The history of Sheffield United Football Club, an English football club based in Sheffield, dates back to the club's formation in 1889.
Formative years.
Sheffield United Football Club was formed at Bramall Lane on 22 March 1889 by the Sheffield United Cricket Club at the suggestion of its president, Sir Charles Clegg. Clegg was a famous local sportsman, Chairman of the Sheffield FA and also chairman of Sheffield Wednesday, who had been the tenants at Bramall Lane from 1881 to 1887 but had vacated after a dispute over rent. Due to the lost revenue the decision was taken to form a football branch of the Cricket club thus United were established.
The Sheffield United cricket club itself had been going at Bramall Lane since 1854 and was the first English sports club to use United in its name after a number of local clubs were unable to self-sustain and merged. It has been suggested that some of The Blades original players came from an earlier amateur side called Norfolk F.C., who played in the Youdan Cup.
The team was formed six days after a crowd of 22,688 paid to watch the FA Cup semi-final played at Bramall Lane between Preston North End and West Bromwich Albion, with gate receipts of £574. Charles Stokes, a member of the Ground Committee saw the financial possibilities of a permanent football team and they were a professional club almost from the start. They played their first game against Notts Rangers of the Midland Counties League on 7 September 1889 losing 4–1 at Meadow Lane. Their first game at Bramall Lane did not come until 28 September 1889 against Birmingham St George's of the Football Alliance which they also lost 4–0.
United's first season was composed of friendlies and local cup matches, but notable for them reaching the second round of the FA Cup at their first attempt by beating Football League side Burnley 2–1 at home. However, the next cup game against Bolton Wanderers gave United their record defeat 13–0 and persuaded the committee that regular competitive league games were required.
They joined the Midland Counties League for the 1890–91 season, finishing fifth. This season was the first time that the club introduced a red stripe to their shirts, having played their first season in all-white shirts. Unhappy at being overlooked for the Football Alliance and no longer satisfied with the Midland, they then competed the following season in the Northern League finishing third. At the end of the season they applied to join the Football League First Division, which was expanding from 14 to 16 clubs for the 1892 season, but polled only 5 votes and were instead admitted as one of the twelve founder members of the Second Division with the Alliance clubs, replacing Birmingham St George's which had folded.
The glory years (1890s–1930s).
United made waves straight away by securing promotion to the First Division in 1892–93, after finishing second to Small Heath and beating Accrington 1–0 in the Test Match on 22 April.
United enjoyed an unbroken 37-season spell in the top flight (which remains a record for a newly promoted team) winning the League Championship in 1897–98 and were runners up in 1896–97 and 1899–1900. After the League Championship, United played and won an unofficial two-legged "Champions of Great Britain" title against Celtic, who had won that year's Scottish League Championship. Despite this, the 1898–99 season was one of struggle, when United finished 16th out of 18, just one place above the (at the time) two relegation places – the first poor title defence in English League history.
They won their first FA Cup Final on 15 April 1899, beating Derby County 4–1 at Crystal Palace, returning to the London venue to play Tottenham Hotspur on 20 April 1901. Despite Spurs being a Southern League club, they took The Blades to a replay with a 1–1 draw. Seven days later, at Burnden Park in Bolton, the London side won 3–1 in the replay.
United returned to Crystal Palace the following year on 19 April 1902, and were again taken to a replay. This time Southampton (also from the Southern League) drew 1–1 but the replay exactly a week later, on the same ground was won 2–1 by the Blades.
The next final appearance came on 24 April 1915 at Old Trafford when United beat Chelsea 3–0 to win "The Khaki Cup final", the last game before the Football League and FA Cup competition was suspended until the end of the First World War.
The fourth and final win came with their first Wembley Cup Final, beating Cardiff City 1–0 on 25 April 1925. Their last appearance in a final came on 25 April 1936, losing 1–0 to Arsenal.
Disappointment and relegation (late 1930s).
After several close shaves – including the 1898–99 title defence mentioned above, 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 contributing factor to relegation was the decision to sell Irish centre forward Jimmy Dunne, who scored over 140 goals for the club in just six 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 1920s 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, occurred 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 Sheffield Wednesday for second spot in 1939, winning their last game 6–1 against Tottenham. They started the 1939–40 season brightly before World War II curtailed the campaign.
Post-war (1940s–1950s).
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 1945–46. This good form carried over into the following year with a 6th-place finish, combined with reaching the FA Cup Quarter-finals.
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 many goals (including 7–3 and 3–1 wins against the Owls in the Steel City Derby 1951–2), but inconsistent results, Teddy Davison ended his 20-year managerial career at the Lane. He was replaced by Reg Freeman, who guided the Blades to the Second Division Championship in 1952–53, scoring 97 goals along the way. Two seasons of struggle, but survival, in the First Division followed before Freeman died in the summer of 1955. His replacement, Joe Mercer, was unable to stave off relegation in 1956.
Revival (1960s–mid 1970s).
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 five 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 two scoreless draws.
Sheffield United's most memorable post-war run was in 1971, where they ended the season with six victories and five draws to win promotion from Division Two. The following season United took the First Division by storm. Led by such players as Tony Currie, Alan Woodward, Eddie Colquhoun, Len Badger, Ted Hemsley, Trevor Hockey, Alan Hodgkinson, Gil Reece and Bill Dearden they played the first ten games without defeat, recording eight victories and two draws. With one League Cup victory during this period, United had an unbeaten run of 22 matches. They finally lost the top spot in Division One in a memorable encounter with Manchester United at Old Trafford on 2 October 1971, The Blades losing out 2–0 on that occasion. The memorable goal scored by George Best six minutes from the end is still replayed on television to this day.
The remarkable success in the early 1970s brought to a head the long-standing argument about the desirability of playing football and cricket at the same ground and a decision was taken to build a new stand to provide a fourth side to what was essentially a three-sided stadium. This stand (originally known as 'The South Stand') with a seating capacity of 7746 people, was opened in 1975.
Lower division football (late 1970s–late 1980s).
Unfortunately, the completion of the new stand coincided with a slump in fortunes on the field, despite the team finishing that season sixth in Division One. The failure to qualify for the UEFA Cup by one point after failing to beat Birmingham City at St Andrew's in the final game of the season was followed by relegation to the Second Division in 1976.
Relegation was a financial disaster, and the drop in season ticket sales meant limited funds for strengthening the team. The club's bank was reluctant to give additional loans on top of the debt on the new South Stand. Revenue from the transfer of club legend Tony Currie and season ticket sales was quickly swallowed up and the bank declined to make further loans unless they could be underwritten by personal guarantees from Board members.
Jimmy Sirrel left on 27 September 1977, with United next to bottom of the Second Division, and was replaced on a temporary basis by Cec Coldwell who had previously taken control between the reign of John Harris and Ken Furphy. Results picked up but the lack of funds for new players was matched by the lack of reserve players suitable for the step up to the first team.
A bad run in January led to the appointment of Harry Haslam, a 'wheeler dealer' who had successfully managed a Luton Town side in similar circumstances for nine years. "Happy Harry" brought in Danny Bergara, a Uruguayan as Assistant Manager.
With a reputation for finding talent, Haslam brought in a number of players, most notably Alex Sabella but was forced to sell promising players such as Keith Edwards, Imre Varadi and Simon Stainrod. Alan Woodward left for the United States as did Bruce Rioch whose short loan spell brought a mini-revival in the club's fortunes.
The 1978–79 season ended with relegation to the Third Division. United's first ever season outside the top two divisions started promisingly, but their early form soon burned out, and the team spent the rest of the season in mid-table, never threatening the promotion places. 1980–81 saw another good start, with the team at the top of the table at Christmas. Haslam's health started to fail at this point though, and he was eventually forced to stand down in mid-January. 1966 World Cup winner Martin Peters succeeded him, but then the team went into free fall, winning only three of the last sixteen games and were relegated to the Fourth Division. The 1981 relegation came as a result of a last minute miss from a penalty kick in the final game of the season against Walsall, who would have been relegated instead had the kick (by Don Givens) been successful.
Having dropped to the lowest level, United appointed Ian Porterfield from neighbours Rotherham United to help them start the recovery, and with investment from a willing boardroom,