Sheffield United F.C.

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Like their great local rivals, Sheffield Wednesday F.C, the team began as a cricket club. Formed in 1854 as the Sheffield United Cricket Club they were a club without a team. The main task of the club was to manage the then new Bramall Lane sporting enclosure. This was the first example of any sporting club in the world calling itself 'United' (but not the first football club to be called united, as Plymouth United F.C was formed before Sheffield United launched its football team). In 1857 two of the Sheffield United members, William Prest and Nathaniel Creswick founded Sheffield F.C, the world's oldest football club.

Sheffield United were a professional club almost from the start, and were admitted to the Football League in 1892. They 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.

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
• 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

Having secured promotion in 1892-3 United then enjoyed an unbroken 37-season spell in the top flight (which remains a record for a newly promoted team), winning the league in 1898 and being runners up in 1897 and 1900. 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, occured 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 seaon 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 1945-6. 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 1952-3, 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 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.

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 F.A Cup semi finals in 1993, 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 playoff 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) 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. 2005-06 will be 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.

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

• Jimmy Hagan 1938-1958
• Joe Shaw 1945-1966
• Alan Hodgkinson 1953-1971
• 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
• Bill Dearden 1970-1976
• Keith Edwards 1975-1978 and 1981-1986
• Alex Sabella 1978-1980
• Colin Morris 1982-1988
• Brian Deane 1988-1993 and 1997-1998
• Michael Brown 1999-2003
• Michael Tonge 2000-
• Paddy Kenny 2002-