Life is never dull when you follow the blades! (Sheffield United F.C.)

Member Name: 137699

Product:	Sheffield United F.C.
Date:	03/01/03 (506 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Always Controversial, Never Dull

Disadvantages: Not for the faint hearted!

I've been a football fan ever since I can remember, and as I grew up in the Midlands, I had so many teams to choose from, that I never really became affiliated with any of them. All my friends suppported West Brom or Wolves, though others were Villa and Birmingham followers. Just to be different I kind of followed Coventry, but apart from winning the FA cup with an own goal in 1987, it was a very boring team to follow, and until I went to university I had never actually been to watch a match.

However, I chose to continue my studies in Sheffield, and was particularly keen to get properly behind a team. It was 1990, and the choice was simple - follow the Owls, who were better supported, and played the beautiful game with a team littered with stars, or follow the unfashionable blades, who had a more hard-nosed reputation, with a long-ball game, and with the main stars being Tony Agana and Vinny Jones! Being a bit of an underdog follower (and an avid hater of the then-Owls manager "Big" Ron Atkinson), I got behind the Blades. The other bonus with following united was the fact that they were the only club I had ever found that offered student discounts - allowing you in for every home game for half price!

Since then I have witnessed some amazing highs and lows following them.

1993 - the amazing FA cup run culminating in the United v Wednesday semi-final showdown at Wembley
1994 - watching the team become decimated by the selling of Brian Deane, and then despite fantastic efforts from the team, losing our premiership place to an injury-time winner by Dennis Wise for Chelsea to beat us 3-2 at Stamford Bridge on the last day of the season, when it seemed impossible for us to be relegated, and then finding out later that Everton had been involved in the most controversial game ever witnessed, as they beat Wimbledon 3-0, with Hans Segers (centre of the match-fixing allegations) having been involved in diving the wrong way from a 30

-yard Dave Watson shot, and Peter Fear giving away a blatant hand-ball penalty with no Everton player anywhere near him! (I'm bitter, can you tell?)
1995-8 - attending games at Brammal Lane as a 3 sided ground, after funding for the new stand dissapeared after the old one had been demolished!
1997 - being the centre of ultimate controversy when away at Portsmouth, our goalkeeper was sent off, and a fan leapt from the away stand, ran onto the pitch and decked the linesman with a deft right hook - the linesman had to be taken to hospital, the "fan" later turned out to be a Southampton supporter in disguise!
2000 - witnessing the "unsporting" goal which gave Arsenal a 2-1 win over us in the FA cup, then watching our team disappear down the tunnel in protest, then getting home to find out that Arsene Wenger had agreed to replay the game, only for us to lose by the same score!
2002 - the cheat scandal following our 3-0 home defeat to West Brom, when we had 3 players dismissed (completely correctly by the way) and then others appearing to fein injury!

I'm sure there are many other episodes which I have forgotten, but the long and short of it is that the Blades are always entertaining, and there is rarely a dull season at Brammal Lane. The ground is finally half-decent, and this season at least, the team is starting to look good also. All we need now is to finally start getting the better of the now far inferior Wednesday, and get promoted!

We have an amazing array of songs, many of which are directed towards our bitter rivals Sheffield Wednesday, but our finest song is the legendary "Greasy Chip Butty Song" which usually makes at least one rendition at each game including away matches!

I won't go into who is good and bad in the team, as this opinion will probably (hopefully?) outlast all of the current squad. Just check the league position in todays paper to find out!

So wha
t are the Blades prospects for the long term future? If I'm honest, I can't see the Blades ever challenging for the premier league title or any major honours except maybe the occasional cup run. They will never be a fashionable team to follow, and the best that we can hope for in all reality is to hopefully get promoted, and become a Premiership alsoran. The fan base in Sheffield is dwindling, and when the derby against the Wednesday can't fill the grounds, then it becomes apparrent that the sort of support you need to really challenge in the big time does not exist. When the likes of Wolves, Derby and so on can get bigger crowds from smaller cities, and in lower league positions, then we're not likely to see regular 30,000-40,000 crowds at a Blades game, even if the stadium were extended to cope!

Neither will merging the clubs solve the problem - what interest in football exists in Sheffield stems mainly from the fierce rivalry between United and Wednesday. Take this away, and suddenly the interest in football will subside even more, probably resulting in a Division One side who would pull in 18,000 fans each week.

Still, I'm a blade through and through, and nothing could dull my passion for the team - except a merger.

Up the blades!

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