FOREST AWAY: Sheffield United, Saturday 4th May – Fan Guide
There are many happy memories from May 2022. For reasons that are understandable, the trip to Bramall Lane often gets pushed
down the conversation behind Samba’s penalty exploits and Wembley, but what a day it was. There was nagging feeling of dread that Sheffield United had managed to snatch a late goal but mainly the memories are of a blissful, warm day and wondering what lay in store for us. We never could have imagined.
Two years on, we return to Sheffield in troubling circumstances, but the aim is the same; to be a Premier League club next season. The City game brought some hope, but it is clear that we cannot afford a half-hearted showing at Bramall Lane. Appeals over point deductions and tweets about the conduct of referees might create a nice diversion, but we remain in urgent need of points, not excuses.
Saturday offers a chance to put ourselves in the driving seat for survival. We can be assured that there will be strong feelings from within the opposition about dragging us down with them, our objective is to resist and return to Nottingham with three points. There is a real danger that anything else might end up not being good enough.
TRAVEL
TRAINS: East Midlands Railways have football special services in operation on Saturday and have provided us with the following statement:
I can confirm that EMR will provide extra train services for the Nottingham Forest away fixture at Sheffield Utd on Saturday 4th May.
These pre and post-match services will be dedicated to those Forest supporters traveling direct to and from Sheffield ONLY (no intermediate stops).
Phase 1 – The pre-match train will operate as a 4-car service and depart Nottingham at 10:38 arriving Sheffield on platform 5A at 11:25.
Phase 3 – This post match train will again operate as a 4-car service and depart Sheffield at 18:20 from platform 7 and arrive into Nottingham at 19:08.
All other timetable services will operate as normal with EMR protecting a 4-car services throughout the day.
Northern are looking to see if they are able to strengthen their first post match service from Sheffield to provide further capacity.
Remember that if travelling in groups of 3 or 4 you can often get a group saver on the EMR services which will save a third off the price. A standard return is £14.20 from Nottingham. Services are very regular and generally take around 50-55 minutes.
Bramall Lane is about a 20-minute walk heading left out the station.
ROAD: Driving close to the ground, as a our Sheffield United fan below suggests, can be a hard work. If you want to find street parking then best to head past the ground (away from the city) and take a chance a fair way out. An alternative suggestion is to use Meadowhall and jump on a train or tram into Sheffield Station.
PUBS
To begin with, a comment from PC Chapman, Dedicated Football Officer for Sheffield United:
I would like to make yourselves aware that within Sheffield on this day we have a number of events ongoing inclusive of Bank Holiday Weekend Revellers, a ‘Fake Festival’ and also the World Snooker Championships at the Crucible so Sheffield City Centre will be very, very busy.
The usual away venues will be available to yourselves however, some venues may be enforcing a ‘No Football Policy’ and reserving their venues for the ‘Snooker Crowd’. We have had no venues specifically state this however, it is expected.
We will endeavour to assist away supporters accessing and egressing the event wherever possible and make your experience as pleasurable an experience as we can. (No guarantee on the results).
The ‘usual away venues’ are typically the Howard and The Globe which are pretty much next to each other and directly across from Sheffield Station. The Graduate, a little bit further up, usually also serves as an away pub but this is very close to the Crucible and could therefore be one of the venues that are catering for the snooker. The Head of Steam which is next door to the Crucible may be another one that does, although we aren’t sure.
As ever, the best advice (in my opinion) is to carry on further up into town and find the various pubs and bars up past the Town Hall and around West Street. The Frog & Parrot and the Great Gatsby are particular favourites but there are many great places to try. Just make sure you give yourselves a good 25 mins to get to the ground from up this way.
Q&A with Hal Stewart of the Sheffield United Way
Sheffield United’s relegation was confirmed last weekend. Is it possible to briefly surmise what went wrong this season?
No, loads went wrong, we started off the season with a worse first eleven than the one that finished the Championship season, never a good idea and a recipe for disaster. Choose who you blame depending on your point of view but I feel it was a collective rather than just one person who should feel the brunt of the clubs poor performance on the pitch this season.
It has not been enjoyable.
How can you see Saturday going against Forest – pressure off and a good fighting performance, or season over and a lack of fight?
Pressure off, Blades fans will be out in good numbers, and some will want to see Forest lose in the hope that it will eventually see them relegated. I personally don’t care either way. I only care about United and what we do on the pitch.
Our season is over and now it’s all about planning for next. I’d like to see some more of our promising youngsters get a taste of first team action.
You’ve been up and down a couple of times now in the last few years and the Championship has shown this season that the relegated teams are very strong. Are Sheffield United going to be in a promotion race this time next year do you think?
Far too early to tell, we need to rebuild in so many key areas, we don’t know who stays and who goes, we could be a force or we could be looking over our shoulders at the bottom of the table in the Championship. We might be as bad as them from S6…but I doubt it.
I’d be interested to hear about how you rate the ex Forest players in your team. Osborn, Robinson and Brereton. Would you like all of them around next season?
I’d like all of them around. Osborn divides the fans but I’m a big fan. I started the big fan ‘fanclub’ for Robinson when he was really coming in for some stick and thankfully he’s turned it around and it now our best defender.
Brereton Diaz has looked like a really good loan. He’s obviously got a point to prove and he’s proving it, he is definitely good enough for the top flight and I hope he gets his chance to play a full season in the Premier League if we can’t re-sign him (which I doubt we can).
It’s been five years since the last Sheffield derby. Are you hoping they might still go down or would you prefer to get that fixture back next season?
I hope they go down, and down again. I don’t enjoy Sheffield derbies, I’ve been to too many that have not always been in our favour, I don’t like seeing the Owls fans celebrate another 0-0 win against us.
Are you looking forward to not having VAR at games in 2024-25?
If they don’t bring in VAR, as some keep suggesting they will, then yes, I am looking forward to it. I’ve taken to watching leagues without it like in Sweden as I hate VAR and so much of modern football. I’m attending more lower league games (in a variety of countries) to get the feel of what I consider ‘real football’ back. The sooner they scrap VAR (as it currently is) the better. It could work but personally I don’t care about ‘could’, football wasn’t broken before it came in.
Do you have any suggestions for Forest fans coming up in the car on Saturday? Is parking around the ground possible?
Parking is always a nightmare at the Lane, if you want it to be safe, don’t mind how much it costs and like a walk, then park at the train station or just get the train.
Finally – which two team are joining Sheffield United in the Championship?
Burnley 100% and Luton. The Premier League is too tough now, even if you’ve got a lot of money!
Thanks to Hal for his insight.
See you in Sheffield.
You Reds
Matt