By Gavan Bergin
Towards the end of the 1937/38 season Bill Fallon moved from Notts County to Sheffield Wednesday. When he arrived at Wednesday they were mired at the bottom of Division Two, deep in relegation trouble with only ten games of the season to go. Ten games to save themselves – it wasn’t much, but it was enough for Bill.
On March 19th 1938, he made his Sheffield Wednesday debut in a 0-1 defeat against Barnsley at Hillsborough. That was a hard way to start but Bill handled it well. He played a good game that day, and over the next few weeks his wing brilliance got Wednesday scoring goals and winning games again.
On March 26th 1938, he scored his first goal for Wednesday, earning them a 2-2 draw against Luton Town. That draw ended a run of four straight defeats and it started them on a four-game unbeaten run.
On April 2nd 1938, Wednesday beat Coventry City 2-1. A week later they won 1-0 at Nottingham Forest. A week after that, on April 16th 1938, they beat Newcastle 3-0. Three wins in a row! That winning run moved them up to eighteenth in the league, out of the relegation places.
At that stage, it seemed that the job was done, but then they went three games without winning. That bad run of form dropped them down the league, into the relegation zone again. And they were still down there when they got to the last two games of the season. And if they were going to survive, Wednesday needed big performances from their best players in those games.
On April 30th 1938, Wednesday played Burnley at home, and Bill certainly did perform in that game. He was disciplined and efficient on the wing, passing and crossing the ball for the strikers to score the goals that won the game, 2-1. One down, one to go!
That win moved Wednesday back up the league and out of the drop zone, but they weren’t safe yet. It all depended on the final game. Bill had joined them with ten games to go, he had played all of them so far and now there was one left. One game left, for him and the team to play and win. A draw might not be enough and a defeat didn’t bear thinking about. They needed to win!
On May 7th 1938, Wednesday played against Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane. They could hardly have had a tougher game to finish with. Spurs were one of the top teams in the league and they had a fantastic home record, with fourteen wins, three draws, and only three defeats from nineteen games. They weren’t too bad away from home either and had beaten Wednesday 3-0 at Hillsborough early in the season. Now the season was nearly over, and Tottenham were expected to finish with a flourish, with an easy home win against an inferior, relegation-threatened team.
Before the game all the pressure, the tension, and the stress was on Wednesday. But, once they walked out onto the White Hart Lane pitch, everything that had happened before, all the odds and the form, all the previous results and performances, all the games won and lost in the course of the season instantly became irrelevant. As always, once the ball was kicked into motion and the unscripted drama of football began, the past was nothing and the future was the next ninety minutes.
And when the game kicked off, Wednesday looked like they were the team at the top of the league. From the first whistle, they attacked with menace and they quickly took control of the game. Their dominance had a lot to do with Bill. He was superb, using his pace and trickery to torment the Spurs defenders and create openings for his fellow forwards. He started the game in his usual position on the left wing, but soon he started cutting infield and making dashing diagonal runs into the box. Then, in the 6th minute, he set out on one of those runs and, as Wednesday attacked down the right, he sprinted in from the left, and when they crossed the ball into the box, he arrived to take it, control it and shoot it, past the keeper and into the goal.
1-0 to Wednesday!
Now, Wednesday had exactly what they needed. They were a goal up, playing great football, with Bill and the other attackers looking like they owned the place. They didn’t ease off at all after scoring, instead they kept attacking and attacking in search of another goal. There was barely a moment of respite for Spurs who were forced back into their own half time and time again in the early stages of the game.
Eventually, they managed to break out of defence and launch a dangerous counter-attack, but the Wednesday defence won back the ball and kicked it, high, hard and long, straight down the middle and back into the Spurs box, where the Wednesday forwards were waiting to pounce and score the second goal. From attack, to defence to attack, to a goal, in less than sixty seconds!
2-0 to Wednesday!
After they got that second goal they could have played it safe, but instead carried on with their relentless attacking, and they made some serious scoring chances over the next twenty minutes or so. According to the London Weekly Dispatch , “Spurs were overrun by a Sheffield attack that consisted of virtually seven forwards,” but somehow there were no more goals in the first half. At half-time the score was still two-nil to Wednesday. That was the least that they deserved after their excellent performance in the first half, and if they played the same way as they had been playing it seemed certain that the vital victory they needed was theirs for the taking.
Then the second half started, and almost immediately it was apparent that something had changed and they were going to have a much harder time of it. Suddenly, Spurs seemed to wake up and recover their wits. They came out after half-time and they played as if they were a brand new team. Suddenly it was obvious which team was near the top of the league and which team was near the bottom.
Then Spurs pulled a goal back and now they had the whole of White Hart Lane roaring them on towards an equaliser. Wednesday were in trouble, with a measly one-goal lead to protect against resurgent opposition. It was a tough task, but they were a tough team and they had resilient players like Bill, who was a more than capable defender. He held onto possession, he ran tirelessly, he headed the ball clear and he helped his team hold out against the early Spurs onslaught. As the second half went on, Wednesday kept holding on, dealing with danger and desperately defending their slender advantage until at last the end was in sight.
In the 80th minute they were still in the lead, but Spurs were not finished yet. They caused lots of trouble in the last ten minutes, and it seemed that they might break through, but Wednesday defended with control and composure, They took their 2-1 lead into the last minute, and as those final sixty seconds elapsed, they knew that now the job was really done. The final whistle sounded, and the game ended. The final score was 2-1 to Wednesday!
The game was won and the team was safe. Bill had played his ten games, he had played them well and he had become an important player for Wednesday.
At the end of that season, the Sheffield Evening Telegraph said: “Bill Fallon’s fleetness of foot and driving power at outside-left more than justified the confidence that the Sheffield Wednesday manager had in him.”
End of Part Five
Read more:
Bill Fallon – Part 1
Bill Fallon – Part 2
Bill Fallon – Part 3
Bill Fallon – Part 4
