Sheffield United go into the Championship play-off final against Sunderland as favourites for promotion – but they may have to overcome a curse to reach the Premier League.
Not only have the Blades never previously won the play-offs in nine previous campaigns, but they haven’t even scored a goal in the four finals they previously reached.
In the second tier, Sheffield United lost 1-0 to Crystal Palace in the 1997 play-off final, before a 3-0 defeat to Wolves in 2003, and a 1-0 reverse to Burnley in 2009. The Yorkshire side also lost the League One play-off final on penalties to Huddersfield in 2012, after the game finished 0-0.
Blades legend’s family day out
This time the Blades will be fancied for victory, after thrashing Bristol City 6-0 on aggregate in the semi-finals, and finishing in third place in the table – 14 points above opponents Sunderland.
One man who will be cheering them on from the stands will be former striker Billy Sharp, a lifelong Sheffield United fan who was part of the previous two squads to reach the top flight.
Sharp scored 116 goals for the club before departing in 2023 – the 39-year-old is now with Doncaster Rovers, who he helped back to League One this season.
“I’m a Sheffield United fan through and through, I still follow every game and I’ll have my shirt on for the final, wanting the club to get promotion,” he told FourFourTwo, speaking at Wembley at an EFL media event to preview the match.
“I’ve wanted that as a kid and a fan, as a player and as a captain – now as a fan again, it’s no different. My two boys, especially my oldest one, he watches Sheffield United more than he comes to watch me!
“He’s looking forward to it, and hopefully he’ll be smiling and not have to experience what I had to as a kid. I still have those bad memories in my head from all those years ago.
“Hopefully it’s going to be a great day, and I can see Sheffield United finally score in a play-off final and get promoted back to the Premier League.
“They’ll go into the game as favourites, but everyone knows a one-off game at Wembley doesn’t go that way all the time – Sheffield United and Wembley don’t really go well together, so hopefully that can change.”
The challenge to stay up
Last season’s play-off winners Southampton have been relegated back to the Championship, having accumulated only 12 points in the top flight this term, while Sheffield United themselves went down with just 16 points a year ago, conceding a Premier League record 104 goals.
But Blades boss Chris Wilder previously guided the club to a ninth-placed Premier League finish after promotion in 2019, and Sharp hopes that they wouldn’t be cannon fodder if they did return to the top flight.
“It is getting harder for the teams that go up because the gap is getting bigger, as you’ve seen this year the three teams that went up came straight back down quite comfortably,” Sharp admitted.
“The Premier League is the toughest and best league in the world – to get there is really hard, to stay there is even harder.
“But in the first season under Chris Wilder in the Premier League, we did unbelievably, we finished ninth, no-one expected us to finish that high.
“He’ll have taken things from the last time he was in the Premier League as manager as well, to hopefully keep Sheffield United in there for years to come.
“Seeing Premier League football at Bramall Lane every weekend is what the fans want, what my kids want and what the city needs as well. Hopefully they can get there, sustain it and stay there for many years.”
Wimbledon’s Wembley hero
Charlton Athletic face Leyton Orient in Sunday’s League One play-off final, before AFC Wimbledon take on Walsall in the League Two final on Monday.
Legendary former Wimbledon goalkeeper Dave Beasant – the penalty-saving hero in the club’s 1988 FA Cup final triumph – was at Wembley for this week’s EFL media event, and is hoping the Dons can return to the third tier.
“The club means an awful lot to a lot of the players who were there at Wimbledon,” he told FFT.
“I spent nine years of my career there and although this is not the Wimbledon I played for, this is my Wimbledon, my heart is still here.
“They’ve done tremendously well to get to Wembley. They had a good season but fell away a little towards the end, but unless you win the title, there’s no better way of getting promotion than winning at Wembley. They’re more than capable of getting the result they need.”
