Town host bottom-of-the-table Sheffield United live on Sky on Friday evening looking to bring a number of unwanted records to an end (KO 8pm).

The Blues are still to win this season and are yet to celebrate their first home league victory of 2025.

Town will be looking to end a league home hoodoo which stretches back to the 2-0 victory over Chelsea on 30th December, 11 games ago. Conversely, they are unbeaten in their last 23 Championship games on their own turf.

The Blues are winless in their last 13 matches anywhere and haven’t kept a clean sheet since that Chelsea match, 23 games ago, a new club record and the longest of any side in the EFL.

Town have made a slow start to the season with their squad in a state of flux throughout August and after four matches sit in 20th in the Championship table on three points following three draws and one defeat.

While Blues fans may be frustrated by their opening to the campaign, Sheffield United supporters will be even more concerned by theirs.

The Blades, who finished third in the Championship last season before unluckily losing 2-1 to Sunderland in the play-off final, have made a woeful start to 2025/26 having been beaten in all four of their league games and as a result sit bottom of the table without a point.

They began the campaign with a 4-1 home defeat to Bristol City, then lost 1-0 to Swansea away and then by the same scoreline against Millwall at Bramall Lane.

Prior to the international break, Middlesbrough beat them at the Riverside, again 1-0.

In addition, they were knocked out of the Carabao Cup at the first-round stage by Birmingham City following a 2-1 defeat at St Andrew’s.

As a result, manager Ruben Selles, who only took over in June following Chris Wilder’s departure after the failure to win promotion, has come under early pressure.

Town boss McKenna admits he’s surprised to see the South Yorkshire side at the foot of the table and doesn’t anticipate that lasting too long.

“You would have expected them to have had a few more points on the board, but it’s a really small sample of games,” he said.

“They certainly could have taken points from all their games, which have been tight, apart from the Bristol City game and, truthfully, that was a freak result, really. On another day they could have won the game 3-1 or 4-1 themselves.

“Other than that, the games have been tight, they’ve had a big turnover as well, a change of manager and players.

“It’s a really competitive league and there’s not much between the teams, certainly this season in the way all the teams are fighting at the start of the season.

“I’m sure they’re disappointed not to have had the points. I fully believe that they will not be in that position come, not even the end of the season, but a couple of months’ time. But hopefully we’ll take the points on Friday night.”


Reflecting further on the Blades’ matches, McKenna continued: “I think if you played the four games over 100 times, they’d have points on the board, I’m absolutely certain of that. They’ve had chances.

“The first game [against Bristol City], if you look at the data beneath it, it was a scoreline which was completely out of touch with the chances in the game.

“The next three games have been tight, decided by one goal and they’ve had chances in each of the games.

“The margins are really small but I think if you played the games over again, they’d have some points on the board and I fully expect that they will climb the table, hopefully not this weekend.”

Like Town, the Sheffield United squad underwent significant change throughout the summer with 14 players coming in overall and four on deadline day - Chieo Ogbene on loan from the Blues, Alex Matos from Chelsea, ex-Town centre-half Mark McGuinness from Luton and veteran former Burnley central defender Ben Mee. Earlier recruits included ex-Blues loanees Ben Godfrey and Louie Barry.

Departures included central defender Anel Ahmedhodzic, a player the Blues were interested in last summer before they signed skipper O’Shea, who moved to Feyenoord, midfielder Vini Souza, who joined Wolfsburg, and Jack Robinson who left for Birmingham City on deadline day.

McKenna was asked whether so many of the Blades’ additions coming in so late affected his preparations for Friday’s game.

“There’s always a chance when a team isn’t winning that there will be something changed anyway,” he said.

“For every game, you look at their recent games but when it’s a new manager you look at their history and things they’ve done at different clubs and try and predict what anyone might do in different situations.

“There’s a fair chance that there will be some new players on the pitch, some debutants on the pitch, possibly for both teams.

“We know most of their players really, really well, in fact we know all their players really well. I think we know the coach pretty well and we know the essence of what to expect.

“Other than that, there are always details that can be different, things that can be different from what you planned for, so that’s why it’s always best making sure that you keep a large chunk of your brainpower and your focus and your heart towards your own performance and delivering the very best that we can do.

“And if we do that, then we fully believe we’ll be a really hard team to play against on Friday night and right through the season.”

The Team

McKenna probably won’t stray too far away from the XI which started the 2-2 draw with Derby a fortnight ago with a number of the new signings still settling in, but with one enforced change.

Alex Palmer will be in goal behind a back four of Ashley Young, skipper Dara O’Shea, Jacob Greaves and Leif Davis.

In central midfield, Jens Cajuste again looks set to partner Azor Matusiwa with Marcelino Nunez perhaps making his debut from the bench following his move from Norwich.

McKenna will have to make a change ahead of the double pivot with Conor Chaplin having started against the Rams before joining Portsmouth on loan on deadline day.

Chuba Akpom looks set for a full debut for the Blues with Sammie Szmodics a doubt having withdrawn from Irish duty with a swollen ankle.

Kasey McAteer and Jaden Philogene may again start in the wide roles but with Jack Clarke an alternative option on either side. George Hirst will be the number nine.

Sindre Walle Egeli, at £17.5 million the Championship’s most expensive ever signing, could make his debut from the bench, while Ivan Azon is likely to make his second appearance from the bench for Hirst at some stage.

Opposition

Midfielder Tom Davies has returned to training following a back issue, but won’t be ready for Friday’s match.

Another midfielder, Oliver Arblaster, has suffered a setback as he recovers from an ACL injury.

Following the busy end to the window, Blades boss Selles declared he is pleased with the business his club has done.

“It has been a big turnaround for the club, especially in the last week, having six players in the last seven days and I think it was eight in total in the last 10 days of the window, with some players going out, so we are satisfied with how the window ended,” he said.

“We know the business though, a good transfer window is going to be dictated by what we do from now.

“At the end of the window, there were a couple of situations in the market that we thought were good for the club, we were able to bring some players with experience of the division and above and other young, talented players we want to develop.”

Selles says he’s taking a traditional each-game-as-it-comes approach as he seeks to get his side back towards the right end of the table.

“We need to go step-by-step, I think the squad is capable of going on Friday and trying to beat our next opponent, then we will take it from there,” he added.

“We manage to have a good group of players, now the challenge is to become a team.

“We talked about reinforcing the backline, now we've made a complete restructure in that area.

“[Chieo] Ogbene is an experienced player at this level, [Mark] McGuinness is a well-proved centre-back and I think [Alex] Matos is a different midfielder to what we already have in the building."

Familiar Faces

Blues forward Ogbene is on loan with the Blades for the year but is ineligible against his parent club.

Godfrey, who recently signed for the visitors on loan from Atalanta, was with Town on the same basis from January to May, making four starts and one sub appearance.

Forward Barry, who is also on loan at Bramall Lane, from Aston Villa, had a spell with the Blues in the first half of 2021/22 but made little impression, making only four starts and two sub appearances without scoring.

Central defender McGuinness, who joined Sheffield United from Luton on deadline day, was on loan at Portman Road in 2020/21, making 24 starts and one sub appearance, scoring once.

Town right-back Harry Clarke spent the second half of last season on loan at Bramall Lane making six start before injury curtailed his campaign.

History

The Blues have had the better of the Blades over the years, winning 23 times (22 in the league), drawing 26 (23) and losing 22 (19) of the meetings between the sides.

However, Town have won only two of the clubs’ last 15 matches and only one of the last eight at Portman Road, five ending in draws.

The Blues’ most recent victory against the Blades home or away was the 3-0 success under Paul Jewell at Portman Road in February 2011 when Connor Wickham ran from his own half to add a brilliant third. The visitors ended the game with nine men.

Town, then under Roy Keane, won the away game at Bramall Lane in the preceding November with those two successes the Blues’ only victories over the Blades in the last 20 years.

The teams most recently met at Bramall Lane in April 2019 with the Blues on their way down to League One and the Blades, with former Town forward David McGoldrick playing a starring role, destined for the top flight.

Scott Hogan and Jack O’Connell netted a goal in each half as Sheffield United comfortably beat the Blues 2-0 to all but secure their return to the Premier League after a 12-year hiatus.

Hogan turned home the opener on 24 and O’Connell added the second in the 71st minute.

At Portman Road in the previous December, Ellis Harrison netted his first and only goal for the Blues and Billy Sharp equalised for the Blades as Town and Sheffield United drew 1-1.

Harrison’s deflected shot gave Town the lead in the 38th minute but Blades captain Sharp levelled two minutes after the break.

Officials

Saturday’s referee is Farai Hallam, his assistants Bhupinder Singh Gill and Alistair Nelson, and the fourth official Oliver Langford.

Surrey-based Hallam was a professional footballer for four years and is now in his fourth season as an EFL referee, taking charge of his first Championship games last term.

From 2017 until 2021, he worked as the FA’s senior referee officer and then national referee manager.

Hallam, who will be refereeing the Blues for the first time, has shown 18 yellow cards and no red in four games so far this season.

Squad From

Palmer, Walton, Button, Johnson, Young, Furlong, H Clarke, Davis, O’Shea (c), Greaves, Kipre, Matusiwa, Cajuste, Taylor, Nunez, Humphreys, J Clarke, Walle Egeli, Szmodics, Philogene, McAteer, Hirst, Akpom, Azon.

Photo: TWTD

armchaircritic59 added 19:03 - Sep 11 Hope the ref doesn't turn up on " Saturday " though it would be the easiest match of his entire career, no matter how longs it lasts for :)
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Northstandveteran added 19:04 - Sep 11 It's all coming together, a resounding 4-0 victory incoming. Come on the town!
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blueboy1981 added 19:25 - Sep 11 Well you’ve ‘bigged’ Sheffield Utd up enough McKenna in case we lose - now get on and do the job that YOU are extremely well paid to do - and that is to WIN Football Matches for Ipswich Town.
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GrasmereBlue added 20:37 - Sep 11 Last time I saw us play Sheffield United was November 2003 when we won 3-0. It happened to be the day that England won the Rugby Union world cup and by pure coincidence we won the Rugby as I was driving past Rugby from Redditch. Fingers crossed that's a good omen! COYB!
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