Six years, five managers and three unsuccessful playoff campaigns, but the Blades finally look set to return to the Championship.
Sheffield United’s Billy Sharp celebrates scoring their second goal
The League One table is starting to open up for Sheffield United, who have an eight-point gap over second-placed Fleetwood Town.
A 4-2 victory at Swindon Town on Tuesday night stretched the Blades’ unbeaten run to eight matches. Finally, after six years of hope, the Bramall Lane faithful can start thinking of Championship football once again.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Ten years ago United were in the Premier League, relegated on the final day of the 2006/07 season.
In a desperate bid to return to the top flight the Yorkshire club overspent and despite reaching the playoff final in 2009, dropped down to the third tier two years later for the first time since 1989.
Chris Wilder
For a club with an average attendance bettered by only seven Championship clubs in 2016/17 at just over 20,000, this was certainly a fall from grace that four managers, and three playoff defeats, could not fix.
Now Chris Wilder, a man from Sheffield whose playing career started with the Blades, is finally turning things around as the club looks to make its climb back to a top tier where it has spent 73 of his 128-year history.
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