A look back at some of the brilliant, beautiful and bitter comments from the 22/23 promotion season…..

Most Arrogant Fans: HULL CITY

(Previous winners: Nottingham Forest, Norwich, West Brom and Brentford)

For a club that eventually finished 15th in The Championship, supporters of Hull City certainly had a high opinion of their team. In fairness to The Tigers, when we first met this season at the MKM Stadium back in early September they were riding high in the top 6 and confidence was high:

“I have every confidence we will win”

“just caught a clip of the Sheffield United press conference and Paul Heckingbottom is shitting it against us”

“Easy victory – with all these new additions we will have about 27 players on the pitch. By 5 pm, those piggies will be doing a Blade Runner”

“We have a lot more quality amongst our ranks then we had the last time we met at home, and we have that backs to wall 0-0 draw at Bramall Lane mentality behind us, so no fear here.”

Even after The Blades ran out comfortable 2-0 winners, there was still plenty of optimism around:

“Seems some Blunts fans think we are at least top 8 on quality and play like Galatasary . Now I’ve calmed down get some other players fit and I think we can out football teams – but we can’t out muscle them.”

“We’ll be top 6 this season.
Just need a bit of patience.
We’ve brought in some real quality and some real potential.”

“Yep. Can see us being every bit as good if not better than them when our new signings are up to speed”

By the time the return game came around at The Lane in January, Hull were languishing near the bottom and had sacked their manager. Despite this, the fans still had every confidence that this was going to be a successful season:

“We can catch these. I know they are smashing everyone at the moment but our away form is outrageous”

“We’re the only club bar Burnley and Sheff Utd unbeaten in the last 5… SO YEAH We’re going the fk up!”

“difficult game this but I fancy a 2-1 win”

“Kind of game where we could defy the odds, we’ve done it before.”

“Away form excellent…. overall form 7/10…. lets spoil their weekend…”

“We’re controlling games and once we can turn that into better chances we’re in good stead imo.”

“Just imagine a 5-3 though.”

“Free hit almost at a very good Sheffield United side then its consecutive home games and we’ve got to get a win then. Oscar on fire, 6 unbeaten. We’ve definitely improved”

“Tough game, but fancy we might get a point, playing away seems to suit us better, so here hoping for a good result.”

United again got 3 points, this time winning 1-0 and restricting Hull to just two shots on target, but again Hull fans were delighted with what they saw from their side:

“Never like to lose but there’s no shame in tonight’s performance. We’re just lacking that bit of directness in sight of goal. Rush of blood by Tetteh, real shame because he made a huge difference going forward. SU really are a bunch of nasty ****s. I know a bit of aggression is a good thing, we had Connolly providing that in spades first half and getting away with it, but SU take it to a new level. I’m happy for us to be not like that.”

“To me that showed we’re not a million miles away. A few players clearly not quite up to it, but the foundations are there. Give Rosenior the freedom to build a squad in his vision and I feel we’re well positioned for a serious challenge next season. “

“Against one of the two teams running away with this league, at their place, we gave them a real game. And but for Tetteh’s stupidity, I think we come away with a point, they were seriously rattled and you could feel a goal coming.”

“Well I thought we were very good. There will come a time when we have a playmaker and the goals will flow. Theres no way they coasted through this game and if Tetteh had used his head (might as well have) then we might just have got something as we had them under the cosh… “

“At least we can take the positive that a team that looked ****ing bang-average at home are 2nd in the league. If we sort things out and get some consistency with results and performances, that could be us next season. “

“I thought we played really well. Just still missing that bit of quality in the final 3rd (final ball and finish). A draw would have been a fair result.”

“Apart from the first 20 mins, when we were really dodgy at the back, I thought we played really well. They looked really rattled up to Tetteh getting sent off. Conceding so early and yet having them on the back foot showed a lot of resilience against one of the top two.”

To reiterate, Hull City finished 15th in the table.

Most Respectful Fans: READING

(Previous winners: Middlesbrough, Liverpool, Blackburn and Derby)

Off the pitch turmoil finally caught up with poor Reading who were relegated to the third tier for the first time since 1998. What was bizarre about their relegation is that they were leading the table in late August when they travelled to Bramall Lane and tasted their first away defeat of the season. The Blades thumped Reading 4-0 and Royals fans knew they had been well beaten:

“Ah well, beaten by the far better team”

“We move, Sheffield looked a quality team,”

“Ah well, lost to a far superior side, didn’t really compete which is a shame and not what we are meant to be about this season.”

“Fair play to Sheffield they thoroughly deserved that. Our boys did try to be fair but clearly utterly shattered and just not able to compete with Sheffield”

“Oh well, back down to earth with a bang. Thought the team was all wrong today and credit to Utd who were a class above. Not sure us playing well would have made any difference to the result such was the gap in quality.”

“Sometimes in football you get outplayed and pumped by a team that’s better on paper and on fire on grass when you’re having a bad night. Won’t be the last time it’ll happen and it’ll happen to plenty of good sides this year.”

Better team won and did a number on us. We won’t play many teams that good at this level.”

“We were chasing shadows from the off. A lot of players purely out shone by a very good and a very organised Sheff utd team. Best team we have played in a long time.
We looked exactly how Blackburn looked versus us.”

“Tbh it looked like men against boys. We were outclassed and Sheff United looked very good.”

By the time the Blades travelled to The Select Car Leasing Stadium (Yes, that’s what Reading’s ground is currently called). The Royals had tumbled down the table and were well in the relegation mix. Promotion chasing United needed a win and got it through a second half Illiman N’Diaye goal. United weren’t spectacular but it was an important 3 points for us and also put more pressure on Reading at the bottom. Despite this, their fans still took the time to praise The Blades:

“Enjoyed the game, thought we held our own against a better team. Sheffield didn’t deserve to lose, we didn’t deserve to win. Reckon their manager would’ve been ok with a point. Got the impression our guys didn’t want to be shown up by the oppostion who put some nice moves together as did we on occassion.
Was great to see them play wide men on both sides hugging the touchline stretching the space – we seem so narrow in comparison”

“I thought we were unlucky not to get something from the game, went toe-to-toe against a team likely to be in the PL next season, just a bit of quality in the final third let us down.Good application last night, we won’t go far wrong against the rest of the division at home performing like that. Hopefully something similar against Millwall will mean we take at least something from the game.”

“I enjoyed the game tbh. One pass was the difference between the sides. However its got to the point were us having a shot on target is a good result these days so its not exactly a high bar.
Fair play the Sheff Utd – they pinged the ball about nicely looked very comfortable on the ball.”

“It was a very good game of football. Sheffield United are a decent side and we pushed them all the way, by the way their players reacted at the end showed it was a big win for them and that we were unfortunate not to have nicked a draw.”

“N’Diaye is the equivalent of our Ince, main spark in the team and I thought the game was always going to be decided by one of those two, unfortunately falling their way”

Not many Unitedites will miss the long trip to Berkshire next season but we will miss the mandatory 3 points we get there. United have now won their last 7 games away at Reading.

Funniest Fans: SPURS

(Previous winners: Peterborough, Sheffield Wednesday ,Spurs and Milwall)

Spurs fans usually aren’t’ the happiest. They have won this award before thanks to the hilarious comments they aim at their own club and players so it’s no surprise that they have once again beat off all competition to take back their crown following their FA Cup 5th round exit at the hands of The Blades:

“I honestly cant put into words how angry I am”

“What a pathetic performance. They should be fed on bread and water for a week”

Lost to a team who didn’t even want to go through”

“Dier couldn’t block a toilet “

“I was worried after Man City and Chelsea that our team was half decent. Thanks to Sheffield Utd for making me realise that yes, we are shit”

“Ndiaying… Ndiaying… Ndead.”

“There is no point in this club existing, my dad’s been supporting this club donkeys years he’s just said that’s the straw that broke the camel’s back.absolutely livid”

” watched that with my 9yo. I said to her “I really don’t mind if you decide to not support Spurs anymore you know” I wouldn’t blame her. What is the point? What is the actual point of that club? Pathetic”

“Now we can all go to the Beyonce concert instead of watching the FA Cup final”

Here’s hoping we beat them next season for more comedy gold!

Mardiest Fans: BRISTOL CITY

(Previous winners: Blackburn Man City and,Norwich (twice)

This was a tough category to decide, with many fans not being able to deal beating bettered by The Blades, but in the end Bristol City are worthy winners. Their reaction to our, admittedly lucky, 1-0 victory at Ashton Gate in November was just the start of the saltiness:

“I suppose Sheff Utd will think job done. Bottom line, we could not score and then it’s always a possibility. Horrible match to lose that way. Hate the ref, hate Sky, hate Sheff Utd, hate our luck, hate the balls and chances we wasted. “

“the only difference is Sheffield United have taken their one chance (which was offside) and we’ve not taken a single one of our multitude of chances.”

“Sheff Utd were there for the taking. One of those games that just didn’t go our way. Unlucky. “

“A very poor side Sheffield United who are sitting pretty in 3rd place. That’s the Championship for you”

Sheff Utd were the worst team apart from us I’ve seen in at least 3 seasons. How they won that game and are anywhere near the top of of the league is scandalous. I will enjoy watching them not make anything of this season.”

“Sheffield looked a bottom 4 side not top 4 . Absolutely rubbish team compared to last season”

“this Sheffield United team are dire. **** knows what the fuss is about Norwood aswell, the guy has been bossed over the pitch in the middle.”

“I hope they go up do same as Forrest spending and then going bankrupt…they are a disgrace, a mess of a team. They think a team promote like that ?, Wasting time since min 55.”

“cheating scumbags Sheffield Utd.”

“disgraceful from Norwoods’s point of view and the officials!! Can the League do something retrospectively, because that could have been a career ending foul. To get away with nothing just about sums up the problems teams face with refs/linespeople!! “

Fast forward to the pre-match comments for the fixture at The Lane in March and it was clear that Robins fans still hadn’t got over the defeat from 4 months earlier :

“Already outplayed Sheff Utd once this season. Just need todo it again without losing this time. “

“they were shite at the gate , thought we absolutely bossed the game ,
both managers thought so aswell .
they are the championship bullies but get away with it”

“Sheff Utd look like just boot and run.”

“Boot the player and run?”

“If they had had as many yellow and red cards as the average team gets they would have struggled for players.”

“Are some of the United players immune from punishment? Norwood follows through after a tackle in a possible knee breaking crunch againt Burnley. Again not even a booking.. McBurnie also gets away with alot.”

“Norwood and McBurnie get away with it most weeks!”

“Norwood is a horrible player”

“I’d start Scott and Naismith from the start because if those three get kicked they will give the Sheffield United lads a bit back.”

“I cant see Alex v Sheffield United who are much more physical then Watford”

“To say that Sheffield are a physical side is putting it politely”

“They’ve some good ball players. But a lot of whacking it out of defence. They didn’t impress me for a team in second. “

“SU are a win-ugly, grind out results sort of team who often rely pretty heavily on a strong element of physicality to get them through games. If they finish second and go up, fair play to them, but I can’t say I’d relish watching them every week.”

“whenever I’ve seen them I’ve thought how on earth are they where they are(?) it just goes to show pretty/fast football isn’t the be all and end all. “

“They have undoubtedly found a way of getting good results but that’s the kindest thing you can say.”

“Take away their Man City loanees and it would be worse. Chris Basham is a big miss for them”

Unsurpsingly the vitriol continued after we, once again, beat them 1-0:

“Undeserved …they’ve been shite”

“They have taken six points playing carp in both games. “

“On what I’ve seen of SU this season they will need almost a completely new team. With this team they could probably break the lowest points total.”

“Was about to say much the same. Whilst I hate the result, I think we showed in the 1st half that we would be better suited to the Prem than SU. Even when we faded they could barely string 3 passes together. If you can’t pass well in the Prem you have no chance.”

“on this performance Sheffield will need to spend big otherwise they coming straight back down again… “

“I think they could be as bad as that Derby team that finished on a record low number of points. “

“Agricultural Sheffield United. Straight back down if go up.”

If the Bristol City fans are right and we do go back down, I imagine they will once again be in The Championship waiting for us.

Most Knowledgeable Fans: DERBY COUNTY

(Previous winners: Hibs, Man Utd ,Huddersfield and Brighton

There wasn’t a dry eye in the house when David McGoldrick left Bramall Lane at the end of last season to sign for Derby Country on a free transfer. The former Ipswich striker had been instrumental in our last promotion to The Premier League and then the subsequent push for Europe the season after. “Didzy” had arrived at Pride Park to not much fanfare from The Rams fans. Less than 12 months later he was a hero:

“McGoldrick is simply superb. So pleased that he is here for us”

“There have been games of football played this season but at times DM seems to have been playing something quite different. 
A joy to watch.”

“Akin to Paul McGrath – we may not have him for long but we’re loving it while we do and we’re watching someone who is consistently delivering wow performances .. with a ram on his chest!!! “

“Got to be our player if the year this season, he’s been on another level.”

“what a signing he’s been. “

“We’ve had some great (consistent) performances in the side but he’s the stand out.  If we hadn’t had him….. “

“He’s an absolute joke at this level”

“He’s two moves ahead of everyone else. I bet he’s brilliant at chess. “

“He is our talisman, the match winner. Easily the most experienced and skilful player we have. I am glad he came to us.”

“ If Rooney had even played to half the level McGoldrick currently is when we resumed after the covid break, we would never have been close to relegation. 
Never expected this much quality from McGoldrick though. Ridiculous.”

“if Hourihane is a cheat code McGoldrick is a Game Genie. “

The Derby fans knew a great player when they saw one and whilst McGoldrick’s 22 goals wasn’t enough to see his new club get promoted, you sense he still has enough left in him to be main player in their attempts next season.

Most Depressed Fans: STOKE

(Previous winners: Huddersfield, Leicester City ,Middlesbrough and Ipswich)

It was another miserable season for Stoke City who once again found themselves in lower mid table nothingness for the majority of the season. Even as early as October, when they faced United at the BET365 Stadium, their fans were in mournful mood:

“our home games are quite an ordeal even for the most dedicated supporter.
The ground is half empty at the start and completely empty 15 minutes from the end if we are behind.
Some people take it all with a darkening mood of seething discontent and others just fix an inane grin on their face and roll with the punches. There is no right way to do it.
Frankly it’s more suffering that living should allow! “

“I just expect a close defeat Saturday and then move back into our own league and level”

“Well we’re 20th in this ‘bizarre’ league at just past the quarter of the way through stage.
The better teams, Sheffield United and Norwich for example, have twice as many points as us.
Simplistically we’re rubbish.”

“Saturday is important for the reasons stated but more that the fans are surely ‘owed’ one surely?
We have genuinely been terrible in 80% of our home games this season”

“If we’re serious about any type of progression this season we’ve got to get back to making the Bet365 a tougher place for opponents to visit.We’ve only taken 5 points so far out of the 15 available compared to 8 points away although having played 2 more games.
Wins at home have been rare for a while and convincing one’s even less so.I get sick of walking out at full time listening to away fans celebrating most weeks.”

“This is the worst Stoke side I have ever seen. I went my first game in 1981 and like you all have endured some terrible sides in division 3 etc.
But this lot, just wow. Absolutely gutless and not one decent player.
I seriously don’t know what we can do “

“Sadness, depression, misery, all of the previous emotions I felt about Stoke’s slide downwards have been replaced by apathy. It’s really hard to justify following the team like I used to, because it’s hard to find any pleasure in what is going on.”

“just a question of how many we’ll lose by on Saturday”

“At the moment we need to create a bucketful of chances to score one goal, can’t see us doing that against them. And we do seem easy to score against once the oppo get in and around the box. Could get messy…”

“Thank god I didn’t get Sheff United tickets. They beat us 4 or 5 if we play anything like we did against Preston”

“We should be looking nervously over our shoulders.
If Sheffield United beat us (as they probably will) and that is followed up by a loss against a Reading side that might be sniffing around the play offs (a possibility) then we might be right down there by the end of the month.”

This time United didn’t give Stoke anything to cheer and a 3-1 defeat left Potters fans even more dejected than they were before:

“Can’t really blame bad luck when our goalie concedes every single on target shot, our strikers have no clue how to score goals and our defence and midfield are completely inept.”

“How bad are we. There isn’t a decent side in the whole division. If you are struggling in this division you have to be crap”

“I may be pissed off but seriously:
We were dogshit. There wasn’t any “luck” influencing that match. We didn’t “dominate” anything, we just faffed about with the ball until we’d lose it.
We got exactly what we “deserved” out of that match. We can’t make a pass at a $5 hooker.
Blades have little to brag about either – we just stood by with the door open in midfield again and must be the easiest to break down side in this league.”

“We seem to have a problem with the opposition having every shot on target resulting in a goal. If we can stamp this out then I’m sure that we can turn it around. But as Neil says, You simply cannot coach mistakes & poor attempts to save the ball.”

“Another game where every shot on our goal goes in”

“Can’t believe the amount of people clapping that absolute bollocks off at full time”

It’s hard not to feel sorry for their fans but I personally don’t feel sorry for their fans.

The “We Didn’t Know You Cared So Much” Award: COVENTRY CITY

(Previous winners: Coventry, Scotland and,Hull (twice)

For the second year running Coventry City go home with the “We Didn’t Know You Cared So Much” award. The Sky Blues fans have disliked United ever since that game in 2016 when their supporters disrupted the match whilst protesting against their board. 7 years later and they show no signs of letting it go. Before their 1-0 win at the Coventry Building Society Arena (yep) back in October they had this to say about our club:

“Sheffield are a proper dirty dark arts team. We need to make sure we are not sucked in to there tactics”

“Sheffield U are also a team very likely to use tactics that will rile Hamer and get him into trouble.”

“Sheff Utd are probably near the top of the list for sides that will know exactly what to do to wind him up and cause him to lash out.”

“Need a strong referee for this one”

“Dirty northern bastards is a well used phrase to describe them”

“I can’t stand Sheffield United or the fans , utter utter shithouse of a club and wankers who support them”

“I cannot stand that lot and hope we absolutely thump them, in all my years watching football the most arrogant fanbase with the biggest chip on their shoulder I’ve ever seen
However would take a point”

Nothing had changed when the teams met again at The Lane in December:

“The one team in our league I genuinely dislike”

“A team I particularly hate losing to, so I hope so. Fans comfortably equal to Sunderland fans for cuntyness.”

They will certainly go for Vik and try and wind up Hamer, they will see us as a serious threat to their ambitions.”

“They’ll do their best to wind us up with lots of pushes, pulls, leaving a foot in, general shithousery like they always do. Gus should be able to rise above it and I think we can get a win. 2-0 for me, I also fucking hate them, mostly that Jay McEverly assault on Lamieres”

“I’m still not over it. Convinced not winning that game derailed the whole season.”

“I don’t really like their fans gave it loads to us when just under 400 went up after the checkatrade , said nothing when we took 2800 last season”

Then, after our 3-1 win, things took a personal turn as one poster took offence to this website:

“Three a little thing on sufc fans forum , run by a bloke called Roy, ( view from Coventry) he only puts , on comments from here he thinks will wind there supporters up like A real little man with a real little life who probably live under a real little bridge. Saddest thing is most of them bite!”

From under my bridge I collected more hatred from the Coventry fans:

“I really hate Sheff Utd.
They always go in for the extra foot in or little tug or something and get away with it. As soon as you do it back to them they throw themselves to the floor and the ref buys it.
No matter the manager or playing style this has always been the case.
Fans are pricks too.”

“I’m baffled as to how SU are 2nd in the league – we’ve been poor all game and apart from the odd bit of quality from them I don’t see that they are any better.”

“At the end of the day we were poor and didn’t make Sheffield United work for the 3 points. That said even though we were poor we were still the better side which I think says more about Sheffield United then it does ourselves”

“Can’t think of a quieter ground at 3-0 in 20 years. Awful atmosphere everytime I come here. Away end is dreadful too.”

Coventry ended the season in the play-offs and at the time of writing are still in with a shot of joining us in next seasons Premier League. I’m sure the opportunity to win this award for the 3rd year running will be spurring them on to get the job done.

SEE YOU ALL NEXT SEASON!