Meningitis, funerals, world war bombs: Sheffield United's most extraordinary games that never happened after Oxford United postponement
Meningitis, funerals, world war bombs: Sheffield United's most extraordinary games that never happened after Oxford United postponement
The postponement of Sheffield United’s Championship clash with Oxford United this afternoon may be one of the latest decisions made in recent history, in terms of its proximity to kick-off, but it is by no means the most bizarre.
United, after all, are a club that has seen their games postponed because of a royal funeral, meningitis and even an unexploded World War Two bomb. United’s hopes of a third successive win were scuppered with a 10am announcement that their Sunday noon meeting with Oxford would not go ahead.
A Blades statement confirmed that the referee, slated as Dean Whitestone according to the EFL, was “called in at the earliest possible opportunity to assess the playing surface” after a frozen area was identified as a potential issue.
The referee deemed the issue to be a player safety concern and called the game off, with many of Oxford’s fans and their staff and players already in Sheffield. The Blades insist that the undersoil heating at Bramall Lane was used.
United v Oxford was not the only Championship game to fall victim to the weather, with Portsmouth’s home clash with Ipswich Town also postponed, while a host of games in League One and League Two were also called off.
But no other games, to our knowledge, have been called off because of an unexploded bomb from the Second World War, with other United matches also not kicking off on their original date or time because of the coronavirus pandemic and the Queen’s husband Prince Philip’s funeral.
Meningitis, funerals, world war bombs: Sheffield United's most extraordinary games that never happened after Oxford United postponement
United’s game against Rotherham United in 2022 was postponed as a mark of respect after the death of Queen Elizabeth while, back in 1999, a United away trip to QPR was postponed after Rangers defender George Kulczar was diagnosed with meningitis and rushed to intensive care.
A number of his teammates displayed similar symptoms, forcing their game against United to be rearranged for the end of November. When the Blades eventually made the trip to Loftus Road, they lost 3-1.
More than a decade earlier in 1985, striker Keith Edwards was a member of the United squad that was informed their game against Oldham Athletic would not go ahead – not because of the weather, but because an unexploded bomb left over from The Blitz had been discovered just 24 hours before kick off.
The discovery of the 2,200lb ‘Herman’ bomb, which had been dropped on Sheffield 44 years earlier, on Lancing Road saw local residents evacuated for their own safety - apart from one. Leung Ho watched the bomb disposal team at work from his house, 50 yards away.
The delicate process of making the bomb safe took 36 hours, with the team working in pairs in a trench dug alongside it. United and Oldham returned to Bramall Lane a few days later, with no threat of being blown up, and the Blades won 2-0.
“You got used to matches being called off for all sorts of reasons,” Edwards, the legendary former Blades striker, said during the Covid-19 pandemic. “But that wasn’t one of them.”
“When you think of what people were going through back then, what it must have been like, it puts everything we’re going through now with Covid into a bit of perspective, doesn’t it?
“I know it’s been really tough for lots of people out there and tragic for some too. But I can’t even begin to imagine what that must have been like, having bombs dropping on you out of the sky.
“The people who made the bomb safe obviously did a brilliant job, and it’s not one I’d fancy doing. It does make you think that, as footballers even in our day and age, we didn’t have too bad, did we?”
Some years later, the Blades’ Premier League clash with Wolves was postponed to a 8.15pm kick-off to avoid clashing with the funeral of Prince Philip, while United’s pre-season game at Dundee United in the summer of 2020 was abandoned at half-time after the rain of Storm Francis made the pitch unplayable and saw the game become farcical.
Back in 2014 a Boxing Day game at home to Scunthorpe United fell victim to the weather after heavy snowfall. The pitch at Bramall Lane would have been fine but referee Mark Heywood was concerned about fan safety on the roads and pavements around the ground and called it off, insisting: “Common sense has to prevail and it simply isn't safe."
In more recent times United had to consider calling off a game after receiving a bomb threat, which was later determined to be a hoax, and an abandoned game against West Bromwich Albion in 2022 went down in infamy.
Later dubbed ‘The Battle of Bramall Lane’ in the media, the game saw United have three men sent off before it was abandoned with United down to seven players following an injury. More recently, a number of United games were postponed due to an outbreak of Covid-19 among the opposing team’s squads.