“Seen loads of Sheff U fans praising our signings, probably lose 3-0 now”
“We owe this lot. Hope we can smash them”.
“Full of optimism”
“There is a nucleus of a good championship squad with enough to steer clear of the danger zone should we manage to get up.
“We have been playing well but lads this one could be a bridge to far.”
“They really are a shit team with two half decent strikers “
“They’ve been leaking goals all season at home, if we play our usual attacking stuff I can see us putting 2 or 3 past them. Just need to keep it tight at the back.”
“lets not let the ego of the fans and tepid history (we have a better one) get in the way”
“Whatever the end result it won’t top the emotion following our/my last visit there in 2007. Regardless, really looking forward to this one.”
“Prior to that Sheff Utd I’d disgarded my season ticket in the vicinity of the dug out after the Hammers game & so had missed the other defeat (was it to Middlesbrough). I remember stating (& believing) that I was never going again
For the Blades game itself I had a prior commitment of spending the weekend in Aberystwyth where me & the soon to be missus were collecting our wedding rings & then on the Thursday night tore my ankle ligaments but couldn’t get out of driving there & back (you think Harry Lyons scoring a hat-trick with torn ligaments is a feat try driving through the windy Welsh hills with the same affliction!!).
On the day itself I was nervous as hell – woke up with the sparrows fart, dicky guts, couldn’t keep still & spent a good hour or so hobbling from pub to pub trying to find somewhere that would put the game on.
Eventually found some back street place but couldn’t drink to calm my nerves as I had to drive back whilst my fiancé got leathered safe in the knowledge that she could sleep it off on the way home.
My abiding memories of the game aren’t so much the goals but Lee McCulloch getting himself sent off, Emile Heskey’s defending heroics & the warping of time as Danny Webber’s shot went past Pollitt before bouncing back off the post.
Oh & I got an honourable mention from Paul Jewell on Sky in his post match speech & then got bombarded with text messages on the Monday whilst in bed in the afternoon (I threw a sickie after getting a lock in at my local pub back in St Helens in the evening) when TalkSport’s Adrian Durham was blaming me for Paul Jewell leaving.