Don’t Thank Givens Day

A day the 16,001 who were there will never forget.

Matthew Bell

Sheffield United 0 Walsall 1, 2nd May 1981

This is a day the 16,001 who were there will never forget. United, under first Harry Haslam and then Martin Peters, had been transformed from an exciting, if inconsistent, Second Division team with players of the calibre of Alan Woodward, Keith Edwards, Simon Stainrod and Gary Hamson into a dull, faceless team of mercenaries who cared little for the club. The years 1978 to 1981 were the blackest period in the club’s history, as the Blades fell to the Third Division for the first time ever and then, on this day, to the Fourth.