Fulwood Blade
Well-Known Member
Hello Everyone - weekend off from Rampton for good behaviour 
The last time I did one of these it was the 3rd Round v QPR. It was 4th Jan 2015 and we were in the 3rd tier with Clough as manager, but as a more important reminder, Harry Redknapp was manager of QPR - doesn’t time play tricks on the memory, Harry known now only for promoting Roly Polys! QPR ticked off another ground on my list then and yesterday’s opponents, Millwall were to tick another one off. Only the third away game of the season after being to Wolves and Norwich - loyalty points is not a subject i'll be bringing up - it's just what it is.
Some of you might ask, if this is part 2, where is part 1 – well we went to see the game v Fylde AFC, but never got round to writing anything up. For a change we sat in John Street – a reminder of when we had season tickets in there when the boy was much younger. Can I take this opportunity to issue a belated apology to the family sat in front when I said in the second half “What the fuck are you doing United”. We were just giving the ball away too much, but you can get away with this in South Stand, but not so easily in John Street!
Anyway, to move on: Do some of you get the same feeling as me – that we are just about guaranteed a 2nd season in the “big” league and that we should have a go at going all the way in the cup this season? Yep, me too – which is why this is part 2 of 6 - part 6 is the FINAL. Of course we need a bit of luck in the draw – don’t all teams, but why not us?
Decided to drive down to London for this game and after been told by a fellow Blades that parking at East Finchley station was a good bet – just off the A406 North Circular and then onto the Northern Line into central London. Got off at London Bridge and decided to have a look round Borough Market. Never been before but it was a hive of activity - a great place to look around if you are a foodie lover. No sooner had we gone under the arch to get in, when up popped Blades having a mini sing song – we’re in the right place we thought. The pub was the Market Porter – decent pint of IPA followed by a greek style, pulled pork wrap from nothing more than a hole in the wall place. Borough Market is well worth a visit – police are about but quite discreet and extremely helpful with travel advice.
Were you in Borough Market?
We were told (by above fellow Blade) to then walk to the New London Bridge station which had the over ground link to South Bermondsey station, which is the nearest to the ground. Had to walk right past the Shard which seems more impressive on pictures than up live, but what an impressive building the station is – if you are interesting in building design, which i am, then it’s been designed well and is absolutely massive – bit like a tardis.
South Bermondsey was a 4/5 minute ride away – but what a change in standards – pretty much a bit of a shithole as London expansion doesn’t appear to have got there yet. Perhaps it’s planned? The walk to the ground was an eye opener in itself - a fenced and gated area which appears to have been especially made to contain away fans and keep them “safe” from the idiots, sorry lions of Millwall. There is absolutely no mixing of fans from getting off the train – obviously designed and developed over the years because of the un-enviable reputation of the home fans. The 400-500 yard walk to the ground leads you to the corner of 2 stands, but still no sign of home fans – here are the turnstiles as well as United’s team coach and the away fan coach park. Absolutely zero chance of any form of fan mixing.
The view from the upper tier is very good, but the state of the pitch reminds of our pre-desso era – patchy/earthy grass that certainly didn’t suit our “playing football, the Sheff United way”. It looked like a bit of a leveller and should be a good test as to how we could adapt. John Egan was warming up as a sub near the corner flag and on one of the renditions of allez, allez, he ended up doing his customary Ollie ping kicking gesture while having a smile as wide as the Thames. He must love us to bits for using his song.
Won’t go too much into the game itself – probably covered by deadbat at some point, but in general the first half was pretty uneventful. We coped well with the pitch but still tried to play football. Millwall appeared to have one plan – hit it long to the bean pole up top. We were very comfortable, just needed to get the first goal.
Half time was probably more entertaining than the first half – we ended up with some junior lions having a race round the pitch twice with some junior Blades. Millwall won the race – if you could call it that! We ended up with two lovely, sweet, (what looked like 6 year old) twin girls on our team who kept us all entertained trying to get a baton and a football round the pitch. Boo hoo to the young lad on the 4th or 5th leg for the Blades, when seeing how far we were behind, refused to take his turn! The young girls were brilliant though – hats off to them and they got the biggest cheers of all.
Second half we were attacking the end where we were and you could see that we had stepped up the pace, tempo and movement of the ball. No doubt CW had warned them “We don’t want a fucking replay”! There was some banter as usual with the Millwall “heavies” to our left, but the song of “Now you’ve seen United, you can fuck off home” was highly amusing. They’ll be thinking that we’ve become a tad arrogant, but our football this half was far better and our now found Premier class stood out enormously. Not sure if the other main song of the day was brand new as it started off really quite just after half time with a few fans behind us, but soon gathered momentum and by the end of the game reverberated round the whole stand “We’re going abroad, we’re going abroad, from Kazakhstan to Amsterdam, we’re going abroad” It was great fun, good to hear and it will no doubt piss the pigs off even more than what we have done up to press – the new massive? – nope, but we look pretty mighty in this game and we put to bed a team just outside the Championship play-off places with ease. Two quality goals (Billy did great on both), but the second was brilliant movement of the ball and players and would have had CW and AK purring on the sidelines. Norwood’s shot was in as soon as he hit it – a sublime strike of the ball – an abject lesson of watching the ball onto your foot. No offence to the ones that haven’t played, but the ones that have will now what I mean.
All in all, an excellent second half – it must have please the management staff no end.
The walk back to the station was uneventful as there were no home fans – corralled for a short while near the station while the Millwall fans were allowed to disperse first – more rounds of “you’ve seen United, now fuck off home” probably didn’t help their fans, but we oozed class in that 2nd half and we just let them know how far we’ve moved on. Plenty of police presence here just to make sure there would be no incidents. Suppose it has to be like that with Millwall – shame but true.
We eventually got on a specially laid on train for Blades fans back to London Bridge station. Good views of the London skyline from the station platform which seems quite high up. As the train was pulling into London Bridge, I was amazed how close we were to flats either side – you could see right into the living rooms – suppose Londoners are used to packed living – just seemed a bit strange to a Northerner.
Rest of the journey back was uneventful really, but it never fails to amaze me of how London life is so different to ours – it just seems like they live in a 24 hour constant bubble that is so different to the rest us – perhaps London Blades see it differently?
We now move on to part 3 as do our massive S6 neighbours – which starts around 7.20pm Monday evening with fifth round draw which will be played for the first time midweek............do we want the pigs? Not for me – I want to have a bash at winning the cup. Let the big six all get drawn together and get Man City and L’pool out of the cup - we’ll have a chance then. If you don’t think we can, just look at the team CW put out yesterday and go and listen to Ollie Norwoods post match interview with Radio Sheffield.
Of course we can win the cup - back to Rampton
UTB
The Song
The last time I did one of these it was the 3rd Round v QPR. It was 4th Jan 2015 and we were in the 3rd tier with Clough as manager, but as a more important reminder, Harry Redknapp was manager of QPR - doesn’t time play tricks on the memory, Harry known now only for promoting Roly Polys! QPR ticked off another ground on my list then and yesterday’s opponents, Millwall were to tick another one off. Only the third away game of the season after being to Wolves and Norwich - loyalty points is not a subject i'll be bringing up - it's just what it is.
Some of you might ask, if this is part 2, where is part 1 – well we went to see the game v Fylde AFC, but never got round to writing anything up. For a change we sat in John Street – a reminder of when we had season tickets in there when the boy was much younger. Can I take this opportunity to issue a belated apology to the family sat in front when I said in the second half “What the fuck are you doing United”. We were just giving the ball away too much, but you can get away with this in South Stand, but not so easily in John Street!
Anyway, to move on: Do some of you get the same feeling as me – that we are just about guaranteed a 2nd season in the “big” league and that we should have a go at going all the way in the cup this season? Yep, me too – which is why this is part 2 of 6 - part 6 is the FINAL. Of course we need a bit of luck in the draw – don’t all teams, but why not us?
Decided to drive down to London for this game and after been told by a fellow Blades that parking at East Finchley station was a good bet – just off the A406 North Circular and then onto the Northern Line into central London. Got off at London Bridge and decided to have a look round Borough Market. Never been before but it was a hive of activity - a great place to look around if you are a foodie lover. No sooner had we gone under the arch to get in, when up popped Blades having a mini sing song – we’re in the right place we thought. The pub was the Market Porter – decent pint of IPA followed by a greek style, pulled pork wrap from nothing more than a hole in the wall place. Borough Market is well worth a visit – police are about but quite discreet and extremely helpful with travel advice.
Were you in Borough Market?
We were told (by above fellow Blade) to then walk to the New London Bridge station which had the over ground link to South Bermondsey station, which is the nearest to the ground. Had to walk right past the Shard which seems more impressive on pictures than up live, but what an impressive building the station is – if you are interesting in building design, which i am, then it’s been designed well and is absolutely massive – bit like a tardis.
South Bermondsey was a 4/5 minute ride away – but what a change in standards – pretty much a bit of a shithole as London expansion doesn’t appear to have got there yet. Perhaps it’s planned? The walk to the ground was an eye opener in itself - a fenced and gated area which appears to have been especially made to contain away fans and keep them “safe” from the idiots, sorry lions of Millwall. There is absolutely no mixing of fans from getting off the train – obviously designed and developed over the years because of the un-enviable reputation of the home fans. The 400-500 yard walk to the ground leads you to the corner of 2 stands, but still no sign of home fans – here are the turnstiles as well as United’s team coach and the away fan coach park. Absolutely zero chance of any form of fan mixing.
The view from the upper tier is very good, but the state of the pitch reminds of our pre-desso era – patchy/earthy grass that certainly didn’t suit our “playing football, the Sheff United way”. It looked like a bit of a leveller and should be a good test as to how we could adapt. John Egan was warming up as a sub near the corner flag and on one of the renditions of allez, allez, he ended up doing his customary Ollie ping kicking gesture while having a smile as wide as the Thames. He must love us to bits for using his song.
Won’t go too much into the game itself – probably covered by deadbat at some point, but in general the first half was pretty uneventful. We coped well with the pitch but still tried to play football. Millwall appeared to have one plan – hit it long to the bean pole up top. We were very comfortable, just needed to get the first goal.
Half time was probably more entertaining than the first half – we ended up with some junior lions having a race round the pitch twice with some junior Blades. Millwall won the race – if you could call it that! We ended up with two lovely, sweet, (what looked like 6 year old) twin girls on our team who kept us all entertained trying to get a baton and a football round the pitch. Boo hoo to the young lad on the 4th or 5th leg for the Blades, when seeing how far we were behind, refused to take his turn! The young girls were brilliant though – hats off to them and they got the biggest cheers of all.
Second half we were attacking the end where we were and you could see that we had stepped up the pace, tempo and movement of the ball. No doubt CW had warned them “We don’t want a fucking replay”! There was some banter as usual with the Millwall “heavies” to our left, but the song of “Now you’ve seen United, you can fuck off home” was highly amusing. They’ll be thinking that we’ve become a tad arrogant, but our football this half was far better and our now found Premier class stood out enormously. Not sure if the other main song of the day was brand new as it started off really quite just after half time with a few fans behind us, but soon gathered momentum and by the end of the game reverberated round the whole stand “We’re going abroad, we’re going abroad, from Kazakhstan to Amsterdam, we’re going abroad” It was great fun, good to hear and it will no doubt piss the pigs off even more than what we have done up to press – the new massive? – nope, but we look pretty mighty in this game and we put to bed a team just outside the Championship play-off places with ease. Two quality goals (Billy did great on both), but the second was brilliant movement of the ball and players and would have had CW and AK purring on the sidelines. Norwood’s shot was in as soon as he hit it – a sublime strike of the ball – an abject lesson of watching the ball onto your foot. No offence to the ones that haven’t played, but the ones that have will now what I mean.
All in all, an excellent second half – it must have please the management staff no end.
The walk back to the station was uneventful as there were no home fans – corralled for a short while near the station while the Millwall fans were allowed to disperse first – more rounds of “you’ve seen United, now fuck off home” probably didn’t help their fans, but we oozed class in that 2nd half and we just let them know how far we’ve moved on. Plenty of police presence here just to make sure there would be no incidents. Suppose it has to be like that with Millwall – shame but true.
We eventually got on a specially laid on train for Blades fans back to London Bridge station. Good views of the London skyline from the station platform which seems quite high up. As the train was pulling into London Bridge, I was amazed how close we were to flats either side – you could see right into the living rooms – suppose Londoners are used to packed living – just seemed a bit strange to a Northerner.
Rest of the journey back was uneventful really, but it never fails to amaze me of how London life is so different to ours – it just seems like they live in a 24 hour constant bubble that is so different to the rest us – perhaps London Blades see it differently?
We now move on to part 3 as do our massive S6 neighbours – which starts around 7.20pm Monday evening with fifth round draw which will be played for the first time midweek............do we want the pigs? Not for me – I want to have a bash at winning the cup. Let the big six all get drawn together and get Man City and L’pool out of the cup - we’ll have a chance then. If you don’t think we can, just look at the team CW put out yesterday and go and listen to Ollie Norwoods post match interview with Radio Sheffield.
Of course we can win the cup - back to Rampton
UTB
The Song
