Sheffield United face West Brom live on Sky Sports Football from 7pm on Friday
Friday 14 December 2018 18:47, UK
Sheffield United host West Bromwich Albion this Friday, but there will surely be no repeat of the scenes of 16 years ago when this fixture turned into the Battle of Bramall Lane. Here, Adam Bate recalls the events of that day with the help of two men who played in the game, Blades midfielder Michael Brown and current Baggies boss Darren Moore...
"It was disgraceful, to be perfectly honest with you," said West Brom boss Gary Megson at the time. "I have been in football since I was 16 and I'm 42 now. I have never ever seen anything like that."
The events of March 16, 2002 are part of football folklore. The only time in the history of professional football in England that a match had to be abandoned because one team no longer had enough players to be able to continue.
It soon became known as the Battle of Bramall Lane.
"It was bizarre," former Sheffield United midfielder Brown tells Sky Sports. "A crazy game. You got in the shower afterwards and couldn't believe that it had happened. It was just surreal. Of course, you never envisage the media frenzy that was to follow. But obviously, you understand why."
Darren Moore also played in the game. "I have never been involved in anything like that," he tells Sky Sports. "I do look back and smile because there were so many things happening in the game. To see so many sent off and the game be abandoned, you had to get the rule book out."
West Brom were the visitors to Sheffield United that spring day and while the away side had plenty to play for as they chased promotion to the Premier League, the season appeared to be petering out for the Blades. That is not how some of them saw it.
The home supporters were keen to get one over on Megson, a former Sheffield Wednesday player. United skipper Keith Curle had also captained West Brom's neighbours and promotion rivals Wolves, while striker Paul Peschisolido had been a Baggie himself. More pertinently, so had the man on the bench for the home side, Georges Santos.
Santos had history with West Brom midfielder Andrew Johnson. Just over a year earlier, while Johnson was playing for Nottingham Forest, the pair had clashed in the opening minutes of a game at the same ground.
The Sheffield United player had suffered a fractured cheekbone and a seriously damaged eye socket following an elbow by Johnson. Santos had a titanium plate inserted. Blades boss Neil Warnock even claimed that his player could have lost an eye in the incident.
Johnson did not apologise. Perhaps it was no surprise that there was bad blood going into the rematch, but Santos was only named among the substitutes. He would have to wait.
"I reckon with Neil's selection he was probably conscious that the two of them had their problems previously and that is why he didn't select Georges," says Brown. "When he did bring him on to change the game, within seconds it became a farce."
Sheffield United's problems had begun when veteran goalkeeper Simon Tracey was sent off early in the game. Scott Dobie gave Albion the lead soon after and a fine Derek McInnes strike doubled their advantage just after the hour-mark.
That was the catalyst for Warnock to turn to his bench and bring on Santos together with Cameroon international striker Patrick Suffo. It didn't take long for them to make an impact.
Santos launched himself at Johnson at the first opportunity. It was a shocking tackle that could easily have badly injured his opponent and the red card was inevitable.
In the melee that ensued, Suffo headbutted McInnes right in front of the referee and he too was sent off, thus reducing Warnock's side to just eight men.
Dobie took the opportunity to extend the lead soon after and Moore still recalls the strange experience of playing with a three-man advantage. "I have to laugh because it's the only game I ever got a rollicking from the manager," he explains.
"I put my foot on the ball because I had nobody to mark up front as a big centre half. I was just thinking that I'd conserve some energy for the next game, but the manager wanted us to boost the goal tally. I wasn't thinking about it at the time so I got an almighty rollicking."
Megson was eyeing a thrashing, but it was not to be. There remains much debate about what happened next. What we do know is that Brown and Rob Ullathorne both left the pitch with injuries, reducing Sheffield United to six men.
Referee Eddie Wolstenholme had no choice but to abandon the match.
Some have since suggested skulduggery. Megson accused "certain people" of instructing players to go down and blamed "one man", not Sheffield United. Warnock, a qualified referee, was the target of his counterpart's ire.
"I wouldn't imagine Gary will be having a drink with me tonight," he said afterwards. "But not many managers do."
The truth was that the injuries were genuine enough. Ullathorne missed the next four games with a hamstring problem and, though Megson had insisted that he was not injured, Brown went on to miss the rest of the season.
"He said that Neil had done this and that, and I had just walked off the pitch," remembers Brown. "I went over to the referee and told him I had to go off. He gave me his blessing and it said that in the report. I had torn my hernia. It was a nightmare for me personally. Megson never said he got that wrong, which was a bit disappointing for me."
In the aftermath, Sheffield United were fined and there were six-game bans for Santos and Suffo. Both were transfer listed and neither player represented the club ever again.
As for West Brom, they were eventually awarded the three points almost a week later and would eventually go on to secure automatic promotion ahead of rivals Wolves.
"We were awarded the win on the night we won 1-0 at Nottingham Forest," recalls Moore. "So psychologically it was a turning point for the rest of the division and a sweetener for us. Those six points rocketed us up the table and really put pressure on everyone else.
"When we look back at it now I can laugh because we took the three points. The result was never in doubt. We won fair and square. It was a good display and we won comfortably, but there were ongoing afters between two players that embroiled both clubs really."
Moore is now the West Brom manager for the club's first visit to Bramall Lane in nine years. Like Warnock back in 2002, Chris Wilder, the current Sheffield United manager, is a boyhood Blade. But do not expect a repeat. There is only one Battle of Bramall Lane.
