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Moments
Battle of Bramall Lane Who: Sheffield United and West Bromwich Albion get stuck in. He said what? “I’ve been in professional football since I was 16 and I’m 42 now. I’ve never witnessed anything as disgraceful as that.” West Brom’s manager, Gary Megson What happened? On 16 March 2002 the drudgery of supporting Sheffield United and West Brom finally paid off. Sure there’s been a few Premiership promotions between the pair of them, not to mention a few last day miracle escapes from relegation, but this was special – a day to say ‘I was there’. Three men sent off, an ‘injured’ player jogging to the changing rooms, a Machiavellian manager, the greatest double substitution of all time (even beating Solskjaer and Sheringham), abandonment and even, that old chestnut, FA ineptitude. Violence has its place in society, and who could ever deny that United’s Bramall Lane is just that place. By the time George Santos tried to separate West Brom midfielder Andy Johnson from his knee caps with a two-footed lunge in the 65th minute it was clear this was not a normal day at the office. This was the Battle of Bramall Lane; the kind of game that makes Arjen Robben wake up screaming and Arsene Wenger demand bodyguards for his weedy little munchkin midfield. Both teams were sitting around mid-table at the time and the game started off with a few humdrum challenges but nothing too spectacular. After only nine minutes though, the home side were down to ten men as goalkeeper Simon Tracey was sent off for handling outside the box. A replacement, the wonderfully named Wilko de Vogt, was sent on but late on in the half WBA made their one-man advantage count as they went one-nil up. Peep. Peep. Peep. The whistle goes for half time; managers do their team talk; the half time entertainment is awful; the half time pies even worse… you know, normality. Twenty minutes after the restart though, things changed. After West Brom had run in a second goal from Derek McInnes, Sheffield United manager Neil Warnock decided he needed to freshen things up a bit by making a double substitution. Off came two United midfielders and on came the aforementioned Santos and a man possibly even crazier, Patrick Suffo. At this point, 65 minutes in, WBA’s Johnson could have been forgiven for ignoring who was coming on for the opposing side, but when the tannoy announcement of Santos’ arrival was heard across the stadium surely he knew there could be trouble ahead. For when Johnson was playing for Nottingham Forest the previous season, he had fractured Santos' cheekbone and seriously damaged his eye socket with a swinging elbow. Being the reasonable man he was, Santos just tried to cripple Johnson. An enormous scrap ensued with all 21 remaining players involved. As the referee tried to calm things down there was punches thrown left right and centre, with the officials missing most of them. However, when Suffo head-butted West Brom’s McInnes all of (maybe) two yards from the referee there wasn’t any doubt that both substitutes would be off. The two were back in the dressing room within minutes of coming on, neither to play for Sheffield United again. It has often been rumoured that McInnes got in a few sneaky digs at Suffo before the head-butt, but then that just means he’s a cleverer scumbag. All this reduced United to eight men, with no more substitutions left. United captain Keith Curle made his way over to the bench at this point to get some instructions from Warnock, a move which disgusted West Brom manager Gary Megson… the reasons for which will soon become clear. Not long after his little chat, Curle was fortunate to avoid a sending off when he clattered into McInnes, throwing in a few punches for good measure. Then, seconds after a third goal for the Baggies in the 77th minute, Michael Brown limped off for United, and team-mate Robert Ullathorne went off injured in the 82nd minute, reducing them to six men. The referee, Eddie Wolstenholme, then abandoned the game with West Brom leading 3-0. Then came the afters. Megson accused Warnock of trying to stop the game, knowing that a team has to have seven or more players to continue. Perhaps the reason for Curle’s outburst? Brown at least was out for the rest of the season so his injury was serious, though Ullathorne’s was somewhat more dubious. Indeed he was reportedly seen limping off, before proceeding to run down the stairs to the changing rooms. Nice. After the match, the FA launched an investigation; they could have chosen to let the result stand, or order a replay. Megson had fairly strong feelings on the matter. “I've been in professional football since 16 and I'm 42 now. I've never ever witnessed anything as disgraceful as that,” he said. “There is no place for that in any game of football, let alone professional football. There will be no replay. If we are called back to Bramall Lane we shall kick-off and then walk off the pitch.” For his part, Warnock came out afterwards and said: “I have no complaints about the sendings-off and we are going to have to deal with that as strongly as we can. I don't think George will ever play for us again and Patrick Suffo will be transfer- listed. We will examine the situation and everything that has gone on and we will deal with it. I cannot condone anything my players did. I thought all the sendings-off were justified.” Eventually after much hoopla the result stood, United were fined ten thousand pounds; though no charge came for Warnock as he was not mentioned in the referee’s report. Despite the FA seeming to clear Warnock of any wrongdoing, they somehow neglected to make Megson apologise for his remarks. Perhaps it was a quiet way of admitting that the Battle of Bramall Lane may well have been the dodgiest game in England since Bruce Grobbelaar’s debut on CCTV. We only wish we were there. Where are they now? Warnock is still at Bramall Lane and not doing too bad in the Premiership. On the less glamorous side of things – Suffo is playing for Maccabi Petah Tikva FC in Israel and Santos is on loan at Oxford from Brighton.
JJ Worrall
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