United Lose Their Way
Words: Matthew Bell
When you go to an away match have you ever thought how the team got to the ground? Plane, train or automobile? Were they delayed (like we often are) by bad traffic or by a driver who religiously follows satnav directions that end up taking them down a cart track? They probably didn’t travel by private car, as a lot of us do, and one thing is (hopefully) for sure – they won’t have knocked back several pints before the game.
There was a time – in the early 1990s – that whenever United played in London a member of staff would drive a player’s car to the ground so he could stay down there after the match. The driver was usually Mick Rooker (but I believe Martyn Harrison and Pete Stone might have done it too) for Vinnie Jones, Bob Booker and physio Derek French, but probably others as well, who of course travelled down on the team coach. It was an arrangement that worked well – Rooker (or whoever) would get to drive a fancy car and would then return to Sheffield on the team coach. I bet this doesn’t happen now.
Whatever method they use to get to the game, the players, coaching staff and officials travel in luxurious comfort, which is true even down to relatively low levels of football. There has been concern lately about how often Premier League teams fly short distances to away games, such as Nottingham Forest going by air from East Midlands airport to Manchester airport, a trip of just 80 miles, no doubt with a diesel-powered coach at each end of the trip. In fact the BBC recently found that in a random selection of 100 Premier League matches this season, 81 involved internal flights for the visiting team. This appears contrary to the Premier League’s association with the United Nations’ ‘Sport for Climate Action’ programme. In February 2022, Premier League chief executive Richard Masters said the Premier League was “continuing to work on our own strategy” on sustainability, seeking “alternative methods and practices” to help “reduce emissions and environmental impact”. A total of 81 short-distance flights for 100 games does not fit easily with this statement. But that’s a modern story for another day.
Here we’re going to head back many decades to consider how football teams used to travel to away games in the era before aeroplanes and motorways. For the first 30 years of the club’s existence, Sheffield United’s players and officials went everywhere by rail, usually occupying a privately-hired carriage or compartments. The party was then conveyed by a series of horse-drawn vehicles from the railway station in the relevant town or city to the ground at which they were playing. One man was always responsible for transporting the players’ kit, which sometimes led to problems. When United were drawn away to Nottingham Forest in the 1899 FA Cup, trainer Jack Houseley was the man in charge of the kit but got separated from the team and, such was the congestion in the narrow lanes leading from Nottingham’s Midland Station to the ground, he arrived with just eleven minutes to spare before kick-off. In fact Houseley’s only playing appearance for United (in an away friendly in 1891) came about because of travel difficulties – two players who had been selected missed their train. Playing with nine regular players and the trainer, United still won. But these incidents were but minor irritations compared with the tragedy that was to strike in 1932. As the United team waited at Sheffield’s Midland Station to catch a train to Birmingham to play Aston Villa, long-serving club secretary John Nicholson was hurrying to join them when he was knocked down by a lorry and killed.
Travel was made more difficult than usual for football teams during the 1914/15 season – the country was at war – when in August 1914 the Government took control of the railway network, under Section 16 of the Regulation of the Forces Act, 1871. Cheap fares were withdrawn to discourage non-essential travel by the public and to free up trains to facilitate troop movements. When United made it through to the FA Cup semi-final, to play Bolton Wanderers at Ewood Park, Blackburn, an unforeseen problem arose due to the Government’s railway restrictions. United chartered a train to Blackburn, but the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company informed the club they were unable to guarantee arrival there before 2.30pm. The booking agents Thomas Cook persuaded the railway company to change the departure time of the charter train from 12.05pm to 11.30am, so it would arrive at Blackburn at 1.45pm. To a modern reader it seems barely credible that a team should leave it so late to travel to a cup semi-final.
The first time the United team and officials travelled by road to an away match was to Meadow Lane, Nottingham, to play Notts County in October 1919. This was not by choice, but by necessity – a threatened rail strike saw the club hire a charabanc (literally meaning ‘carriage with benches’, from the French char-à-bancs) to convey them to the game, in a journey that must have taken three hours on primitive roads via Dronfield, Chesterfield, Glapwell, Mansfield and Arnold. And one would hope the weather was kind.
Imagine travelling to an away match in this
The final time United travelled from the station to the ground by ‘horse-power’ is believed to have been for a game at Burnley in November 1924. By the 1930s journeys of up to around 40 miles were made by motor coach, which only became the norm with the advent of motorways in the late 1950s and early 1960s. And of course in the 1950s players always used to travel to home games on the bus, with their boots in a brown paper bag. Always.
But even the motor coach did not offer players and officials any luxury; they were the same vehicles the fans had to put up with. Even in the early 1980s coaches were pretty basic, with no toilet or coffee machine, and sometimes no heating. The photograph below shows John Matthews, Bob Hatton and Steve Charles arriving at Plainmoor, Torquay, for United’s match there in November 1981. The W-registered National Express coach they have just got off is quite new, but is far removed from the plush vehicles provided by today’s tour operators. Hatton might even have been picked up at a motorway service station on the way down (as he sometimes was) because he still lived in the West Midlands.
Whatever their mode of travel, it’s hard to imagine that a professional football team might turn up at the wrong location for an away match. It happened a couple of times with some of my Sunday League team players (“I never know which one is Parson Cross Park and which one is Longley Park”), but a professional team? Well, Sheffield United (who else?) did it on April 25th 1931 when they were supposed to be playing Middlesbrough at Ayresome Park. That night’s Green ‘Un reported:
Ten minutes before the kick-off it was found that the Sheffield party had not arrived, and a telephone message was received at Ayresome Park to the effect that they had lost their way and had landed, to their surprise, at Sunderland. Hasty arrangements were made for the transport of the players by taxi to Middlesbrough, a big hustle seeing that the distance between Middlesbrough and Sunderland is approximately 30 miles.
This was – remember – in the days before motorways and dual carriageways, so the fleet of taxis had to travel south along the A19, which in 1931 would have passed through Easington, Peterlee and Billingham, instead of by-passing them as it does now. The players had changed into their kit en route and arrived a few at a time. The first group arrived just after three o’clock, the stragglers at 3.15pm. They had to run straight from their taxis down the tunnel and on to the pitch. No extended warm-ups back then, even when they were on time. The game kicked off 19 minutes late.
So how did this mistake happen? In those days teams travelled by train on the morning of the match – none of this being mollycoddled like they are today, staying overnight in a five-star hotel, even for short trips. The train travelled north from Sheffield via York and Northallerton, where it branched north-east. It was an express train with limited stops, but apparently the United party had been informed that it would stop at Eaglescliffe, a junction between Darlington and Middlesbrough, to let them off. There they would catch a local train into Middlesbrough. However, for some reason the train did not stop at Eaglescliffe and carried on to Sunderland. By the way, Eaglescliffe is right next door to Egglescliffe, which must be confusing for anybody who doesn’t live there.
Surprisingly after their dash to the ground, United started well, forcing three corners in the first five minutes, but when Middlesbrough scored with their first attack after seven minutes United collapsed. Their exertions catching up with them, they ended up losing 4-1. This was United’s penultimate game of a season in which they finished 15th. Guess where the final match was? Sunderland!!
Matthew Bell was editor of Sheffield United fanzine Flashing Blade from 1989 to 2019 and wrote a weekly column for the Green ‘Un and Sheffield Star newspapers between 1993 and 2015. He has also published several books on local history and the social history of sport.
My husband’s grandfather recalled travelling to Bradford to watch the Blades, probably early 1930s . Couldn’t understand where everyone was only to realise they’d gone to the wrong Bradford ground. There were two at the time….
Thanks, Matthew
“Playing with nine regular players and the trainer, United still won.” Haha, so Hecky, Jack & Stuart McCall could step in, if needed, then . . .
“And of course in the 1950s players always used to travel to home games on the bus, with their boots in a brown paper bag. Always.” I remember reading something similar in Stanley Matthews’ autobiography! And always having their “expenses” scrutinised when travelling by train!
And speaking of similar place names, there’s a (probably apocryphal) story of some Americans visiting the UK who wanted to see the battle site at Stamford Bridge (East Yorkshire) and were taken to Stamford Bridge, home of Chelsea FC!
But like all the modern things we take for granted today, such methods of travel seem positively archaic. However, the history of it is fascinating; thanks for the research.
Sue.