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BARRY LANDY

The Glory Days: Sheffield United bask in Wembley sun most clubs only dream of

When Nigel Clough looked back on Sheffield United’s win at Villa Park in the third round of this season’s FA Cup, he felt that he had given the fans their long awaited day in the sun.

“It was probably the best day out they had had for a few years,” Clough claimed and there’s little doubt about that.

A bitterly cold winter afternoon in January was its frosty reality, but for a club who in the previous decade had contested an FA Cup semi-final against Arsenal and enjoyed a season dining at English football’s top table, that day was an overdue chink of light at the post-Neil Warnock era Blades.

One of the most successful clubs of the early 20th century, if Sheffield United’s part in the foundation of the Premier League in the 1990s and their brief upturn more recently were an Indian summer of sorts, what followed was a winter of real discontent.

After Villa, Sheffield United dispatched Fulham en route to their Wembley date last weekend. For that replayed game, down by the Thames but with only fifteen senior players fit to compete, Wembley seemed a million miles away. You could have forgiven Clough for assuming that was as close to the Arch as his League One strugglers were to get.

In Clough, United have a manager who appreciates the value of the competition itself, not just what it can give to a squad in need of an escape from league duty where points are paramount. In the latter sense it worked, in that they’ve shot right up the league after dicing with demotion

under David Weir.

By hook or by crook, they embraced the FA Cup. With a bare squad to work with in the early rounds perhaps the manager had no choice. Ties against Nottingham Forest and Charlton Athletic could have proved more troublesome than they were.

“It’s about the glory of the day and what it means for the supporters. That gets lost sometimes. The glory, the memories. That’s what is really important,” Clough said back in January. He is a man with Cup pedigree from his playing days. February, March and April were to bear significant fruit.

For virtually all of those teams outside the elite bracket at the top, cup glory at Wembley is unattainable. A large chunk of Premier League sides fall into that category too. Newcastle United have

contested a Wembley final in 15 years. Aston Villa have, but just once in fourteen years.

The Football Association’s decision to host semi-finals at the new stadium widens those goalposts a little. Playoffs and the Football League trophy too offer an alternative route for the 72. But they are all too rare.

Briefly on Sunday, the glory looked like it was set to stay, for another month at least. Cup final fever was set to hit. It will, but on Humberside. The supporters standing ovation at the final whistle was an indicator of how glory had been greeted by the Bramall Lane faithful on their day in the sun.

They’ll be thankful their manager who, with luck in toe, saw the potential of a cup run for both glory and producing memories like no other.

www.downinthebox.co.uk | @BarryLandyDITB

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Barney RonayThe Guardian