July 11th 2020. Sheffield United comfortably beat Chelsea at home 3-nil. The BBC Sport report talked of this victory “continuing their push for European qualification as they moved into the Premier League’s top six”.
Since then, the Blades have won a total of zero matches, a run lasting almost six months.
January 9th 2021, Bristol Rovers 2 Sheffield United 3. This weekend’s win is also manager Chris Wilder’s 100th as United boss. That’s a long time to be stuck in the nervous 90s.
Personal milestones will surely mean far less to him than the opportunity to hang on to something by way of a confidence boost for his squad. In truth they were made to work for this win as for much of the game Rovers did not look the lower league opposition, twice coming from a goal behind to test the nerves of United. Based on today they should be absolutely fine in League 1 this season.
I enjoyed Paul Tisdale’s interview on Radio 5 before the game. When asked how he had turned things around he revealed he’d told his players to “run forward, look forward and pass forward.” When they lose the ball the instruction was to “run back”. Football really isn’t a complicated game is it?
As well as the win Chris Wilder will be relieved to dodge the bullet of extra time. An extra half hour in the legs no squad needs right now, and something Sheffield United’s Tuesday night opponents Newcastle and relegation rivals Burnley, Fulham and West Brom all had to endure. While Fulham and Burnley progressed, the latter needing penalties to beat MK Dons, West Brom came away from Blackpool on the wrong end of a 2021 “cup shock”. I wonder how big a deal this really is to Sam Allardyce? Clearly being beaten by a team from League 1 is not a good look and will not help the confidence of an already struggling squad. Yet this is a team who have secured draws at Liverpool and Manchester City. Sam was appointed to keep them in the Premier League, not to take West Brom on a cup run.
But for Chris Wilder and Sheffield United, they have so little to show for their efforts that the prize of an extra fixture in an already overloaded schedule is secondary to the lift that comes from having that winning feeling again.
“This was a big fixture and a big result,” was the verdict. “Hopefully we can build on it. The consequences of not getting a result today would have really impacted on the group, and they’ve took a lot.
“The players in the group, the majority of them played in the Championship when we went up and there’s some young players out there as well, and when you don’t get results that does test everybody out. So the challenge was, regardless of the performance was to get a win which we’ve done and I think we’ve played ok too today.”
While the hope for Sheffield United is this will set them on a path to the unlikeliest of escapes from the Premier League relegation zone, for Paul Tisdale defeat confirms the restoration job is already making a mark.
“I think we can take confidence from this going forwards but there are plenty of things we need to improve on, but generally, if we play with that kind of purpose then we have a real chance. The fact that we’re disappointed in the dressing room afterwards says a lot.”
Sheffield United are my 7th team of this year’s FA Cup. To this point I’ve been with teams no higher than League 1, where the glory of taking down a famous name is the dream. In this season more than any other the financial gain of a cup run is huge. Just ask Chorley manager Jamie Vermiglio, who told BBC Sport after their win over Derby’s youngsters: “We’ve made around £250,000 before today, goodness knows what it’ll be now. It’ll certainly be £300,000 or £400,000. We could possibly get to £500,000 now and for a club like us, not only does it save us, it enables us to grow.”
The story at Marine, who face Tottenham today, will be similar.
The financial pressures in the Premier League are very different. For Sheffield United who face the likely prospect of dropping back to the Championship, does going a couple more rounds in the cup make much of a difference?
Fan forums, like Twitter, are rarely to be regarded as a representative sample of general opinion, but they’re fun to read. While Wilder feels a win regardless of performance was vital, it’s not difficult to find fans still laying into the team. One especially incendiary post prompted the reply of “Christ, I wouldn’t want to be stuck with you during lockdown”.
While there’s an inevitable divide in opinion on just how “big” a victory this really is, it’s clear that a home defeat on Tuesday night against Newcastle will blow away any positivity from this weekend.
There is one name which lurks in the draw which will light the flame for the next round…
Sheffield Wednesday.
Glory Hunting 