To offer some balance, Devlin, while limited in some ways, was perhaps the most consistently exciting player I've seen for United. Give him the ball out wide, and you know he'll deliver a cross. I sat on the Kop, wider of goal to where I sit now, and I knew that when Devlin disappeared behind that pillar that the ball was about to sail across goal.
Two games stick out. The first is that 4-4 against his old (and future, sadly) club Birmingham, which is mentioned in that dramatic games thread. Devlin played like a crossing machine that day, creating chance after chance.
The other is against Forest. If I remember the sequence of events correctly, Nigel Quashie went straight through one of our full backs. I think it was Kozluk, although it might have been Wayne Quinn. Devlin steamed in and twatted Quashie, Quashie twatted him back. Quashie was sent off but Devlin wasn't. Forest then spent the rest of the game trying to get Devlin back but couldn't get near him. Then, in injury time with the Blades leading, Devlin took a short corner and held the ball up. Presenting a stationary target for once, Forest player-manager David Platt launched himself two-footed into Devlin and nearly kicked him into orbit, and Forest went down to 9 men and the Blades held out.
I have an idea that Platt actually went into the United dressing room to apologise for that after the match although I could be wrong about that.
