Our last victory over Sheffield United inside 90 minutes came in September 2000, with a squad whose subsequent careers took them everywhere from local non-league football to Chelsea’s coaching staff.
I know we beat them on penalties in 2022, but I’m talking about a good, honest 90-minute win. The circumstances were hardly those of a famous cup upset. Phil Stant’s side had been beaten 6-1 at Bramall Lane in the first leg of their Worthington Cup tie, despite Paul Smith heading us into an early lead from a Justin Walker corner. Marcus Bent scored a hat-trick, Paul Devlin scored once and helped create three more, and a Grant Brown own goal contributed to an evening that left the return fixture looking little more than a formality.
However, we did restore some pride at Sincil Bank on 5 September, beating Neil Warnock’s First Division side 1-0 in front of just 1,379 supporters. Dave Cameron hit the angle of post and bar with a header, while Tony Battersby headed narrowly wide from a John Finnigan cross before Marcus Stergiopoulos settled the game in the second half. The Australian cut inside Andy Woodward and fired a right-footed shot into the bottom corner, giving us the win on the night even though United progressed 6-2 on aggregate.
Stant was still in the early months of his managerial spell, with Alan Buckley and then Keith Alexander yet to take charge. Some of the players involved would become familiar faces during our play-off years, while others departed as financial problems forced the club to cut costs in 2002.
More than 26 years later, here is what happened to the starting XI and the five substitutes from that evening.
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