Humble hero Ben Mee relishing Sheffield United challenge as popular defender makes Premier League admission
Ben Mee relishing Sheffield United challenge as popular defender makes Premier League admission
As Chris Wilder shoved him towards the travelling Sheffield United fans to soak up their deserved acclaim after he helped the Blades to a season-first victory at Oxford United on Saturday, Ben Mee jokingly stooped over and held his back in mock ache. The former Burnley and Brentford man may be 36, but he rolled back the years on his debut at the Kassam.
Rarely has a player made such an instant impression on the United fanbase, who greeted his every touch of the ball - even the ones that were shanked out of play in a rare sign of ring-rust - with a guttural roar of the player’s surname. It was attention that the humble defender didn’t court, but still appreciated.
“It was nice, obviously, to get that,” he smiled. “I felt a bit rusty at times, and things will get better for me I’m sure. It was nice to get a little reception from the fans, obviously, but I don't like the attention too much.
“I thought the boys were fantastic. I think everyone deserved a good round of applause. Hopefully that’s something to build on and we could reward them. They're a fantastic bunch of fans. I've experienced being at Bramall Lane as an opposition player and I’ve seen how they travel as well.
“Hopefully I can put in some good performances and please them, please the manager and the players I’m playing with as well. Hopefully, we'll all get a good relationship going.”
Mee is a player who has been down the stretch before countless times, winning promotion to the Premier League with Burnley and then spending the majority of his career at top-flight level. He slotted pretty seamlessly into the left of United’s new-look back three, using every ounce of his experience to help the younger players around him keep Oxford at bay.
Ben Mee relishing Sheffield United challenge as popular defender makes Premier League admission
“We’ve got a really good group,” he added. “They've been on a tough run, and you can tell a little bit in the play. It was a little bit erratic at times and lacked a little bit of composure, but in the second half we showed that little bit of composure and we can build on that.
“Who knows what we can do? But there's some good players in this group. I've seen them in the five weeks or so that I've been here. Some really good players. I've played against some of them as well and seen them in and around it. It's a new group. We're going to gel together, and we'll build on it.”
Victory at the Kassam, after what has gone before this season, showed that United still have some steel about them as well. “You saw that today,” Mee agreed. “It’s a tough place to come. They peppered us a little bit, with long balls and balls in the box. There's a little bit of grit there, which is good to see.
“This was a club that I wanted to come to. It’s been a long journey for me, leading to this point to get my first start. I offered to come and train here. I thought if someone sees me training and playing, and sees my fitness...
“Sometimes people look at your age and write you off a little bit, so I wanted them to see me. I think they were impressed with how I kept myself going. Obviously, match fitness is completely different. I played a game in the under-21s but it's not the same really. I'm really pleased to get through 90 today, and hopefully I'll build on that.”
After the career he has enjoyed it may seem too simplistic to suggest that Mee has a point to prove to anyone but he seems grateful for the opportunity to prolong his career at a club like United, after signing a one-year deal earlier in the summer with an option to extend going forward.
“There's certainly a fire there for me,” he said. “There's always a point to prove for me. There's always something you need to prove. Each season, there's something you want to prove. You can still prove you can do it, that you're a good player. You still want to be out there playing. It's all there for me.
“I still want to prove a point in some way or another. I want to be out there, I want to play and still achieve things. This is a proud club and they've had some good times recently. The club had a disappointment last season, but we want to take it back to where we believe we can go and the club should be.
“The relationship between us and the fans is massive and the boys know that. We're all fighting for each other. We're a new group, we're growing closer together and we're getting togetherness. The manager has certainly helped with that as well, bringing the club together.
“It's been great. It's been a good couple of weeks. It's nice to get the win at the end of a couple of weeks and we've got a big couple of games coming up. Hopefully we can keep that going towards the international break.”