Wednesday 28 January 2015 14:32, UK
Sheffield United head into Wednesday's Capital One Cup semi-final decider against Tottenham still very much in contention and out to cap a weekend of cup shocks with the latest one of their own...
What better inspiration for League One Sheffield United as they prepare for the second leg of a delicately poised Capital One Cup semi-final with Tottenham than a weekend of FA Cup shocks?
Bradford's 4-2 slaying of Chelsea was a reminder cup dreams really do come true, but then the Blades can be stirred by their own scrapbook of upsets as they look to overturn a slender 1-0 deficit against Mauricio Pochettino's side.
Nigel Clough has barely been in charge at Bramall Lane a year but his record there in major cup competitions - P19 W13 D4 L2 F33 A15 - is a tale already well told. Five of those victories have come against Premier League sides, with West Ham and Southampton dispatched during this League Cup run. Four of them were sealed away from home.
So what's the secret? We take at look at some of the reasons behind a staggering string of cup scalps as the Blades attempt to claim another...
"It's a distinct possibility," said Clough, when asked, after a swaggering 3-0 FA Cup third-round win over QPR, if his side might actually perform better in the division above.
The Blades belied their third-tier status yet again that early January day but why, frustrated fans yearned to know, could they not do it in the league?
“People keep asking us why we can’t repeat it in the league but it’s a different game," Clough, whose side have since slipped 18 points off the top two, told United's official TV channel. "Teams in League One tend to come to Bramall Lane and shut up shop and sometimes that's difficult.
"We know the Premier League sides will have the majority of the game; the onus is on them to come and break us down and that enables us to sit back a bit and hit them on the break.
"The way we play - we've seen Bradford do it, too - is more direct than the top-flight sides are used to - more direct, balls into the corner for the strikers to chase, defenders forced to put it out for a throw-in; you can see the surprise on their faces. They're not used to that week-in, week-out in the Premier League."
The stats would say so; Tottenham enjoyed 65 per cent of the possession during the first leg - Southampton 63 per cent a round earlier - but managed just two shots on target.
"Tottenham were disappointing," former Spurs midfielder and Sky Sports pundit Glenn Hoddle reflected. "We didn't see Kyle Walker get forward and the likes of Christian Eriksen struggled to pick out forward passes.
"But they're used to getting more space when Premier League sides come to White Hart Lane. Sheffield United worked hard and they were really hard to break down."
Hauling themselves out of League One might be the priority - a fifth season looms unless they can finally break their play-off duck - but Clough, who twice won the League Cup as a Nottingham Forest player, talks with old-school respect about his juggling act.
"It is very difficult to maintain a challenge for promotion while you are still in both cups, without a doubt," the Blades boss admitted after his side clung on in the FA Cup with a stodgy fourth-round draw against Preston.
"But we’d take a replay rather than be out of the competition any day of the week. That is the attitude we have had in all of the cups. Going to Wembley and winning a cup are the best days of your career. There's no other feeling like it."
Might that lower-league DNA - honest, homegrown, rugged - provide another clue to his side's success? Clough thinks so.
"I just think that, with the majority of the lower-league lads being British and having been brought up with cup traditions, it just probably means a little bit more to them," he said at his pre-match news conference on Monday.
"When you are brought up with it, it is inevitable that you are going to understand its importance a little bit more."
An unwelcome distraction? Not in the gaffer's eyes, then, but who could blame Clough's charges puffing out their cheeks and throwing off the shackles as they leave promotion pressures for another day?
Shorn of their big-boy tag and with the weight of expectation lifted - victories are demanded in League One but just two have come in the last 10 in the league - it's no surprise this Sheffield United side have prospered on their break from third-tier travails.
Clough can be a boisterous presence on the touchline - just ask Southampton boss Ronald Koeman - but it seems he's been coolness personified in the changing room, whoever his side's opponents.
"We put the same emphasis on every game to try and win it," said the 48-year-old, who led his side down to London on a same-day train so they would have less time to think about what might await them.
"Spurs have got the quality to hurt any team in Europe but, while we're aware of how good they are, we don't go into too much detail," Clough added. "We'd be shaking before we even got onto the pitch otherwise."
The Blades boss might have tried to instill a quiet confidence in his players but Jamal Campbell-Ryce, who ran Ben Davies ragged down the right in the first leg, was bubbling with optimism after a contest settled only by Andros Townsend's late penalty.
Hoddle sounded a note of caution despite being impressed by the visitors' wing-play - "Tottenham will find more space in the second leg because Sheffield United will have have to push forward more to find a goal," he said - but try telling the Blades winger he can't get one over on his boyhood club.
"We’re raring to go,” Campbell-Ryce said. "It was disappointing to concede the goal but equally, we feel positive. We’ve got nothing to be afraid of.
"You look at their star players on the TV but then you play against them and you think, 'Actually, I fancy myself against them'. I just want to wake up on Wednesday and play again now."
Campbell-Ryce and Co were roared on by more than 4,000 travelling Blades in north London - "You've only come to see United," they bellowed gleefully - and Bramall Lane, a bearpit when Southampton came a cropper, will rock again to the sell-out noise of 30,000 on Wednesday night.
After a weekend of cup jaw-droppers, Tottenham will be on alert. But as if they weren't already.
Watch Sheffield United take on Tottenham in the Capital One Cup semi-final second leg from 7.30pm on Wednesday, Sky Sports 1.
