[Lord Snooty]

Huddersfield Town v Sheffield United
The Sky Bet Championship
Saturday February 12th - 12:30 ko
at the John Smith's Stadium

Huddersfield Town welcome Sheffield United to the John McAlpharm Stadium on Saturday dinnertime for another Sky Sports Big Match.

It's a match between two form teams with Town now unbeaten in 13 matches, whilst the Blades are unbeaten in five, but have won their last four. They beat West Brom on Wednesday night with two goals from their aged striker Billy Sharp, but lost his strike partner David McGoldrick in the second half, limping off and looking highly unlikely for this one.

Town don't appear to have any fresh injuries, but Lewis O'Brien must be covered in bruises today after being given the rough house treatment from the Preston defenders on Wednesday. He must be the most fouled player in the Championship.

The Blades are only 4 points behind us, but are down in 10th. This is an opportunity to open up that gap to seven and really cement our place in the top 6. Or a chance for them to arrive in the Play Off mix, which they haven't been in all season.

When the two teams met up early on in the season, it was a humdinger of an ending to what was really a dreary first part of the game. Levi Colwill, who got the dramatic late winner, will hopefully be back in contention after head coach Carlos Corberan said two weeks ago that he would be out for a further two weeks.

I weeren't 'old mi breath!

COME ON TOWN!!!!!

A brief history of Sheffield United: formed in 1889 by members of the Sheffield United Cricket Club, who needed somebody to move into Bramall Lane after The Wednesday had moved out following a row over gate receipts. Bit of an odd argument seeing as the President of the Sheff U Cricket club, Sir Charles Clegg was also President of The Wednesday.

United were originally called the Cutlers and it was Wednesday who were the Blades. But when Wendy moved to Owlerton, they became the Owls and the Cutlers nicked their old nickname to be known ever since as the Blades.

Their first season of action saw them reach the FA Cup 2nd round. Even though they hadn't yet joined a league, they managed to beat First Division Burnley 2-1. Full of confidence, they headed across the Pennines to Bolton and came back with a record 13-0 defeat, a record that still stands today. That setback however, spurred the directors into getting the team regular matches and so they joined the Midland Counties League for the 1890–91 season.

That was for just one season though. They then joined the Northern League. A third placed finish encouraged them to apply to join the Football League. The FL was expanding and United were voted into the newly formed Second Division for the 1892/93 season.

They won promotion straight away. From thirteen nil to the First Division in four years. They got there via the Test Matches, a similar idea to the modern day Play Offs. They finished 2nd in the league behind Small Heath (now Birmingham City) and played Accrington (not Accrington Stanley) in the Test Match, beating them 1-0.

They went from that thirteen nil to League Champions in ten years as they won the League in 1898, having been runners up in the previous season. They then won the Championship of Great Britain by beating the Scottish Champions, Celtic over two legs, but couldn't match their league form, only narrowly avoiding relegation.

Things improved in the next season and they reached the 1899 FA Cup Final and won it for the first time. They played Derby County at Crystal Palace and were a goal down early on. It wasn't until the hour mark that Walter Bennett equalised but then they ran away with it. Billy Beer (great name!) scored five minutes later before John Almond drove the Rams defence nuts (sorry!) making it 3-1. Fred Priest said amen to the proceedings in the last minute by scoring the 4th and the Blades won the Cup 4-1.

Goal, Billy Beer!

They were back at the Palace two years later, playing amateur side Tottenham Hotspur. Spurs were playing in the Southern League then and held the Blunts to a 1-1 draw, beating them 3-1 in the replay, seven days later at Burnden Park, not a happy place for United.

They were back yet again in the next season at the same venue, playing another Southern League team, Southampton and again it was a 1-1 draw. The replay stayed at Crystal Palace this time though and the Blades won their second FA Cup, winning 2-1. Alf Common, who would later become the first £1,000 transfer, scored the goal in the first match and it was George Hedley and Billy Barnes who scored in the replay.

The next time they made it to the Cup Final was in 1915 and it was the last match played before everything stopped for war. The war had been going for ages already but they decided to finish the season off anyway. That's why this Final was called The Khaki Final owing to the large number of uniformed soldiers in attendance. It wasn't at Crystal Palace this time, it was at Old Trafford to stop disruption in and around the capital. Wartime travel restrictions and the large numbers of men taken away to the fighting meant that the crowd was under 50,000.

The Blades won it, beating Chelsea 3-0. Jim Simmons opened the scoring in the first half, then two late goals from Stan Fazackerley and Joseph Kitchen sealed United's 3rd FA Cup.

They won the Cup again in 1925. That was their fourth and final time of winning it. This time, it was at Wembley Stadium and they were playing Cardiff City. The Blades won it 1-0 and it was Fred Tunstall who scored the goal.

All these wins were with John Nicholson in charge. He was not the manager, but club secretary, but that's just a title, in all reality he was manager. Manchester City had tried to take him as manager in 1926, but he turned them down. He had been in the job for 33 years when tragedy struck in 1932. Whilst crossing the road outside Sheffield Midland Station, he was knocked down by a lorry and killed. Over 6,000 people attended his funeral.

John Nicholson

Nicholson's death coincided with the end of Sheffield United's glory years and they were relegated for the first time soon afterwards, ending a period of 35 years in the top flight. Former Wednesday player, Teddy Davison had taken over the manager's role and he did get them to the FA Cup Final again in 1936. This would be their last ever FA Cup Final and they lost it 0-1 against Arsenal.

He did mange to get them back up again in 1939, finishing as runners up to Blackburn, but beating Wednesday to that promotion spot. War intervened again and so they didn't get much top flight action as 1939/40 got abandoned after only three matches.

Bramall Lane suffered damage in the 1940 blitz, but the team were on form when football resumed in 1945-46. It wasn't proper Football League, so this doesn't count, but they won the League North title, a regional competition with the northern teams from Divs 1 and 2. They finished 6th when the proper league came back, but went down again in 1949. They almost went straight back up again, but it was Wendy doing to them what they did to them in 1939 by pipping them for the final promotion place.

Davison retired in 1952, to be replaced by Reg Freeman. He managed them to the Second Division title in 52/53, but then went and died in 1955. His replacement was Joe Mercer. Joe would go on to win a load of titles as a manger, but not with the Blunts. He would manage England in the 70s, but this was his first managerial job and he managed to get Sheffield United relegated.

They came back up again in 1961 and stayed up for a few seasons before going back down again in 1968. Promoted again in 71, they were top of the league for quite some time, going unbeaten in 22 matches, eventually losing top spot to Man Utd following a defeat at Old Trafford, with George Best scoring the late winner, a goal that is always shown in documentaries about him. This one.....

Having been formed all those years ago by the cricket club, there was always a cricket field next to the football pitch. In 1975, football finally took over Brammall Lane when the new South Stand was opened. This is how it used to look......

The new stand must've been cursed by some old cricket loving phantom or summat because from 6th place in the First Division, they sank all the way down to the 4th Division by 1981. The relegation to the 4th being sealed by a dramatic last minute penalty miss against Walsall by Don Givens, which relegated the Blunts and kept the Saddlers up.

They weren't in the basement for long though. Keith Edwards scored 35 goals in the 81/82 campaign, which saw them win the 4th Division championship. It was Edwards' goals again that won them promotion back to the 2nd Div in 84. Ian Porterfield had been manager for those two promotions, but football fans are fickle and following a couple of poor seasons, they had a fans demonstration, demanding that he be sacked.

Obviously, the fans always know best and so a few seasons later, after various managers had come and gone, Dave Bassett came in and took them back down to Division Three. Don't worry, Blunt fans. Bassett led them to two successive promotions and they were back in the top flight in 1990.

They were up there for 4 years and so were original members of the new Premier League in 92, with Brian Deane having the distinction of scoring the first goal of this new competition that ruined football for a lot of people, but made millionaires out of many more.

So they went down in 1994 and Bassett resigned shortly after. Howard Kendall came in and got them to the 1997 Play Off Final. They blew it, losing 0-1 to Crystal Palace. This will become a recurring theme, Sheffield United making the Play Offs and cocking it up.

Neil Warnock took over the manager's job in 1999 and got them to another Play Off Final. Again they lost, 0-3 to Wolves this time. But good old Colin did get them up a few years later when in 2006, they finished as runners up to Reading and after 12 years in the Championship, they were back in the Prima Donna.

They came straight back down though, in slightly controversial circumstances. They were relegated on the last day of the season, with West Ham staying up when they beat Man Utd. However, the Hammers had played two ineligible players and had been fined instead of having points docked. The Blades complained, but their complaint was thrown out and so their relegation stood.

Warnock walked out. Like he does. Good manager, but a quitter when the going gets tough, eh Col?

Bryan Robson had a short spell in charge, before Warnock's assistant, Kevin Blackwell came back to take the hot seat. The ex Town keeper got them to another Play Off Final. This time it was Burnley who beat them, in 2009, at Wembley, 1-0.

He got sacked after a bad start to the next season. Gary Speed got the job, but left when the Wales job came up. So it was Micky Adams who oversaw the relegation to League One in 2011.

He got sacked and the Blunts had more Play Off failures. We beat them in 2012 at Wembley. Yeovil Town beat them in the semis in 2013. Swindon Town beat them in the semis in 2015.

Chris Wilder came in and decided to by pass the Play Offs. In style as well, winning the League One title in 2017, becoming the 4th team to win all 4 divisional titles behind Wolves, Burnley and Pressed on Both Ends.

They finished 10th in the Championship in their first season back, but then went and got promoted to the PL by finishing as runners up to Norwich City in 2019.

They surprised everybody by finishing 9th in the Prima Donna League in 2019/20, but came back down last season, finishing in last place.

Head to Head

Town lead the head to head with 39 wins to United's 26, with 35 draws.

We had a dramatic win at Bramall Lane early on this season. It was the first time we had played each other for ten seasons, following on from our League One Play Off Final in 2012 which we won 8-7 on penalties. This time, Town took the lead in the 75th minute through Josh Koroma after his original shot had been saved by Wes Foderingham. It looked like we would hold out for a 1-0 win, but then the Blades, who hadn't won a point yet and this was Game 4, equalised in the last minute of normal time with Billy Sharp getting yet another goal against us. Typical Town, eh?

No. We weren't to be denied the full three points as we went straight up the other end and got a corner. It was sent long. Too long. Naby Sarr retrieved it, played it to Alex Vallejo, who then fed it to Harry Toffolo. Did Harry shoot, no, he squared the ball to the unmarked Levi Colwill who stabbed the ball past the stranded Foderingham and sent the Town fans wild. Absolute scenes!

Similar to the scenes at Wembley when Steve Simonsen sent the ball into orbit in 2012.

Right then, shall we go back in time? Why not? The first time we met each other was in the 1912/13 season in the FA Cup 1st round (what would now be the 3rd round) at Leeds Road. They were mid table First Division and we were mid table 2nd Division. And it was the underdogs who won it. Arthur Fairclough was our manager then, having just won the Cup with Barnsley in the previous season. It was a midweek match, the original fixture on the Saturday had been snowed off and the pitch was somewhat muddy. Frank Mann scored our first and then two goals from Thomas Elliott sealed a 3-1 Town win, our first ever FA Cup win against League opposition.

We met in the league for the first time in 1920/21 when we had been promoted to Division One and drew the first game 1-1, with the boy Mann scoring again in the game at Bramall Lane in a 1-0 win. We had the hold over them and it would take the Blunts years to get their first win over us. They managed it at the 14th attempt when they won 2-0 at Leeds Road in 26/27.

We made up for it in the next season 1927/28, by beating them 7-1 at Bramall Lane. Three club legends scored two each in this one. Billy Smith, George Brown and Alex Jackson all with a brace and it was Tommy Meads who opened the scoring for Town, one of only two goals he got in his time at the club.

But later on in that season, came the epic FA Cup semi final. The Cup had people flocking in their thousands to Leeds Road in the 20s. We beat Middlesbrough in the 5th round in front of 55,200, then beat Spurs 6-1 in front of 52,390. The semi was played at Old Trafford and there were 69,260 there to see Town and Sheffield United play out a 2-2 draw. Jackson and Brown scoring for the Town. That was on Saturday March 24th. No messing about with ticket sales and police permission back then as two days later, the replay was played at Goodison Park. Only 53,749 went to see this one, which finished 0-0. Town had a 3-2 win at Gigg Lane against Bury (yes, Bury in the 1st Division) on the Saturday, then it was everybody get to Maine Road for the 2nd replay on the Monday.

It was victory at the third attempt for the mighty Town and their manager Jack Chaplin, with Scottish legend Jackson scoring the vital goal again in a 1-0 win in front of a crowd of 69,370. He scored again in the Final, but we lost to Blackburn.

Alex Jackson

We lost the league as well. All these fixtures left a backlog of matches and Town faded through the nine games they had to fit in in April and finished the season as runners up to Everton.

Anyway, back to the league and we hammered them again next season, winning 6-1 at Leeds Road. I bet the Blades were sick of the sight of Alex Jackson. He scored a hat trick against them this time, alongside Johnny Dent and two for Laurie Cumming.

We drew them out of the hat again in 1930, playing them and beating them 2-1 at Leeds Road with a couple of goals from, of course, Alex Jackson.

We put ten goals past them in 33/34 as they got relegated, finishing bottom as we finished as runners up to Arsenal. Jack Smith, George McClean and Wilf Bott each scored twice as we beat them 6-1 at home and then we beat them 4-1 away with two goals from Billy Smith, playing his 574th and final match for Huddersfield Town (a club record), one from Charlie Luke and one from a player I'm unfamiliar with, Willis Vaughton. He was a defender and only played twice for us, this was his only goal. He left us in the next season to join Sheffield United. He only played three games for them before having a much longer career with New Brighton.

So it was after the war when we met up again. A crazy game at Bramall Lane in 1953/54 saw Town come away with the points in a 6-3 win. A Jimmy Glazzard hat trick in this one, with a double for Vic Metcalfe and one for Willie Davie.

Town Greats, Glazzard and Metcalfe

There was another epic three match FA Cup meeting in 1957. This was only at the 4th round stage though. Town won through again after a 2nd replay. We drew 0-0 at home, then 1-1 away before the tie moved to Maine Road for a repeat of 1928. There weren't as many people there for this one though. Only 12,270 went to see Len Quested and Dave Hickson give Town a 2-1 win. United did a league double over us though, in a fixture that was now being played in the 2nd Division for the first time after we got relegated together the previous season.

The next time we met in the top flight, would be the last time. It was 1971/72 and Jimmy Lawson scored our last top flight goal against them in a 1-3 defeat at their place. The last match ended 0-0.

So it was down in the old Third Division when we met up again. It was a Town side on the up, whilst United were on their plummet down the leagues and would get relegated to the 4th Division at the end of this season. We beat them 1-0 at home with a Brian Stanton goal. But the game at their place was another one of absolute scenes in the away end. Town were pushing for promotion, having just won the 4th Division title and were looking good for back to back promotions. A slight dip in form had seen us lose two on the trot, away at Reading and at home to Swindon. We were 2-0 down in this one for much of the game and Mick Buxton, to the annoyance of much of the crowd, had left Steve Kindon on the bench. He came on with about five minutes left, scored almost immediately and then with the last kick of the game, grabbed the equaliser. Absolute limbs!

We missed out on promotion though, so we met again in Div 3 when they came back up. Then a couple of seasons later, met up again in the 2nd Division. We had a few seasons together in Div 2, but got relegated together, alongside Reading in 87/88. They went straight back up and so we didn't meet again until the mid 90s in what was now calling itself Division One (but now calls itself the Championship).

We had a cracking 2-0 win at theirs in 95/96 with legends Andy Booth and Darren Bullock scoring. A quickfire double over them in 1999/2000 when Steve Bruce was in charge, having just left them. We played them twice in October in the league, strangely for the time. This thing used to happen in the 1920s but was unusual for this time. Anyway, we beat them 4-1 at home with Chris Beech and Clyde Wijnhard scoring in the first half. Then a Marcus Stewart double in the second. That was at the beginning of October. At the end of the month, we won 1-0 at theirs, with Jon Dyson scoring this time.

There haven't been many meetings this century. We got relegated in 2001 and didn't play them again until 2008 when we had our one and only League Cup meeting. We were in League One and they were in the Championship when they came to the Galpharm Stadium for this match. Town led for most of the game through a first half cracker of a strike from Michael Flynn. But they nicked it late on with goals in the 82nd and 83rd minutes from Darius Henderson and Kyle Naughton.

And so when they got relegated, we had that one season together which climaxed with a meeting at Wembley Stadium, a match that will be remembered only for the penalty shoot out. The two meetings in the league had been away wins with the Terriers having a magnificent 3-0 win at theirs, with two from Lee Novak and one from super Oscar Gobern, all in the first half. But they won 1-0 at ours, Neill Collins scoring early on, and they actually finished the season 9 points better off than us. They were in 3rd and we finished 4th.

What made it worse for their supporters though was that The Wednesday had beaten them to the automatic promotion spot behind champions Charlton Athletic and even worse than that, they all baked under the sun on the hottest day of the year at Wembley, while we were nicely shaded up the other end watching Simonsen send the ball out of the stadium, into the stratosphere and beyond.

Ah well, mustn't grumble

So what's going on down at Bramall Lane? Managed nowadays by Royston lad  Paul Heckingbottom, the former manager of the BellEnders and the Cabbage.

He's a 44 year old Barnsley lad, who played for and managed his home town club. He was brought up in Royston and went to Barnsley matches with his grandad and was a season ticket holder. But he didn't join the Barnsley FC Academy. No, he went all la de da and joined Manchester United.

He failed to earn a contract with the Red Mancs and ended up going up to Sunderland, who were a Premier League Club then. That's the nearest he got to playing at the top level. He never got a game there and went out on loan to Scarborough, Hartlepool and Darlington. That Darlo move became permanent and he stayed there for three seasons, before landing a big move to Norwich in the Championship.

That wasn't a good move and he ended up leaving to go to Bradford City in the same league, but got relegated to League One with the Bantams. Instead of staying around to help them get back up, he jumped ship to another League One club, Sheffield Wendy.

He won promotion with t'Owls, through the 2005 Play Offs. He won the Play Offs again in the next season, but that was back in League One, where he had gone on loan to his boyhood favourites, Barnsley. He signed on full time at Oakwell at the end of the season and spent a full season there, before going back to Valley Parade on loan.

That loan too became permanent, but an injury ravaged season saw him drop down to non league at the end of it. He played in the Conference for Mansfield, Gateshead and Harrogate before hanging up his boots in 2012.

He went to University in Leeds to study sports coaching and got a job working at the Barnsley Academy. He had a couple of caretaker manager stints. Firstly when Danny Wilson got the boot and then when Lee Johnson buggered off to manage Bristol City. As caretaker, he took Barnsley to two Wembley Cup Finals, winning them both. They won the PaintPotPizzaFreightRoverWindscreen Trophy and then got promoted by winning the League One Play Offs.

Unsurprisingly the Tykes offered him the job full time and he got them to comfortable mid table obscurity. This achievement was just what the local giant club liked the look of and so he was poached by Leeds United. He managed to get the promised mid table mediocrity, but the Leeds directors had an old Argentinian Jack Duckworth lookalike lined up to replace him and so Flippingheckingbottom was given the sack after only four months in the job.

After 6 months of unemployment, he headed north of the border and managed Hibs. It all started well. A Manager of the Month award, an Edinburgh derby win and a fifth place finish. But the next season started badly and he was let go.

So he came back down to Yorkshire and got a job with Sheffield United as u23 coach. Once again he was caretaker when somebody got sacked. It was Chris Wilder this time and the impossible job of stopping the Blunts relegation. He did win a few games though and was expected to get the job full time. He did eventually, but only after Slaviša Jokanović was given a go, which lasted only for 22 games.

Wednesday night's line up at home to West Brom:

18 Wes Foderingham - Signed from Rangers last season.
6 Chris Basham - Been there yonks, over 300 games played.
12 John Egan - Irish centre back, ex Gillingham and Brentford.
19 Jack Robinson - Left back, played for us in 14/15.
20 Jayden Bogle - Right back, ex Derby.
2 George Baldock - Another right back, came from MK Dons.
16 Oliver Norwood - Apparently his wife didn't like Huddersfield.
24 Conor Hourihane - On loan from Villa, always scores against us.
29 Iliman Ndiaye - 21 year old midfielder, came from Boreham Wood.
17 David McGoldrick - Limped off on Wednesday night, unlikely to play in this.
10 Billy Sharp - 36 year old now but still banging 'em in.

Subs:
1 Adam Davies - Welsh international keeper, ex Barnsley and Stoke.
4 John Fleck - Scottish international, ex Rangers and Coventry.
8 Sander Berge - Norway international midfielder, ex Genk.
9 Oli McBurnie - Scottish international, a bit of a dick.
26 Charlie Goode - Centre back on loan from Brentford.
27 Morgan Gibbs-White - Midfielder on loan from Wolves.
33 Rhys Norrington-Davies - Welsh international defender.



Club connections: We have a couple of managers in common. Neil Warnock achieved promotion with both clubs. He got us promoted from the 3rd tier to the 2nd in 1995 and then got the Blades up from the Championship to the Prima Donna League in 2006.

Steve Bruce didn't. He did however give us one of the best half season in living memory, the first half of the 1999/2000 season. We were his second club as a manager and United were his first. They accused us of poaching him from his job there, but he had already quit, citing turmoil in the club's boardroom and a shortage of funds for transfers. Maybe we did poach him. Barry Rubery, the new owner kept talking about his massive ten million pound transfer budget. Ten million? Lol 

Another two Town managers played for Sheffield United. Herbert Chapman, who led us to an FA Cup triumph and Two League titles, played 21 times for Sheff U in 1902/03. And Eddie Boot, who played for and managed Town, came to us from them in 1937.

There are two members of their current playing squad who used to play for us. Oliver Norwood never seems able to settle anywhere, never staying longer than a couple of seasons anywhere. Until now, that is. He's been there since 2018 when he went there on loan from Fulham. The other one is Jack Robinson, who we had on loan for the 2014/15 season.

One of the best left backs we've ever had, signed for us from Sheffield United. That of course, is Tom Cowan, who came to us in 1994, initially on loan, but then signing on full time when that loan period ended. He now works in Sheffield as a fire bobby.

Some super strikers have played for both. Keith Edwards scored loads for them, 143 over two spells. Only 8 for us as he was closing down his playing career.

Jon Stead started his career with us, then after Blackburn and Sunderland, he played in the Premier League for the Blades.   

Wayne Allison had a couple of season at each club. Luke Beckett signed for the Blades from Stockport in 2004, but only played 5 times for them, spending most of his time out on loan. One of those loans was with us, where he scored 6 goals in 7 games. Peter Jackson then forked out 85 grand to sign him on full time. He added another 23 goals in his three year stint. 

Peter Ndlovu came to us on loan from Birmingham City in 2000 and we really would've liked him to stay, but any deal we had thought about making was scuppered by Sheffield United who gazumped us. He played 3 seasons for them, in which time he became their most capped international, making 26 of his 100 appearances for Zimbabwe as a Blunt.

Sheffield United in popular culture:

They have a few sports stars as celebrity fans of the Blades. England captain (at the time of writing) Joe Root, Olympic Golden Girl Jessica Ennis-Hill, WWE legend Mick Foley, boxer Kell Brook. Then there's Mark Labbett The Beast from ITV’s quiz show The Chase. And TV host Anna Walker.

TV's Anna Walker


Boxing's Kell Brook

There's also a fella called Flea from a popular music group called the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, plays the bass guitar thingy. A bloke called Joe Elliott from something calling itself a Def Leppard (spelling's atroshus by the way), he's the singer. And the boy Paul Heaton from the Housemartins, and also the Beautiful South. He and them played the McAlpine when we used to have gigs on and was quoted as saying on stage; "Fu****g hell, I've had some right scraps around here in my time." Obviously referring to the quality of the local fish n chips there.

And then, the most famous Blunts fan of all, Yorkshire Tea's Sean Bean......










 
Recent form - last 6 matches:

PNE 0-0 Town
Town 1-0 Barnsley (FA Cup)
Town 2-0 Derby
Town 1-1 Stoke
Reading 3-4 Town
Town 1-1 Swansea

Blades 2-0 WBA
Birmingham 1-2 Blades
Peterborough 0-2 Blades
Blades 2-0 Luton
PNE 2-2 Blades
Derby 2-0 Blades

Town are 5th in the Championship table with 49 points. Sheffield United are 10th with 45.

Leading scorers:

Terriers:
Danny Ward (10)
Danel Sinani (5)
Duane Holmes (5)
Josh Koroma (4)
Matty Pearson (4)

Blades:
Billy Sharp (12)
Morgan Gibbs-White (5)
Rhian Brewster (4)




February the 12th down the ages: How did we get on in previous matches played on this date?

1910: Grimsby Town res (h) Midland League, lost 2-5 (William McCreadie, WE Smith)
1916: Leeds City (h) Wartime League, WON 5-1 (John Connor, Thomas Elliott 2, Holley, Crossley)
1921: Newcastle United (a) Div 1, lost 0-1
1927: The Wednesday (h) Div 1, WON 4-3 (Bob Kelly 3, Alex Jackson)
1938: Liverpool (a) FA Cup, WON 1-0 (Bobby Barclay)
1944: Barnsley (a) Wartime League, lost 1-4 (Billy Price)
1949: Aston Villa (h) Div 1, lost 0-1
1955: Wolverhampton Wanderers (a) Div 1, lost 4-6 (Jimmy Glazzard 3, Bryan Frear)
1966: Plymouth Argyle (a) FA Cup, WON 2-0 (Steve Smith, Les Massie)
1972: Liverpool (h) Div 1, lost 0-1
1977: Newport County (h) Div 4, WON 3-0 (Terry Eccles, Bobby Campbell, Kevin Johnson pen)
1983: Millwall (h) Div 3, WON 5-1 (Mark Lillis, Colin Russell 2, Keith Hanvey, Phil Wilson)
1994: Wrexham (a) Divison Two (3rd tier), lost 1-3 (Darren Bullock)
2000: Ipswich Town (a) Division One (2nd tier), lost 1-2 (Dean Gorré)
2002: Blackpool (h) FL Trophy, WON 2-1 (Clyde Wijnhard, Danny Schofield)
2005: Milton Keynes Dons (a) League One, lost 1-2 (Andy Booth)
2008: Carlisle United (a) League One, lost 1-2 (Rob Page)
2011: Oldham Athletic (h) League One, drew 0-0
2013: Leicester City (a) FA Cup, WON 2-1 (Adam Clayton, Sean Scannell)
2020: Cardiff City (h) Championship, lost 0-3

Played 20. WON 8. Drawn 1. Lost 11.

Well we've won 8, but that Trophy match in 2002 was an aggregate loss. It was 3-3 after the 90 minutes and then we lost it in extra time on the Golden Goal rule.

I'll write a bit more about these in the Give Us This Day Our Daily Thread on Saturday.

Sheffield United Anagrams: Some football related, some not.

1. Peanut Halo 
   
2. Denver Pluto 
   
3. Acorn Winkle 
   
4. Brie Belly 
   
5. Ready Pegs 
   
6. Nana Bees 
   
7. Baht Leeds 
   
8. Allan Marble 
   
9. Kid Watershed 
   
10. Disc Whirler 
    

[ritchiebaby]

Perfect timing again, Snooty.

Anagram 8 is Bramall Lane, but where's Colin? Oh, right....

Is the blitz photo real or is it after a Scotland game in the 70s?

And I'll see if anyone else notices the deliberate mistake.

[Lord Snooty]

Oooh, Deliberate mistake?

[jjamez]

I like what you did with Kell brook there snoots

---

9 Keith edwards

[SHEP_HTAFC]

Love the thread Snoots
Especially love the pic of the Town ground.
Can only see us losing our unbeaten record to this lot.

[Lord Snooty]

Pipa is back in the squad for tomorrow. Levi not yet. And Tino is still at Chelsea with their medical team.

[Lord Snooty]

[jjamez]

6 Sean bean

[theo_luddite]

How do you obstruct their keeper when their fullback has thrown you to the floor behind him?

[Lord Snooty]

Ah well. We had lucky decisions in the last three matches. This was a bad one though. Terrible decision.

Apart from that. Good game, good game.