That was the season that was

After a predictably depressing end to a season where we had looked like bouncing back to Championship for lengthy periods of the season, and we still had a chance until the last kick of the season, but somehow contrived to lose it, i feel it is right to have a period of reflection to let the season go before chancing my arm, and writing about the season that was, as a whole and not just concentrating on the season's end of that had the biggest influence between the thin dividing line between success and failure.

It was quite fair to say that the 2011/12 season kicked off, and myself and quite a few other Blades weren't exactly filled with optimism about the season that to follow. I had predicted a season of difficult transition as we adapted to our new life in League 1, and with it had to come the inevitable blood letting, and how easy or difficult it would prove to get rid of several personnel who had underperformed the previous season to the extent that we had to endure the most distressingly inevitable relegation that we had gone through in my own living memory, and the living memory of most Blades under the age of 40.

The first key moment came within 3 weeks of the 2010/11 season finishing. The first swift and sudden sacking of Micky Adams, the fourth manager of the season and the man who couldn't not stem the tide, and tried and failed to add passion as he attempted to steer us away from the inevitable relegation that we was stumbling towards. The second came and gave the long suffering supporters something to actually smile about with a brave and courageous 2-2 draw with the cream of the Manchester United youth team, for our youth team in the FA Youth Cup Final in front of a packed house at Bramall Lane, and the third came with the highly contentious appointment of former Wednesday hero, and manager Danny Wilson. Most supporters didn't want Danny Wilson, and were vehemently against his appointment, to the extent that a highly vocal segment of support congregated at Bramall Lane to protest against his appointment.

The other moment came, and was probably one of the most decisive moments of the season, in a hotel room at the Premier Inn, in Rhuddlan, Rhyl, where our expensive and under-performing striker Ched Evans was involved in the events that would lead to his incarceration at the end of the season.

Effectively the size of the job was enormous (I'll try and avoid the word Massive, just don't like that word), he was charged with reviving the fortunes of a club that had slept walked in to League 1, also he had to provide some form of stability at a club that had already gone through 4 managers in the preceding 10 months, he had to slash the wage bill that had become wildly unsustainable, and build a side with little money available to him. The key thing was now to do all this, whilst getting results out on the pitch, as make no bones about it, his appointment was risky to say the least as his background meant that he was under a lot of pressure to deliver results sooner rather than later, as he would be under the spotlight, and his past connections meant that we would get very little grace if we started the season slowly.

What was impressive was the way that he went out about his business in the close season, he seemed like a man with clear idea of how to achieve what he what wanted to achieve, and his efforts in getting out there and visiting fans forums, speaking with refreshing honesty and openness sowed the seeds for Glasnost and Perestroika between club and it's supporters.

Several of the high earners got shifted from the wage bill, the divisive Darius Henderson, the poor Mark Yeates both went, as did several high earning and mercenary loan players who had been brought in to deliver instant results and failed miserably, and the squad was bolstered by the likes of Chris Porter, Jean Francois Lescinel, Ryan Flynn, and most crucially one week in to the season the highly rated midfielder Kevin MacDonald who had lost his way at his previous club came on a one year deal.  Deadline day also seeing the sudden departures of Daniel Bogdanovic who had failed to perform and i know most were more than happy to see the back of him, and the young and promising striker Jordan Slew for £1m to Blackburn. The bit of business that Danny Wilson wished he must have done at that time, was getting Ched Evans off the wage bill, our £3m striker now found himself on a rape charge, had not even come to close to repaying any of the expenditure that we had made on him, and was injured at the start of the season.

The Blades started the season well, producing some encouraging, attractive football which delivered positive results, as well as beginning to take a large and vocal support to away games,  and by September we already had points in the back, in what was shaping up to be a close fight between Charlton, Wednesday, Huddersfield and ourselves. We even saw a reappearance as substitute at Scunthorpe from Ched Evans who bagged an equaliser.

The first real rough patch we hit this season began towards the end of September, and lasted through until the first week of November, where dropped points against Wycombe, Exeter, Leyton Orient, Charlton, and maybe most crucially losing a 2 goal lead to a robust and physical Sheffield Wednesday side during the first derby game of the season at Bramall Lane. Prehaps most culpable during the period of poor from was goalkeeper Steve Simonsen, who cost the Blades 4 points with howlers against Sheffield Wednesday, and another the following the weekend during the 6th minute of injury at Leyton Orient, which lead to his dropping and the selection of the promising but inexperienced George Long who didn't appear to be ready for the first team.

I think a crucial moment of the season came during the last weekend of November, when after a win at Chesterfield despite not playing paticularly well, was followed by the bombshell news of the death of Gary Speed. He had not been paticulary successful at Bramall Lane, but had been well liked and well respected, and was known personally to a lot of the players at Bramall Lane, and especially Ched Evans. I think the death hit home harder at Bramall Lane than it did anywhere else, as we had been his last club before he took to international management with Wales, and it seemed a lot of our side had lost a good friend as well as former manager, and i think that they grew as players, and as men after this tragic event, as it had an galvanising effect on the side.

We really did begin to hit form, after getting cut adrift from Charlton, Wednesday and Huddersfield at the top of the table, and a run of 10 wins from 11 games from November to late Janurary in all competitions ensured progress to the 4th round of the FA Cup, and also meant that as the sides above us began to stutter with games coming thick and fast, and we had moved back in to the top 2. Instrumental in all this was the style of football, where United had begin to win games, and win games well, with a very attractive brand of possession football where instead of slinging the ball forward to try and batter opposition defences down, United had a cerebral approach with their probing and pentrating , and usually found opening's, and Ched Evans had gone from cutting a solitary, dejected figure ploughing a lone furrow up front in a role unsuited to his strengths, to a player brimming in confidence, who if he got a chance you knew he would be odds on to score, and if he didn't then he would score with the next chance.

We suffered a defeat at Charlton in late Janurary which effectively meant that they was too far away for us to catch, the prolonged patchy form of Sheffield Wednesday meant that we had suddenly developed a gap between ourselves and them, and we looked to be well on our way to promotion with a tremendous backs to wall win at Huddersfield where we went a goal up after 5 minutes, and then spent the remainder of the match keeping them from getting back in to it, the win putting Town out of the reckoning for automatic promotion, and Lee Clark out of the job the following morning.  The following week we registered a regulation 2-1 win against a direct and overtly physical Preston side, but in the course of the Preston match came when Kevin MacDonald pulled up with a calf injury during the first half and was unable to continue and was ruled out for the next few games.

The Derby match at Hillsborough came, and anything other than a win for the home side would have meant that the gap that had started the day at 5 points with 2 games in hand would not be virtually insurmountable. Hillsborough that day was packed for a the biggest derby game in years, and it was a tight, edgy affair in the first half, and Wednesday came out and seized the initiative during the second half where United couldn't handle the physical, robust style of football they played that day. I thought that day that had Kevin MacDonald been fit and played that day, he would have been the player who made us tick, as he had dictated the pace of a lot of games, and had been a joy to behold.

The following couple of games had been somewhat strange. A 2-1 win the following Wednesday being overshadowed by news breaking during the second half of Wednesday sacking United hate figure Gary Megson, and then the following Saturday we had been 2-0 and cruising against a mediocre Oldham side, having lost Neil Collins before the game due to personal issues before also losing Jean-Francois Lescinel to a season ending injury, Matt Lowton to a pointless sending off, then in the dying seconds Harry Maguire also saw red for a last ditch challenge that also cost a penalty, and sealed Oldhams comeback from 2-0 down to a 3-2 win. Losing the back four that had almost picked itself all season, was a huge blow, and this ensued that we hit a short spell of poor results, and the only win in 5 coming from on a sunny day at Brentford.

By the time the Blades faced Notts County, it was now neck and neck with the 5 point gap and 2 games in hand being eroded by Sheffield Wednesday, and it was very much now a case of get a bit of form back and trying to keep up with Wednesday. The performance at Notts Co that night was excellent, as we routed them 5-2, and entered a real purple patch as the goals flew in, and the free-scoring Ched Evans was in the form of his life.

What was to come next was the turn of events that was to shape the season, and to my mind set it chain the events that settled the destiny of our season. After a 5-2 win at Rochdale, the next day there was a court case commencing at Caenarfon crown court, and involved Ched Evans and the rape charge that he had found himself on the previous summer. The following Saturday Ched Evans scored late on, ripped his shirt off in what seemed like a huge release of pressure, and shortly after was substituted to a huge, and prolonged standing ovation. The following Friday came the shock news that Ched Evans had been found guilty and sentenced to 5 years imprisonment. This cast a huge shadow over the rest of the season, as it divided fans, some of whom believed he was innocent, some believed he was bang to rights, but the next day we had a huge game at MK Dons, where we turned in a subdued, disjointed performance, and in injury time at 1-0 down, James Beattie failed to score from 2 yards out whilst at Hillsborough, Wednesday scored a dramatic winner at approximately the same time Beattie was failing to score. This meant that both clubs went in to the last games of the season neck and neck on points, with United having the superior goal difference.

The last two games, saw two more disjointed performances, as we found ourselves two down at home to Stevenage in a fixture we needed to win, as Wednesday had chalked up three more points earlier in the day, and although we gamely fought back to gain a 2-2 draw, it quite simply wasn't enough on a cold and wet day at Bramall Lane. The following weekend we was at Exeter, and was relying on a win, and Wednesday failing to win, and on a drizzly day in the South West, it wasn't to be.

This took us through to the play offs. After the alarming events of the previous three weeks, and the heartbreaking end of season collapse, coupled with our abysmal record in the play-offs, there was a definite air of pessimism around Bramall Lane, and although we edged through in two tense, scrappy games against Stevenage, we went to Wembley, some hopeful, but the majority not expecting much and travelling in the vain hope that our cruel luck would change. The game was dire, both sides creating very little during a sweltering hot day at Wembley, it would eventually come down to a penalty shoot out, and the 22nd penalty was the decisive one, and was the penalty Steve Simonsen blazed over the bar.

I think this season was a mixed season, there was a lot of big positives. Danny Wilson performing extremely well under the circumstances and made United a pleasure to watch. We saw two players who had not got off to the best of starts in their United careers in Neil Collins and Michael Doyle becoming key players, and probably the most reliable performers we had, we also saw the progress of Matthew Lowton and Harry Maguire (Maguire who excelled and looked like an experienced Centre-Half and playing an almost unheard of 50+ games at the tender age of 18), the one player who was the talisman, the player we turned to, and the man who we relied upon, and who delivered was Ched Evans, and i think the events at Caernarfon Crown Court did shape our destiny this season.

The biggest plus point of this season is that for the first time in a few seasons, we had a team who you wanted to watch, a team who played really attractive football, who gave value for money, and more crucially the fans got behind, and we a lot of previously disenchanted United regulars, began to enjoy their football again. In a way last season it was like United had started treading the road to redemption. People began enjoying their football again, and although it was a huge blow getting relegated to League 1, i really did find it a division where i enjoyed my football, and particularly travelled as a part of a loud and vocal away travelling support. Quite simply the biggest disappointment that despite all the good football, and enjoyment that i got out of it, there sadly wasn't a way that we could get the prize of promotion that looked to be our for quite a while, and as a even sadder postscript is that with the state of the finances at the club, and the new financial fair play rules, that we will in all probability see a different side next season as this one breaks up.

Still i will be back next season, and maybe, just maybe it will be our year, but how many times has that been said before?