Match Day Thread Sheffield United v PNE Bramall Lane 28/4/2018

Sheffield United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in the Championship, the second tier of English football. The football club was formed in 1889 as an offshoot of Sheffield United Cricket Club, and are nicknamed The Blades due to Sheffield's history of steel production.[1] The club have played their home games at Bramall Lane since their formation in 1889. Bramall Lane is currently an all-seater ground with a capacity of 32,702.

Sheffield United won the original First Division in 1898 and the FA Cup in 1899, 1902, 1915 and 1925. They were beaten finalists in the FA Cup in 1901 and 1936, and reached the semi-finals in 1961, 1993, 1998, 2003 and 2014. They reached the semi-finals of the League Cup in 2003 and 2015.

For most of the club's history they have played in red and white striped shirts with black shorts. Their closest rivals are Sheffield Wednesday, with whom they contest the Steel City derby.

Thanks to Cardiff's capitulation at Derby on Tuesday night this does have the feeling of a last chance saloon for both clubs given Derby still have to play those hapless saps from Oakwell a week on Sunday.
United are five points behind the Rams we are four points behind them. So to stand a chance both sides have to win which obviously means it will be a draw.
A second trip to the Lane already this year after our 1-0 cup defeat following Billy Sharp's,penalty after his fall in the area following exhaustion after a two yard run.
Not usually the greatest venue for us having visited the place on and off since 1969 managed to see the boys win only once on this piece of south Yorkshire soil.
We also travel with what is likely to be a make shift defence as Huntington and Clarke could both be ruled out which would mean a central defensive partnership of Spurr and Davies.
United usually strong at home and usually too strong for us at the Lane, they have done well this season although like us will probably just come up short. Clarke has done well considering basically he was a journeyman before he landed up with Chris Wilder.
All to play for nothing to lose play Harrop and go for it.
Cricket duties again this week so cut and paste report back for the last hurrah against Burton

Stat Attack: Sheffield United

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Our final league game of the season sees us back in Sheffield only four weeks after we faced Sheffield Wednesday and this is of course our third visit to the city this season following our FA Cup fourth round tie at Bramall Lane in January.

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The last time we faced the Blades in our final away game of the season, we gained a creditable 0-0 draw five seasons ago, but this was a comparative highlight in the history of this fixture.

We have a disappointing record at Bramall Lane, having lost on 34 of the 50 previous occasions we have met at the former cricket ground. That draw was only the ninth in total and our 1-0 win in September 2013 was the most recent of our meagre seven victories.

From 1897 to 1924, we only managed three points from a run of 19 games during which we conceded 45 goals so at least our record since then has improved a little. We have managed less than one goal per game (45) whilst conceding just over twice as many (93), history suggesting we might have a tough afternoon ahead of us in a low scoring match.

However, we can draw inspiration from our 5-0 win back in 1954, which saw Tom Finney score twice and Angus Morrison, Bobby Foster and Denis Hatsell also got on the scoresheet.
That win in 2013 was our first since 1978 so we are well overdue another victory as we look to end a successful season on the road with another three points.

North End Play-Off veteran Mark Rankine featured in the Blades unsuccessful Play-Off campaign of 2003 after he had swapped Deepdale for Bramall Lane. Ranks had been mostly restricted to substitute appearances for North End that season and ironically was sent off in his penultimate game for us at the home of the Blades before moving there on loan in April to help their promotion push.

He started both semi-final games against Nottingham Forest and was picked for the Final, where Wolves came out on top, 3-0, before signing permanently over the summer.

Three seasons later, his former team-mate Chris Lucketti followed him over the Pennines also on loan before making the move permanent. Chris was more successful in terms of gaining promotion to the Premier League as United finished runners up and the following season, he made eight appearances at the top level as the Blades fell back to the Championship.

On This Date
Somewhat surprisingly considering we have played almost 5,000 league games, this is only the 14th time we have played on this date and the fifth instance away from Deepdale.

We lost 1-0 at Everton in 1923 and it was to be 53 years before we played again on this date, once again losing, this time by 3-1 at Hereford.

Our only victory to date came in 2001, when first half goals from David Healy and a Jon Macken brace gave us a 3-1 win at Gresty Road that also saw Rob Hulse score for Crewe in the first 45 minutes.
It is six years ago today that Graham Alexander played his 983rd club game and scored his 130th goal in a 2-2 draw with Charlton Athletic at Deepdale. Brought on as an 84th minute substitute, Grezza proved that fairytales can still happen in football by scoring the equaliser in the 91st minute with his last kick in professional football. He even managed to get booked for going into the crowd as Deepdale erupted for one of our favourite sons of all time!

The Yorkshire connection to today’s game continues with Sheffield-born Chris Sedgwick celebrating his 38th birthday today. Chris joined us from Rotherham in 2004 and made over 250 appearances on the wing before moving to boyhood club Sheffield Wednesday.

Will Hayhurst had to overcome two broken legs whilst a trainee at Deepdale and his perseverance was rewarded six years ago today when he made his first team debut just six days after his 18th birthday. Will made almost 50 appearances before joining Notts County in 2014 and he also spent time on loan at York City.

Last Five Games At Bramall Lane
Sheffield United 1 (Sharp (pen)) Preston North End 0, 27th January 2018
Sheffield United 1 (Murphy) Preston North End 3 (Gallagher, 2 (1 pen); Huntington), 3rd February 2015
Sheffield United 2 (McNulty, Campbell-Ryce) Preston North End 1 (Brownhill), 10th January 2015
Sheffield United 0 Preston North End 1 (Beavon), 21st September 2013
Sheffield United 0 Preston North End 0, 27th April 2013



Ref Watch: Sheffield United

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For the third time the season, our match official for Saturday’s big game at Bramall Lane, sees Isle of Wight official James Linington taking charge of North End.

his first PNE game of this season was the Lilywhites’ 2-1 win at Hull City back in September and then he was also the referee of our final game of 2017, the televised 1-0 win over Cardiff City – both games featuring late winners for the Lilywhites.

Overall this season he has refereed 38 games, issuing 133 cautions and five red cards, having also overseen the Blades once, in their nine goal thriller with Fulham back in November, when the Cottagers came out 5-4 winners.

Last season the referee made his first visit ever to Deepdale for the clash with Wolves back in November and was then the referee in the away game at Derby County back in March.
The season before he was referee of the PNE game at Ashton Gate, when Greg Cunningham scored the winner against his former club and that was his third game in charge of PNE.

The other time he refereed North End was another game in the south of England, when the Lilywhites won 1-0 at Gillingham in the League One promotion season, courtesy of Paul Huntington’s goal in his first start of the season.

James will be assisted by James Wilson and Steven Meredith, with experienced Select Group Two official Oliver Langford acting as the fourth official.

 

Sheffield United 0 Preston North End 1 Browne

Sheffield United: Blackman, O'Connell, Stearman (Leonard 80), Basham, Freeman (Baldock 76), Fleck, Evans (Brooks 66), Duffy, Stevens, Clarke, Sharp. Subs (not used): Lundstram, Donaldson, Lafferty, Moore.
PNE: Rudd, Fisher, Huntington, Davies, Cunningham, Pearson, Browne, Johnson (Clarke 67), Harrop (Gallagher 67) Robinson, Maguire (Barkhuizen 58). Subs (not used): Moult, Earl, Bodin, Maxwell.
Referee: James Linington (Isle of Wight)
Attendance: 28,569 (1,610 PNE)

Apparently time wasted, play acted, what's commonly known in the trade as professional, three points at Bramall Lane rare as rocking horse droppings will take it and go to the last game still in with a chance and a quirk of fixtures the two vying for the lat play off spot play two teams fighting against the drop.
If Deepdale isn't rocking next Sunday then it never will be. Going for a Burton next Sunday, whilst Rams play Barnsley, strange thing is would kind of like Burton to stay up but that changes next week.

Despire admitting North End weren’t at their best this afternoon, manager Alex Neil praised his side for finding a way to win at Bramall Lane.

Alan Browne’s effort just before the hour mark saw the Lilywhites to a hard earned victory away at Sheffield United, and having put in a performance and not got a result several times this season, the gaffer felt his side showed real resilience today.

“That’s probably the poorest performance we’ve put in and managed to win this season,” conceded Alex, “But I don’t want to take anything away from the lads.

“There’s different types of winning games and the simple fact is at the end of the game, you’d rather have won than played well and lost.

“We’ve had a lot of games this season where we’ve played particularly well but we’ve not got the points but we’ve showed a different side to ourselves today, we were resilient, we’ve dug in and defended well and when a chance came along we took it.

“It’s not a performance which I’ll look back on, but what it is, is a means to and end; we’ve got the three points, we’ll discard the performance and think about getting ready for next week.”

Today’s results means North End can get ready for next Sunday with it all to play with just two points separating them from the Play-Offs at the time of writing with one game to play, and the manager reiterated his and his team’s focus will be on themselves come next weekend at Deepdale against Burton Albion.

“If I’m being honest I didn’t have a ‘Scooby’ what was going on at the other grounds,” continued Alex. “I was just focused on trying to see a hard graft 20 minutes out because at that stage, we didn’t have possession of the ball, we were pinned back in and had to defend for our lives and we did that.

"The most important thing for us which I’ve said in the last few weeks, we need to take care of our own games because if we don’t, the rest doesn’t matter. We’ve done that and took it to the last game and now hopefully it will be an exciting end to the season for us.

“The pressure now goes to the other teams. They’re going to have to win their game, and we just need to take care of our game and if we don’t, we don’t deserve to be in the Play-Offs, if we do, then you never know what’s going to happen.”

Browne’s goal on 57 minutes came at a crucial time for Alex Neil’s side, with Sheffield United looking at making their home advantage count.

On the only goal of the game, Alex added: “Josh Harrop cuts in on his right foot and has a good shot and then Alan gets on the end of it to put it in the net.

“It was a strange game - very rarely do we get dominated but I didn’t think we dominated the game by any means today, but I’m pleased that we won it - it’s certainly not going to be one that we’ll remember for very long. We started brightly but then we were poor up until half-time and I said to them, nobody remembers the first half, particularly if it’s 0-0 what they remember is who wins the game and the boys did what they needed to do and win the game which is the most important thing.”

Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder:

"We've come a very long way in a short space of time and for us to take it to the 45th game - I don't think anybody would've expected that.

"Ultimately we're disappointed today that we didn't finish off our home campaign which, I believe, has been very very positive.

"We've had some great results, and possibly more performances than results."

He did give us praise as well

 

Both Burton and Barnsley, though at Deepdale & the Rams' place, will be dogged. Both PNE & Rams should win leaving NE 7th.
Not bad for a team that lost its defence due to injury and suspension half way through the season. A play-off place would be the 'cat getting the cream'. Take a deep breath & just hope!

 

Yep taking it until the last game like three years ago, nothing to lose although wouldn't mind Burton staying up but that changes next Sunday