Footysphere

Against Modern Football

Mon Oct 29
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“

Let Arthur Wharton come back from the dead
To see the man in black blow the final whistle.
Let the game of two halves be beautiful,
Not years ahead. Let every kissing of the badge,
Every cultured pass, every lad and lass,
Every uttered thought, every chant and rant,
Every strip and stripe – be free of it.

Then football would have truly played a blinder,
And Arthur returned to something kinder.
Let the man in black call time on racism.
And Arthur will sing out on the wings,
Our presiding spirit – the first black blade.
Imagine having everything to play for.
This is our pitch. Now hear us roar.

Anti-racism poem by Jackie Kay - read out prior to the Sheffield United v Portsmouth league 1 game at Bramall Lane on 29th Oxctober 2012. (to the memory of Arthur Wharton)

Mon Jul 2
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Sheffield FC v Queen’s Park - The World’s First Centenary Match

Ticket for the World’s first centenary game held at Bramall Lane on 24th October 1957. I’ve ran the image through a couple of filters to tart it up a bit. You can view the original here and also have a butchers at the matchday programme.

Mon Jun 4
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Pitch invasion at Bramall Lane following the end of the Sheffield United v Stevenage 2011/12 League One Play-Off Semi Final 2nd Leg that the Blades won 1-0.

Tue May 8
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Bramall Lane - Home of Sheffield United #sufc

Taken from the front row of the Kop at the recent Division 3 game v Stevenage.

Score: 2-2 Att: 30043

More photos here

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Welcome to #Sheffield - Home of Bramall Lane - The World’s Oldest Professional Football Ground #sufc

Sun Feb 5
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Empire Day Pageant at Bramall Lane, 1906

Wed Nov 30
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reblogged from hollowspy

Gary Speed tributes at Bramall Lane

Visited Bramall Lane today to get some tickets and pay my respects. Great to see the LUFC memorabilia too - no rivals in respect.

RIP Gary, a professional gentleman. (via hollowspy)

Mon Oct 24
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reblogged from footysphere

24th October - Happy Birthday Sheffield FC

Sheffield FC - The World’s first football club is 154 years old today. (24/10/11)

Here’s a selection of programme covers from landmark games in the club’s history. First up we have the the game against Scotland’s oldest club that was played on 24th October 1957 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the club. Then in 1977 came the club’s finest modern-day moment. A visit to Wembley to play in the FA Vase final. Manchester Utd provided the opposition for the 125th anniversary game whilst Inter Milan, who including World Cup winner Marco Materazzi and a certain Marco Balotelli in their line-up, made the trip to Sheffield to play in the 150th anniversary game.

Sun May 1
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The Youdan Cup - The World’s First Football Trophy

The Youdan Cup, the World's first football trophy

On Monday 2nd May Hallam FC will play Sheffield FC in a special fixture to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the World’s oldest inter-club football fixture. This is as good a time as any to have a bit of a look back into the history of the Countrymen, as Hallam are known, and revisit the occasion of what is probably still their finest hour; their triumph in the World’s very first football tournament.

In 1867 a Sheffield theatre owner by the name of Thomas Youdan offered up a cup and some prize money so that local clubs could play what turned out to be the World’s first competitive cup-tie fixtures. Previously all games had been challenge matches with nothing at stake bar local pride and maybe a few pennies as a side bet. Twelve Sheffield clubs accepted the invitation to take part. Though the oldest amongst them Sheffield FC declined having decided earlier in 1867 to forsake the local game and play only games against teams from outside Sheffield in an effort to popularise the game on a national level. This isolationist policy, with the exception of two games against Sheffield Gymnasium in 1870, lasted until 1887.

A disaffected day out at Bramall Lane

Sheffield United v Watford 2nd October 2010

Recently I’ve become an enthusiastic convert to the non-league football scene in England. In the last few weeks I’ve seen games at Bradford Park Avenue, Dinnington Town, Market Drayton Town and Sheffield FC and very refreshing it’s been too. The non-league matchday experience is so very different to what I’m used to following league football. Yesterday 2nd October I’d decided to continue my non-league odyssey by visiting Handsworth FC of the Northern Counties East League. However late morning I got a phone call from a friend who was unable to attend the Sheffield United v Watford Championship fixture at Bramall Lane. He offered me his match ticket for free. Being a tight Yorkshireman I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to watch my beloved Blades for nowt so graciously accepted his kind offer and put off a visit to Olivers Mount for another time.

Off I went to Beautiful Downtown Bramall Lane for my first visit of the season. Caught the train into Sheffield and popped into the Sheffield Tap for lovely pint of local brew Wild Swan. A wonderful white gold pale ale which according to it’s description on the Thornbridge Brewery website has aromas of light bitter lemon with a hint of herb and subtle spiciness. Hmmm not sure about that but a quick pint turned into two turned into three. I could have stayed in the boozer suppin’ that gorgeous beer all afternoon but I had a match to go to so just about managed to drag myself away.