Sheffield United "stuffing" title-chasing Wednesday revisited as Leeds United loanee writes name in folklore

The return of the Steel City derby is only days away now and as excitement begins to build, supporters on both sides will inevitably cast their minds back to glory battles of yesteryear between the two Sheffield rivals. One of the most memorable came back in 1992, when Sheffield United sealed a shock double over title-chasing Wednesday - with a big helping hand from a player who had signed only days earlier.

In this exclusive adapted extract from Bassett’s Blades, the new United book by The Star’s Blades writer Danny Hall and fellow journalist Nathan Hemmingham, Bobby Davison remembers his iconic derby debut in S6 which saw his name written in Bramall Lane folklore forever more. Bassett’s Blades is available now, published by Vertical Editions, RRP £16.99.

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Dave Bassett prepared his Sheffield United players for the upcoming clash with Wednesday with one of his beloved bonding trips, this time north of the border to Scotland. It was an idea very much of its time, sending your players on a boozy jaunt just days before a local derby, but it was also smart, ensuring his players escaped the pressure and talk of facing Wednesday by staying in a city that would be dominated by talk of one thing. “He used to love a little two or three-day jaunt,” defender Kevin Gage said. “It was just a p*** up, basically. We went out for two days and I was just drinking.” One of Bassett’s other ideas was to send his players to Hillsborough to watch Wednesday in action, and sample the atmosphere they were going to be walking into. It wasn’t his best idea. “We nearly got beat up by a load of Wednesday supporters,” remembered midfielder John Gannon.

Rogers, freshly plucked from relative non-league obscurity with Sutton United to become a First Division footballer, was not alone in sampling the fervour of a Sheffield derby for the first time, with Bassett signing Alan Cork from Wimbledon on a free transfer – Cork subsequently becoming the first player to play in all four English professional leagues for the same manager – and bringing in Bobby Davison on loan from Leeds.

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Used to the disciplinarian methods of Howard Wilkinson at Elland Road, life under Wilkinson’s big pal Bassett would be very different for Davison, who was given the option of joining the United party in Scotland or remaining in Yorkshire ahead of the derby against Wednesday. He chose the latter, meaning he only linked up with his new teammates in training on the eve of the midweek trip. As a packed team coach featuring squad players and even apprentices weaved its way from Bramall Lane to Hillsborough, Davison already knew what was expected of him.

“When I first turned professional,” Davison said, “my manager said to me: ‘If you turned up at Sheffield United and you had only 10 players, and you had to pluck a supporter out of that crowd, what would that supporter do? He or she would run until they dropped. And if you do that as a footballer, you’ll have more good games than bad games.’ And that stuck with me. So wherever I played, that’s what I tried to do.

Click here to watch our Steel City derby preview ahead of Sunday’s game

“On the bus going to the stadium, it was a nightmare. The dressing room was just as bad. At Leeds, with Howard, we didn’t really have any music on and it was only the team that was starting and the subs that were allowed in the dressing room. An hour before the game, that was when the other lads could come in and wish you all the best. It was the opposite that night. Everyone was there.

“All the players who travelled on the bus, ones who weren’t in the squad or picked to play were in the dressing room. The music was absolutely blaring. I wasn’t used to it. I was just like: ‘Where is my number, where is my shirt?’ I was getting changed and sat there, just trying to switch off. Oh god, it was just totally different. The boys were shouting and bawling, and I just wanted to get out on the pitch and start the game.”

The Blades were looking to secure a historic derby double over Wednesday but just like the first encounter at Bramall Lane, the Owls – third in the table and out for revenge after the November beating – were huge favourites. Boyhood Blade Dane Whitehouse, though, set United on their way with the opening goal in a derby once again, after doing his homework on Owls right-back Roland Nilsson during their scouring mission, before Davison sent the away end into raptures when he pounced on Carl Bradshaw’s ball and benefited from uncertainty from Chris Woods to slot home for 2-0.

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Wednesday threatened a comeback in the second half, with a deflected effort from Phil King, before Davison marked one of the best-ever debuts in a United shirt by glancing home John Gannon’s ball to put the result beyond doubt. Wednesday would be in the hunt for the title until the final stages that season – and how they could have done with those six points to help them. “I have supported United all my life and I’ve put a couple of goals in,” Whitehouse said at the time. “Six points … they could have won the league, but we stuffed them!”

Davison rightly joined Whitehouse in Blades folklore that night for his memorable double – a debut that still gets talked about to this day. “That dressing room after the match was just crazy,” he added. “I just wanted to get a shower. I was just thinking: ‘Just let me get a shower, get changed and go,’ because that’s the way I am. ‘The job’s done, let me get out of here. Let me go home and just sit and relax.’ But the boys were buzzing. It was unbelievable, wasn’t it? If you wrote it, people would say that doesn’t happen. Loads of players have gone on and scored in those derby games but every time I bump into a Sheffield United fan they remember. I bumped into one in Disney World in Florida with the kids. Great memories.”

Before the game United heard that Wednesday’s players were taking bets on how many goals they would score against the Blades and to this day, midfielder Jamie Hoyland is still unsure if it was another psychological ploy from Bassett to further rev up his players. “They were really quiet before the game, and even quieter after,” he added. “In those days you always went up to the players’ bar after and had a quick pint.

“We made sure every one of us went up on this one just to rub their noses in it. It was a Wednesday night so it couldn’t be too much of a big one because we had a game on the Saturday. But if that was a Saturday game, we would have been out that night and Sunday. ‘And we’ll see you on Tuesday, Harry!’

“They had a swagger and a few players who had a bit about themselves, but we just knew that physically they had to match us. It doesn’t matter how good you are – we knew that, if they weren’t physically competitive and weren’t going to match our endeavour, then they were going to struggle. On top of that we got some good goals. We always knew that we could beat anybody at any time. They were probably more nervous than we were. We were confident and it showed in the performance. It was a great night, and one that I will never forget.”