By Gavan Bergin
Bill Fallon was in the prime of his life as a footballer during the 1938/39 season. From the outset, he scored more goals and created more chances than ever and his fantastic wing play made him a crucial player in Sheffield Wednesday’s challenge for the Division Two championship. First, he helped them get into the league top ten, then he helped them stay there, and when they had a bad run of form, he got them back to winning ways.
That’s what happened when they played Burnley at Hillsborough on December 17th 1938. After an excellent start to the season, Wednesday had lost momentum in the title race and they really needed the win, but that was no easy task against Burnley, who were strong and stubborn in defence. Early on, Wednesday were frustrated and they were getting nowhere, then along came Bill with a nifty run and a smart strike to put them 1-0 up in the twentieth minute. In a flash, he scored the goal that changed the game for Wednesday. From then on they were in control and they eventually won 4-1.
They were back on track and the future looked bright, but soon darkness and disaster fell. On the afternoon of December 17th, Bill was striding the green, green grass of Hillsborough, scoring and setting up the goals that won the game against Burnley. Less than a week later, on the black, bitter night of December 21st, he was being pulled, torn and bloody, from the wreckage of a car that had skidded and smashed into a telegraph pole on an icebound village road during a snowstorm.
Bill was lucky to survive the crash but he was taken to hospital with serious head injuries. At that time no one knew when, or if, he would play again that season, and he spent that Christmas in hospital. It must have been a grim time for him, but he was young and strong and he made a remarkably swift recovery. He returned to training early in the new year and after missing only three games he made his comeback in Wednesday’s 4-1 thrashing of Tranmere Rovers on January 14th 1939. With him back in the team, Wednesday went on a four-game winning run that sent them shooting up to third in the league. All season long they had been one of the contenders – now they were one of the favourites for the championship. From then on, they continued to do well and they hardly put a foot wrong over the next month or so in the league.
By the end of February 1939, with a couple of months of the season to go, they were still in the thick of the fight for the league title. At that stage, there were two other teams still in contention, two other teams standing in the way. One of them was Blackburn Rovers, the other was the last team in the world Wednesday would want to finish second to – their city rivals.
On March 4th 1939, Wednesday played Sheffield United in the ‘Steel City derby’ at Hillsborough in front of a 48,987 crowd. From the first minute United had much the better of the game. They hadn’t lost to Wednesday since the ’30/’31 season and going by the way they started this game another triumph seemed all but certain. Wednesday couldn’t get anything at all going in attack; they spent most of the first half back in defence. After half time it was the same story, it was all United. The only saving grace for the home side was the fact that they hadn’t been scored on and when, deep into the second half, it was still scoreless there was a good chance that Wednesday could escape with a lucky draw. That outcome seemed ever more likely as the clock ticked past the hour and the seventy minute mark with still no score. Then, in the 80th minute, Wednesday made a rare counter-attack that ended with a right-wing cross into the box for Bill who won the ball, with his back to goal, then in one fluid motion he controlled, turned and shot it, straight into the bottom right corner of the net. Just like that, he scored and that was the winning goal. Wednesday held out for the remaining ten minutes and won the game, 1-0.
That win set them up beautifully for the run-in towards the end of the season. Not only had they beaten United, they’d stopped them getting ahead of them at the top of the league. Although they stumbled straight afterwards by losing their next game, away to Newcastle, they bounced back immediately, thanks to Bill who scored the pivotal goal in their 2-1 home win against West Bromwich Albion on March 18th 1939.That goal showed that he had the knack of playing his best football and making the difference in the big games, and by then every game was a big game. The league was still as tight as could be, there were still three teams in the running for the title and there was still only a point or two at most separating the first and third placed teams in any given week. By the end of March, as the season entered its critical final weeks, Wednesday knew that they couldn’t afford to even draw a game, let alone lose, if they were going to win the title.
On April 2nd 1939, they played away to Luton Town, and they started badly again. They played poorly, and were lucky to be drawing 1-1 until just before half time, Bill made his mark by scoring with a long range shot to make it 2-1. That goal seemed to turn the tide, thereafter they played with verve and confidence and won the game, 4-1. That win did the trick for Wednesday. They were second in the league with eight games to go, and as the games and weeks passed they maintained their challenge. They kept it up, they kept going strong, they kept battling all the way, they never gave up; they kept the title race alive all the way right into the last day of the season. On April 29th 1939 they played their final game of the season against Tottenham Hotspur at Hillsborough, and they went into that game still with a chance of becoming champions. All they had to do was win, and hope that their rivals slipped up.
Wednesday did their part by beating Tottenham 1-0. Another fine performance, another fine win, but it turned out to be not quite enough. The other teams did them no favours, and they ended up in third place, a mere two points behind the champions, Blackburn, and a single, solitary point behind the second-placed team, which was none other than their hated rivals, damnable Sheffield United.
Finishing third meant that Wednesday were stuck in Division Two for another season. Worse still, it was their neighbours United who won promotion ahead of them. But despite that agonising finish they had done very well overall. To go from almost being relegated to almost being champions was no mean feat. In the end, it was a good season for the team and it was a superb one for Bill. From beginning to end he was excellent; he scored ten league goals and every one of them was an important goal for Wednesday. They lost only one game that he scored in and, as ever, he made many more goals than he scored. He had established himself as a top player in Division Two, and if he could play half as well in the following season, he was bound to get to play in Division One
At the start of the 1939/40 season, Wednesday were favourites to win promotion. The season started in August 1939, but it was abandoned when Britain declared war on Germany on September 3rd 1939. Professional football in England was suspended for the duration of the Second World War and like many other Irish players, Bill went home to play in the League of Ireland. His time at Sheffield Wednesday was over.
Don’t miss the nail-biting next chapter of the Bill Fallon story in the Apr-May issue of NewsFour when Gavan analyses Fallon’s international career.
Read more:
Bill Fallon – Part 1
Bill Fallon – Part 2
Bill Fallon – Part 3
Bill Fallon – Part 4
Bill Fallon – Part 5
Bill Fallon – Part 6
Bill Fallon – Part 8
