Roy’s view from... social media - March edition
Ups, downs, twists, turns - Roy watches on as the Blades' rollicking rollercoaster of a season accelerates towards its final destination.
Words: Andrew Hague
I ended my last article by saying that throughout March, we will go from thinking we’re promoted one week to thinking we’ve blown it the next. Call me Mystic Meg…
Spurs
Before any league action took place in March, we had a “glamour tie” against Premier League Tottenham Hotspur in the FA Cup. Few Blades expected us to win. Confidence levels were lowered even further when Paul Heckingbottom made eight changes from our previous game against Watford. “Keep it tight and make it respectable” was our best hope.
But United did much more than that. With the game still goalless deep into the second half, Heckinbottom introduced Iliman Ndiaye, and the Senegalese international quickly delivered, scoring a wonderful solo goal that was enough to see off Spurs and take United into the quarter-finals. Former Blades striker Carl Asaba had a quick message for the departing Spurs players:
United were now just ninety minutes away from Wembley, reaching our 3rd FA Cup quarter-final in four years. Some clubs haven’t even managed one quarter-final since the ’90s:
At least they beat Newcastle reserves in the Third Rond. They’ll always have that. As for United, their next opponents in the cup also happened to be their next opponents in the league.
Blackburn
After resting most of our important players against Spurs with this important game in mind, hopes were growing that we could take another important step towards the Premier League. Sadly, this didn’t happen. United meekly lost 1-0 to an early Rovers goal, and that, coupled with a Middlesbrough win later in the day, meant the gap between second and third was just four points. As the players left the pitch to the Rovers fans chants of “Wembley, Wembley”, it looked like the Lancashire club had issued a huge psychological blow to both United’s league and cup hopes.
United needed to get their act together fast, and next up was the much-talked-about game in hand away at Reading….
Reading
Only a win would do against lowly Reading. But this was a tight and nervy affair. Very few chances were created by either side until Ndiaye, that man again, prodded home a McBurnie cut-back to get the game's only goal. Despite Paul Ince saying it was “panic stations” for United at the end, in reality, The Blades easily saw the game out to gain a valuable three points:
It had been quite the seven days. A memorable cup win, a disappointing defeat and a scrappy victory. United were now seven clear of third again with high-flying Luton up next at the Lane
Luton
Previous readers of this feature will know that following United’s games against Watford and Swansea, many fans had given sole credit to the pigeons. Pigeons that had been frequenting Bramall Lane on victorious match days. With this in mind, Marc “Webding” Webster of The Tufty Club predicted this line up for the Luton game:
Maybe Heckly should have listened to Marc as the Luton game saw United turn in inarguably their worst performance of the season as they slumped to a 1-0 defeat. Once again, Boro won and closed the gap to four points. There was now no game in hand to fall back on, and United fans were truly in panic mode:
United’s form over the last six games had been poor, whilst Boro were going from strength to strength under the stewardship of Micheal Carrick. The former Manchester United player had overseen an astonishing turnaround at The Riverside as the Teesiders had moved from the bottom three to the top three in just twenty-three games. Blades fans were left lamenting the fact their (and our) old boss wasn’t still in the hot seat:
With Boro looking unstoppable and United looking broken, the trip to Sunderland was one that very few fans were relishing.
Sunderland
United were given a boost the night before the trip to The Stadium Of Light as Boro finally dropped some points, held to a draw by Stoke City. The Blades knew that the pendulum could swing in their favour again with a win, and they set off like a team with something to prove, putting in their best performance in months. It seemed the only way The Black Cats could stop us was by foul means:
Despite the excellent start, Sunderland scored against the run of play and it seemed like United’s poor form might continue. Thankfully, right on the stroke of half-time, James McAtee scored a wonderful solo goal to send the teams in level at the break.
The second half was pretty even. But a free-kick from Tommy Doyle meant the points went to United. Noah Snyder from The Red Half Of Sheffield had travelled over from the USA to catch the Luton, Sunderland and Blackburn games, and right before Doyle’s winner, he gave a prediction as to where the Man City loanee would put his free-kick:
Not quite “top bins” but good enough. The Sunderland match was United’s last league game in March as all attention turned to the FA Cup Quarter-Final at home to Blackburn Rovers.
Blackburn (again)
It’s hard to do justice in writing to describe how special this game was. So I’ll just crack on with the facts. The Blades went one down thanks to a controversial VAR-assisted penalty before levelling things before half time through a deflected Max Lowe shot.
Blackburn re-took the lead on the hour mark and looked set for Wembley until the 81st minute, when Oli McBurnie got United back into it with a scuffed finish. So many things happened in-between all these events, but doing a full match report would take up an article in itself. All I really have left to say here is….
WHAT
A
GOAL
In the very last minute of the game, Tommy Doyle picked up the ball and hit a shot that will live forever in the minds of every Blade who saw it. Commentators from all around the country were struggling to find the words to describe it:
Naturally, Bramall Lane erupted
The Blades had won 3-2 and had shut up the Blackburn fans, who at the start of the month had been goading us with their “Wembley, Wembley” chants. United fans were in dreamland. For an hour at least:
Yes… in the semi-final, it was going to be Haaland & Co for Hecky’s cup heroes. The worst thing about the draw was that our Manchester City loanees, James McAtee and Tommy Doyle, wouldn’t be able to play. It was a big blow for the two youngsters and a big blow for United, but let’s hope our two newest signings can step up to the occasion:
So that was March, and what a month it was. We blew promotion, gained promotion and booked a trip to Wembley. We now move into the month of the season that will probably decide what division Sheffield United are playing in next season.
And who knows? Maybe we also look forward to our first FA Cup final since 1936. Stranger things have happened. Probably.
For now though, let’s enjoy what we have witnessed so far. See you next time!
Thanks, Andrew
Rollercoaster indeed. Loved the pigeon team (McAtweet and McBirdie especially), but the best laugh out loud moment was the McDoyle Twins – fabulous artwork – sign ‘em up, I say!!
It’s been a very giddy month, and as you say “Maybe we also look forward to our first FA Cup final since 1936. Stranger things have happened. Probably.”
It’s odd how many friends who previously found my talking about football “boring” are coming out of the woodwork now there’s a sniff of excitement . . .
Sue.
Brilliant as always Andrew.
It's never dull being a Blade and March 2023 typifies our life long journeys as supporters.
You young un's buckle in, stop the criticism, keep the faith and enjoy the ride.
Keep smiling
😁❤