Sheffield United fans need clarity over play-off final arrangements as Wembley travel chaos beckons

We know the date, and we know the venue. This evening, when Coventry City and Sunderland do battle, we’ll know the opponents. But as things stand, the morning after the night before when Sheffield United booked their place in the play-off final later this month in emphatic fashion, Blades fans have no idea what time the kick-off time will be for May 24’s showpiece event.

As recently as yesterday, the EFL were still in discussions with “relevant stakeholders” about when the final will begin but the later that decision is taken, then the more expensive it will be for fans of the Blades - and either the Black Cats or Sky Blues - to travel to the capital. To add to the uncertainty, there are no direct trains from Sheffield to London on the day of the final.

The last train back from the capital to Sheffield goes via Doncaster and leaves King’s Cross at 8.30pm - which would be cutting it very fine if the game started at, say, 5.30pm and went to extra time or even penalties. As of this morning, May 13, there were no standard seats left on that service, with only a first class seat - at £232.60 - available on Trainline.

The earliest available standard service at the minute leaves London even earlier, at 8.03pm, with limited availability. With King’s Cross around a 20-minute Tube ride from Wembley, which can be notoriously difficult to navigate through large crowds, it wouldn’t leave a great deal of time for Unitedites to get back north if the game kicked off in the late afternoon.

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The situation adds an extra layer of difficulty for Unitedites as they hope to experience a first play-off success in the club’s modern era, with failure in their previous nine attempts going back to a relegation play-off - ironically against Bristol City - in 1988/89 when Chris Wilder was still a United player.

“They are the main people that are going to be at the game,” said boss Wilder of his side’s fans after they watched their side overcome City 6-0 on aggregate to book their Wembley spot. “There’s no game if there are no punters. So, of course, we’d welcome clarity from all aspects.

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“They’ve backed us right through the season, and I don’t feel there’s a negativity because of our previous [play-off] campaigns. It feels like there’s a freshness about it, a real belief that we can make history and put to bed all the other things that have gone on previously.

“I’ve witnessed the majority of them as well, but we’ve been on that journey going back to six years in League One. I don’t think anybody thought we’d get out of League One in our first season, but we did that.

“We’ve done some good things. We’ve had to suffer in other things, but I reference Newcastle all the time regarding that. The Geordies turned up at Wembley and got the job done. There are great examples of that, just as many examples as there are of the negative parts of it.”