December 5, 2024 • 41 mins
In the very first episode of Steels Talk, Adam Allcroft talks to club chairman Graham Furness. We discuss Sheffield grassroots football in the 1970s, how Graham worked with the likes of Steve Shutt and Wayne Biggins plus how he became the greatest sweeper Stocksbridge has ever seen.
Music by Alex Grohl and licenced by Pixabay.
Edited by Adam Allcroft.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hello and welcome to the very first episode of Steel's Talk, the official Stocksbridge
(00:22):
Park Steel's podcast. I'm your host Adam Alcroft and thank you very much for listening.
So what is this podcast going to be? Well every fortnight I'll be talking to a notable
figure from Stocksbridge history, whether that be a current player, a club legend or
even a volunteer. There are so many brilliant people who have contributed to this club and
we hope to give them the spotlight using this podcast. But for this episode there was only
(00:45):
one option for the first of the guests. Graham Furness has been the chairman of Stocksbridge
Park Steel for six years now and he has also been served in several different roles but
he also has an incredible history in grassroots football and is a brilliant sweeper, though
that doesn't mean he's Franz Beckenbauer. Unfortunately we did have some audio issues
and also my attempt at keeping a rogue budgie quiet didn't quite work but I hope that doesn't
(01:08):
distract from all the brilliant stories Graham told me. Well, the ones we can broadcast anyway.
Enjoy!
So welcome Graham to the very first episode of Steel's Talk.
Brilliant, yeah, welcome Adam, thank you for having me.
(01:30):
So we were going to talk about a lot of your different roles that you've had at Stocksbridge
but the most important question about your most important role, what's the ideal broom
for sweeping up?
Oh, you need an extendable broom, Adam, and then you can adjust it if you're doing the
steps, it's essential.
(01:50):
But in all seriousness, you've had about 50,000 roles at Stocksbridge but we'll just talk
about this either just for a few moments, how do you think it's been going so far?
Yeah, it's been a great start, Adam, you know, obviously we had all the turnover didn't we
during the summer and nobody knew how that was going to work out and credit to the management,
they put a good squad together again, a squad that's together amongst themselves, work for
(02:14):
each other, which is what Ian does.
So just at the time we called in, we've had a bit of turnover again, Alex Hardwick,
Joe Silver, Jack Atlam, all gone in the last week, is this when you're not that concerned?
You know, I mean, there's not a lot we could do about two of them, to be fair, we knew
Jack was going to go, obviously he's emigrated with his family to Australia and we wish him
(02:36):
well in that.
I did suggest he might get divorced or wait till the end of the season but he won't having
it.
But yeah, I mean, you know, credit to the lad who came in this summer and he had an
effect straight away.
But yeah, they've gone away to Australia and good luck to him.
I mean, Joe, his parent club have fetched him back, they wanted him back amongst themselves
but that wouldn't have been their fair stepping on that one.
(02:58):
But he's gone back, there's nothing we could do to stop that and in fairness to Alex, he's
had an offer that he cannot turn down.
I know earlier this season he's turned offers down from other clubs to stay with it because
he enjoyed what he was doing at our club but it comes a time for young lads with it, they
just can't turn it down.
You know, it's a great offer for him.
So good luck to him, it's a step up, it's not as though he's moved sideways or backwards,
(03:22):
it's a step up and hopefully he'll grasp it and move up, keep going.
Good luck to him.
It's frustrating for me.
Does it make your life feel a lot easier and a bit more relaxed when you know Ian's rebuilt
this side a few times already and that he's probably going to be able to do it again?
I don't know, he'll be looking.
He'll be looking in the right areas to bring the right people in and not do it for the
(03:43):
sake of doing it.
Obviously at this stage of the season it's harder than it is in the summer but I'm sure
he'll get round to doing it.
Obviously goal scorers are harder to find or bring in than some of the other positions
in the team but I have every confidence it'll do it.
And obviously not only that, the lads are still there.
You know, it's up to them now to step up and come in and do the job.
(04:08):
You've got to be Dan and Anders, you know, you've got Jack Morris, you've got Oliver's,
you've got Tommy Marshall's, they've got to step up to it.
They're young enough, they're good enough, they're proving this season that they're good
enough so they'll get their chance.
Oliver Novak, getting great reviews about Oliver Novak on loan at Rossington.
He might not have a chance for him to come back and get involved.
You know, I've got his finger on that, he knows what it's scripted so I'm not too worried
(04:31):
about that.
Well before we get, make Ian's head a bit too big.
Yeah, I don't want to bull him up, I might have to pay him more.
I want to talk about something, anyone who knows you at the ground will know that you
seem to know absolutely everyone.
I think it's the case, you know, I'm of an age, I've been around a long time so I've
(04:52):
met a lot of people, Adam.
But when you've been ageing it seems like you have done a lot in that age.
Been playing senior football for 50 years.
So you know, your paths cross with players and referees and managers and I'm even getting
lads now that are coming, well lads that played for me when they were 15 and out there were
(05:14):
their 15 and 18 year old sons, you know.
So you think, where the hell am I, I must be getting old.
And that's something I want to talk to you about, I'd say, is that Sheffield grass roots
scene over the last 50 years, you know, the Sunday league when it was all the pub teams
and some of all these youth teams, because you have done everything from coming through
as a player to coaching and then being here as the chairman of Stocksbridge.
(05:36):
Yeah, I mean I started playing senior football when I was 15.
Got my name on the back of the green and I squirted two goals in the Sports and Athletic
League when I was 15.
First game I played, played Sundays.
I was a secretary for one of the local pub teams when I was 16 for the Sunday sides.
So yeah, I've been about a bit.
(05:57):
So what year was this in, was this in the 70s?
This would be 70s, yeah.
So to 74 or 5.
So what was it, because for me this is a completely alien thing compared to what I've seen now,
what was it like playing in those teams in the 70s on the fields for a pub team or just
a local grass roots team?
It was tough.
You know, you had to grow up, there weren't many junior teams.
(06:20):
So you're up against proper footballers, especially Sundays, because you've got some good players
on a Sunday who were playing semi-pro on a Saturday.
So it was a tough level.
The pitches weren't bad because a lot of the time you were playing on works pitches or
decent pitches, or like they were the odd, when you were playing in parks and whatever,
there were some poor pitches.
(06:42):
Getting changed in Concord Park in a wooden hut when you first start, that was interesting.
You couldn't shut the door because it was too dark, you couldn't have it on because
the snow was blowing in at certain times.
Because in those days, obviously, you didn't get games called off.
You went on a nice road, there's a flake of snow or there's a bit of ice, you played
it and you put rubber studs on and you played.
(07:03):
I remember one game we were playing and I was playing centre-off that day and I looked
around and left-back weren't there.
I thought, where's he gone?
And when I looked he was stood at the back of a tree shivering his do-doors off.
He was at a corner, he'd gone off, he wanted a thin bloke and he was feeling it.
He just buggered off at the back of a tree because it was snowing horizontal.
So, yeah, you played and it was tough.
(07:27):
You learnt, but you learnt quickly.
As I got a little bit older I played with some good players and you picked some good
habits up from these players.
But you had to learn or get kicked to death.
Which team were you playing for?
I played local, High Green Villa, I played for a couple of...
When I first started, I used to play for school in the morning and I played for my brother-in-law's
(07:49):
team in the afternoon.
I was at Sheffield Wednesday when I was younger, but that's a different story.
I was never going to be dedicated enough or confident enough to make it at that level.
And I just wanted to play, Adam.
I didn't play for anybody.
I used to train with everybody every night, whoever it was.
I remember one day I played one Saturday for my brother-in-law's side.
I think it was against Sheffield Brick.
(08:10):
And then the week after we hadn't got a game, but one of the lads that played on a Sunday,
he just said to me, he says, we're struggling for a team next Saturday, can you help us
out?
I said, no, I can't play.
And ironically, it was against Sheffield Brick.
And we'd been playing about 20 minutes and then this defender looked at me and he went,
I'm out you last week.
Last week, aren't I?
Can you?
I says, who did you play?
He says, oh, Sonny from High Green Villa.
(08:31):
I says, oh, my brother plays with them.
I says, it'd probably be him.
Don't even mind, I've got a brother.
But yeah, you just turned out.
You wanted to play.
I didn't take it that seriously, if I'm honest.
So I just played.
I wanted to play.
I played at an higher level at Sundays later on.
I realised, you know, it was a tough game.
I was a bit of a wimp.
But we had such a good social side of it when I was playing with the lads that I was playing
(08:54):
with.
They were older than me.
Some of them were older than me, five, six, seven years older than me.
I was just coming through.
And funnily enough, I was out with some of them last Saturday, you know, they're in the
seventies now, but I still see them.
But with a great social side.
So, you know, that was it for me.
Enjoying it.
Play, have a drink.
Do you think that was the important thing back then?
Was that social side because pubs were much more important to life back then, it seems
(09:20):
from everything I've heard anyway.
I'm not old enough to know it.
And do you think because obviously you don't have the internet or anything like that, that
was the important part?
Yeah, and even professionally.
At that era, they played and they had a drink and they had a drinking afternoon after training.
And that was a bit of a culture.
I'm not saying it was a massive drinking culture, but the social side was all part of it.
(09:41):
But also we've got to remember when we played on a Sunday morning, especially, the pubs
closed at three o'clock.
So when you got back, you had a drink and then everybody went home.
Then you might have gone back out again at night.
Same on a Saturday, you'd all meet back in the pub later on at night.
You know, there was one pub in Hagroom where we always headed back to.
You know, wherever you'd been, you'd go back in there for the last drink.
(10:04):
It was good.
I'd say we'd a great camaraderie with it all.
And still staying in touch now, you know, as I said, 30, 40, 50 years on.
And that was, yeah, it's a big part of it.
You've got to enjoy it.
I just think now, sometimes with the age that some of these youngsters are starting at,
by the time they get to 16, 17, they've lost all that enjoyment.
(10:24):
It's been too much pressure for them.
And they just, you know, if they're not going to make it, if they're not getting to a
pro club or they're not playing at a level, they just stop playing because they've had
it run down their throats since they were seven, eight, nine year old.
Because one of the things that's a bit of an underwritten story is that grassroots
football for men has been slowly dying off.
(10:44):
Sunday league teams are getting less themed and it's all been described because of the
brilliant uptake of women.
But men's football has lessened in popularity on the Sunday game.
And do you think that's part of it?
It's a conversation.
I'm on the FA Council, Sheffield College FA Council.
It's a conversation I've had there saying that it's great that they're promoting ladies
football and women's football.
Great.
(11:05):
But they're taking the eye off the ball as regards adult 11 aside football at weekends.
So I told this, oh, they're playing on a Wednesday and they're playing on a Tuesday
and they took two quidding and there's all these different seven aside leagues.
They're losing adult football.
They've lost a lot of it because, as I said, there were a lot of work teams, there were
a lot of pubs teams.
There aren't that many pubs now for teams to run out of.
(11:25):
A lot of the works in Sheffield have closed down, you know.
You've only to look, when I was first started playing, you couldn't get a pitch.
You were struggling to find a pitch and in Concord Park, they went to pitch spare on
a Saturday.
Eckersfield Park, always full.
If you rode out of High Green towards Concord, there were no pitches.
And now there's plenty of spare pitches.
(11:47):
But there's no pubs.
There's no way to fund it.
I mean, grassroot football, the cost of running a grassroot football club now is astronomical.
By the time you're done with officials and catering insurance, cost of pitches, it's
very difficult.
If you haven't got a base, it's very difficult.
We just have the story in the summer was that Herring Fork playing field in Rovron, which
is famous for Sunday league football.
(12:08):
I don't think there's any teams on it this year.
I think that was the story from the advertising.
I don't doubt it.
I remember when, because I was to play in the Barnsley League as well, for High Green
and Villef, and that was a massive league.
Massive, you know, loads of divisions, Saturday and Sunday, eight, nine, ten divisions, as
was the Rovron League on a Sunday.
And the Barnsley League, when Barnsley got promoted under Danny Wilson to the Premiership,
(12:30):
Barnsley Saturday League folded, finished.
As I say, when I first started playing, you've got a Bible class league, you've got sports
and athletic league, you've got South Yorkshiremichaelig, which I played in, Yorkshire league, Achar league.
And on a Saturday night, I think you've got Doncaster senior, Central Midlands, County
senior.
I think that's your lot on a Saturday.
(12:50):
Oh, you've got the Fair Play league now, which has started up on a Saturday morning, which
is popular because a lot of the lads like to play in that because they can be done and
dusted by half past 12, quarter one, and then go and do whatever they want.
So yeah, thousands of teams disappeared, and some with big names, you know, some good sides.
I mean, again, in the early 70s, the Black Bull side played.
(13:12):
It used to be called the Anglo-Scandia League.
It moved to the Medarol League when Medarol League was a really good league.
A lot of semi-court players in, but Black Bull at Ecclestone had a fantastic side.
I used to follow them because they used to have a coach every week.
My dad used to drive it, and I used to follow them from being a young lad.
There'd been 2,000 down at Tharncliffe to watch their games, but a lot of them played
(13:32):
for Boston.
It was the old envelope-in-a-show-payment job.
They all got paid on a Sunday.
There was one side in that division that their manager, I think he had a double glazing firm,
so all their players had double glazing when it was a new thing.
So they were all getting backhanders, but it was a great standard.
And then you look now, the Medarol League and Under-18s League.
(13:54):
We've talked about grassroots football for men at the moment, it has been reduced a lot.
What do you think would be able to fix it and try and stop changing those numbers going
back up again?
That's a hell of a question, I don't know.
I think they've got to make it more accessible.
I think a lot of the problems now is by the time they've got to 19, 20, 18.
Some of them are fed up of playing football.
(14:17):
They've not made it with the pro clubs, so they get disillusioned with it.
And again, one of the biggest things now, when we were playing, there was a lot of
problems.
There were no shops open on a Sunday.
Pubs opened at 12, 11, 12, shut at 2, 3, and then opened up again now.
There are so many distractions over the weekend that they can be doing other things.
Young lads can earn money over the weekend, Saturday, Sunday working.
(14:38):
Take some change, you know, to try and change those habits, take some doing.
And especially since Covid.
I mean, I think there's been a big drop in young lads wanting to play since Covid, they've
got out of the habit.
So some of that age group from four years since the loss to the game, you've got to
try and adjust it now so that the ones coming through towards 16 want to carry on.
(15:02):
We tried it when I was on the county senior league to try and encourage some of these
Sunday sides to come and play Saturdays, but they're not in that mindset.
They're in the mindset of playing Sundays.
We've got other distractions now, Saturdays.
And especially if Wednesday and United are doing well, they want to go and watch that
or they can watch it on the television, whatever means, home and away.
(15:22):
So it's difficult.
I mean, you know, with our attendances, when Wednesday, it's difficult to get them to come
and watch, never mind play.
We are fortunate in that we've got a good pathway where our lads can come from 18 to
reserves to development to reserves to first team if they're good enough.
So they've got that development and that mindset.
Because although they're playing on the Sunday, a lot of them are playing Saturdays as well
(15:42):
with the reserves they're developing.
A lot of clubs haven't got that.
It's very difficult to try and alter that mindset.
As regards anybody starting teams up now, it's a different stuff from legislation.
People have got to get the coaching badges and the welfare and the DBSs and then they've
(16:04):
got to find a base.
And I mean, you're looking, we always told new clubs if they wanted to come or clubs
that were coming to county senior, you're looking at at least five, six grand a year
and you're looking at the ability to try and generate that money is difficult.
So we've moved on to Stocksbridge Park Steels now.
So we'll talk about that because you've done it.
You've detailed it really well already.
(16:26):
What was every role that you've done at Stocksbridge Park now?
Originally, I was a great team manager.
I turned it down at first.
I've never been very confident.
I've never been very confident and turned it down and they know they've rang me up
and said, let me come and do it.
So I went to do it with somebody else.
I said, well, is that going to be?
(16:47):
It was a bloke called Mark Potts who had been involved at Crosspool and we worked together
and it was absolutely brilliant.
Potts was absolutely fantastic.
He'd get players from anywhere.
He'd go and sit in the grandmother's house or their house or whatever and get them to
come and get them to sign and then we'd make them into a team.
The first year we were there, to be honest, we inherited one or two things that weren't
(17:11):
quite right with different things, players, some certain year-olds that we got.
At Christmas, I'll be honest, I would have gone back to it because at that time, I'd
taken my under-15 side, I'd taken them into the middle of the league with the Packers
at High Green and they had a season there with them.
I would have gone back because that year at the Packers, going back to the social side,
I don't know, I'm digressing a bit Adam, but going back to the social side in there,
(17:34):
absolutely fantastic.
A group of lads there that accepted my young lads and they all joked together and everybody
just bounced off one another.
Again, social side.
I've always been a big thing with social side.
I think it's a big thing again, a bit like the end of, you know, you create that team
spirit, that bond.
I went to the Packers for a year.
I went up to Stocksbridge.
(17:55):
That first half at Seidum weren't good.
Having said that, we got through to the final of the cup, we were about fifth in the league,
but it weren't.
It's just a set of lads that I liked, I was used to working with.
But I said to Pottsie, we made our mind up, we said, listen, next year we're doing it
our way and if it's not right, we'll bugger off and if it is, we'll see where we go.
And we brought some lads in.
We had a fantastic season.
We won the league, only like 10 goals in.
(18:17):
There were lads coming through that you could see could progress.
And then the year after we announced it again, Pottsie, again, going and bringing lads in
that you know, you knew you could improve the things within that second year.
We won, I think we won, well we won everything.
We won the league, the cup, first round proper FA Youth Cup.
We had Richard Ashton, John Wordsworth who eventually got into the first team and played
(18:41):
quite a few games.
We lost John to Osset because again, even in them days, it was one friend of his granddad
that promised him the earth, I think, and we lost John to Osset.
Richard Ashton stayed on to play about 60 games.
Ironically, Robert, that released him, and Robert took over, but Richard was a good lad.
And then we had other lads come through, you know, Richard Adams, John Biggs eventually
(19:02):
came through from the reserves.
That rag played some games in the first team.
So yeah, there were some good lads there.
But I came in as 18s, I had three years at that, and then the reserve manager left, and
I moved up to the reserves, and that's when Biggs and them came in.
In my second year I think Biggs came in.
With Biggs and the rag twins.
(19:25):
The reserves prior to me taking over had been relegated, and we finished fourth in Division
One the first season I was in.
I got quite a young side, mixed in with some older ones.
We did alright, but we finished fourth.
And then the second year we brought some younger ones in, who we thought could progress to
the first team, you know.
And again, we finished fourth.
We finished with more points than we did the year before, which would have got us promoted,
(19:47):
but we finished fourth.
But we left in the open, so we brought squad in, Shucky come in then, and eventually he
got them promoted and they had good success in that.
I think one season they won the league.
I don't think they won the league.
They got promoted, they won the Purdy Cup and the Association Cup I think.
But as I said, then Biggs and people like that came through.
Richard Adams came through into the first team.
(20:09):
But then my second season with the reserves finished, the first team at the time were
in the bottom four, five.
We had seven games to go.
And Mikkoen left, which left Wayne Wiggins.
And Wayne asked me to come in and open, because it was the end of the season.
We managed to win five out of seven and stay open.
And then Wayne rang me and said he wanted me to stay on with him with the first team
(20:30):
the year after.
The first question to him was, am I a cheap option?
Because I knew what better look like.
I thought, am I going to be a cheap option?
Did Wayne really want me?
Or did he want to bring something in?
But we got it to him, you know.
He said, no, he wanted me to work with him.
So that was good.
So then I moved up to the first team as assistant.
But in those days, I was assistant, physio, Bert was manager, player.
(20:52):
And there were just the two of us, really, to do the first team.
So it was a lot of work, a lot of pressure.
And we did all right.
To be fair, Adam, we'd never got the strength in depth.
We were always OK for the first half of the season.
And then when injuries and suspensions, et cetera, kicked in, that's when we started
to not struggle, but results didn't go as well as what they had been doing at first
half.
(21:13):
Were you there for the famous 17-1 game, then?
Yes, yeah, yeah, me and Bert were managing that.
Yeah, when we played Oldham Town.
Yeah, that was good.
They were trying to put...
How much did you score that match?
I think they call it an eye line now.
They were playing an eye line for about 90 minutes and we just kept...
Paul Jackson, it was the same pass, same ball every time.
(21:35):
And he scored 10.
I think if we'd have scored another one, we'd have broke the record.
I think we equaled it, didn't we?
You equaled to five.
Paul Jackson definitely equaled the record for most goals scored in a game.
I think we equaled the highest score or something.
We had some good times with some good runs in Cubs that first year.
I think that was the first year when we won 17-1 and we did all right in the Cubs.
Like I say, it was a strength in depth.
I remember one day we played Warkington at home.
(21:56):
And Warkington were managed by Tommy Cassidy, who used to play for Newcastle United.
And he used to fly three lads over from Ireland for their games.
And we played them and we lost.
And Beth were going berserk, you know, that weren't good enough.
I said, Alan, they've got three lads flown in from Ireland.
I said, I'll fetch two lads from Sal de Gring.
I said, that's the bloody difference.
We are where we are.
We played them away.
We beat them away.
(22:17):
So we did have some good results.
And then I think the second year, the second year when we played in the SVA Cup,
we were one game away from getting through to the first round proper.
But we lost to children.
But I wasn't near that day.
My father passed away, unfortunately, early that morning.
So I couldn't go to that game.
But we lost to children.
So we didn't get into that.
We didn't get to it first round proper.
(22:37):
But again, we had some good players.
I think it was when Wayne Begings left.
Did you go back into the reserves?
No, I left before Wayne left, actually, because my father passed away.
And then we worked commitments.
And one thing or another, my mother weren't in the best of health.
And I just couldn't commit.
Whereas my dad used to help me in standing for me at work and whatever.
It was just impossible to try and do it.
And I thought, well, Wayne will bring somebody in.
(22:59):
I mean, he had so many connections in football.
It was unbelievable.
I thought he'd bring somebody in to work with him.
But he did it in house.
He brought Kev Ronan.
Kev Ronan helped him.
Before the end of that season, Wayne packed up as well.
And that's when Pete Winkervich came in then.
So when did you return?
Well, I left them for a while.
I said to Alan, I said, there's things happening at work.
I said, I'll have a break.
(23:21):
I'd been in football.
Well, I said, I started when I was 15.
So I was 43, 44 then.
So I said, I'll have a break.
I'll miss it.
Anyway, Alan being Alan, coming up here with me under 15s.
So I said, well, I'll come and do some coaching at training.
But I said, I'm not coming Sundays.
I said, Sundays is a bad day for me with work.
(23:41):
I think I missed one game on a Sunday.
We did all right.
We finished third, I think, in that division.
And then Alan stepped back then when they got to 16.
Alan decided to step back and leave it to me and one
of the parents, Nick Mallindoe, was ex-pro.
He used to play for the other one.
Nick, I knew Nick from school.
He was a bit older than me at school.
(24:02):
We did it together.
But I was struggling at the time.
I was waiting to go in for a back-up operation.
So I was really struggling to do training and get to games.
But we did it under 16s.
There were some decent ones, but it weren't ideal.
And it weren't ideal with me not being fully fit.
So I did it till the end of that season.
And then I actually left them for about 18 months.
I went to watch rugby.
(24:23):
If I'm honest, I got into rugby union.
I watched the Robben Titans and Tigers up at door.
And then I went to watch the reserves for one night.
One summer, I'd gone to watch a game.
I don't know why.
And Shutty was there.
And obviously, Shutty worked with Ian Swallow.
He was a pro cricketer, still playing cricket at a good level
on a Saturday.
So he was missing till the summer.
(24:43):
So Shutty just said, will you come and help me till pre-season?
I said, yeah, no problem.
Did that.
And then when Swallow came back, he said, well,
why don't we all do it together?
So what does it really need to be?
But we did.
And it worked.
We didn't all say things at the same time.
Shutty used to come and he used to be the character
when he'd manage them.
You knew at half time, at some point,
(25:04):
something we're going to get thrown or kicked about.
And the ballon would go, we never knew when.
And me and Swallow just sit and look at one another.
But Shutty would come in and he'd have his turn.
And he'd say, have you got anything to add, G?
Or have you got anything to add, Swallow?
So I'd look at Swallow and shake my head.
And he'd say something or vice versa.
We never.
You don't need three of you.
Because we're all singing off the same hymn sheet anyway,
(25:25):
to be fair, in case anybody had forgot something already.
And it worked.
It worked well.
Again, it's some good success.
We won the league cup association cup.
We were getting lads through.
That was a big thing.
We were getting lads out.
A bit of a connection between the 18s and the reserves.
So anybody that was doing well at 18s come to train with us.
Then they got in the reserve side.
(25:46):
And then hopefully moved up.
And as I said, Shutty, we used to have bets as to when he was
going to lose it, because you knew
we were going to throw something.
I know we beat Kirk Burton in the association cup.
We played it at Portgate.
And we were three and a half at half time.
Danny Jones absolutely destroyed them
up from Ayrton Jones, brother.
And we were working Saturday.
And Shutty had a writing pad.
And he was going through things.
(26:07):
And Michael Finney who played for his big mate, Andy Rings,
nudged Colpain.
But Col was a bit of a character.
He used to have his face on his shin pads, Col, for some reason.
I used to tell him, I said, people will never tie the kicking
you, Col, without putting your name, face on your shin pads.
But yeah.
And Finney nudged him and got him talking.
Finney then sat back.
And then Shutty saw him.
And he absolutely just stole his bloody bucket
(26:29):
and gave him a white ****.
And there was one day we were playing up at Doar.
And we were coming at half time with the HSBC going.
And something had gone wrong.
And one of the lads had ducked out of an header.
And he was absolutely, again, straight after him.
And he was kicking this bag of football.
We went middle at changing rooms.
And he kicked him.
And they kept coming back at him.
And he kept kicking them.
And they kept coming back at him.
(26:50):
And I didn't look at Swalick as how a **** he was.
He eventually managed to.
He just picked him up and threw him across bloody changing
rooms, these balls.
But yeah.
But as we got younger then, because we had the greatest
of all them, we lost some of the players who weren't quite
there for the first team.
But they were good enough to go play in North East counties.
And Steve Adams, who were the under 18s,
managed to go and manage Parkgate.
(27:11):
So he took some of those lads to Parkgate.
So we, Shutty made the decision, really.
You know, at that time, Dave Rhodes,
we were running a good under 16s, 18s team.
He said, all right, we'll play them.
He says, if we go down, we'll come back.
He said, this would be good enough if we get mixed right.
So we put them in.
But anyways, we got younger.
He couldn't handle the lambastons that he used to do
(27:32):
because they were younger lads.
So he adapted in fashion.
I remember one day, because it was one particular season,
and he hadn't lost his temper at all.
And I kept saying to Swallow, I said,
he's going to lose it at some point.
So me and Andy Dawson were playing for us at the time.
He was the captain.
We were sort of having bets as to what game it would be.
We lost the fetch wheel away.
But we were playing at Davies, up Prince of Wales Road
(27:54):
at the time.
And changing rooms were only very small.
I just said to Swallow, I said, I'm taking everything back
to the car, because I said, today's the day.
I said, if it's going to get thrown about,
today's the day.
So I said, I'm putting it in the back of my car,
and get it out of the way.
And I walked back into it towards changing rooms.
And he shut his hands on his knee in the corridor.
I said, you all right?
He said, just leave me.
So I went in.
And he came in, and he was really calm.
(28:16):
He was calm.
He said, listen, I'm not going to debate it now.
We'll talk about it until we get training.
And blah, blah, blah.
And walked out.
And I thought, where the hell?
And when I got up at Varsle, I didn't expect that.
He said, if I had walked straight in there,
I could do it off.
But he says, I managed to calm myself before I got in.
But he knew, because they were young lads.
You don't want to destroy them.
So how do you go from doing all this coaching
(28:39):
to becoming the chairman?
Well, I always set myself targets as regards.
I wanted my coaching badges by the time I was 25,
which I got.
I wanted to be coaching by the time I was 35 at some level.
But like I said, by the time I was 40,
I wanted to be doing it at a decent level, whatever
that might mean.
When we got rid of the business, I got more involved.
(28:59):
Because I've always been interested in admin side.
I've always done secretary's job.
I was secretary for the reserves.
I worked with the reserves.
I was on the county senior committee.
I then went on the county FA council.
So I've always been interested in that side.
So I went on our committee.
It starts with Alan Asmitty to get on the firm thing.
And first thing, that's when I started sweeping up.
(29:21):
I said, who's responsible for?
We were playing Sheffield Wednesday preseason.
I don't remember what it was.
There was all sorts of rubbish outside the ground and weeds
and whatever.
And I said, what about tidying up?
Well, the council do that.
I said, well, they don't, do they?
They said, there's weeds all over.
No, it's not.
I said, no.
So if people are coming to Stocks Bridge,
they'll not come and stand in the queue at Turnstile
and think council haven't done that.
(29:41):
They'll think Stocks Bridge is a ****, isn't it?
Barks deal.
So I set myself off doing that, doing outside the ground.
So I said I went on the committee doing that and other tasks.
So my remit on that, which I set on myself,
was keeping the outside of the ground
and the inside the path, et cetera.
Alan and another chap used to do the changing rooms.
And then Alan Bethlen, Alan Fields then used to do the changing rooms.
(30:02):
And then Alan Bethlen packed up with it.
Obviously, we were getting older.
So me and Alan Fields then did the changing rooms.
So then we're doing inside and outside.
So that's where we are with that.
And then as Alan was getting older, and he used to say to me,
I'm not as sharp as I used to be.
So he used to involve me with different meetings
and, you know, wherever we were going,
technically different things to help him.
(30:22):
I didn't just go from there.
Then I ended up being vice chair.
I've never asked for any of these jobs, by the way.
They've always asked me to take them on.
I've never put myself forward.
But I ended up as vice chairman then.
And then Alan, I was with Jack Newton's funeral.
We were still talking to my wife exactly.
And then he was saying, he said, I'm not as sharp as I were,
but I'm not ready for stepping down.
And he pointed at me and he went, he's not ready for stepping up.
(30:45):
So I don't want to step up.
So I'm all right doing what I'm doing.
I said, I've always told you I'll coach until I'm 60.
I said, I'm not 60 yet, unless you take that.
And then a couple of months later, he came into the meeting
and bumped all his stuff on the desk and went, I've finished.
That's what he means, I've done.
I said, well, I'm not taking it on.
And we had a bit of a ding dong, which weren't the first one.
But we had a bit of a ding dong.
He agreed to stay on till the May.
(31:06):
And I said, I'll take it on.
But I said, I'm not packing up with Shutter yet,
because I'm not 60 yet.
But he wanted to steal the treasure.
So he carried on with that.
And I swear to God, he did it in name for a year,
although Alan really was still pulling strings
because he's got praise.
And then he stepped down from that, and then I took over.
But I always say, when I got to 60, I'd back up coaching.
I said, nobody wants to see me coach at 60.
(31:29):
I've had my time.
I enjoyed it.
But somebody else had to go.
So I said, I'll do it for five years.
This is my sixth.
I'm still here.
Even Buddy thinks that's a joke.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Hi.
I tell you, it's enjoyable.
As I said, I've always enjoyed that side.
It's a challenge.
It's the different challenges.
(31:50):
You have the challenges while you're coaching.
The different challenges.
I mean, we didn't take a bit of COVID or any of that coming in.
I mean, what you do do, and we are doing and have done,
you surround yourself with good people.
And that makes your job easier.
You know, we inherited a bit of a 30-year mindset.
Whereas we can't, we don't.
We never have.
We've got away from that now.
(32:11):
And if it wants to do it, we try to do it.
But you've got the constraint financially.
But we do what we do.
I mean, my initial, you know, I said,
if we can be in five years, if we can get promotion and sustainability,
brilliant.
And I'll step down and let somebody better take it to the next level.
If we don't, I'll step down and let somebody have a go.
We nearly did it.
Hopefully, we'll get there.
Hopefully, we're doing it.
You know, we'll keep trying.
(32:33):
But we've got good people come on now.
You know, you've got, you know, younger people, your Dave's and your lawyers,
yourself coming with me.
Your Roger does a great job with vice chairman.
We're all working together, don't we?
I remember Sean Andeside saying to me when I first came up,
then he went, Mr. Chairman, I went, oh, we're not into that.
I said, I'm not here for ego.
I said, I'm here.
We're working together.
If you want to take it somewhere, we've got to work together.
(32:54):
I said, me without players and players without physios and committee,
you know, and people working behind the scenes.
And, you know, such as Alan Wilson doing bloody work, you know,
maintenance work and your Mick going ground and Roger doing ground
and Bill Fields end, you know, Alan Fields end.
We've all got to be in it together if we're going to move forward.
(33:15):
I'm a big believer in that.
I like that at work.
I had a mechanic at work.
Didn't tell him I was a mechanic because I know a bugger all about
mechanicking.
He knew what we needed to make the thing operate, you know,
and it works.
I had good drivers at work.
If you surround yourself with good people, then hopefully you can
take it forward.
So would you say that you're very happy with your six years?
Yeah, yeah.
Frustrating at times.
(33:36):
I mean, I get, I have a couple of hats on really because I look at it
from Ian's point of view and what a manager needs,
but I've got to look at it from a chairman's point of view and what
we can provide without killing the club.
And it's hell of a job trying to keep the balls in the air because
it's well, publicized, you know, that our income streams are limited.
We're very limited.
So we've got to try and keep the balls in the air, try our best.
(33:57):
We're here.
And I mean, I was lucky when I took over when Chris was here because
first job we had to do was reduce his budget and he took it on the
chin and he made it work and he made it fit.
And prior to Covid coming, you know, we were six in the division and
he made it work and he ends up coming, he knows the club.
I mean, obviously Ian and Ringy played for Burt and myself when we were here.
So they know what the club's about and they've taken it and, you know,
(34:18):
they're trying to make it work.
And I said two years since, you know, we nearly made it happen.
We didn't expect, when I said about five years, we didn't expect losing
18 months to Covid and all that, all the problems.
And I think, you know, you go back, as I say, I go back to when me and
Burt were doing it.
They split the division that year.
We sort of finished about 12th, I think it was, or 15th, something like that.
And the top, I think the top 12, they rejigged it all.
(34:40):
So your Chorleys, your Geisleys, you know, there were some big sides in there.
That cliff, they all went up a division and they rejigged it all around.
There were some good sides, but there were good crowds as well.
You know, your Chesters, your Manchesters, they were bringing.
And it makes a massive difference to your income.
And obviously on the back, I mean, when I first joined up there in 97,
they just sold Lee Mills for 40 odd grand.
(35:01):
And then there were, you know, fortunately, other ones, Simon Marples, all that.
So they got added income coming in and they got the backing of the steelworks
at the time, full-time groundsmen.
Anything that broke, just getting in touch with steelworks and it got mended.
We haven't got that luxury now.
It's all down to us, really.
Everything, you know, since Covid, all the costs have more or less doubled.
So it has been a challenge, as they say, it's a different challenge,
(35:22):
but it's enjoyable. It's a challenge that we're doing.
Some days it's not enjoyable.
I wake up and think, what the bloody hell am I doing?
But I suppose everybody does that in their job, don't they?
Absolutely.
So coming towards the end now, but we do have this little feature
that we're hoping to do, that the budget seems to agree with.
That's going to be my nightmare, editing this.
So this last feature is called Free People.
So I'm going to mention three different people who we've all talked about already today.
(35:44):
And it's your opportunity to say something about.
So the first one is Alan Bethell.
Without Alan Bethell, there's no Stocksbridge.
He had that vision to create it with the juniors, started it off in 1986 and built it.
Without him, there wouldn't be a Stocksbridge.
And I say we've had some battles.
Alan's Alan, everybody knows Alan, you know, and he's fiery.
But Alan were fired because he'd defend the club up to the hill.
(36:05):
And he wanted the best for the club.
I remember one day when there were a lad called Mark Todd used to play for Fursitium,
ex-Sheffield United, ex-Manyan United, Irish lad, middle-up Park, great player.
At the time, Alan used to stand at the front of the stand leaning on that corrugated sheeting.
And he's shouting abuse at Toddy one day.
And Toddy just passed ball to somebody else and turned round and they were in a right ding-dong.
What game's going off around it?
(36:26):
Yeah, he didn't hold back Alan.
But yeah, I mean, fantastic, as I say.
Without Alan, there's no club.
And he got the vision to get across the road, done as well with the pitches,
to battle out for that.
But for all we've had battles here, you know, I respect him up to the hill
because he's done a great job up there.
The next one is another one we've talked about, Steve Schott.
Schott, yeah.
Oh, fantastic for the club.
Great servant for the club, great player.
(36:47):
Led the side to all, not necessarily captain, but led on the pitch to all the successful years.
I mean, only he was lucky because he had a group of players that were a good age,
that came through with him and came through from North East counties into the Northern Prem.
And he were lucky because a lot of them were local.
I mean, Swal played, Swal played middle of the park.
And Swal was one of these people that, he never said much.
(37:08):
You know, when I said about the three of us being in the changing rooms,
you know, if he didn't say anything, I did.
But if he said something, he was absolutely spot on.
You know, brilliant.
Didn't run away, he was absolutely bang on.
And that's how he played.
He was a tidy player, good player.
Shutter, led in there, tattled, you know, he could pass.
Took the reserves, done like a duck to water, you know,
(37:30):
because it gets it, because it's been there, you know, it promotes good habits.
And that's what you want.
And like I said, I was determined that, I was surprised when Stoke Street,
like Trevor Jones, walk away because Trevor was a good player for first team.
And I always thought with the young lads I had, when I'd moved up, he could have,
he could have got, well, before I got to the reserves,
I always thought he could have been a good reserve manager
(37:51):
because he could have played and developed those young lads,
some of those young lads I had.
But he left, I was determined that Shutter weren't going to leave like that
because I knew how valuable he'd be for that club and he stayed there.
How many years were they here?
I mean, we've been packed up four years since.
And he always said if I finished, he would.
I was disappointed, but we'd probably done enough to be fair.
But yeah, great servant for the club, got it, could play, could manage,
(38:12):
superb and had some great times with him, yeah.
Finally, Wayne Biggins.
Wayne Biggins, oh, what a character.
I mean, again, we're still playing, he was playing,
not necessarily when I first got up there, obviously, because we were still playing pro.
But then when he came in and played and then he was dual manager with Mick.
And then when we took over, you know, he still had to be on the bench
(38:33):
or playing as part of the budget.
But he was 41, you know, he was 41 at the time.
So he'd like play first half or come on for the last half for now.
Probably be the best player on the park, probably be the first one up in bar.
We used to go order two pints, drink first one while they were pouring second one.
And then it was game on.
Yeah, we've had some good times up there, to be fair.
Different, you know, different days then.
(38:55):
But again, just the quality he brought to it, but the humour he brought to it,
the atmosphere he brought to the changing rooms.
Brilliant. I remember in one day, I was doing the rubs.
We had a player called Gary Middleton who was so perfect for us.
I think we only had, I think he was the only player on contract when we were managing
and he never missed a game, Gary.
Center half, tough as old books.
(39:15):
I used to have to rub him with bloody Tiger balm before every game.
So Bert's getting ready to get ready and he's just dancing about.
And I'm thinking in five minutes, ten minutes, he's got to do a team talk here.
But that's what he went, you know, he brought that character to changing room,
but he got it and he knew everybody in the world.
I mean, we played Man City pre-season one year
because you were a big mate of Paul Power.
They played together at City.
(39:36):
And they brought like Smitell, like Phillips, you know, that calibre of youth.
And we were doing great, it was a red hot day, absolutely steaming red hot.
And we were doing great, I think we were 2-1 down,
we were about half an hour to go, 20 minutes to go.
And they put their subs on and then we never soaked ball then.
They passed it for fun.
But he knew everybody, he knew everybody in the world, you know, and met that with a...
(39:57):
Cos he'd been there and done it. 150 league goals.
But yeah, fantastic character.
And I say, you can't take that from me, what I've done.
And I say, you know, when you first start coaching, you want to do it pro.
I won't change anything.
I won't change anything what's happened, going through.
It's been fantastic.
It still is, you know, still meeting people, still meet great people.
(40:18):
And like you said, you know, I go with most person as well.
I'm somebody you know, but that's because I'm getting older.
You know what, I don't think there is a better sentiment to end on than that.
So thank you very much for joining us for the very first episode of Steel's Talk.
You've been brilliant, Graham. Thank you very much.
And so, and Sky says the same.
Thank you.
(40:39):
And Graham Furn.
Well, that was absolutely brilliant.
And thank you to Graham Furness for spending his time with us
and sharing so many fantastic stories.
We're not sure what you've been listening to us on, but whatever it is,
please subscribe, like, follow, or whatever it is
that makes sure you can listen to our next episode as soon as it comes out.
(41:03):
I've been your host Adam O'Croft,
and I look forward to bringing you another episode of Steel's Talk.
Hello and welcome to the very first episode of Steel's Talk, the official Stocksbridge
(00:22):
Park Steel's podcast. I'm your host Adam Alcroft and thank you very much for listening.
So what is this podcast going to be? Well every fortnight I'll be talking to a notable
figure from Stocksbridge history, whether that be a current player, a club legend or
even a volunteer. There are so many brilliant people who have contributed to this club and
we hope to give them the spotlight using this podcast. But for this episode there was only
(00:45):
one option for the first of the guests. Graham Furness has been the chairman of Stocksbridge
Park Steel for six years now and he has also been served in several different roles but
he also has an incredible history in grassroots football and is a brilliant sweeper, though
that doesn't mean he's Franz Beckenbauer. Unfortunately we did have some audio issues
and also my attempt at keeping a rogue budgie quiet didn't quite work but I hope that doesn't
(01:08):
distract from all the brilliant stories Graham told me. Well, the ones we can broadcast anyway.
Enjoy!
So welcome Graham to the very first episode of Steel's Talk.
Brilliant, yeah, welcome Adam, thank you for having me.
(01:30):
So we were going to talk about a lot of your different roles that you've had at Stocksbridge
but the most important question about your most important role, what's the ideal broom
for sweeping up?
Oh, you need an extendable broom, Adam, and then you can adjust it if you're doing the
steps, it's essential.
(01:50):
But in all seriousness, you've had about 50,000 roles at Stocksbridge but we'll just talk
about this either just for a few moments, how do you think it's been going so far?
Yeah, it's been a great start, Adam, you know, obviously we had all the turnover didn't we
during the summer and nobody knew how that was going to work out and credit to the management,
they put a good squad together again, a squad that's together amongst themselves, work for
(02:14):
each other, which is what Ian does.
So just at the time we called in, we've had a bit of turnover again, Alex Hardwick,
Joe Silver, Jack Atlam, all gone in the last week, is this when you're not that concerned?
You know, I mean, there's not a lot we could do about two of them, to be fair, we knew
Jack was going to go, obviously he's emigrated with his family to Australia and we wish him
(02:36):
well in that.
I did suggest he might get divorced or wait till the end of the season but he won't having
it.
But yeah, I mean, you know, credit to the lad who came in this summer and he had an
effect straight away.
But yeah, they've gone away to Australia and good luck to him.
I mean, Joe, his parent club have fetched him back, they wanted him back amongst themselves
but that wouldn't have been their fair stepping on that one.
(02:58):
But he's gone back, there's nothing we could do to stop that and in fairness to Alex, he's
had an offer that he cannot turn down.
I know earlier this season he's turned offers down from other clubs to stay with it because
he enjoyed what he was doing at our club but it comes a time for young lads with it, they
just can't turn it down.
You know, it's a great offer for him.
So good luck to him, it's a step up, it's not as though he's moved sideways or backwards,
(03:22):
it's a step up and hopefully he'll grasp it and move up, keep going.
Good luck to him.
It's frustrating for me.
Does it make your life feel a lot easier and a bit more relaxed when you know Ian's rebuilt
this side a few times already and that he's probably going to be able to do it again?
I don't know, he'll be looking.
He'll be looking in the right areas to bring the right people in and not do it for the
(03:43):
sake of doing it.
Obviously at this stage of the season it's harder than it is in the summer but I'm sure
he'll get round to doing it.
Obviously goal scorers are harder to find or bring in than some of the other positions
in the team but I have every confidence it'll do it.
And obviously not only that, the lads are still there.
You know, it's up to them now to step up and come in and do the job.
(04:08):
You've got to be Dan and Anders, you know, you've got Jack Morris, you've got Oliver's,
you've got Tommy Marshall's, they've got to step up to it.
They're young enough, they're good enough, they're proving this season that they're good
enough so they'll get their chance.
Oliver Novak, getting great reviews about Oliver Novak on loan at Rossington.
He might not have a chance for him to come back and get involved.
You know, I've got his finger on that, he knows what it's scripted so I'm not too worried
(04:31):
about that.
Well before we get, make Ian's head a bit too big.
Yeah, I don't want to bull him up, I might have to pay him more.
I want to talk about something, anyone who knows you at the ground will know that you
seem to know absolutely everyone.
I think it's the case, you know, I'm of an age, I've been around a long time so I've
(04:52):
met a lot of people, Adam.
But when you've been ageing it seems like you have done a lot in that age.
Been playing senior football for 50 years.
So you know, your paths cross with players and referees and managers and I'm even getting
lads now that are coming, well lads that played for me when they were 15 and out there were
(05:14):
their 15 and 18 year old sons, you know.
So you think, where the hell am I, I must be getting old.
And that's something I want to talk to you about, I'd say, is that Sheffield grass roots
scene over the last 50 years, you know, the Sunday league when it was all the pub teams
and some of all these youth teams, because you have done everything from coming through
as a player to coaching and then being here as the chairman of Stocksbridge.
(05:36):
Yeah, I mean I started playing senior football when I was 15.
Got my name on the back of the green and I squirted two goals in the Sports and Athletic
League when I was 15.
First game I played, played Sundays.
I was a secretary for one of the local pub teams when I was 16 for the Sunday sides.
So yeah, I've been about a bit.
(05:57):
So what year was this in, was this in the 70s?
This would be 70s, yeah.
So to 74 or 5.
So what was it, because for me this is a completely alien thing compared to what I've seen now,
what was it like playing in those teams in the 70s on the fields for a pub team or just
a local grass roots team?
It was tough.
You know, you had to grow up, there weren't many junior teams.
(06:20):
So you're up against proper footballers, especially Sundays, because you've got some good players
on a Sunday who were playing semi-pro on a Saturday.
So it was a tough level.
The pitches weren't bad because a lot of the time you were playing on works pitches or
decent pitches, or like they were the odd, when you were playing in parks and whatever,
there were some poor pitches.
(06:42):
Getting changed in Concord Park in a wooden hut when you first start, that was interesting.
You couldn't shut the door because it was too dark, you couldn't have it on because
the snow was blowing in at certain times.
Because in those days, obviously, you didn't get games called off.
You went on a nice road, there's a flake of snow or there's a bit of ice, you played
it and you put rubber studs on and you played.
(07:03):
I remember one game we were playing and I was playing centre-off that day and I looked
around and left-back weren't there.
I thought, where's he gone?
And when I looked he was stood at the back of a tree shivering his do-doors off.
He was at a corner, he'd gone off, he wanted a thin bloke and he was feeling it.
He just buggered off at the back of a tree because it was snowing horizontal.
So, yeah, you played and it was tough.
(07:27):
You learnt, but you learnt quickly.
As I got a little bit older I played with some good players and you picked some good
habits up from these players.
But you had to learn or get kicked to death.
Which team were you playing for?
I played local, High Green Villa, I played for a couple of...
When I first started, I used to play for school in the morning and I played for my brother-in-law's
(07:49):
team in the afternoon.
I was at Sheffield Wednesday when I was younger, but that's a different story.
I was never going to be dedicated enough or confident enough to make it at that level.
And I just wanted to play, Adam.
I didn't play for anybody.
I used to train with everybody every night, whoever it was.
I remember one day I played one Saturday for my brother-in-law's side.
I think it was against Sheffield Brick.
(08:10):
And then the week after we hadn't got a game, but one of the lads that played on a Sunday,
he just said to me, he says, we're struggling for a team next Saturday, can you help us
out?
I said, no, I can't play.
And ironically, it was against Sheffield Brick.
And we'd been playing about 20 minutes and then this defender looked at me and he went,
I'm out you last week.
Last week, aren't I?
Can you?
I says, who did you play?
He says, oh, Sonny from High Green Villa.
(08:31):
I says, oh, my brother plays with them.
I says, it'd probably be him.
Don't even mind, I've got a brother.
But yeah, you just turned out.
You wanted to play.
I didn't take it that seriously, if I'm honest.
So I just played.
I wanted to play.
I played at an higher level at Sundays later on.
I realised, you know, it was a tough game.
I was a bit of a wimp.
But we had such a good social side of it when I was playing with the lads that I was playing
(08:54):
with.
They were older than me.
Some of them were older than me, five, six, seven years older than me.
I was just coming through.
And funnily enough, I was out with some of them last Saturday, you know, they're in the
seventies now, but I still see them.
But with a great social side.
So, you know, that was it for me.
Enjoying it.
Play, have a drink.
Do you think that was the important thing back then?
Was that social side because pubs were much more important to life back then, it seems
(09:20):
from everything I've heard anyway.
I'm not old enough to know it.
And do you think because obviously you don't have the internet or anything like that, that
was the important part?
Yeah, and even professionally.
At that era, they played and they had a drink and they had a drinking afternoon after training.
And that was a bit of a culture.
I'm not saying it was a massive drinking culture, but the social side was all part of it.
(09:41):
But also we've got to remember when we played on a Sunday morning, especially, the pubs
closed at three o'clock.
So when you got back, you had a drink and then everybody went home.
Then you might have gone back out again at night.
Same on a Saturday, you'd all meet back in the pub later on at night.
You know, there was one pub in Hagroom where we always headed back to.
You know, wherever you'd been, you'd go back in there for the last drink.
(10:04):
It was good.
I'd say we'd a great camaraderie with it all.
And still staying in touch now, you know, as I said, 30, 40, 50 years on.
And that was, yeah, it's a big part of it.
You've got to enjoy it.
I just think now, sometimes with the age that some of these youngsters are starting at,
by the time they get to 16, 17, they've lost all that enjoyment.
(10:24):
It's been too much pressure for them.
And they just, you know, if they're not going to make it, if they're not getting to a
pro club or they're not playing at a level, they just stop playing because they've had
it run down their throats since they were seven, eight, nine year old.
Because one of the things that's a bit of an underwritten story is that grassroots
football for men has been slowly dying off.
(10:44):
Sunday league teams are getting less themed and it's all been described because of the
brilliant uptake of women.
But men's football has lessened in popularity on the Sunday game.
And do you think that's part of it?
It's a conversation.
I'm on the FA Council, Sheffield College FA Council.
It's a conversation I've had there saying that it's great that they're promoting ladies
football and women's football.
Great.
(11:05):
But they're taking the eye off the ball as regards adult 11 aside football at weekends.
So I told this, oh, they're playing on a Wednesday and they're playing on a Tuesday
and they took two quidding and there's all these different seven aside leagues.
They're losing adult football.
They've lost a lot of it because, as I said, there were a lot of work teams, there were
a lot of pubs teams.
There aren't that many pubs now for teams to run out of.
(11:25):
A lot of the works in Sheffield have closed down, you know.
You've only to look, when I was first started playing, you couldn't get a pitch.
You were struggling to find a pitch and in Concord Park, they went to pitch spare on
a Saturday.
Eckersfield Park, always full.
If you rode out of High Green towards Concord, there were no pitches.
And now there's plenty of spare pitches.
(11:47):
But there's no pubs.
There's no way to fund it.
I mean, grassroot football, the cost of running a grassroot football club now is astronomical.
By the time you're done with officials and catering insurance, cost of pitches, it's
very difficult.
If you haven't got a base, it's very difficult.
We just have the story in the summer was that Herring Fork playing field in Rovron, which
is famous for Sunday league football.
(12:08):
I don't think there's any teams on it this year.
I think that was the story from the advertising.
I don't doubt it.
I remember when, because I was to play in the Barnsley League as well, for High Green
and Villef, and that was a massive league.
Massive, you know, loads of divisions, Saturday and Sunday, eight, nine, ten divisions, as
was the Rovron League on a Sunday.
And the Barnsley League, when Barnsley got promoted under Danny Wilson to the Premiership,
(12:30):
Barnsley Saturday League folded, finished.
As I say, when I first started playing, you've got a Bible class league, you've got sports
and athletic league, you've got South Yorkshiremichaelig, which I played in, Yorkshire league, Achar league.
And on a Saturday night, I think you've got Doncaster senior, Central Midlands, County
senior.
I think that's your lot on a Saturday.
(12:50):
Oh, you've got the Fair Play league now, which has started up on a Saturday morning, which
is popular because a lot of the lads like to play in that because they can be done and
dusted by half past 12, quarter one, and then go and do whatever they want.
So yeah, thousands of teams disappeared, and some with big names, you know, some good sides.
I mean, again, in the early 70s, the Black Bull side played.
(13:12):
It used to be called the Anglo-Scandia League.
It moved to the Medarol League when Medarol League was a really good league.
A lot of semi-court players in, but Black Bull at Ecclestone had a fantastic side.
I used to follow them because they used to have a coach every week.
My dad used to drive it, and I used to follow them from being a young lad.
There'd been 2,000 down at Tharncliffe to watch their games, but a lot of them played
(13:32):
for Boston.
It was the old envelope-in-a-show-payment job.
They all got paid on a Sunday.
There was one side in that division that their manager, I think he had a double glazing firm,
so all their players had double glazing when it was a new thing.
So they were all getting backhanders, but it was a great standard.
And then you look now, the Medarol League and Under-18s League.
(13:54):
We've talked about grassroots football for men at the moment, it has been reduced a lot.
What do you think would be able to fix it and try and stop changing those numbers going
back up again?
That's a hell of a question, I don't know.
I think they've got to make it more accessible.
I think a lot of the problems now is by the time they've got to 19, 20, 18.
Some of them are fed up of playing football.
(14:17):
They've not made it with the pro clubs, so they get disillusioned with it.
And again, one of the biggest things now, when we were playing, there was a lot of
problems.
There were no shops open on a Sunday.
Pubs opened at 12, 11, 12, shut at 2, 3, and then opened up again now.
There are so many distractions over the weekend that they can be doing other things.
Young lads can earn money over the weekend, Saturday, Sunday working.
(14:38):
Take some change, you know, to try and change those habits, take some doing.
And especially since Covid.
I mean, I think there's been a big drop in young lads wanting to play since Covid, they've
got out of the habit.
So some of that age group from four years since the loss to the game, you've got to
try and adjust it now so that the ones coming through towards 16 want to carry on.
(15:02):
We tried it when I was on the county senior league to try and encourage some of these
Sunday sides to come and play Saturdays, but they're not in that mindset.
They're in the mindset of playing Sundays.
We've got other distractions now, Saturdays.
And especially if Wednesday and United are doing well, they want to go and watch that
or they can watch it on the television, whatever means, home and away.
(15:22):
So it's difficult.
I mean, you know, with our attendances, when Wednesday, it's difficult to get them to come
and watch, never mind play.
We are fortunate in that we've got a good pathway where our lads can come from 18 to
reserves to development to reserves to first team if they're good enough.
So they've got that development and that mindset.
Because although they're playing on the Sunday, a lot of them are playing Saturdays as well
(15:42):
with the reserves they're developing.
A lot of clubs haven't got that.
It's very difficult to try and alter that mindset.
As regards anybody starting teams up now, it's a different stuff from legislation.
People have got to get the coaching badges and the welfare and the DBSs and then they've
(16:04):
got to find a base.
And I mean, you're looking, we always told new clubs if they wanted to come or clubs
that were coming to county senior, you're looking at at least five, six grand a year
and you're looking at the ability to try and generate that money is difficult.
So we've moved on to Stocksbridge Park Steels now.
So we'll talk about that because you've done it.
You've detailed it really well already.
(16:26):
What was every role that you've done at Stocksbridge Park now?
Originally, I was a great team manager.
I turned it down at first.
I've never been very confident.
I've never been very confident and turned it down and they know they've rang me up
and said, let me come and do it.
So I went to do it with somebody else.
I said, well, is that going to be?
(16:47):
It was a bloke called Mark Potts who had been involved at Crosspool and we worked together
and it was absolutely brilliant.
Potts was absolutely fantastic.
He'd get players from anywhere.
He'd go and sit in the grandmother's house or their house or whatever and get them to
come and get them to sign and then we'd make them into a team.
The first year we were there, to be honest, we inherited one or two things that weren't
(17:11):
quite right with different things, players, some certain year-olds that we got.
At Christmas, I'll be honest, I would have gone back to it because at that time, I'd
taken my under-15 side, I'd taken them into the middle of the league with the Packers
at High Green and they had a season there with them.
I would have gone back because that year at the Packers, going back to the social side,
I don't know, I'm digressing a bit Adam, but going back to the social side in there,
(17:34):
absolutely fantastic.
A group of lads there that accepted my young lads and they all joked together and everybody
just bounced off one another.
Again, social side.
I've always been a big thing with social side.
I think it's a big thing again, a bit like the end of, you know, you create that team
spirit, that bond.
I went to the Packers for a year.
I went up to Stocksbridge.
(17:55):
That first half at Seidum weren't good.
Having said that, we got through to the final of the cup, we were about fifth in the league,
but it weren't.
It's just a set of lads that I liked, I was used to working with.
But I said to Pottsie, we made our mind up, we said, listen, next year we're doing it
our way and if it's not right, we'll bugger off and if it is, we'll see where we go.
And we brought some lads in.
We had a fantastic season.
We won the league, only like 10 goals in.
(18:17):
There were lads coming through that you could see could progress.
And then the year after we announced it again, Pottsie, again, going and bringing lads in
that you know, you knew you could improve the things within that second year.
We won, I think we won, well we won everything.
We won the league, the cup, first round proper FA Youth Cup.
We had Richard Ashton, John Wordsworth who eventually got into the first team and played
(18:41):
quite a few games.
We lost John to Osset because again, even in them days, it was one friend of his granddad
that promised him the earth, I think, and we lost John to Osset.
Richard Ashton stayed on to play about 60 games.
Ironically, Robert, that released him, and Robert took over, but Richard was a good lad.
And then we had other lads come through, you know, Richard Adams, John Biggs eventually
(19:02):
came through from the reserves.
That rag played some games in the first team.
So yeah, there were some good lads there.
But I came in as 18s, I had three years at that, and then the reserve manager left, and
I moved up to the reserves, and that's when Biggs and them came in.
In my second year I think Biggs came in.
With Biggs and the rag twins.
(19:25):
The reserves prior to me taking over had been relegated, and we finished fourth in Division
One the first season I was in.
I got quite a young side, mixed in with some older ones.
We did alright, but we finished fourth.
And then the second year we brought some younger ones in, who we thought could progress to
the first team, you know.
And again, we finished fourth.
We finished with more points than we did the year before, which would have got us promoted,
(19:47):
but we finished fourth.
But we left in the open, so we brought squad in, Shucky come in then, and eventually he
got them promoted and they had good success in that.
I think one season they won the league.
I don't think they won the league.
They got promoted, they won the Purdy Cup and the Association Cup I think.
But as I said, then Biggs and people like that came through.
Richard Adams came through into the first team.
(20:09):
But then my second season with the reserves finished, the first team at the time were
in the bottom four, five.
We had seven games to go.
And Mikkoen left, which left Wayne Wiggins.
And Wayne asked me to come in and open, because it was the end of the season.
We managed to win five out of seven and stay open.
And then Wayne rang me and said he wanted me to stay on with him with the first team
(20:30):
the year after.
The first question to him was, am I a cheap option?
Because I knew what better look like.
I thought, am I going to be a cheap option?
Did Wayne really want me?
Or did he want to bring something in?
But we got it to him, you know.
He said, no, he wanted me to work with him.
So that was good.
So then I moved up to the first team as assistant.
But in those days, I was assistant, physio, Bert was manager, player.
(20:52):
And there were just the two of us, really, to do the first team.
So it was a lot of work, a lot of pressure.
And we did all right.
To be fair, Adam, we'd never got the strength in depth.
We were always OK for the first half of the season.
And then when injuries and suspensions, et cetera, kicked in, that's when we started
to not struggle, but results didn't go as well as what they had been doing at first
half.
(21:13):
Were you there for the famous 17-1 game, then?
Yes, yeah, yeah, me and Bert were managing that.
Yeah, when we played Oldham Town.
Yeah, that was good.
They were trying to put...
How much did you score that match?
I think they call it an eye line now.
They were playing an eye line for about 90 minutes and we just kept...
Paul Jackson, it was the same pass, same ball every time.
(21:35):
And he scored 10.
I think if we'd have scored another one, we'd have broke the record.
I think we equaled it, didn't we?
You equaled to five.
Paul Jackson definitely equaled the record for most goals scored in a game.
I think we equaled the highest score or something.
We had some good times with some good runs in Cubs that first year.
I think that was the first year when we won 17-1 and we did all right in the Cubs.
Like I say, it was a strength in depth.
I remember one day we played Warkington at home.
(21:56):
And Warkington were managed by Tommy Cassidy, who used to play for Newcastle United.
And he used to fly three lads over from Ireland for their games.
And we played them and we lost.
And Beth were going berserk, you know, that weren't good enough.
I said, Alan, they've got three lads flown in from Ireland.
I said, I'll fetch two lads from Sal de Gring.
I said, that's the bloody difference.
We are where we are.
We played them away.
We beat them away.
(22:17):
So we did have some good results.
And then I think the second year, the second year when we played in the SVA Cup,
we were one game away from getting through to the first round proper.
But we lost to children.
But I wasn't near that day.
My father passed away, unfortunately, early that morning.
So I couldn't go to that game.
But we lost to children.
So we didn't get into that.
We didn't get to it first round proper.
(22:37):
But again, we had some good players.
I think it was when Wayne Begings left.
Did you go back into the reserves?
No, I left before Wayne left, actually, because my father passed away.
And then we worked commitments.
And one thing or another, my mother weren't in the best of health.
And I just couldn't commit.
Whereas my dad used to help me in standing for me at work and whatever.
It was just impossible to try and do it.
And I thought, well, Wayne will bring somebody in.
(22:59):
I mean, he had so many connections in football.
It was unbelievable.
I thought he'd bring somebody in to work with him.
But he did it in house.
He brought Kev Ronan.
Kev Ronan helped him.
Before the end of that season, Wayne packed up as well.
And that's when Pete Winkervich came in then.
So when did you return?
Well, I left them for a while.
I said to Alan, I said, there's things happening at work.
I said, I'll have a break.
(23:21):
I'd been in football.
Well, I said, I started when I was 15.
So I was 43, 44 then.
So I said, I'll have a break.
I'll miss it.
Anyway, Alan being Alan, coming up here with me under 15s.
So I said, well, I'll come and do some coaching at training.
But I said, I'm not coming Sundays.
I said, Sundays is a bad day for me with work.
(23:41):
I think I missed one game on a Sunday.
We did all right.
We finished third, I think, in that division.
And then Alan stepped back then when they got to 16.
Alan decided to step back and leave it to me and one
of the parents, Nick Mallindoe, was ex-pro.
He used to play for the other one.
Nick, I knew Nick from school.
He was a bit older than me at school.
(24:02):
We did it together.
But I was struggling at the time.
I was waiting to go in for a back-up operation.
So I was really struggling to do training and get to games.
But we did it under 16s.
There were some decent ones, but it weren't ideal.
And it weren't ideal with me not being fully fit.
So I did it till the end of that season.
And then I actually left them for about 18 months.
I went to watch rugby.
(24:23):
If I'm honest, I got into rugby union.
I watched the Robben Titans and Tigers up at door.
And then I went to watch the reserves for one night.
One summer, I'd gone to watch a game.
I don't know why.
And Shutty was there.
And obviously, Shutty worked with Ian Swallow.
He was a pro cricketer, still playing cricket at a good level
on a Saturday.
So he was missing till the summer.
(24:43):
So Shutty just said, will you come and help me till pre-season?
I said, yeah, no problem.
Did that.
And then when Swallow came back, he said, well,
why don't we all do it together?
So what does it really need to be?
But we did.
And it worked.
We didn't all say things at the same time.
Shutty used to come and he used to be the character
when he'd manage them.
You knew at half time, at some point,
(25:04):
something we're going to get thrown or kicked about.
And the ballon would go, we never knew when.
And me and Swallow just sit and look at one another.
But Shutty would come in and he'd have his turn.
And he'd say, have you got anything to add, G?
Or have you got anything to add, Swallow?
So I'd look at Swallow and shake my head.
And he'd say something or vice versa.
We never.
You don't need three of you.
Because we're all singing off the same hymn sheet anyway,
(25:25):
to be fair, in case anybody had forgot something already.
And it worked.
It worked well.
Again, it's some good success.
We won the league cup association cup.
We were getting lads through.
That was a big thing.
We were getting lads out.
A bit of a connection between the 18s and the reserves.
So anybody that was doing well at 18s come to train with us.
Then they got in the reserve side.
(25:46):
And then hopefully moved up.
And as I said, Shutty, we used to have bets as to when he was
going to lose it, because you knew
we were going to throw something.
I know we beat Kirk Burton in the association cup.
We played it at Portgate.
And we were three and a half at half time.
Danny Jones absolutely destroyed them
up from Ayrton Jones, brother.
And we were working Saturday.
And Shutty had a writing pad.
And he was going through things.
(26:07):
And Michael Finney who played for his big mate, Andy Rings,
nudged Colpain.
But Col was a bit of a character.
He used to have his face on his shin pads, Col, for some reason.
I used to tell him, I said, people will never tie the kicking
you, Col, without putting your name, face on your shin pads.
But yeah.
And Finney nudged him and got him talking.
Finney then sat back.
And then Shutty saw him.
And he absolutely just stole his bloody bucket
(26:29):
and gave him a white ****.
And there was one day we were playing up at Doar.
And we were coming at half time with the HSBC going.
And something had gone wrong.
And one of the lads had ducked out of an header.
And he was absolutely, again, straight after him.
And he was kicking this bag of football.
We went middle at changing rooms.
And he kicked him.
And they kept coming back at him.
And he kept kicking them.
And they kept coming back at him.
(26:50):
And I didn't look at Swalick as how a **** he was.
He eventually managed to.
He just picked him up and threw him across bloody changing
rooms, these balls.
But yeah.
But as we got younger then, because we had the greatest
of all them, we lost some of the players who weren't quite
there for the first team.
But they were good enough to go play in North East counties.
And Steve Adams, who were the under 18s,
managed to go and manage Parkgate.
(27:11):
So he took some of those lads to Parkgate.
So we, Shutty made the decision, really.
You know, at that time, Dave Rhodes,
we were running a good under 16s, 18s team.
He said, all right, we'll play them.
He says, if we go down, we'll come back.
He said, this would be good enough if we get mixed right.
So we put them in.
But anyways, we got younger.
He couldn't handle the lambastons that he used to do
(27:32):
because they were younger lads.
So he adapted in fashion.
I remember one day, because it was one particular season,
and he hadn't lost his temper at all.
And I kept saying to Swallow, I said,
he's going to lose it at some point.
So me and Andy Dawson were playing for us at the time.
He was the captain.
We were sort of having bets as to what game it would be.
We lost the fetch wheel away.
But we were playing at Davies, up Prince of Wales Road
(27:54):
at the time.
And changing rooms were only very small.
I just said to Swallow, I said, I'm taking everything back
to the car, because I said, today's the day.
I said, if it's going to get thrown about,
today's the day.
So I said, I'm putting it in the back of my car,
and get it out of the way.
And I walked back into it towards changing rooms.
And he shut his hands on his knee in the corridor.
I said, you all right?
He said, just leave me.
So I went in.
And he came in, and he was really calm.
(28:16):
He was calm.
He said, listen, I'm not going to debate it now.
We'll talk about it until we get training.
And blah, blah, blah.
And walked out.
And I thought, where the hell?
And when I got up at Varsle, I didn't expect that.
He said, if I had walked straight in there,
I could do it off.
But he says, I managed to calm myself before I got in.
But he knew, because they were young lads.
You don't want to destroy them.
So how do you go from doing all this coaching
(28:39):
to becoming the chairman?
Well, I always set myself targets as regards.
I wanted my coaching badges by the time I was 25,
which I got.
I wanted to be coaching by the time I was 35 at some level.
But like I said, by the time I was 40,
I wanted to be doing it at a decent level, whatever
that might mean.
When we got rid of the business, I got more involved.
(28:59):
Because I've always been interested in admin side.
I've always done secretary's job.
I was secretary for the reserves.
I worked with the reserves.
I was on the county senior committee.
I then went on the county FA council.
So I've always been interested in that side.
So I went on our committee.
It starts with Alan Asmitty to get on the firm thing.
And first thing, that's when I started sweeping up.
(29:21):
I said, who's responsible for?
We were playing Sheffield Wednesday preseason.
I don't remember what it was.
There was all sorts of rubbish outside the ground and weeds
and whatever.
And I said, what about tidying up?
Well, the council do that.
I said, well, they don't, do they?
They said, there's weeds all over.
No, it's not.
I said, no.
So if people are coming to Stocks Bridge,
they'll not come and stand in the queue at Turnstile
and think council haven't done that.
(29:41):
They'll think Stocks Bridge is a ****, isn't it?
Barks deal.
So I set myself off doing that, doing outside the ground.
So I said I went on the committee doing that and other tasks.
So my remit on that, which I set on myself,
was keeping the outside of the ground
and the inside the path, et cetera.
Alan and another chap used to do the changing rooms.
And then Alan Bethlen, Alan Fields then used to do the changing rooms.
(30:02):
And then Alan Bethlen packed up with it.
Obviously, we were getting older.
So me and Alan Fields then did the changing rooms.
So then we're doing inside and outside.
So that's where we are with that.
And then as Alan was getting older, and he used to say to me,
I'm not as sharp as I used to be.
So he used to involve me with different meetings
and, you know, wherever we were going,
technically different things to help him.
(30:22):
I didn't just go from there.
Then I ended up being vice chair.
I've never asked for any of these jobs, by the way.
They've always asked me to take them on.
I've never put myself forward.
But I ended up as vice chairman then.
And then Alan, I was with Jack Newton's funeral.
We were still talking to my wife exactly.
And then he was saying, he said, I'm not as sharp as I were,
but I'm not ready for stepping down.
And he pointed at me and he went, he's not ready for stepping up.
(30:45):
So I don't want to step up.
So I'm all right doing what I'm doing.
I said, I've always told you I'll coach until I'm 60.
I said, I'm not 60 yet, unless you take that.
And then a couple of months later, he came into the meeting
and bumped all his stuff on the desk and went, I've finished.
That's what he means, I've done.
I said, well, I'm not taking it on.
And we had a bit of a ding dong, which weren't the first one.
But we had a bit of a ding dong.
He agreed to stay on till the May.
(31:06):
And I said, I'll take it on.
But I said, I'm not packing up with Shutter yet,
because I'm not 60 yet.
But he wanted to steal the treasure.
So he carried on with that.
And I swear to God, he did it in name for a year,
although Alan really was still pulling strings
because he's got praise.
And then he stepped down from that, and then I took over.
But I always say, when I got to 60, I'd back up coaching.
I said, nobody wants to see me coach at 60.
(31:29):
I've had my time.
I enjoyed it.
But somebody else had to go.
So I said, I'll do it for five years.
This is my sixth.
I'm still here.
Even Buddy thinks that's a joke.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Hi.
I tell you, it's enjoyable.
As I said, I've always enjoyed that side.
It's a challenge.
It's the different challenges.
(31:50):
You have the challenges while you're coaching.
The different challenges.
I mean, we didn't take a bit of COVID or any of that coming in.
I mean, what you do do, and we are doing and have done,
you surround yourself with good people.
And that makes your job easier.
You know, we inherited a bit of a 30-year mindset.
Whereas we can't, we don't.
We never have.
We've got away from that now.
(32:11):
And if it wants to do it, we try to do it.
But you've got the constraint financially.
But we do what we do.
I mean, my initial, you know, I said,
if we can be in five years, if we can get promotion and sustainability,
brilliant.
And I'll step down and let somebody better take it to the next level.
If we don't, I'll step down and let somebody have a go.
We nearly did it.
Hopefully, we'll get there.
Hopefully, we're doing it.
You know, we'll keep trying.
(32:33):
But we've got good people come on now.
You know, you've got, you know, younger people, your Dave's and your lawyers,
yourself coming with me.
Your Roger does a great job with vice chairman.
We're all working together, don't we?
I remember Sean Andeside saying to me when I first came up,
then he went, Mr. Chairman, I went, oh, we're not into that.
I said, I'm not here for ego.
I said, I'm here.
We're working together.
If you want to take it somewhere, we've got to work together.
(32:54):
I said, me without players and players without physios and committee,
you know, and people working behind the scenes.
And, you know, such as Alan Wilson doing bloody work, you know,
maintenance work and your Mick going ground and Roger doing ground
and Bill Fields end, you know, Alan Fields end.
We've all got to be in it together if we're going to move forward.
(33:15):
I'm a big believer in that.
I like that at work.
I had a mechanic at work.
Didn't tell him I was a mechanic because I know a bugger all about
mechanicking.
He knew what we needed to make the thing operate, you know,
and it works.
I had good drivers at work.
If you surround yourself with good people, then hopefully you can
take it forward.
So would you say that you're very happy with your six years?
Yeah, yeah.
Frustrating at times.
(33:36):
I mean, I get, I have a couple of hats on really because I look at it
from Ian's point of view and what a manager needs,
but I've got to look at it from a chairman's point of view and what
we can provide without killing the club.
And it's hell of a job trying to keep the balls in the air because
it's well, publicized, you know, that our income streams are limited.
We're very limited.
So we've got to try and keep the balls in the air, try our best.
(33:57):
We're here.
And I mean, I was lucky when I took over when Chris was here because
first job we had to do was reduce his budget and he took it on the
chin and he made it work and he made it fit.
And prior to Covid coming, you know, we were six in the division and
he made it work and he ends up coming, he knows the club.
I mean, obviously Ian and Ringy played for Burt and myself when we were here.
So they know what the club's about and they've taken it and, you know,
(34:18):
they're trying to make it work.
And I said two years since, you know, we nearly made it happen.
We didn't expect, when I said about five years, we didn't expect losing
18 months to Covid and all that, all the problems.
And I think, you know, you go back, as I say, I go back to when me and
Burt were doing it.
They split the division that year.
We sort of finished about 12th, I think it was, or 15th, something like that.
And the top, I think the top 12, they rejigged it all.
(34:40):
So your Chorleys, your Geisleys, you know, there were some big sides in there.
That cliff, they all went up a division and they rejigged it all around.
There were some good sides, but there were good crowds as well.
You know, your Chesters, your Manchesters, they were bringing.
And it makes a massive difference to your income.
And obviously on the back, I mean, when I first joined up there in 97,
they just sold Lee Mills for 40 odd grand.
(35:01):
And then there were, you know, fortunately, other ones, Simon Marples, all that.
So they got added income coming in and they got the backing of the steelworks
at the time, full-time groundsmen.
Anything that broke, just getting in touch with steelworks and it got mended.
We haven't got that luxury now.
It's all down to us, really.
Everything, you know, since Covid, all the costs have more or less doubled.
So it has been a challenge, as they say, it's a different challenge,
(35:22):
but it's enjoyable. It's a challenge that we're doing.
Some days it's not enjoyable.
I wake up and think, what the bloody hell am I doing?
But I suppose everybody does that in their job, don't they?
Absolutely.
So coming towards the end now, but we do have this little feature
that we're hoping to do, that the budget seems to agree with.
That's going to be my nightmare, editing this.
So this last feature is called Free People.
So I'm going to mention three different people who we've all talked about already today.
(35:44):
And it's your opportunity to say something about.
So the first one is Alan Bethell.
Without Alan Bethell, there's no Stocksbridge.
He had that vision to create it with the juniors, started it off in 1986 and built it.
Without him, there wouldn't be a Stocksbridge.
And I say we've had some battles.
Alan's Alan, everybody knows Alan, you know, and he's fiery.
But Alan were fired because he'd defend the club up to the hill.
(36:05):
And he wanted the best for the club.
I remember one day when there were a lad called Mark Todd used to play for Fursitium,
ex-Sheffield United, ex-Manyan United, Irish lad, middle-up Park, great player.
At the time, Alan used to stand at the front of the stand leaning on that corrugated sheeting.
And he's shouting abuse at Toddy one day.
And Toddy just passed ball to somebody else and turned round and they were in a right ding-dong.
What game's going off around it?
(36:26):
Yeah, he didn't hold back Alan.
But yeah, I mean, fantastic, as I say.
Without Alan, there's no club.
And he got the vision to get across the road, done as well with the pitches,
to battle out for that.
But for all we've had battles here, you know, I respect him up to the hill
because he's done a great job up there.
The next one is another one we've talked about, Steve Schott.
Schott, yeah.
Oh, fantastic for the club.
Great servant for the club, great player.
(36:47):
Led the side to all, not necessarily captain, but led on the pitch to all the successful years.
I mean, only he was lucky because he had a group of players that were a good age,
that came through with him and came through from North East counties into the Northern Prem.
And he were lucky because a lot of them were local.
I mean, Swal played, Swal played middle of the park.
And Swal was one of these people that, he never said much.
(37:08):
You know, when I said about the three of us being in the changing rooms,
you know, if he didn't say anything, I did.
But if he said something, he was absolutely spot on.
You know, brilliant.
Didn't run away, he was absolutely bang on.
And that's how he played.
He was a tidy player, good player.
Shutter, led in there, tattled, you know, he could pass.
Took the reserves, done like a duck to water, you know,
(37:30):
because it gets it, because it's been there, you know, it promotes good habits.
And that's what you want.
And like I said, I was determined that, I was surprised when Stoke Street,
like Trevor Jones, walk away because Trevor was a good player for first team.
And I always thought with the young lads I had, when I'd moved up, he could have,
he could have got, well, before I got to the reserves,
I always thought he could have been a good reserve manager
(37:51):
because he could have played and developed those young lads,
some of those young lads I had.
But he left, I was determined that Shutter weren't going to leave like that
because I knew how valuable he'd be for that club and he stayed there.
How many years were they here?
I mean, we've been packed up four years since.
And he always said if I finished, he would.
I was disappointed, but we'd probably done enough to be fair.
But yeah, great servant for the club, got it, could play, could manage,
(38:12):
superb and had some great times with him, yeah.
Finally, Wayne Biggins.
Wayne Biggins, oh, what a character.
I mean, again, we're still playing, he was playing,
not necessarily when I first got up there, obviously, because we were still playing pro.
But then when he came in and played and then he was dual manager with Mick.
And then when we took over, you know, he still had to be on the bench
(38:33):
or playing as part of the budget.
But he was 41, you know, he was 41 at the time.
So he'd like play first half or come on for the last half for now.
Probably be the best player on the park, probably be the first one up in bar.
We used to go order two pints, drink first one while they were pouring second one.
And then it was game on.
Yeah, we've had some good times up there, to be fair.
Different, you know, different days then.
(38:55):
But again, just the quality he brought to it, but the humour he brought to it,
the atmosphere he brought to the changing rooms.
Brilliant. I remember in one day, I was doing the rubs.
We had a player called Gary Middleton who was so perfect for us.
I think we only had, I think he was the only player on contract when we were managing
and he never missed a game, Gary.
Center half, tough as old books.
(39:15):
I used to have to rub him with bloody Tiger balm before every game.
So Bert's getting ready to get ready and he's just dancing about.
And I'm thinking in five minutes, ten minutes, he's got to do a team talk here.
But that's what he went, you know, he brought that character to changing room,
but he got it and he knew everybody in the world.
I mean, we played Man City pre-season one year
because you were a big mate of Paul Power.
They played together at City.
(39:36):
And they brought like Smitell, like Phillips, you know, that calibre of youth.
And we were doing great, it was a red hot day, absolutely steaming red hot.
And we were doing great, I think we were 2-1 down,
we were about half an hour to go, 20 minutes to go.
And they put their subs on and then we never soaked ball then.
They passed it for fun.
But he knew everybody, he knew everybody in the world, you know, and met that with a...
(39:57):
Cos he'd been there and done it. 150 league goals.
But yeah, fantastic character.
And I say, you can't take that from me, what I've done.
And I say, you know, when you first start coaching, you want to do it pro.
I won't change anything.
I won't change anything what's happened, going through.
It's been fantastic.
It still is, you know, still meeting people, still meet great people.
(40:18):
And like you said, you know, I go with most person as well.
I'm somebody you know, but that's because I'm getting older.
You know what, I don't think there is a better sentiment to end on than that.
So thank you very much for joining us for the very first episode of Steel's Talk.
You've been brilliant, Graham. Thank you very much.
And so, and Sky says the same.
Thank you.
(40:39):
And Graham Furn.
Well, that was absolutely brilliant.
And thank you to Graham Furness for spending his time with us
and sharing so many fantastic stories.
We're not sure what you've been listening to us on, but whatever it is,
please subscribe, like, follow, or whatever it is
that makes sure you can listen to our next episode as soon as it comes out.
(41:03):
I've been your host Adam O'Croft,
and I look forward to bringing you another episode of Steel's Talk.
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.