However you try and dress up the stats of previous encounters against the Blades we do not have a good record against them. Whether you go back to our encounters of the 60's and 70's, the period when they became our bogey team with Bassett in charge or the last 10 or so matches it doesn't make happy reading. Only around the Millennium did we seem to regularly beat them.
Of 39 competitive games we've won just 9, drawn 12 and lost 18. We've scored 41 goals against them but conceded 56. Our biggest win was the 5-0 FA Cup Third Round thrashing at Vicarage Road in 1985 in which Luther scored four. The biggest defeat was a 4-0 away Second Round Second Leg League Cup loss in 1997 which saw us go down 5-1 on aggregate, however we were in the division below them then.
At Bramall Lane, in 19 encounters, we have won just 4 times, drawing 7 and losing 8. Our biggest win there was the televised 4-1 victory under Aidy in the season we went up. Heidar Helgusson has done the best of any Watford striker up there scoring three times in three games.
Last season we went down 2-1 at Bramall Lane, Gary Speed scoring in the first minute. JJOT equalised in the second half but James Beattie won the game for United ten minutes later. The home game was probably the lowest point of Judas' short Watford career as we were completely outplayed and lost 2-0 to goals from, who else but Darius and Danny Webber.
Webber's contract ran out at the end of the season and, surprisingly, he is currently unattached. I wonder if he fancies coming back to the Vic? Darius was out injured for the whole of pre-season but played the full 90 minutes of last Friday's game at Middlesborough and looked as dangerous as ever. Lee Williamson is out for two months with a back problem, whilst the other old-'Orn at the Blades, Lee Bromby was on the bench against 'Boro but played in Tuesdays 2-1 Cup loss to Port Vale.
Although some hope can be drawn from the fact they lost to a League Two side at home they did make five changes including playing journeyman goalkeeper Ian Bennett whose howler handed Vale victory. I doubt he'll be between the sticks tomorrow, with Mark Bunn, currently on loan from Blackburn, replacing him. If you're wondering what's happened to the usual permanent goalkeeping fixture in their side, Paddy Kenny, he has been suspended by the Blades after failing a drugs test following their Playoff Semi Final against Preston. However, its for nothing more exciting than something found in some cough medicine.
