We filled your ground for you!

One of the founding members of the Football League’s new Second Division in 1892, they were promoted in their first season, finishing second behind Small Heath, and became First Division champions five years later. That’s pretty much it… although they are one of only five sides to have won all four professional divisions of English football. Not sure quite how best to interpret that statistic!

Having lived in Sheffield for a while I did know that Bramall Lane is one of only two grounds (the other being the Oval in London) which has hosted England football internationals, an England Test cricket match, and an FA Cup Final (the 1912 replay, in which Blades fans must have been thrilled to see local rivals Barnsley beat West Bromwich Albion 1–0 in the final minute of extra time).

They weren’t always known as The Blades either. No, I’m not talking about blunt instruments. They were originally known as The Cutlers. Snappy eh! Sheffield Wednesday had enjoyed being called Blades until they got wise to the event and became The Owls in 1907 (actually a reference to their new ground in the Owlerton suburb of Sheffield. The Blades nickname sort of trickled to the south of the city after that…

When researching my book, I found that we were actually responsible for the record attendance at Bramall Lane - 68,287 – which came about on 15 February 1936 during a fifth-round FA Cup tie. We filled their ground then and doubtless will do so again on Monday.

In more recent times we’ve had some tediously close promotion battles with Sheffield United – particularly in 1989-90 when we took four points off them, and almost 30 years later, in 2018-19, when we didn’t. Remember Chris Basham’s goal at Elland Road, and Liam Cooper’s late miss?

The matches in this West v South Yorkshire derby which I remember best occurred over a single weekend in 1974. Again, a championship was at stake but this time the First Division itself. We’d had a bit of a blip after our 29-match unbeaten run came to an end at Stoke (also perceived as the end of the known world). After three consecutive defeats we’d beaten Derby (obviously) but then could only draw 0.0 at Coventry on 13 April, which was also Easter Saturday. Liverpool were scoring very late goals all season (not much really changes there) and hot on our heels.

On the Bank Holiday Monday (15 April) 41,140 of us warmly welcomed Sheffield United to Elland Road, hoping to get back on track against a mid-table team, but, again, the match finished 0.0. The day after that (yes, this was in football’s Dark Ages when three games in four days was considered totally acceptable by the nice blazers with matching silk ties ‘running’ the game) we played the return match at Bramall Lane. My favourite all-time player Peter Lorimer scored twice – one from the penalty spot – as we won 2.0 and didn’t look back (certainly not towards Sheffield). Victories against Ipswich and away at QPR secured a trophy that, for once, officious and self-serving football officials could not take away from us.

So, I kind of always think of Sheffield United in a good way as I recall that balmy Tuesday when, dressed in my all-white kit, I would thrash my football into a make-believe goal at the bottom of the garden, thinking I might one day be as famous as Lash. It wasn’t to be of course although, following Leeds United, the dream never really ends either.