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
- Michael Brown is the only Blades player to score more than once for us in the playoffs.
- 8 playoff campaigns without winning one is a record.
- One other team has lost 4 finals without winning one: Reading. They have at least bothered to score a few goals in those games.
- 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.
- United have never won an away game in the playoffs, though we have only lost once at home.
- 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.
- Kyle McFadzean scored our winner against Yeovil in the 1st leg in 2013, but never scored a league goal for us.
- 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
