Sheffield UnitedSheffield United is a club that was born out of cricket. On 22 March 1889, at the Adelphi Hotel in Sheffield, on the site where the Crucible Theatre now stands, Sir Charles Clegg, president of Sheffield United Cricket Club, formed a football team. The reason was practical: The Wednesday had moved from Bramall Lane to its own ground at Olive Grove after a dispute over gate receipts, and the tenants of the stadium needed a new team to bring in income in winter. The club was therefore essentially an offshoot of the cricket club, and the first in England to carry “United” in its name. The nickname “The Blades” refers to Sheffield’s steel and cutlery industry; from 1889 to 1912 the club was in fact known as “The Cutlers”.
The club developed rapidly. In 1892 it was elected to the Second Division, and a year later it won promotion to the First Division, the first team ever to do so. It then spent 37 seasons in the top flight without a break. The golden age was 1895–1925: United were champions of England in 1897/98 and runners-up in 1896/97 and 1899/1900. The title-winning side featured characters such as William “Fatty” Foulke, a heavyweight goalkeeper, Ernest Needham and Walter Bennett. It is the club’s only league title.
Even greater success came in the FA Cup, which the club won four times. In 1899, ten years after its formation, United beat Derby County 4–1 at Crystal Palace. It repeated the triumph in 1902, beat Chelsea 3–0 at Old Trafford in 1915, and won 1–0 against Cardiff City in 1925. The club also played in the finals of 1901 and 1936, losing both. It has not won a trophy since 1925, apart from those linked with promotion. The record attendance, 68,287, was set in 1936 in an FA Cup tie against Leeds United, in the same season United reached the final.
Later decades were less kind. In 1981 the club dropped into the Fourth Division with debts of over a million pounds, but it won the division in its first season at that level and two years later was promoted to the Second Division. When the Premier League began in 1992, United were among its founders, and Brian Deane scored the new competition’s first-ever goal, after five minutes of the match against Manchester United. Since then the club has returned to the Premier League several times, and has reached FA Cup semi-finals in 1993, 1998, 2003 and 2014 and League Cup semi-finals in 2003 and 2015. The 1993 semi-final was played at Wembley in a derby against their local rivals.
That derby, the “Steel City Derby” with Sheffield Wednesday, is at the heart of the club’s identity. Sheffield is a city where football traditions were born: some of the oldest clubs in the world were formed here, and United and Wednesday have shared the city stage since the late 19th century. Supporters call themselves the Blades, and the atmosphere in the stands, including the traditional standing Kop, has given Bramall Lane a reputation as a fortress. Among the club’s best-known players are Tony Currie and Alan Woodward.
The club’s home is Bramall Lane, opened in 1855 as a cricket ground. The first football match there was played in 1862 between Sheffield FC and Hallam FC, the two oldest clubs in the world. United shared the ground with the cricket side until 1973, and Bramall Lane, along with the Kennington Oval in London, is the only ground to have hosted an England football international, an England cricket Test match and an FA Cup Final. Today, after redevelopments, it holds more than 32,000 spectators and is regarded as the oldest major stadium in the world still hosting professional matches.