This entry was posted on December 6, 2017 by Classic Football Shirts.
THE BATTLE OF BRAMALL LANE
“I've been in professional football since 16 and I'm 42 now. I've never ever witnessed anything as disgraceful as that. There is no place for that in any game of football, let alone professional football.”
Before examining this historic game at Bramall Lane, it is best to quote Law 3 of the Laws of the Game and FA Rules. ‘A match is played by two teams, each with a maximum of eleven players; one must be the goalkeeper. A match may not start or continue if either team has fewer than seven players’. This law is the focus of the match that became known as ‘The Battle of Bramall Lane’.
Sheffield United vs West Brom was a game which had a tumultuous history, with ‘a red card in four of the previous meetings between the clubs’. The fixture lived up to its billing as, on March 16, 2002 it became the first English League game to be abandoned through lack of players, and also the ‘day football was soiled at Sheffield United’.
The first red card came only seven minutes into the game, a deliberate handball for Simon Tracey, Sheffield United’s goalkeeper. They were forced to make their first change of the match and put their substitute keeper on the pitch.
The sides stayed 11 vs 10 for a substantial portion of the game. Just after the hour mark West Brom took a 2-0 lead. In response, Sheffield United made their remaining two substitutions in an attempt to restore parity to the game. George Santos and Patrick Suffo were both subbed on together and sent off together, all in just under two minutes.
George Santos put in a hard tackle on Albion’s Welsh midfielder Andy Johnson, and was sent off by the referee. It transpired that there was existing animosity between Santos and Johnson. This was from an accidental collision between the two whilst Johnson played for Nottingham Forest, where Santos ‘suffered a double eye socket fracture … almost a year to the day before’.
This may help to explain as to why the dangerous tackle occurred so soon after Santos was substituted on. This decision angered the Sheffield United players causing a melee between the two teams. Patrick Suffo was then also shown a red card for headbutting Albion captain Derek McInnes, ‘who required stitches’. Sheffield United were down to eight men with no remaining substitutions.
United were then lucky to escape their fourth red card as Michael Brown, who was already carded, dragged down McInnes. The referee afforded Brown the benefit of the doubt and let the game carry on with 11 vs 8. Despite being awarded this generous decision from the referee, Brown ‘limped off in the 79th minute’, shortly after Albion extended their lead to three goals, leaving Sheffield United with seven players on the field of play.
In similar fashion to Brown’s decision, Robert Ullathorne, United’s right-back, also decided he could play no further part in the game through injury. The ‘game was eventually called off in the 82nd minute’. With Sheffield United so depleted the remaining ‘six would have been left to run around the pitch, being humiliated, starved of dignity and grace’, but an eventful game at Bramall Lane was abandoned by referee Eddie Wolstenholme.
West Brom manager Gary Megson was not happy with the actions of the Sheffield United players. In a post-match interview, he was critical of the injured players leaving the pitch before the end of the game. Megson said:
“There were a few players left on, enough to finish the game. They were being told by certain people to go down, come off. Michael Brown wasn’t injured. I was absolutely infuriated with the stuff I was hearing, everybody’s heard it, and everybody knows what was going on, on that line. That result must stand, otherwise the next time that we’re two down I’ll bring three subs on and eight off and we’ll play the game again.”
Neil Warnock also had his say following the eventful game,
“He had a strain in the first half Michael and should have come off at half-time. But because we were losing one nil, he wanted to come on. Obviously, I don’t want him to aggravate it, we’ve got a tough match on Tuesday night as well. There’s been a lot of accusations, that at the right time we will take a look at. There’s a lot of things we weren’t happy with today. I won’t imagine Gary (Megson) will be having a drink with me tonight, but not many managers do.”
After the game, amid some calls for a replay of the game, Warnock called for the points to be given to West Brom and stated that he had not undertaken any unlawful tactics by removing the injured players from the pitch. Santos and Suffo, the two substituted players who were immediately sent off, were immediately transfer listed and neither played another game for Sheffield United.
This match between Sheffield United and West Bromwich Albion will be remembered in history as the first time a match was abandoned in England for a team not having enough players. The Sheffield side, in their red and white stripes, will go down in history and that shirt will forever be remembered and will be synonymous with ‘The Battle of Bramhall Lane’. It is not always possible to own a piece of history, but in this case and thanks to Classic Football Shirts, it is possible to do so. ‘The Battle of Bramall Lane’ is an interesting and forgotten story of one of the most eventful games football has ever seen.
By Peter Jones - Follow Peter on Twitter @PeterKennyJones or visit his Football History Website https://peterkj.wixsite.com/football-historian
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