Sheffield United F.C.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section does not cite its references or sources.
Please help improve this article by introducing appropriate citations. (help, get involved!) This article has been tagged since December 2006.

Sheffield United

Full name

Sheffield United
Football Club

Nickname(s)

The Blades

Founded

1889

Ground

Bramall Lane
Sharrow
Sheffield

Capacity

33,000

Chairman

Manager

League

Championship, 2nd





Home colours





Away colours

Sheffield United Football Club are a professional English football club based in the City of Sheffield, South Yorkshire.

They currently play in the FA Premier League, after achieving promotion from the football league championship. The current manager is Neil Warnock. They play at Bramall Lane, in Highfield wearing a strip of red and white striped shirts.

Their nickname is The Blades, which can be seen on the team emblem that is said to have been designed by a former manager, Jimmy Sirrel. The emblem was first used for the 1977-78 season, replacing the city coat of arms that had been used since 1966. Like all clubs, Sheffield United have a great range of songs and chants sung by their fans, including the most notable: their unofficial anthem, The Greasy Chip Butty Song.

Sheffield United won the League in 1898 and the FA Cup in 1899, 1902, 1915 and 1925. They were beaten finalists in the FA Cup in 1901 and 1936. Their best performance in the League Cup was reaching the semi finals in 2003.

[edit] History

Main article: History of Sheffield United F.C.

For more details on this topic, see Sheffield United F.C. seasons.

[edit] Early years

Sheffield United Football Club was formed at Bramall Lane on March 22, 1889 by the Sheffield United Cricket Club at the suggestion of its president, Sir Charles Clegg.^[1] The cricket club itself had been going at Bramall Lane since 1854 and was the first English sports club to use United in its name. (The first English football club to be named United was the now-defunct Plymouth United, formed in 1886.)

The team was formed six days after a crowd of 22,688 paid to watch the FA Cup semi-final played at Bramall Lane between Preston North End and West Bromwich Albion. They were a professional club almost from the start and played their first game against Notts Rangers of the Midland Counties League on September 7 1889 losing 4-1 at Meadow Lane. Their first game at Bramall Lane did not come until September 28 1889 against Birmingham St George of the Football Alliance which they also lost 4-0.

United's first season was comprised of friendlies and local cup matches, but notable for them reaching the second round of the FA Cup at their first attempt by beating Football League side Burnley 2-1 at home. However, the next cup game against Bolton Wanderers gave United their record defeat 13-0 and persuaded the committee that regular competitive league games were required.

They joined the Midland Counties League for the 1890-91 season, finishing fifth, they then competed the following season in the Northern League finishing third. At the end of the season they applied to join the Football League First Division, which was expanding from 14 to 16 clubs for the 1892 season, but polled only 5 votes and were instead admitted as one of the twelve founder members of the Second Division.

[edit] Glory years

United secured promotion to the First Division in 1892-3, after finishing second to Small Heath and beating Accrington 1-0 in the Test Match. United enjoyed an unbroken 37-season spell in the top flight (which remains a record for a newly promoted team) winning the League Championship in 1898 and were runners up in 1897 and 1900. After the League Championship, United played and won an unofficial two-legged "Champions of Great Britain" title against Celtic, who had won that year's Scottish League Championship.

They won their first FA Cup Final on April 15, 1899, beating Derby County 4-1 at Crystal Palace, returning to the London venue to play Tottenham Hotspur on April 20, 1901. Despite Spurs being a non-League club, they took The Blades to a replay with a 2-2 draw. Seven days later, at Burnden Park in Bolton, the London side won 3-1.

United returned to Crystal Palace the following year on April 19, and were again taken to a replay. This time Southampton drew 1-1 but the replay exactly a week later, on the same ground was won 2-1 by the Blades.

The next final appearance came on April 24, 1915 at Old Trafford when United beat Chelsea 3-0 to win "The Khaki Cup final", the last game before the Football League and FA Cup competition was suspended until the end of the First World War.

The fourth and final win came with their first Wembley Cup Final, beating Cardiff City 1-0 on April 25 1925. Their last appearance in a final came on April 25, 1936, losing 1-0 to Arsenal.

[edit] Disappointment and relegation

After several close shaves - including 1919-20 when they won just 6 matches, and 1929-30 when a 5-1 win at Old Trafford on the final day pulled them out of the bottom spot - they finished bottom of the First Division in 1934 and were relegated for the first time.

A contributory factor to relegation was the decision to sell Irish centre forward Jimmy Dunne, who scored over 140 goals for the club in just six seasons, to Arsenal early in the 1933-4 season. Dunne scored over 30 top division goals in each of 3 consecutive seasons between 1930-1 and 1932-3, a feat which was not performed again until Alan Shearer managed it in 1993-96. This included 41 goals in 1930-31, which remains the club record and also the record single season tally by an Irishman.

During the 1920's United equalled their record victory with a 10-0 home win against Burnley in January 1930, and also beat Cardiff City 11-2 in 1926. Their record league defeat, 3-10 at Middlesbrough, occurred in their relegation season.

They fell just short in promotion battles in 1936 and 1938 - finishing third in the Second Division on each occasion - but it was third time lucky when they pipped local rivals Sheffield Wednesday for second spot in 1939, winning their last game 6-1 against Tottenham. They started the 1939-40 season brightly before World War II curtailed the campaign.

[edit] Post-war

The restart of League competition after the war came a year too late for The Blades as they won League North - a regional competition featuring the Northern clubs from the top two Divisions - in 1945-46. This good form carried over into the following year with a 6th place finish, combined with reaching the FA Cup Quarter Finals.

This good form was not to last, as the club were relegated again in 1948-49, and suffered the agony of missing out on an instant promotion the following season when Wednesday gained revenge for 1939 and pipped them for second place and promotion on goal average with a 0-0 draw at home to Tottenham Hotspur when a scoring draw or defeat would have sent The Blades up instead. After a couple of middling seasons, featuring lots of goals (including 7-3 and 3-1 wins against the Owls in the Steel City Derby 1951-2) but inconsistent results, Teddy Davison ended his 20 year managerial career at the Lane. He was replaced by Reg Freeman, who guided the Blades to the Second Division Championship in 1952-53, scoring 97 goals along the way. Two seasons of struggle, but survival, in the First Division followed before Freeman died in the summer of 1955. His replacement, Joe Mercer, was unable to stave off relegation in 1956.

[edit] Another revival

Mercer left the club in 1958 to join Aston Villa (who were promptly relegated) and was replaced by former Chelsea captain John Harris, who inherited a team with a backbone of good homegrown talent, including Joe Shaw, a centre half who played over 600 games for the club, and Alan Hodgkinson, a young goalkeeper capped five times by England (he remains England's youngest ever goalkeeper) who also went on to play over 600 league games, and half-back Graham Shaw. The team was always in the promotion frame and had some good cup runs, reaching the quarter finals in 1959 and 1960, and finally achieved promotion in 1961 as runners up to Ipswich Town. In the same season, they reached the FA Cup semi finals but went down 0-2 to Leicester City in a second replay after two scoreless draws.

[edit] Back among the elite

Sheffield United's most memorable post-war run was in 1971. Ending the season with six victories and five draws to win promotion from Division Two. The following season United took the First Division by storm. Led by such players as Tony Currie, Alan Woodward, Eddie Colquhoun, Len Badger, Ted Hemsley, Trevor Hockey, Alan Hodgkinson, Gil Reece and Bill Dearden they played the first ten games without defeat, recording eight victories and two draws. With one League Cup victory during this period, United had had an unbeaten run of 22 matches. They finally lost the top spot in Division One in a memorable encounter with Manchester United at Old Trafford on October 2,1971, The Blades losing out 2-0 on that occasion. The memorable goal scored by George Best six minutes from the end is still replayed on television to this day.

The remarkable success in the early 1970's brought to a head the long-standing argument about the desirability of playing football and cricket at the same ground and a decision was taken to build a new stand to provide a fourth side to what was essentially a three-sided stadium. This stand (originally known as 'The South Stand') with a seating capacity of 7746 people, was opened in 1975.

[edit] Another relegation

Unfortunately, this coincided with a slump in the team's fortunes, despite finishing that season sixth in Division One. The failure to qualify for the UEFA Cup by one point after failing to beat Birmingham City at St. Andrews in final game of the season was followed by relegation to the Second Division in 1976.

Relegation was a financial disaster and the drop in season ticket sales meant limited funds for strenthening the team. The team's bank was reluctant to give additional loans on top of the club's debt on the new South Stand. The sale of club legend Tony Currie and the season ticket revenue was swallowed up with new monies refused unless backed up with personal guarantees from the Board.

Jimmy Sirrel left on September 27, 1977 with United next to bottom of the Second Division and was replaced on a temporary basis by Cec Coldwell who had previously taken control between the reign of John Harris and Ken Furphy. Results picked up but the lack of funds for new players was matched by the lack of reserve players suitable for the step up to the first team.

A bad run in January led to the appointment of Harry Haslam, a 'wheeler dealer' who had successfully managed a Luton Town side in similar circumstances for nine years. "Happy Harry" brought in Danny Bergara, a Uruguayan as Assistant Manager.

With a reputation for finding talent, Haslam brought in a number of players, most notably Alex Sabella but were forced to sell promising players such as Keith Edwards, Imre Varadi and Simon Stainrod. Alan Woodward left for the United States as did Bruce Rioch whose short loan spell brought a mini-revival in the club's fortunes.

[edit] Plummeting to an all-time low

The 1978-79 season ended with relegation to the Third Division. United's first ever season outside the top two divisions started promisingly with the team at the top of the table at Christmas but only three games were won after Christmas and the crippling debt of the South Stand meant that Sabella was sold to Leeds.

Chairman John Hassall brought in new directors willing to bring in money into the club including Reg Brearley. The manager brought in experienced players such as Martin Peters, Stewart Houston and Bob Hatton. However, the team could not keep up in the promotion race and Haslam was sacked in January 1981 with United twelfth, their lowest ever league position at that point.

Martin Peters took over as manager but the team was in free fall, winning only three of the last sixteen games and were relegated to the Fourth Division. The 1981 relegation came as a result of a last minute miss from a penalty kick in the final game of the season against Walsall, who would have been relegated instead had the kick (by Don Givens) been successful.

[edit] Revival under Dave Bassett

Dave Bassett is the most famous Sheffield United manager of the last 20 years, taking charge on January 21, 1988 shortly before the club's relegation to the Third Division and masterminding two successive promotions which saw them in the First Division for the 1990-91 season. Promotion to the top division was clinched with a 5-2 final game thrashing of Leicester City at Filbert Street on 5 May 1990.

A key player in Bassett's side was the high-scoring striker Brian Deane, who later turned out for Leeds United and Benfica as well as making three England appearances before rejoining United in 2005.

From 1990, Sheffield United were in the top division of English football for four seasons - including the first two Premier League campaigns. Brian Deane scored the first ever Premiership goal on August 15, 1992 5 minutes into the 2-1 defeat of Manchester United.^[1] Having been a certainty for relegation for the first half of the season, they were on Championship form for the second-half with only Arsenal matching them for points won in the New year.

The Blades failed to win any of their first 10 league games in the 1991-92 campaign, before another remarkable turnaround in fortunes saw them climb to an impressive ninth place in the final table. Had it not been for their dismal early season form, the Blades could have qualified for the UEFA Cup or even challenged for the league title.

Sheffield United were founder members of the Premiership and finished 14th in its first season, as well as reaching the semi finals of the F.A Cup.

Brian Deane was sold to Leeds United in the summer of 1993, and the Blades were unable to find a suitable replacement. They found it increasingly difficult to score goals in 1993-94, and were relegated on the final day of the season when a last minute goal gave Chelsea a 3-2 win.

1994-95 saw the Blades finish eighth in Division One - not enough for even a playoff place.

[edit] Waiting for promotion

Dave Bassett resigned as manager in November 1995 to be replaced by Howard Kendall, who was at the helm for 18 months before being lured back to Everton for his third spell as manager at the end of the 1996-97 season, just a few weeks after Sheffield United blew the chance of a return to the Premiership by losing 1-0 to Crystal Palace in the Division One Play-Off Final.

Over the next two-and-a-half years, Sheffield United had three unsuccessful managers - Nigel Spackman, Steve Bruce and Adrian Heath - although they reached the FA Cup semi final again in 1998. In December 1999 the club turned to Neil Warnock in a bid to re-establish the club as promotion challengers. At this time the club was over £20m in debt and the priority was cutting costs, so Warnock's first three seasons in charge ended in mid-table finishes in Division One.

2002-03 was a promising season for Sheffield United, when they reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup & League Cup, losing both ties to Premiership clubs, Arsenal and Liverpool. They also reached the Division One playoff final, but were beaten 3-0 by Wolverhampton Wanderers at the Millennium Stadium.

In both 2003-04 and 2004-05, Sheffield United narrowly missed out on a place in the playoffs for promotion to the Premier League finishing 8th in both seasons.

The team celebrating promotion

2005-06 was the team's twelfth straight season at the second level of the English football pyramid - a period longer than any other team currently in the Championship, and their longest spell in any Division since 1934.

After beating Cardiff 1-0 on Good Friday, United required only one point from their final three games to secure their promotion. Results later that evening meant only Leeds United could in theory catch Sheffield United, but the following day, April 15, 2006, they failed to beat Reading at Elland Road. After many disappointments in the previous few seasons, Sheffield United were finally back in the Premiership.

[edit] Premiership Football

Sheffield United are currently in 16th place in the Premiership with 17 points from 17 games after drawing 2-2 with Aston Villa at Bramall Lane on December 11, 2006. They have now been unbeaten for 3 games having previously celebrating successive victories over Charlton Athletic (2-1 at home on December 2) and Watford (1-0 at Vicarage Road on November 28).

In total, they have won four games this season, two at home and two away. Their 2-1 home victory against Middlesbrough on September 30th, was their first Premiership victory since April 1994 and the other away win was against Newcastle United on 4th November by a 1-0 scoreline.

The remaining four points all came from games against teams from the North-West, home draws against Community Shield holders, Liverpool, Blackburn Rovers and Bolton Wanderers and an away game at Manchester City's Eastlands (0-0).

They have lost three home games, one against fellow promoted team Reading 2-1, the other two against the reigning Champions, Chelsea and current Premiership leaders, Manchester United.

United has played four games in the capital so far this season and all have ended in defeat without a single goal scored although video replays showed that a late equaliser against West Ham United was incorrectly disallowed. The other London losses were against Spurs, Fulham and at Arsenal's new Emirates Stadium.

United's Premiership top scorer so far is Rob Hulse with 4 goals, one goal ahead of Danny Webber who scored the second against Villa. Keith Gillespie has 2 goals with the other goalscorers being Phil Jagielka, Colin Kazim-Richards,Chris Morgan and Stephen Quinn.

On October 24, a second string side was knocked out of the Third Round of the Carling Cup by Birmingham City after suffering a 4-2 defeat at home. A similarly understrength team had narrowly beaten Bury with Christian Nade scoring the only goal.

In the draw for the FA Cup Third Round to be played in January 2007, United was given an home tie against Swansea City.

[edit] The Ground

Main article: Bramall Lane

The Blades play at Bramall Lane in Sharrow, a suburb near the centre of Sheffield. Bramall Lane is the oldest major ground anywhere in the world, having hosted its first game in 1862,^[2] a match between Hallam F.C. and Sheffield Club. It was originally a cricket ground and the first important match played here was between Yorkshire and Sussex in 1855. A cricket club was formed in 1854 named Sheffield United Cricket Club and Bramall Lane was leased to the club by the Duke of Norfolk. The ground was opened with a cricket match on 30 April 1855. Yorkshire County Cricket Club also formed here, and played most of their games in Sheffield at Bramall Lane until the last match on 7th August 1973 against their old rivals, Lancashire. The ground has seen expansion in recent years, and by 2006, on completion of a 2000 seat corner stand,^[3] was an all-seater stadium holding 33,000.^[4]

[edit] Current squad

Main article: Sheffield United F.C. squad

For more details on this topic, see List of Sheffield United F.C. former players.

As of November 12, 2006:

No.	Position	Player
1	GK	Paddy Kenny
2	DF	Leigh Bromby
3	DF	David Unsworth
4	DF	Claude Davis
5	DF	Chris Morgan (captain)
6	MF	Phil Jagielka
7	MF	Paul Ifill
8	FW	Ade Akinbiyi
9	FW	Rob Hulse
10	FW	Danny Webber
11	FW	Steven Kabba
12	MF	Alan Quinn
13	GK	Ian Bennett
14	DF	David Sommeil
15	DF	Rob Kozluk
17	MF	Nick Montgomery
18	MF	Michael Tonge
19	MF	Keith Gillespie

No.	Position	Player
20	DF	Chris Armstrong
21	MF	Mikele Leigertwood
22	DF	Chris Lucketti
23	FW	Neil Shipperley
24	DF	Craig Short
26	DF	Derek Geary
27	FW	Christian Nadé
28	MF	Stephen Quinn
29	GK	Paul Gerrard
30	MF	Li Tie
31	MF	Nicky Law
32	FW	Colin Kazim-Richards
33	GK	Jamie Annerson
34	MF	James Ashmore
37	FW	Colin Marrison
39	FW	Hao Haidong
--	MF	Ryan Gyaki
--	DF	Kyle McFadzean

[edit] Players out on loan

No.	Position	Player
25	DF	Alan Wright (on loan to Cardiff City)
--	DF	Evan Horwood (on loan to Darlington)
--	FW	Jonathan Forte (on loan to Doncaster)
--	MF	Ian Ross (on loan to Notts Co.)
--	MF	Kevan Hurst (on loan to Chesterfield)
--	FW	Geoff Horsfield (on loan to Leeds United)
--	FW	Jordan Robertson (on loan to Torquay United)

[edit] Reserve and Academy teams

Sheffield United Reserves A currently play in the Pontin's Holidays League - Div One East at Chesterfield's Saltergate ground. As at Thursday, November 9th 2006, they are 2nd out of 10 teams with 13 points from 6 games. They finished 2005-06 in 4th place of the Pontin's Holidays League - Div One Central with 30 points from 18 games.

Sheffield United Reserves B currently play in the F.A. Premier Reserve League North at Worksop Town's Sandy Lane ground. As at Wednesday, November 8th 2006, they are 5th out of 10 teams with 10 points after 5 games. They finished 2005-06 in 2nd place in the Pontin's Holidays League Division One East.

Sheffield United Academy U18's currently play in the FA Premier Academy League U18's Group D at the Shirecliffe ground at Firshill Crescent. As at Saturday, November 11th 2006, they are 5th out of 10 teams with 16 points after 12 games.

[edit] League history

Graphical representation of Sheffield United's historical league standings. Coloured bars represent the tiers of English football

1892-1893 Division 2 1893-1934 Division 1 1934-1939 Division 2 1946-1949 Division 1 1949-1953 Division 2 1953-1956 Division 1	1956-1961 Division 2 1961-1968 Division 1 1968-1971 Division 2 1971-1976 Division 1 1976-1979 Division 2 1979-1981 Division 3	1981-1982 Division 4 1982-1984 Division 3 1984-1988 Division 2 1988-1989 Division 3 1989-1990 Division 2 1990-1992 Division 1	1992-1994 FA Premier League 1994-2004 Division 1 2004-2006 Championship 2006- FA Premier League

Seasons spent at Level 1 of the football league system: 59
Seasons spent at Level 2 of the football league system: 37
Seasons spent at Level 3 of the football league system: 5
Seasons spent at Level 4 of the football league system: 1

Sheffield United: League Standings for last 10 Seasons

Season	League	Pos	P	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
1996-97	Division One	5	46	20	13	13	75	52	73
1997-98	Division One	6	46	19	17	10	69	54	74
1998-99	Division One	8	46	18	13	15	71	66	67
1999-2000	Division One	16	46	13	15	18	59	71	54
2000-01	Division One	10	46	19	11	16	52	49	68
2001-02	Division One	13	46	15	15	16	53	54	60
2002-03	Division One	3	46	23	11	12	72	52	80
2003-04	Division One	8	46	20	11	15	65	56	71
2004-05	Championship	8	46	18	13	15	57	56	67
2005-06	Championship	2	46	26	12	08	76	46	90

Pos = Position; P = Played; W = Won; D = Drawn; L = Lost; F = Goals For; A = Goals Against; Pts = Points

[edit] Honours

Football League Division One
- Champions: 1897-98
- Runners-up: 1896-97, 1899-1900
The Championship
- Runners-up: 2005-06
Football League Division Two
- Champions: 1952-53
- Runners-up: 1892-93, 1938-39, 1960-61, 1970-71, 1989-90
Football League Division Four
- Champions: 1981-82
F.A. Cup
- Winners : 1899, 1902, 1915, 1925
- Runners-up: 1901, 1936

[edit] Club records

Main article: Sheffield United F.C. records

[edit] Managerial history

Main article: Sheffield United F.C. managers

1889 John Wostinholm
1899 John Nicholson
1932 Teddy Davison
1952 Reg Freeman
1955 Joe Mercer
1958 Archie Clarke

1959 John Harris
1968 Arthur Rowley
1969 John Harris
1973 Ken Furphy
1975 Cec Coldwell
1975 Jimmy Sirrel

1977 Cec Coldwell
1978 Harry Haslam
1981 Martin Peters
1981 Ian Porterfield
1986 Billy McEwan
1988 Dave Bassett

[edit] Notable former players