Sheffield United villain Gareth Ainsworth sends Dane Whitehouse message over tackle that ended hero's career

Gareth Ainsworth, the closest thing to public enemy No.1 at Bramall Lane amongst a section of Sheffield United supporters, has opened up about his horror challenge that ended the career of Blades hero Dane Whitehouse almost 30 years ago. Ainsworth was a Port Vale midfielder when his tackle cut short Whitehouse’s time in the game, before many thought he had even entered his prime.

Part of the resentment towards the now 51-year-old Ainsworth, who was recently appointed as Shrewsbury Town’s new manager, was an apparent lack of remorse over his actions. In an emotional interview with The Star back in 2020 Whitehouse spoke candidly about the tackle and its aftermath, detailing his disappointment that Ainsworth didn’t at least visit him after the tackle to apologise.

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Ainsworth maintains that he wrote a letter to say sorry; Whitehouse maintains that he never received one. "He had so many chances [to see me], but didn't. That's what p****d me off even more,” Whitehouse said. “I've never hated anyone, and I don't hate him as a person, but I hate him as a footballer and I hate his manner. He never paid any respect to me, when I was going through a bad time. He may say he sent a letter, and he may have. But even then, it's not good enough.

"No player goes out there to deliberately hurt an opponent, but if you do then you at least apologise to them. We had phones back in 1997 - it wasn't the 1940s. So I think a letter is a get-out clause, to be honest. His rashness cost me my living and if I ever saw him in the street, I honestly don't know what I would do. I don't know if I'd lay into him. I know I wouldn't shake his hand, and I would definitely not accept an apology from him. It's too late now."

Ainsworth was a recent guest on the Under the Cosh podcast and when the hosts put out an appeal for questions, they were inundated with ones from Unitedites - and none complimentary. The level of ill-feeling towards Ainsworth shocked co-host Chris Brown, who raised the Whitehouse ‘tackle’ on the podcast’s latest episode.

“Listen, if I could go back in time and pull out of that tackle now, I would,” Ainsworth said. “Because obviously it ended Dane’s career. But there’s no way in a million years I mean to do that, you just go full-blooded and I was always a full-blooded player. I remember playing the game, Port Vale v Sheff United, big, big game and we were all fired up. I just flew into a tackle, mistimed it, gone over the top of the ball and caught him.

“But in no way did I mean to injure him and never would do. I’m one of he lucky ones who never really got a major injury, a couple of muscle strains that kept me out. I sent him a letter and someone said he never received it. I wish that had got through because it was apologising for the tackle. I can safely say I never meant to injure anyone.

“I’m gutted that he never played again, but it’s just the way I played. You were full-blooded back then and the science has moved on and he probably would have got back from things like that [today]. If I went back and knew the tackle was going to end someone’s career I wouldn’t make it.”

On Ainsworth’s next trip to Bramall Lane after the tackle, Whitehouse’s dad Sid tried to confront the midfielder on the Port Vale team coach. “I never went to see him after the game and perhaps that’s me being naive,” Ainsworth added. “But I don’t know if he was still there. I wrote a letter to him to apologise for the tackle, ‘I hope you’re okay.’ But if that never got there, then I thought it would have.

“I never really heard from him again. When we went back to Sheff U on the away trip there was a bit of kerfuffle outside on the bus, with fans. And a family member of Dane’s was involved. ‘Where’s Ainsworth, where is he?’ But I am gutted. I don’t like carrying that.

“It’s horrible to have that, but I never meant to do any harm to anyone. I went into every tackle thinking I could win the ball and thinking the person that’s tackling me is going to come in just as hard. That’s what you do in football. But like I say, I’m gutted.

“I apologise now. I apologise always. I’m sorry for ever doing that and I wouldn’t do it again. Maybe after the game, I probably should have gone in but when you’re young you don’t always think like that when you’re older you do those things. It’s something I’ve had to live with.”

As has Whitehouse, who now works shifts in a steelworks and inevitably wonders what could have been had he avoided the right boot of Ainsworth on that fateful night at Vale Park.