We began September with it already shaping up to be a critical month if we was to get anything out of the season, with us going in to it already in the bottom four, and we needed to turn things round and fast. It was once again going to prove to be a month of great contrast, and also a month that would shape the long-term future of Sheffield United
The month began with the absolute bombshell that Kevin McCabe had effectively written the debt off and converted that in to equity with him selling 50% of his share to a member of the Saudi Royal Family, Prince Abdullah. This was a strange move, as Kevin McCabe had been increasing Micawber like with his grip on the club, and the equity that he had got tied up in the club. It had been widely known that he was looking for investment in the club, but the speed with which it all happened surprised a lot of people, and the timing was not particularly good with it coming at the end of the transfer window which would mean we would be hamstrung until the January transfer window with the exception of the loan window.
The first two signings looked to be intriguing with David Weir opting to signing the ex-Everton midfielder Jose Baxter from Oldham Athletic who looked to be a like for like replacement of Kevin MacDonald, and also bringing in highly rated Stoke City, Belgian under-21 international Florent Cuvelier.
On the pitch it was going to be a very poor month, probably one of the worst spells in the clubs history. We began the month advancing in the Johnstone Paint Trophy with a stalemate and penalty shoot-out win at Scunthorpe United, although this was the only thing we had that resembled anything near success during this month. In the League we took 3,000 fans to Rotherham United and took a first half lead through Jose Baxter scoring his first goal for the club, in to half-time where we capitulated terribly and was lucky to come away with a 3-1 defeat as the home side handed us our arse on a plate. The bad run continued with a 1-0 defeat at Carlisle United, another abject display with a 1-0 defeat at home to Preston North End which saw us barely get a shot on goal all game and saw the debut of the contentious signing Marlon King which divided the clubs support, and then finished off September firmly anchored to the bottom of the table with an entirely predictable 2-0 defeat at Wolves.
October didn’t start much better, but we did manage to end the embarrassing run of 6 consecutive league defeats with a 1-1 draw at home to Crawley Town which saw Marlon King score his first and only goal for the club, and that was followed midweek by another abject home defeat getting knocked out of the Johnstones Paint Trophy with a 1-0 reverse at home to Hartlepool, which effectively meant by the first week of October our last realistic chance of appearing at Wembley had already gone.
It was at this point that David Weir had looked a broken man. We had been playing attractive but negative football. Defensively we still looked relatively tight and had not really been shipping goals but the main problem came with Midfield, where despite having several midfielders and wide players on the books, we seemed unable to get forward and attack with any real intent. The players didn’t seem motivated and didn’t really seem to care less if we won, lost or drew and around this time going to the matches had become a chore instead of something to look forward to, as the atmosphere had turned toxic in a lot of games, and as a club we had become a dispirited bunch, aimlessly sleep-walking our way to what would surely prove a disastrous relegation to the 4th tier of English football.
Friday the 11th October saw the tipping point for David Weir, as our bright new start under our bright, articulate young manager came to an abrupt halt when he was relieved of his duties. It was already clearly apparent that what he was trying to do was not working, he also seemed stubborn and pig-headed enough to be unable to change things around, and abandon his principals to get some points in the bag, and the calls for his head had already started less than 2 months in to the season, and his sacking may have seemed to some outside of the club as a knee-jerk reaction, but for many seasoned United watchers it was already crystal clear that it was now time for him to go, and the board took the brave step of relieving him of his duties.
For the second time in the space of a few months we had club stalwart Chris Morgan step in to the breech as caretaker manager, and to be honest his short tenure of manager began just as badly as the previous one ended with United 3-0 down at Coventry after 50 minutes, but the second half showed some brief glimpses of hope with United pulling it back to 3-2 with Lyle Taylors first 2 goals for the club, and United pushed for an equaliser to make it 3-3. This was followed with a credible midweek 0-0 draw at in form and high flying Peterborough United, and the following weekend the horrendous 10 game winless league run came to an end with a battling 2-1 win over Port Vale.
What Chris Morgan had done during his short spell as caretaker was to arrest the slide, get the team playing with a bit more passion and purpose than they had done before, and to handover the first-team duties to the new man with the club in a better state than he had taken them over in.
With the new appointment it was a real no-brainer and there was only one real candidate to take over at the time, and that was the former Derby County and Burton Albion manager Nigel Clough who had recently been sacked at Pride Park. The references from the Derby County fans had been a little bit mixed but generally positive. The positive sides had been he was excellent with money as he had to slash the wage budget at Derby by some considerable margin, and had done this whilst keeping Derby competitive on the pitch, he had an eye for the unknown player, was great with the young and up and coming kids, and he was generally well liked at Derby with the only negative aspects being that he was not great tactically, used to have his favourites and could be stubborn and pig-headed.
When Nigel Clough was appointed his brief was clear to all, steer the club away from relegation this season and in to the sanctuary of mid-table, and then have a real tilt at getting us out of this division this season. The squad he had inherited had been poor, overpaid and underperforming players one end of the scale mixed with an abundance of average lower league journeymen of limited ability. The squad was bizarrely top heavy with left-backs, and midfielders whilst we had no real cover in the centre of defence and not a single striker of any real quality on the books. This was very much a poisoned chalice of Nigel Clough, as this was a side who was quite simply poor enough for the drop, and if we had dropped that season then it quite quickly his job would be untenable, and he would have a relegation on his CV, and the damage to his career could be terminal.
Nigel Clough began well with a 3-1 at home to Crewe Alexandra, this was only our third win of the season, and make no bones about it we was in a relegation scrap but it was good to get under away with a win. However with was followed with a 2-0 reverse away at a poor Shrewsbury Town side, and this was the game that effectively ended by Fabien Brandy’s second stupid sending off of the season with match finely balanced. The following weekend saw our FA Cup campaign get underway with a 3-2 win at Colchester United. The weekend after saw United revert back to the old ways with an awful 2-1 home defeat at home to Gillingham, before winning 1-0 at Bristol City, and ending the month with back to back 1-1 draws at home to Walsall, and the second a very credible result against the seasons surprise package Leyton Orient.
United began December with what looked like a very tricky 2nd round cup tie at Conference side Cambridge United, in a game which many people tipped us to lose, and get knocked out of the cup at a non-league side for the 2nd time in the clubs history. We ended up going through the rest of December unbeaten and with a win at home to Swindon, a draw away at Stevenage, a boxing day 1-1 draw at home to Oldham that was marked by a superb free-kick by Jose Baxter, and then on the last game of 2013 we finished off the year with a 3-1 win over Tranmere, and had ended the year on a 7 game unbeaten run as we looked to edge away from the relegation places in to mid-table.
January was to be a critical month for United, with the transfer window becoming wide open again, and this was to be the first real chance for United to show that we really meant business with the new investment, and also for Nigel Clough to put his own stamp on the team. On the pitch New Year’s Day got 2014 off to a poor start with a 2-1 defeat at Walsall, however the following Saturday saw FA Cup fever hit Sheffield United as the Blades handsomely rewarded 6,000 travelling fans who made the journey to Villa Park with a superb 2-1 win at Aston Villa. Unfortunately we could not replicate this in the league as we lost 2-1 at Crewe, and followed this up by throwing a 2 goal lead away at home to Bradford City to end up drawing 2-2. The month ended with a much anticipated 4th round FA Cup tie at home to Fulham where we ended up drawing 1-1 and taking the Cottagers to a replay after being 1-0 up, before Michael Doyle was recklessly sent off.
January was the first real time we saw Nigel Clough delve in to the transfer market. It was at this point that he had already got to grip with the squad as several players had already departed either on loan or on full transfers. On full transfers the club had already waved good riddance to Marlon King in a move that was swift and decisive, and Marcus Williams released on a free to Scunthorpe and we had already seen fringe players Joe Ironside, Daryl Westlake and Callum McFadzean depart on loan. January also saw the loan departures of Lyle Taylor and Sean McGinty. The more contentious departures had been Fabien Brandy who was loaned back to Walsall having not really featured under Clough and some had thought that he had made his mind up on him too quickly, the other one was Florent Cuvelier who had departed on loan to Port Vale after barely featuring under Clough. Clough also appeared slow to make his move in the market for the players he wanted. The first player brought in was Doncaster striker Billy Paynter on a loan deal until the end of the season, and then towards the end of the month we saw Cardiff defender John Brayford incoming, as well as a permanent deal for young Scottish midfielder Stefan Scougall from Livingston, as well as the surprising swap for Tony McMahon for relatively unknown Blackpool defender Bob Harris.
With all the transfer activity being made, done and dusted, the first team squad had a completely new look and you got the sense that this was now Nigel Cloughs team, and he would have to live and die by the sword with this team. Unfortunately February didn’t get off to a good start with a poor performance and a 3-0 defeat at lowly Crewe, and this left United in 23rd position and firmly mired in the relegation dogfight. Clough only seemed to have the FA Cup giving him a period grace as we was now winless in 5 games in the league, and relegation suddenly appeared to be a very real possibility. We gained some more respite from the Cup with a gritty display in a dour game away at Fulham in our 4th round replay where we snatched a late, late win with a 119th winner from Shaun Miller. We followed this up with a 2-0 win at home to Shrewsbury Town to ease things a little in the league, before we turned our attentions to the FA Cup again.
Nottingham Forest came to Bramall Lane in the 5th round of the FA Cup, unbeaten in 16 games, flying high in the Championship, and they had been expecting an easy passage in to the quarter finals of the FA Cup. Across the city our neighbours Sheffield Wednesday were already in the FA Cup draw for the 6th round, and on a bright spring day it was a real cup tie at Bramall Lane. Forest took the lead in the first half, but the critical moment came towards the end of the first half because whilst United and Forest were playing, the 6th round draw was taking place, and it word quickly went round the ground that awaiting the victors was an home tie against either Sheffield Wednesday or Charlton Athletic. This news had reached the players at half-time as Nigel Clough said in his interview after the match the first thing he had said is “do you want to know who you have got in the next round? Well I might as well tell you”. These words must have done the trick as United came out for the second half with a lot of real drive and purpose. The equaliser came after a slip from the Forest keeper let in Conor Coady to score, before we made it 2-1 with a late penalty from Chris Porter, and then the same player made it 3-1 with a late goal that sent Bramall Lane berserk.
The FA Cup was still only a distraction as we still had a lot of work to do in the league, we was still firmly entrenched in a relegation battle but the excitement of the cup run had clearly transmitted itself in to the league. We had got a big fixture pile up between facing Forest and our 6th round game. The weeks between went like a dream, as United really kicked in to form, winning all 5 games between, and playing some sparking attractive football, and even more crucially not conceding as Gillingham, Bristol City Colchester, MK Dons and Peterborough all got put to the sword. It was during this 5 games that attention had swiftly turned from a relegation battle to talk of an outside chance of making the play offs being whispered in hushed tones.
FA Cup excitement had really hit Bramall Lane. The story had taken a huge twist with the much anticipated derby game against Sheffield Wednesday being cruelly robbed from our neighbours by Charlton Athletic, denying Wednesdayites the chance of the hiding they was particularly relishing giving us at Bramall Lane. So it came to pass that we played Charlton Athletic on a hot spring day at Bramall Lane in front of a full house. The first half was a tight cagey affair with United just shading it, the game sprang in to life in the second half with a sublime finish from Ryan Flynn in front of the Bramall Lane, before following it up 90 seconds later when a long range effort from the talismanic John Brayford taking a huge deflection and wrong footing the Charlton keeper to send Bramall Lane in to pandemonium. At full time Bramall Lane was as loud as it had been in year as the supporters appreciated the efforts of the players, and incredibly we was off to Wembley. As the day progressed favourites Manchester City had been dumped out by Wigan, and we drew Hull City in the semi-final in a game where was outsiders but which was still very winnable.
In between the 6th round and semi-final we had 8 games to play. These 8 games could still be crucial to our league form as we still had an outside chance of the play-offs. We won our next game against Carlisle at home despite the players looked tired and weary, this was followed by a draw at Preston before the United defence got breached for the first time in several games by Wolves as we went down to a 2-0 home defeat against the Champions elect. We then won at Crawley on the road, before getting beaten at Swindon, and then having successive home draws against Brentford which was remarkable when the referee awarded Brentford a penalty and sent off Kieron Freeman after an excellent tackle, only for him to reverse his decision on the advice of a linesman. The second draw being a 1-1 draw with Leyton Orient, and then we went to Wembley on the back of an very impressive 1-0 win with United resting most of the first team players and playing a lot of the reserves and youth players.
