A look back at our previous playoff campaigns

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Revolution said:
Time to relive the pain...

1988 – Lost in Division 3 semi-final v Bristol City (0-1, 1-1)

Manager: Dave Bassett

Should we have done better? No – team was poor and had too many new players due to rapid Bassett turnover

Did failure hurt us long term? Not at all. Back to back promotions, good cup runs and 4 seasons in the top flight followed

Highlight: Colin Morris’ superb goal in his last appearance

Lowlight: Paul Williams’ miss

Blades Playoff anti-hero: Paul Williams

Most vivid personal memory: the newness and strangeness of it all


1997 – Beat Ipswich in Division 1 semi-final (1-1, 2-2 aet, won on away goals), lost final 0-1 to Palace

Manager: Howard Kendall

Should we have done better? Yes - Once we got past Ipswich, we should have beaten Palace. We had an excellent squad

Did failure hurt us long term? Yes. The club was regarded by many as a PL club in waiting at the time, and this failure set us back years.

Highlight: drawing at Ipswich against all odds. Longest night of my life, and the only time we’ve advanced from a second leg away.

Lowlight: David Hopkin

Blades Playoff anti-hero: Howard Kendall, whose timidity away from Bramall Lane post-Christmas and lax preparation cost us dearly.

Most vivid personal memory: Katchouro’s opener at Portman Road, which silenced an Ipswich victory party that had started before the game


1998 – Lost in Division 1 semi-final v Sunderland (2-1, 0-2)

Manager: Steve Thompson

Should we have done better? No – Sunderland were too good for us after we’d sold many of our better players.

Did failure hurt us long term? Yes. See 1997.

Highlight: Borbokis free kick as we dug deep and beat a superior Sunderland team in the first leg

Lowlight: Nicky Marker’s unlucky own goal

Blades Playoff anti-hero: Charles Green and Mike McDonald

Most vivid personal memory: Being impressed how superior Sunderland were early on and amazed we came back to beat them in the first leg


2003 – Beat Forest in Division 1 semi-final (1-1, 4-3 aet), lost final 0-3 to Wolves

Manager: Neil Warnock

Should we have done better? Yes – after all we’d been through we should have had enough to beat Wolves. Their superiority was surprising above all else

Did failure hurt us long term? No really. We went up 3 seasons later after 2 near misses

Highlight: the win vs Forest was arguably the best game this century, yet alone in the playoffs

Lowlight: Brown’s penalty miss in the final capping a miserable 90 minutes

Blades Playoff anti-hero: Brown the obvious pick, despite his great season. Windass and Warnock didn’t cover themselves in glory before and during the final either.

Most vivid personal memory: “Oh my God! Oh my God!”


2009 – Beat Preston in Championship semi-final (1-1, 1-0 aet), lost final 0-1 to Burnley

Manager: Kevin Blackwell

Should we have done better? No, not with Blackwell in charge and the limited forward line options we had

Did failure hurt us long term? Yes. It took a decade to get back to this position again.

Highlight: Kyle Walker’s early appearances: looked like a PL player from the start. Also Halford’s goal capped a fine season by him.

Lowlight: Mike Dean turning down penalty appeals and the shambles of the last few minutes

Blades Playoff anti-hero: Blackwell for his naivety when Burnley beat us in the same way as they had a few weeks previously, with honourable mentions for those morons Ward and Hendrie

Most vivid personal memory: Craig “shit bastard” Beattie being outjumped and outfought and whining about it for 90 minutes


2012 – Beat Stevenage in League One semi-final (0-0, 1-0), lost final 8-7 on pens to Huddersfield after 0-0 draw aet

Manager: Danny Wilson

Should we have done better? Yes. Whilst everything had conspired against us, to lose that penalty shootout was criminal

Did failure hurt us long term? Yes. 5 more years in League One beckoned and this was our best chance to get out before Wilder came

Highlight: My Dad sat next to Kyle Walker in the first leg at Stevenage. Plus Chris Porter goals are always fun

Lowlight: Simonsen’s pen, of course

Blades Playoff anti-hero: Probably Simonsen, but ”penalty specialist” Andy Taylor and Ched Evans were not in my good books afterwards.

Most vivid personal memory: turning off my laptop at the end of extra time, because I knew we would lose the shootout. Didn’t think it would be like that, though


2013 – Lost to Yeovil in League One semi-final (1-0, 0-2)

Manager: Chris Morgan

Should we have done better? No. All 3 teams were better than us, and everyone knew it (see the first leg attendance for proof)

Did failure hurt us long term: Yes, see 2012

Highlight: Er…winning the first leg I suppose

Lowlight: Knowing a 1-0 lead wouldn’t be enough against Yeovil

Blades Playoff anti-hero: Kevin McCabe, who made a series of idiot decisions that saw us go from automatic promotion contenders to having no chance in the playoffs

Most vivid personal memory: not bothering to watch the second leg, because the result was obvious in advance


2015 – Lost to Swindon in League One semi-final (1-2, 5-5)

Manager: Nigel Clough

Should we have done better? No. The other semi-finalists were better, we were in awful form going in, and Clough was having a terrible year

Did failure hurt us long term: No, though there was the pain of 2015-6 to get through before better times came

Highlight: The comeback in the most bizarre playoff match of all time

Lowlight: The biggest impediment to our progress being the manager

Blades Playoff anti-hero: Kevin McCabe, who made a series of idiot decisions that saw us go from automatic promotion contenders to having no chance in the playoffs

Most vivid personal memory: the rage after a back 4 featuring 4 full backs gave up a 3-0 lead in the first 15 minutes at Swindon


8 fun playoff facts
  1. Michael Brown is the only Blades player to score more than once for us in the playoffs.
  2. 8 playoff campaigns without winning one is a record.
  3. One other team has lost 4 finals without winning one: Reading. They have at least bothered to score a few goals in those games.
  4. Billy Sharp has been on United’s books for 2 playoff campaigns – 2009 and this year. He missed the 2009 games due to injury, and the signs are that this will happen again this year.
  5. United have never won an away game in the playoffs, though we have only lost once at home.
  6. Neil Warnock had won all 4 playoff tournaments he’d contested before losing with us in 2003. He did one more after leaving us, and lost that one too.
  7. Kyle McFadzean scored our winner against Yeovil in the 1st leg in 2013, but never scored a league goal for us.
  8. The biggest crowd to watch us was 80,518 for the 2009 final. The smallest was 5,802 at Stevenage in the 2012 semi final.

5 Common themes in our playoff campaigns

Boring playoff finals with hardly any goalmouth action: 1997 and 2012 (and arguably 2009)

Seasons we have gone into the playoffs with key forwards unavailable for one reason or another: 1998, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2022

Seasons where it might have helped if the team had trained more and drunk less: 1997, 2003, 2015

Seasons where the manager who began the season was not manager in the playoffs: 1988, 1998, 2013, 2022

Seasons in which we won the last game before the playoffs: 1988 and 2022
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Thanks

Great read (well you know what I mean )

Didn’t we win the first ever playoff in 1890 or something like that ?
 

This is a rayt thread Revolution - quality work!

Bit of a personal one for me. That Swindon play off semi-final were the games where I thought to myself “there’s a rayt player in that Paul Coutts you know”. Also, in case anyone wasn’t aware, we put 5 past a young Wesley Foderingham in goal for Swindon in that second leg.
 
Memries of our last playoff match, Swindon away:

  • Camera was more focused on Brendan Rodgers in the crowd than the actual match (his son was playing for them I think)
  • "3-0 and you fucked it up". Their keeper had a shocker, wonder what happened to him?
 
Revolution said:
Aaargh! I edited the crap out of this and there's still a mistake in it. Kev McCabe is named as anti hero for both 2013 and 2015. That's wrong.

2015's anti hero is of course Nigel Clough, a good manager having a terrible season culminating in the Swindon defensive masterclass.
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You’ve saved me a post. :)

With regard to Yeovil, you’ve reminded me of things I’d blanked from memory…. I’m ashamed to say I didn’t go. Season ticket holder since forever, and I’ve sat through endless drivel. But a having to buy another ticket to watch such a staggeringly bad team inevitably fail…. I blinked.

And I only followed the second leg on the radio, despite the 1-0 lead. 💩
 
Good but depressing thread.

Something has got to give in these 2 games. Florist have lost all four of their previous play off semi finals. In the Championship against us in 2003, Blackpool in 2010 and Swansea in 2011. Their greatest capitulation has to be the league1 semi play off against Yeovil in 2007. Leading 0-2 from the first leg away they managed to lose 2-5 after extra time at Home!
 
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Revolution said:
More than 5 playoff campaigns, never won:

8 - Sheffield United
7 - Lincoln
6 - Bury, Sunderland, Reading
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Trying to put a positive spin on that I would say that you have to be good enough to get into the play offs to not win them😀.
 
Lovely work Revolution

I am still amazed that they allowed away goals after extra time against Ipswich 1997. We had an extra 30 minutes to score an away goal.

I can't remember the goals at Portman Road, was either in extra time?
 

Balham Blade said:
Lovely work Revolution

I am still amazed that they allowed away goals after extra time against Ipswich 1997. We had an extra 30 minutes to score an away goal.

I can't remember the goals at Portman Road, was either in extra time?
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All the goals were in normal time, but away goals only counted after extra time. Strange!
 
Great post, I remember the 2013 play offs being the most un arsed I've ever been about a match.

When Yeovil scored their second it was a "meh" moment and I remember being relived that we didn't have to endure another miserable day at Wembley.
 
Mate of mine told me United have never won a game on a neutral ground. I presume he means the modern era because we must have won at least 4 in years gone by because we won the fa cup 4 times.
 
Beans said:
Perversely enjoyable read, Revolution, cheers.

That Yeovil playoff was so surreal. I didn't watch a single minute of either leg and didn't even follow the away leg (as in I didn't even check the score until after the match). Like you I was so sure we'd lose, even though we had a 1-0 lead going into the second leg! It seems mental now but that was a hard time to be motivated about United. If anything it makes me appreciate how enjoyable the last 6 years have been, last season excepted (although that wasn't real football anyway, and I will continue to tell myself this until the day I die).
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We were saved a beating at Wembley by losing to Yeovil. They were beaten 4-0 by Preston (a team with an equally bad playoff record as us prior to that season). I dread to think how many Preston would have got against us.

I went to the away leg and the abiding memory after the defeat wasn’t disappointment but just being glad the season was over.
 
The Yeovil game away was so depressing, we didn’t even take that many supporters the apathy at that time was massive, just an awful period for the club
 
JohnDenver said:
You’ve saved me a post. :)

With regard to Yeovil, you’ve reminded me of things I’d blanked from memory…. I’m ashamed to say I didn’t go. Season ticket holder since forever, and I’ve sat through endless drivel. But a having to buy another ticket to watch such a staggeringly bad team inevitably fail…. I blinked.

And I only followed the second leg on the radio, despite the 1-0 lead. 💩
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15,000 at that game. I watched the first leg in Sheffield at home, I had no desire to go. Just seemed like a false dawn, that team would've been crucified in the championship, it's the worst team on paper we've had in 30 years.
 
loved reading that, espically as like it or not we are synonymous with the playoffs. 2 of best 3 playoffs games in its history have likely featured us with nottingham forest & Swindon, that swindon game was absoulte rollercoaster, never known 1 before or since. as 5-1 it was all over then we got 5-3 at HT & could probably shouldve done a real madrid at the end making it 7-7 taking it to extra time

that 1997 final was the 1st i remember watching on tv. love how at young age i thought 90th minute heartbreaking defeat, this is the sport for me 😁 but surely this has got to be our time, we are the most unsuccessful team in play off history & its nearly 100 years since we won at wembley so long go the current queen wasnt born & BBC in its current guise didnt exist

although interesting history will be made regardless that we havent progressed in 25 years having the home leg 1st & have never won a game away from bramall lane. forest have never won a semi final
 
sheff_blade90 said:
although interesting history will be made regardless that we havent progressed in 25 years having the home leg 1st & have never won a game away from bramall lane. forest have never won a semi final
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Forest's played 4 lost 4 in semi finals was the joint worst record until MK Dons lost to Wycombe: they've now lost 5 out of 5. Here's hoping Forest match them.

Ipswich have appeared 8 times in the 2nd tier playoffs, winning once but losing the other 7 ties at the semi final stage.
 
Revolution said:
Forest's played 4 lost 4 in semi finals was the joint worst record until MK Dons lost to Wycombe: they've now lost 5 out of 5. Here's hoping Forest match them.

Ipswich have appeared 8 times in the 2nd tier playoffs, winning once but losing the other 7 ties at the semi final stage.
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being such a young team im quite shocked at the MK dons have managed to lose 5 semi finals so quickly
 
Great post!

Just a note, Forest are crap at playoffs too.

They've had 3 Championship playoffs and 1 League One playoff. Never even got to a final.

*Edit, I see you already mentioned this 🙂
 
Gin&Juice said:
Fjortoft giving that twat Tarrico grief after the final whistle. Never seen that before. Weird that Andy Walker was banished the season after, not sure if Marcelo was an upgrade?

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Yes dont forget that the idiot Karl Henry got sent off around 30 mins I think AND we had an injured keeper !
 
Why open up old wounds FFS.
Let's not relive the pain, let's relieve it.
COME ON YOU RED AND WHITE WIZARDS ⚔️
 

Revolution said:
Aaargh! I edited the crap out of this and there's still a mistake in it. Kev McCabe is named as anti hero for both 2013 and 2015. That's wrong.

2015's anti hero is of course Nigel Clough, a good manager having a terrible season culminating in the Swindon defensive masterclass.
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Still a mystery how he could galvanise us the previous season and seemingly completely lose the plot by the next as we all witnessed by the baffling starting line up for the first game of the season against Bristol City.
 
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