402: Ritchie Humphreys, Sheffield Wednesday, Merlin’s Premier League 97 Official Sticker Collection

Richard Allinson brings us another tale from the Steel City today, albeit one that spent more time in Hartlepool, as well as some speculation about the Amsterdam property market that would impress Homes Under The Hammer star Dion Dublin. Needless to say though we start in Cleethorpes. Over to Rich.

 

Other than the World Cup, the FA Cup is the single greatest football competition around. Still. Despite what naysayers/people who want to denigrate all football at the expense of the Premier League and Champions League say. Whilst these two competitions may produce technically and statistically the best football, their eventual victors are both so incredibly boring and predictable that they might as well be the Scottish Premier League. The FA Cup brings you Mo Salah v Dave that works in a Salad Bar (see what I did there?) and sometimes the little man wins. Sometimes, however, the little man gets absolutely pumped. Which is where we get on to Ritchie Humphreys.

Just as with the start of a new season, a New Year always brings fresh optimism for football fans. In 1997 Grimsby Town supporters really needed the boost as things were all going rather dreadfully. We’d drawn Premier League Sheffield Wednesday away in the third round of the FA Cup in what was billed (probably in my head only) as a battle of the emerging talents: John Oster v Ritchie Humphreys. Mariners’ fans were convinced that Oster was the next big thing and if squad numbers had been in existence back then we’d have probably retired his when he was sold to Everton. However, it was Humphreys that stole the show on 4 January 1997 as he banged in a hat-trick as the Owls ran out 7-1 winners. Bugger.

 

Humphreys had got his break in the Wednesday first team at the start of the 1996/97 season owing to an injury to David Hirst (shock) and he subsequently went onto score four goals in his opening five games as the blue half of Sheffield hit the top of the Premier League table. This rather boldly led to him being labelled the “next Marco van Basten”. I suppose by default that made Mark Pembridge the next Ruud Gullit. However, despite this rather ambitious moniker, these were the only four league goals Ritchie scored for Wednesday in his entire time there and the hat-trick against Town proved to be the only other goals he would score that season. I’m absolutely trawling Wikipedia but three fun facts about his four league goals: 1) he battered one of them in at 95.9mph; 2) another finished off a 50 yard run and 3) his debut goal was scored the same day David Beckham made Neil Sullivan look a bit of a dick from his own half. Mr Humphreys was clearly a scorer of great goals, not a great goalscorer.

 

Humphreys, having obviously decided that scoring a hat-trick past Jason Pearcey was as good as top level football got, only played a bit part role at Wednesday in his remaining four years at the club. The fact that David Pleat had also signed the excellent Benito Carbone probably had something to do with it too. Humphreys subsequently spent a couple of spells out on loan at Scunthorpe United and Cardiff City before going on trial at Cambridge United. However, according to Wikipedia at least, he broke his foot whilst there and didn’t eventually sign up.

 

This all probably turned out to be the best thing that happened to him as he finally found a new home at Hartlepool United and spent twelve years in the North East. Writing this now I’m amazed Humphreys dropped through the leagues so quickly, he didn’t even notch up a 2000s staple of six months at Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Championship on the way. That being said, seeing a player with such loyalty to a club at whatever level always pleases me and it has to be said his time at Hartlepool is incredibly impressive:

 

·      Three times fans’ Player of the Year

·      2006 Player’s Player of the Year

·      Player of the Decade

·      2006 North East League Player of the Year

·      Twice selected in the PFA Team of the Year

·      The club’s record appearance holder

·      Played 234 games in a row

·      Had a street named after him

 

They should probably have retired his squad number.

 

Following the end of his time in the North East, Humphreys moved south to Chesterfield where he stayed for four seasons before ending his career in his native Sheffield with Sheffield FC at the end of the 2017/18 season.

 

Post playing, Humphreys has not held back. He is a former chairman of the PFA; continues to be a PFA Delegate Liaison Executive; is an UEFA A License holder; completed a triathlon raising over £3,000 for charity; completed the London Marathon to raise funds for Mind; had a spell as interim manager of Chesterfield; and ran 100km in May this year, once again for charity. As I said in my pieces about Jeremy Goss and Mark Crossley, it is good to see that some footballers from my youth are also bloody good blokes.

 

So there you go. Ritchie Humphreys, not quite the next Marco van Basten but say what you like, I bet you can’t buy a 3 bedroom terraced house for £124,950 on Marco van Basten Drive in Amsterdam.