Sheffield United fans encouraged to support atmosphere campaign as Sunderland set standard ahead of Wembley

The crowd may have fallen short of the full house that boss Chris Wilder had hoped for but those Sheffield United fans who did turn up for the second leg of their play-off semi-final against Bristol City earlier this week made it an occasion that few present will forget in a hurry. United repeated their first-leg 3-0 scoreline to book their place at Wembley later this month.

And they did so against a backdrop of a cauldron of noise, with the atmosphere right up there with some of the most hostile evenings at Bramall Lane in recent memory. There was also a stunning moment in the second half when it seemed like every Unitedite in the stadium was on their feet, for an extra emotional rendition of George Baldock’s ‘Starman’ song.

Pre-match, a brilliant red and white card display on the John Street stand, flags waving in the family corner and a tifo-style banner on the Kop helped set off the atmosphere, with the hope that such support will now continue at Wembley on May 24 when the Blades take on Sunderland for a place in the Premier League.

And going forward, too, with fan Lee Eccles founding the SB-89 movement and working with club officials to improve and maintain the atmosphere levels inside Bramall Lane on matchdays. As part of the next step, a GoFundMe has been launched to help with the future cost of flags, banners and more tifo displays, which originated in Italy and are growing in popularity in England.

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Sunderland’s giant ‘Til the End’ tifo at the Stadium of Light on Tuesday evening certainly made an impression - as well as proving prophetic when Dan Ballard scored the goal that took them to Wembley in the third minute of extra-time stoppage time - and it could be some atmosphere on the 24th as the two red-and-white sides do battle for a Premier League place.

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“As you are all aware, we are trying to raise funds to buy materials to enable us to enhance the atmopshere at Bramall Lane,” the GoFundMe appeal reads. “We plan to improve on what we acheived at the Bristol City game, but we need your help to do so. We plan to buy flags, banners, tifo and much more. Please help us.”

The appeal has a target of £700 and has achieved two-thirds of that goal already, at the time of writing. To support it, visit https://www.gofundme.com/f/raise-money-for-match-day-displays.