The Battle of Bramall Lane: Sheffield United vs West Bromwich Albion

Matt Gibbs Updated: 24 Mar 26 10:18

We take a look back at the infamous Battle of Bramall Lane as Sheffield United went head-to-head with West Bromwich Albion in March 2002.

Whenever Sheffield United are due to play West Bromwich Albion, one match sticks in the memory of both sets of supporters.

Back in the 2001/02 season, West Bromwich Albion were chasing promotion from Division One, now the Championship, when they travelled to Bramall Lane to take on mid-table Sheffield United.

What followed was one of the most incredible and bizarre football matches ever seen in the English game.

The match between Sheffield United and West Brom on Saturday 16th March 2002 remains the only match in English professional football history to have been abandoned due to a shortage of players.

Here is the remarkable story of the Battle of Bramall Lane...

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The two managers

Neil Warnock

In the red and white corner for the visit of the Baggies was the controversial figure of Neil Warnock.

Nowadays, as well as being a successful manager, Warnock has become a popular figure up and down the country. A loveable rogue if you like.

We've laughed at old footage of his antics in the dressing room, his comical appearances on Soccer Saturday and his decision to stand in the centre circle simply shaking his head at match officials after a defeat during his time as Cardiff City manager.

We've also seen him walk down a camera lens in the worst possible impression of Richard Ashcroft's street walk for the Bittersweet Symphony music video.

It was an impression worse than the one that Andy Johnson left on Georges Santos the last time the two midfielders had come up against each other. More of that to come.

But back in the early 2000s, Warnock was the manager who opposing fans loved to hate. He was also a handful on the touchline for referees and fourth officials.

On a spring afternoon in 2002, it was a fellow manager who would be left with a less than popular view of Warnock.

Gary Megson

Former Norwich City, Blackpool, Stockport County and Stoke City manager Gary Megson was in the other corner.

Megson played for the Blades' bitter rivals Sheffield Wednesday during the 1980s, making 275 appearances for the Owls across two separate spells at the club.

After leaving Stoke in 1999 following the Icelandic takeover of the club, Sheffield United approached Megson and offered him the role as manager following Adrian Heath's brief spell in charge.

After a meeting with chairmen Derek Dooley and Bernard Procter, Megson turned the job down. He mentioned his affinity towards Sheffield Wednesday and the job was instead given to Warnock. It was quite the precursor for what was to follow.

Megson was a pragmatic manager who had excelled at various clubs before joining the Baggies. He was hell-bent on leading the club into the Premier League and his team were certainly up for a battle in March 2002.

The build-up

There were eight matches of the season remaining. Sheffield United had very little to play for, with the club in 15th place and safe from relegation.

For West Brom, it was a massive afternoon.

The Baggies sat third in the First Division and trailed Black Country rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers by 11 points.

Megson was building a solid team at The Hawthorns and it was built on a strong defence that would end up keeping a club-record 27 clean sheets by the end of the season.

Amidst all the talk of promotion, there was a sub-plot developing in the background.

Sheffield United had played Nottingham Forest twelve months earlier and Andy Johnson, now at West Brom, was playing for Forest at the time.

An incident between Johnson and Blades midfielder Georges Santos had resulted in Santos suffering a double fracture of his eye and both Warnock and Santos were not happy that no action was taken against Johnson.

Johnson has since claimed on the Under The Cosh podcast that Warnock knew exactly what he was doing by giving Santos the opportunity to exact his revenge.

"Warnock pulled Georges on the Wednesday and said 'Look, I'm not playing you, I'm releasing you at the end of the season but I'll put you on the bench and I'll give you enough time to go on and do him."

"Robert Ullathorne was there, he was the left-back and me and Rob are friends because we were at Norwich together and he told me."

Whether Warnock had said that remains a mystery, but the intentions of Santos were pretty clear when he came off the bench.

Early sending off and the calm before the storm

The game started with West Brom looking to force the issue as they looked for three vital points to boost their promotion bid.

The Baggies were on the attack in the ninth minute when Sheffield United goalkeeper Simon Tracey handled the ball outside the area as he attempted to thwart Scott Dobie's run into the box.

It was a straight-forward decision for referee Eddie Wolstenholme and Tracey was shown a red card.

With United down to ten men early on, Warnock sacrificed striker Peter Ndlovu to bring on substitute goalkeeper Wilko De Vogt.

The visitors took the lead nine minutes later when Scott Dobie headed home Johnson's cross following a neat move on the edge of the Blades' penalty area.

Warnock was spoken to by the referee following a few choice words on the touchline but there was no indication of what was to come in the second half.

The Baggies went into the interval with a one-goal advantage and they were perhaps fortunate to still be in front when Michael Brown's cross was headed wide by a young Phil Jagielka before the interval.

Santos and Suffo see red straight away

The second-half was mayhem.

But before all the drama, there was a moment of quality just after the hour mark when a short corner from Igor Balis was thundered into the top corner first-time by Baggies midfielder Derek McInnes.

Warnock responded by using his two remaining substitutions as Santos and Patrick Suffo came on for Gus Uhlenbeek and Michael Tonge.

The chaos that ensued was almost instantaneous.

A ball from McInnes to Johnson in midfield was left short and Santos lunged at Johnson with two feet off the ground, leaving Johnson in a heap on the floor.

Santos was sent off.

In the melee that followed, fellow substitute Suffo was also shown a red card after headbutting McInnes in front of the referee.

The madness of the situation was bluntly summed up by Megson in his post-match interview on Sky Sports.

Derek McInnes has probably scored the goal of his career and he's now having stitches put into his eye.

"Andy Johnson has been leathered by a substitute who came on and the first thing he did was go over the top," Megson added.

Sheffield United were down to eight men and there was still 25 minutes left.

The abandonment

There were probably two realistic scenarios for the remainder of a game where a team has eight players and is trailing two-nil.

Scenario A: West Brom take their foot off the gas and are happy to take an easy win and move on to their next game.

Scenario B: Sheffield United's eight men are unable to cope with West Brom who run riot by adding more goals.

What nobody expected was Scenario C: The referee refusing to send anyone else off in an attempt to avoid being the answer to a quiz question for all eternity.

Keith Curle somehow stayed on the pitch after appearing to punch and kick McInnes following a challenge shortly after the Santos and Suffo incidents.

Michael Brown, who was on a caution, then escaped the most blatant of second yellow cards when stopping a West Brom counter attack by pulling the shirt of McInnes.

It had become a circus act, but the grand finale was yet to come.

Dobie added his second of the game to make it 3-0 to the Baggies in the 77th minute but the game would end prematurely and farcically minutes later.

Brown limped off the pitch with a groin injury in the 79th minute, before Ullathorne was then unable to continue due to a hamstring problem.

Referee Wolstenholme had no choice despite doing everything in his power to ensure the game continued.

With the hosts down to six players, the game was abandoned after 82 minutes.

The aftermath

Megson was seething after the match as he slammed the 'disgraceful' scenes that had occurred.

"There is no justification for that type of behaviour, I've never seen anything like that," said Megson.

"It was scandalous. As far as I'm concerned, we won that game 3-0.

"They (West Brom's players) were told by certain individuals to go down and come off. I was absolutely infuriated with the stuff that I was hearing.

That result must stand, otherwise the next game that we're 2-0 down I will put three subs on and bring eight off, and we'll play it again.

Megson got his wish and five days later it was announced that the 3-0 win would stand.

Warnock refused to answer the allegations of his players faking injuries to get the game abandoned in his post-match press conference.

"I wouldn't comment on it, because I think they are grasping at straws.

"I think for my lads, I was ever so pleased with the effort they put in. I was disappointed with certain incidents in the game but I don't think it should have ever developed into how it developed.

"I wouldn't imagine Gary will be having a drink with me tonight, but not many managers do."

Both Santos and Suffo paid fines and were handed six-match bans for their red cards and neither played for Sheffield United again.

Curle received a £500 fine and a two-match ban, while Warnock was made to pay a £300 fine for "improper conduct towards the fourth official".

However, there was no evidence found that Warnock or any of the players had made a deliberate attempt to get the match abandoned.

As for West Brom, they went on to win six and draw one of their remaining seven fixtures as they sealed automatic promotion at the expense of their rivals Wolves.

They secured their promotion with a 2-0 victory against Crystal Palace on the final day, but nothing could compare to the drama they experienced on March 16th 2002.

Sheffield United v West Brom line-ups

Sheffield United team

Simon Tracey
Gus Uhlenbeek (Santos 64')
Rob Page
Keith Curle
Robert Ullathorne
Phil Jagielka
Michael Brown
Michael Tonge (Suffo 64')
Laurent D'Jaffo
Peter Ndlovu (De Vogt 9')
Paul Peschisolido

Substitutes: Wilko De Vogt, Jean-Philippe Javary, Georges Santos, Nick Montgomery, Patrick Suffo.

West Brom team

Russell Hoult
Adam Chambers (Taylor 56')
Larus Sigurdsson (Butler 68')
Phil Gilchrist
Darren Moore
Neil Clement
Igor Balis
Andy Johnson (Jordao 71')
Derek McInnes
Scott Dobie
Danny Dichio

Substitutes: Chris Adamson, Tony Butler, Jordao, Ruel Fox, Bob Taylor.