Sheffield United Football Club are a football club in The Football League. They were formed in Sheffield, England, on March 22, 1889. Their nickname is 'The Blades', which can be seen on the team emblem which is said to have been designed by a former manager, Jimmy Sirrel.
| File:Bladesbadgesmall.GIF | |||
| Full name | Sheffield United Football Club | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | The Blades | ||
| Founded | 1889 | ||
| Ground | Bramall Lane, Sheffield | ||
| Capacity | 30,936 | ||
| Chairman | English Derek Dooley | ||
| Manager | English Neil Warnock | ||
| League | The Championship | ||
| 2004-05 | Championship, 8th | ||
|
| |||
Like their local rivals, Sheffield Wednesday F.C., Sheffield United began as a cricket club. It was formed in 1854 as the Sheffield United Cricket Club, but was a club without a team. The main task of the club was to manage the then new Bramall Lane sporting enclosure. Sheffield United was the first of the English League clubs to use United in its name (The first English football club to use United, Plymouth United F.C., no longer exists. It was formed in 1886 three years before Sheffield United launched its football team).
Sheffield United currently play in the Football League Championship, under manager Neil Warnock, at Bramall Lane, in Sharrow (just south of Sheffield city centre), wearing a strip of red and white striped shirts.
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, which is famous and recognised by many as one of the great football anthems. Sang to the tune of Annie's Song, a U.K. number one hit for John Denver in 1974. Another great anthem is the Na na na song, sung when United score a goal at home matches, the song has become highly popular throughout English football and other teams now do the same.
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.
The club has been involved in many notable firsts:
- the first and to-date the only League club to score ten goals in an away fixture, versus Burslem Port Vale in 1892
- in 1892-3 after a test match victory against Accrington they were the first team in the world to be promoted
- United were involved in the first British radio commentary of a football match, versus Arsenal at Highbury in 1927
- United was the first club to sell two £100,000 players. Mick Jones to Leeds United and Alan Birchenall to Chelsea
- the club scored the first goal in the Premiership, Brian Deane scoring after 5 minutes v Manchester United in August 1992
The pre WW2 years
The Sheffield United football 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 finishing fifth, 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.
United secured promotion to the First Division in 1892-3, after finishing second to Small Heath and beating Accrington 1-0. 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.
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 the Spurs being then 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.
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 6 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 Wednesday for second spot in 1939, winning their last game 6-1 vs Tottenham. They started the 1939-40 season brightly with 2 wins and a draw before World War II curtailed the campaign.
1945 to 1961
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. United wrecked Stoke City's chances of winning the league by beating them 2-1 in the last game of the season when victory for Stoke would have seen them win the League for the first (and so far only) time.
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 1951-2) but inconsistent results, Teddy Davison ended his 20 year managerial career at the Lane. He was replaced by Rotherham United's 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 sadly died in the summer of 1955. His replacement, Joe Mercer, was unable to stave off relegation in 1956.
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 5 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 2 scoreless draws.
Sheffield United in the 1970's
Sheffield United's most memorable post-war run was in 1971. Ending the 1970/71 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 goal scored by George Best six minutes from the end is still replayed by television as proof of his genius.
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.
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.
Further relegations to the Third Division and to the Fourth Division followed in 1979 and 1981. 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. Never can there have been a more dramatic or unhappy climax to a season.
Sheffield United since 1988
Dave Bassett is the most famous Sheffield United manager of the last 20 years, taking charge in April 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. A key player in this side was the high-scoring striker Brian Deane (born 1968), who later turned out for Leeds United, Benfica and Leicester City 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. They finished 12th, 9th and 14th, as well as reaching the FA Cup Semi-Finals in 1993 (losing 2-1 after extra time to Sheffield Wednesday), before finally being relegated at the end of the 1993-94 season.
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 (who had won promotion five times previously in his managerial career as well as being a self confessed Sheffield United fan) in a bid to re-establish the club as promotion challengers. At this time the club was millions of pounds in debt, 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 both domestic cup competitions and also reached the Division One playoff final, but were soundly 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.
2005-06 is their 12th straight season at the second level of the English pyramid, which is longer than any other team currently in the Championship and is their longest spell in any Division since 1934. They started the season well, winning nine of their first ten games including a run of eight consecutive victories, tying the club record. And sit 2nd in the Championship currently (February 2006).
League History
- 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- Division 1 (Renamed League Championship from 2004-05 season onwards)
- Seasons Spent at top level (old Div 1/Premier League): 59
- Seasons Spent at 2nd Level (old Div 2/New Div 1/Championship): 37
- Seasons Spent at 3rd Level (old Div 3): 5
- Seasons Spent at 4th Level (old Div 4): 1
==Notable players==
- Harry Lilley 1890-94
- Rabbi Howell 1890-95
- Mick Whitham 1890-99
- Jack Drummond 1891-94
- Billy Hendry 1891-95
- Harry Thickett 1891-1904
- Ernest 'Nudger' Needham 1891-1910
- William 'Fatty' Foulke 1894-1905
- Tommy Morren 1895-1904
- Harry Johnson 1895-08
- Walter Bennett 1895-05
- Fred Priest 1896-1906
- Peter Boyle 1898-04
- Bernard Wilkinson 1899-1913
- Bert Lipsham 1900-08
- Alf Common 1901-04
- Arthur Brown 1902-08
- Jimmy Simmons 1908-20
- Albert 'Hairpin' Sturgess 1908-23
- Billy Gillespie 1911-32
- Stanley Fazackerley 1913-20
- George Utley 1913-22
- Harry Johnson 1916-31
- Fred Tunstall 1920-33
- George Green 1923-34
- James 'Jimmy' Dunne 1926-33
- Bobby Barclay 1931-37
- Ernest Jackson 1932-49
- Euphraim 'Jock' Dodds 1934-39
- Albert Cox 1935-52
- Harry Latham 1937-53
- Jimmy Hagan 1938-1958
- Harold Brook 1940-54
- Fred Furniss 1941-55
- Joe Shaw 1945-1966
- Ted Burgin 1949-57
- Derek Hawksworth 1950-58
- Alf Ringstead 1950-59
- Graham Shaw 1951-67
- Cec Coldwell 1951-68
- Alan Hodgkinson 1953-1971
- Derek Pace 1957-64
- Len Allchurch 1961-65
- Mick Jones 1962-1967
- Len Badger 1962-1976
- Alan Woodward 1962-1978
- Alan Birchenall 1963-1967
- Gil Reece 1965-1972
- Geoff Salmons 1966-1974
- Tony Currie 1968-1976
- Ted Hemsley 1968-77
- Eddie Colquhoun 1968-78
- John Flynn 1969-78
- Mick Speight 1969-1980
- Bill Dearden 1970-1976
- Trevor Hockey 1971-73
- Tony Kenworthy 1975-86
- Keith Edwards 1975-1978 and 1981-1986
- Alex Sabella 1978-1980
- Colin Morris 1982-1988
- Paul Stancliffe 1983-95
- Dane Whitehouse 1987-97
- Tony Agana 1988-1991
- Brian Deane 1988-1993; 1997-1998 and 2005-
- Simon Tracey 1988-2003
- Alan Kelly 1992-99
- Michael Brown 1999-2003
- Phil Jagielka 2000-
- Paul Peschisolido 2001-04
- Paddy Kenny 2002-
Current first team squad
As of February 13 2006: Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
