Memory Lane by Scrapbook

Before podcasts and newsletters, there were scissors, glue and piles of cuttings. Andrew “Roy” Hague revisits the scrapbooks that captured his first years as a Blades fan.

Andrew Hague

To coincide with the Blades nostalgia podcast Memory Lane, which will land on your Pinch feeds tomorrow lunch time, I decided to dig into the cupboard and pull out an old scrapbook.

Obviously, it’s filled with Sheffield United newspaper and magazine clippings I put together as a kid between 1990 and 1993. I figured a few United fans might enjoy a look at some of the pictures I collected and maybe join me for a little trip down…

The 90/91 season was the first I properly remember as a Blades fan. My dad had taken me to my first game at Bramall Lane back in 1988, a 2–1 win over Bury, with a certain Chris Wilder scoring his only goal for United, but it was Italia ’90 that really did it for me. After that tournament I was completely hooked. I begged my dad to take me to every United game he went to, a far cry from the year before when the only way he could tempt me along was with the promise of strawberry bonbons before kick off. A lot changed in twelve months. Where all my pocket money had once gone on He-Man figures and sweets, suddenly every penny was being spent on football magazines and Kenner Sports Stars.

It was actually my mum, not a football fan in the slightest, who encouraged me to start a scrapbook. Probably fed up with the growing piles of newspapers and magazines I refused to throw away, she bought me one sometime in the early 90s. By 1993 I had grown bored of cutting up articles to glue into my memory book, no coincidence that Sensible Soccer arrived in 1992, but for those first few years I kept up with it fairly regularly.

So here is a quick look through the two scrapbooks I kept, with the odd comment along the way. I have spared you the full page by page epic, no one needs to see every clipping I hoarded back then.

The front cover of my first scrapbook showcased a picture of a certain Vincent Jones, then captain of United.

A few bits of Blades foreshadowing with the stickers used to fill out the cover too. Earl Barrett would later have a short loan spell at Bramall Lane and obviously Danny Wilson would become Blades manager in 2011.

The first proper pages of the scrapbook chart United’s promotion to Division One in the 89/90 season, moments that came before I had succumbed to the Blades bug.

The book then jumps into the 90/91 season. It was perhaps fitting that my first taste of supporting United saw them go 16 games without a win to start the season. My enthusiasm did not waver though and it is pretty clear that at this stage of my life I was a big fan of Jones.

United were in dreadful form, we had sold our captain, we had sold our only fit striker, and our best player was out with glandular fever. And then, for reasons known only to my younger self, there is a completely random picture of John Gannon thrown in. I can only assume I was trying to make the point that everything felt stacked against us going into the Wednesday game…

The next page then reveals this:

United beat the high flying pigs 2-0 and suddenly I knew why derby games mattered. Why my dad was so nervous beforehand. Why he had been reluctant to take me. Why beating Wednesday was so important. This was my first derby game and it is still the one I compare every other against.

There are eight full page cuttings in the scrapbook dedicated to this win. It fills up a quarter of the book and I was running out of space, which might explain why I bypassed the following four months of the season and dived straight into the return fixture at Hillsborough. By this point United had picked up somewhat but were still in deep trouble at the bottom. Wednesday, meanwhile, were genuine title contenders. My dad sat in the Wednesday end for this one so I did not go, but the rest of this first scrapbook is taken up by cuttings of our famous derby double, so this must have been a big thing for me even back then.

My enthusiasm must have been waning by 1992, Sensible Soccer had so much to answer for, as I didn’t even bother to replace the cover of my second scrapbook with anything United related. Still, in this one I actually started in pre season with a cutting from Match magazine from an article about who could be on the plane for England in USA 94.

None of the players featured would make the squad as it turned out due to England not qualifying. The fact Deane was seen as a contender in 1992 though showed just how much he had established himself in the top flight. Of course the 92/93 season was the start of the Premier League, although you would not have known it looking at this scrapbook. Deane’s goal against Manchester United is in there, but there is not a hint of how momentous that moment actually was. The first goal in Premier League history, tucked away without fanfare by my younger self.

One of the most famous goals in the history of the English game is then followed, on the very next page, by yet another completely random picture of John Gannon.

Next up? Some incredibly badly-stuck reports on United’s early season form.

Then came the first Sheffield Derby of the new season. Unfortunately this one did not hit the heights of the previous two as the shares were spoiled in a 1-1 draw. The Sun decided to use this game to make a seven paragraph case for Carlton “Leighton” Palmer to be included in the England team. It really is a wonder why we did not qualify.

In fairness to The Sun, a few months later they were championing Brian Deane’s case for an England call up following two hat tricks in a week.

The Blades were struggling to compete with the richer teams in the newly found Premier League but were still a match for anyone on their day. This was no better illustrated than when we beat Manchester United in the fifth round of the FA Cup. This was one of those rare games in the early 90s where United played on a Sunday due to TV coverage and the Monday papers were all over our win.

John Gannon is then featured again in the book. This time though for actually scoring!

By this point United were slipping into their annual routine, a sluggish start followed by a post December revival. FA Cup runs aside, perhaps the most notable result of this entire season was a 6-0 victory over Spurs at the Lane.

With the Blades pulling their way out of relegation bother, it was all eyes on the FA Cup and a penalty kick victory over big spending Blackburn Rovers set us up for an all Sheffield semi final.

With The Blades pulling their way out of relegation bother, it was all eyes on the FA Cup and a penalty kick victory over big spending Blackburn Rovers set us up for an all Sheffield semi-final:

Strangely, or maybe not given the semi final result, there are only two more pages of this second scrapbook that are filled. One is a picture of Alan Cork and the other is this.

I suppose this was as good a place as any to leave it. Thanks for taking a wander through my little scrapbook of memories and keep an eye out for the new Memory Lane podcast. Plenty more Blades nostalgia awaits.

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