lost. Desolation turned to ecstasy, as relief engulfed the stadium. Yet the rollercoaster of emotions ground to a halt when news filtered through that Swindon had indeed drawn.
Many Sheffield United fans did not discover the fate of their club until they reached home, and others still in the ground decided to demonstrate their displeasure through violence. The bottom line was that Sheffield United were now a fourth division club, and the post-mortem continued for the next month.
Inevitably heads rolled. Chairman John Hassall resigned three days after the defeat, with Peters and Haslam quitting at the end of May. Billy Bremner, Gordon Lee, Ken Knighton, and George Kerr were all linked the managerial vacancy, yet it would fall to Ian Porterfield, who had just won the Division Three title with Rotherham, to start the revival.
The drop to Division Four was the very definition of the darkness before the dawn. Unbeaten at home in the 1981/82 campaign, Porterfield’s team lost just four matches as the title was won with 96 points. Promotion to Division Two in 1983/84 added to Porterfield’s growing reputation.
For Givens, the experience at roughly 4.39pm on Saturday May 2 would be impossible to forget. He would never play a competitive match for Sheffield United again. On June 24, Givens moved to Swiss club Neuchatel Xamax. Out of sight, but not out of mind amongst the Bramall Lane faithful.
Givens is remembered fondly in some parts of Sheffield, though. The blue half of the city named the occasion Thanks Givens Day in memory of that match. Football fans feast on schadenfreude, and in 1981 Wednesday had the upper hand. But fast forward nearly nine years to the day in 1990, and the boot was most certainly on the other foot.
My Uncle is a Walsall fan and was at this match. He said it was carnage getting back to the railway station. I think Walsall took about 3,000, but it was a partisan , turning to nasty atmosphere.
ReplyDeleteAlways nice to see a story about the dirty pigs suffering
ReplyDeleteWhats a little suffering for dirty pigs as long as beat inbred yorkies and send them down
ReplyDeleteAs a Walsall fan, that was a experience. I lost my mate after Walsall scored, & didn't see him till we got on the coach. I have never seen trouble like it the Walsall player's had to fight thee way of the pitch.
ReplyDeleteAs a Blade who was there the whole thing was surreal. People never mention the fact that the two sides had also played out a crazy 4-4 draw earlier in the season at Walsall! So, it wasn’t a case that we were unaware of Walsall’s ability on that final day.
ReplyDeleteI was there that day as a 14 year old on the train with my mates, never been so scared at a football match we could see the fences rocking back and forth then it seemed the whole end cam running towards us, still don’t know how we got out alive. Great day UTS
ReplyDeleteAs a neutral I got the train back to Leeds shortly afterwards. No one on that train was under the illusion that Swindon had lost
ReplyDeleteI am a Blade and was at that match. I had a feeling we would lose. It's hard to define it, but the way the season had gone seemed to indicate to me that we would go down.
ReplyDeleteIn this particular match we were no better or worse than Walsall. Neither side showed much attacking intent and the match had 0-0 written all over it. Except you just knew we had the capacity to self destruct. And that is what we did.
Personally I do not blame Don Gives for what happened. He had the guts to take that penalty when others didn't. And, let's be honest, it should never have come down to that one match (or even one kick!). That team should have been challenging for promotion, not trying to stave off relegation.
As far as Don Gives is concerned, I do not hold him responsible for that relegation. The fault for that lies elsewhere.