Are these Sheffield United's most devoted fans? Blades-mad couple make 500-mile round trip from Devon for every home game

Chris and Doug Burt are season ticket holders at Bramall Lane, despite living some 250 miles away in the south west, in a village near Honiton, Devon. They have missed just one game this season, due to illness, and have racked up more than 11,000 miles travelling to see the Blades in Sheffield and elsewhere in the country.

Chris, a 64-year-old educational consultant for further education, was taken to her first Blades game by her ex-husband, who is a fan, when she lived in Chesterfield and worked at Chesterfield College in the 1980s. She became a season ticket holder but after they separated she moved to the south west, where she is originally from, in 1998, and met Doug, a 57-year-old engineer.

She ‘introduced him to the delights of being a Sheffield United supporter’. He got the bug when he went to his first game at Bramall Lane and, in his words, has been ‘suffering ever since’. They have been season ticket holders now for 10 years and have hardly missed a home game in that time, regularly making the long round trip, which Doug says is 502 miles to be precise, by car, and often not making it home until the small hours.

Chris and Doug are looking forward to watching the Blades in the Premier League again next season but admit there have been some dark times over the last decade. “It was grim when we were travelling all that way to watch them get beaten by some League One team with a few hundred followers,” said Chris. “But when Chris Wilder came in he gave the club back to the fans and it’s been a different atmosphere since, which has continued under Paul Heckingbottom.”

Chris says they have covered more than 11,000 miles following the Blades this season and she is not aware of any fans who have travelled further. Although they both love Sheffield, they say, their lives are in Devon, though if they had the money they would buy a flat in the Steel City.

Chris’ stepson from her previous marriage, Mike, who lives in Leeds, is also a season ticket holder, as is his son Finlay, aged seven. She says it is a big bonus that she gets to see her step-grandson every time they watch the Blades at Bramall Lane.

Chris described the atmosphere last Wednesday, when Sheffield United sealed promotion with victory at home to West Brom, as ‘just awesome’, while Saturday’s final home match of the season was ‘party time’ and she said it had been lovely to see Billy Sharp lead the team out.

Looking ahead to next season, she says the club’s fortunes in the top flight will depend on what happens with the takeover and whether they can keep their best players, especially Iliman Ndiaye. She believes having a packed stadium cheering them on again at home, unlike in their last season in the Premier League, when matches were played behind closed doors due to Covid, will be key to them staying up.