Sheffield football team hit national headlines as best sporting losers

Neville Martin shares his memories here of a Sheffield football team whose remarkable story became famous.
Tony Pritchett's Sheffield Star coverage of the Wincobank teamTony Pritchett's Sheffield Star coverage of the Wincobank team
Tony Pritchett's Sheffield Star coverage of the Wincobank team

The year was 1990, and Tim Parker, the vicar of St Margaret’s, Brightside suggested that we should undertake some sort of outreach activity for the group of lads that used to hang around outside the church.

He asked them what we should do, and the lads suggested a football team. The vicar agreed to be team manager, so he ‘volunteered’ me to be secretary.

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We approached the director of Simonds Cutting Tools and he kindly chipped in £250 to provide the kit. Wincobank Athletic was born.

So we joined the U16 Sheffield Trophy Centre Saturday League: a fateful decision! In our first 10 matches we conceded 160 goals and scored only 15. Then it happened: we were beaten by Handsworth Athletic 35-0 (just one short of the famous record in British football, achieved on September 12, 1885, when Arbroath beat Bon Accord 36-0).

Seven days later, I had my feet up watching Saturday night television when the phone rang. A man on the other end announced himself as Tony Pritchett, Sports Editor of The Star.

In Sheffield’s sporting circles TP was a living legend, so I assumed this was someone taking the mickey after our drubbing the week before.

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But no, he assured me it really was TP and he’d just been reading that night’s Green ’Un, which in those days listed all the amateur league results from the previous week.

Upon seeing the 35-0 scoreline, he figured there had to be a story in it. Over an hour’s telephone discussion, I gave TP the chapter and verse on Wincobank Athletic and his article (attached) featured on the back page of The Star the following Tuesday.

Over the following days TP’s story was syndicated in the Sun and the Daily Mirror.

The following Sunday I achieved my lifelong ambition of having my name reported in the News of the World (but not quite for the reason I’d hoped for). Fame at last!

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Rony Robinson did a live radio interview with the lads in the church hall a few days later, and we had an ITV film crew come and film our final game which was featured (with commentary) on Calendar News.

For the rest of the season the Green ’Un referred to us as “the cult football team.” It’s worth noting that the other teams in the league (who scored 266 goals against us) never got a mention – anywhere!

Eventually our sponsor, Simonds Cutting Tools (a former main sponsor of Sheffield United) invited the entire team to a match the following Saturday at Bramall Lane, where the boys were taken onto the pitch at half-time and presented with a trophy by former England player Gary Mabbutt in honour of their sportsmanship.

The moral of the story: style will always win out over substance; it doesn’t matter how many you lose by as long as you do it with a smile on your face.