The Unsworth factor
One Saturday last April, David Unsworth brought the Shoreham Street end to its feet with an injury-time goal against Hull City that put Sheffield United back in the Premiership after twelve frustrating years. This Sunday, that same David Unsworth scored the penalty at the opposite end of Bramall Lane that sent us down again.
I saw it coming. Back in February I had a vivid dream that Unsworth, who had just gone to Wigan on a free transfer, would score the goal in that final fixture that would relegate us ... even though we were well clear of the drop zone at the time. But when Steve Kabba, let go at the same time, missed Watford's game against us because of a clause written into his contract, I hope the same would apply to Unsworth. Sadly, it didn't, apparently because we let him go on a free transfer so had no say in his deal with Wigan.
Letting Unsworth go to a potential relegation rival always seemed a risk. He had been the driving force behind United's promotion campaign, and at times in the 2005-06 season seemed to be doing everything except collect the tickets at the turnstile. But he stopped figuring in the side after a few Premiership games amid rumours of a falling-out with Neil Warnock, and was let go.
The greatest irony of all is that when Warnock spoke of the individual blunders that has cost us eight or nine points, Unsworth was responsible for one of them, alongside Claud Davis' bypassing of his own goalkeeper against Portsmouth and Paddy Kenny's rugby tackle on an Everton forward, in each case when we were a goal up. For Unsworth was one of the two United players to have penalties saved by Blackburn's Brad Friedel in that 0-0 draw at the start of the season.
Irony upon irony. If Warnock had sold Unsworth at the start of the season we might have two more points from the Blackburn game and his heroics for Wigan wouldn't have mattered. Nor would they if we hadn't conceded a pointless penalty with second remaining of the first half, for him to score from.
As it is, we're back in the Championship and £50 million worse off. I don't blame Warnock himself - he's never had the credit he deserved for producing a winning team, with a stable core despite the strikers he buys in strips of five like raffle tickets. My only criticism is that we made ourselves look more desperate than we were by fielding weakened teams in both Cup competitions. Rafa Benitez and Alex Ferguson may feel like reminding Warnock of that.
I was so sure Wigan would beat us that I even went down to the betting shop to put £50 on them to win .... that way I would have at least ended up with something to ease the pain. But each time I went there I found the door locked, so I took it as a sign from upstairs that I shouldn't cash in on the Blades' misfortune.
The night before the match, I was going through Piccadilly Circus on a bus and the neon light adverts caught my eye. There's a huge one for Coca Cola listing all the Football League clubs ... and the Blades were on it. Had they forgotten to update it, or were they anticipating events?
I suppose we're bound to lose Phil Jagielka and maybe a couple of other good 'uns. If so, thanks lads, you've done us proud. Hopefully we will bounce back, with or without Warnock, a true Blade who has never given less than his best. But having suffered years of pain after we went down in '76 and '94, I know it won't be easy.
So thanks to Warnock and all the Blades for doing their best at the top level, and giving us some great memories. We thought we had done enough to stay up, particularly after that great draw at Charlton but the league table doesn't lie (even if the management of West Ham did).
I only got two hours' sleep last night, but I know the management and players will have had even less.
The fightback starts here. Next time we'll get it right!
I saw it coming. Back in February I had a vivid dream that Unsworth, who had just gone to Wigan on a free transfer, would score the goal in that final fixture that would relegate us ... even though we were well clear of the drop zone at the time. But when Steve Kabba, let go at the same time, missed Watford's game against us because of a clause written into his contract, I hope the same would apply to Unsworth. Sadly, it didn't, apparently because we let him go on a free transfer so had no say in his deal with Wigan.
Letting Unsworth go to a potential relegation rival always seemed a risk. He had been the driving force behind United's promotion campaign, and at times in the 2005-06 season seemed to be doing everything except collect the tickets at the turnstile. But he stopped figuring in the side after a few Premiership games amid rumours of a falling-out with Neil Warnock, and was let go.
The greatest irony of all is that when Warnock spoke of the individual blunders that has cost us eight or nine points, Unsworth was responsible for one of them, alongside Claud Davis' bypassing of his own goalkeeper against Portsmouth and Paddy Kenny's rugby tackle on an Everton forward, in each case when we were a goal up. For Unsworth was one of the two United players to have penalties saved by Blackburn's Brad Friedel in that 0-0 draw at the start of the season.
Irony upon irony. If Warnock had sold Unsworth at the start of the season we might have two more points from the Blackburn game and his heroics for Wigan wouldn't have mattered. Nor would they if we hadn't conceded a pointless penalty with second remaining of the first half, for him to score from.
As it is, we're back in the Championship and £50 million worse off. I don't blame Warnock himself - he's never had the credit he deserved for producing a winning team, with a stable core despite the strikers he buys in strips of five like raffle tickets. My only criticism is that we made ourselves look more desperate than we were by fielding weakened teams in both Cup competitions. Rafa Benitez and Alex Ferguson may feel like reminding Warnock of that.
I was so sure Wigan would beat us that I even went down to the betting shop to put £50 on them to win .... that way I would have at least ended up with something to ease the pain. But each time I went there I found the door locked, so I took it as a sign from upstairs that I shouldn't cash in on the Blades' misfortune.
The night before the match, I was going through Piccadilly Circus on a bus and the neon light adverts caught my eye. There's a huge one for Coca Cola listing all the Football League clubs ... and the Blades were on it. Had they forgotten to update it, or were they anticipating events?
I suppose we're bound to lose Phil Jagielka and maybe a couple of other good 'uns. If so, thanks lads, you've done us proud. Hopefully we will bounce back, with or without Warnock, a true Blade who has never given less than his best. But having suffered years of pain after we went down in '76 and '94, I know it won't be easy.
So thanks to Warnock and all the Blades for doing their best at the top level, and giving us some great memories. We thought we had done enough to stay up, particularly after that great draw at Charlton but the league table doesn't lie (even if the management of West Ham did).
I only got two hours' sleep last night, but I know the management and players will have had even less.
The fightback starts here. Next time we'll get it right!