Graeson previews tomorrow's home game against the Blades.

After nearly a month away, the U's return home to Layer Road for their Championship encounter with Sheffield United. Bryan Robson's Blades were expected to be among the front-runners this season but arrive in North Essex needing a result to help them claw back the deficit up to the final play-off place.

It’s been a difficult season for United. After the disappointment of relegation on the final day of the Premiership season, and then losing iconic manager Neil Warnock, it was always going to be so. Whoever the new manager was, he had an unenviable task of re-producing the rewards that Warnock had brought to the South Yorkshire club. Added to that, the new manager would probably want to change the playing style as well, and it always looked a tough task to follow a manager who has gone to replicate the success at Crystal Palace this season.

Bryan Robson was eventually chosen to replace Warnock, and it’s fair to say that the jury is still out at Bramall Lane. Despite the recent cup victories, Robson is not popular among some sections of the Blades faithful, and a couple of defeats could make things very difficult to him.

To that end, he's been quite quiet in the transfer window with three players in and seven out - though most of those have been to lower League sides. The most surprising departure was that of Leigh Bromby who moved to Watford for £600,000 after playing so well for United against Manchester City at the weekend while Alan Quinn moved to Ipswich Town. On the plus side, Robson went back to former club Manchester United to secure the services of winger Lee Martin on loan while veterans Gary Speed and Ugo Ehiogu have also joined the club.

The Blades are currently in 15th place in the table, eight points adrift of Palace (and Warnock) who currently occupy the final play-off place. Perhaps more importantly, they are only six points off the final relegation place! Victory for the U's on Saturday would bring the sides closer together and given Colchester's lowly predicament they need to start getting more and more sides involved in the relegation scrap.

United have lost seven of their fourteen away games, winning four and drawing three scoring only thirteen goals in the process, whilst conceding sixteen.

On New Years Day they played out a goalless draw at Wolverhampton before causing an upset in the First Round of the FA Cup by beating Bolton at the Reebok thanks to only goal of the game by David Carney. They then came back from a goal down to beat a revitalised QPR by the odd goal in three at Bramall Lane with my friend and yours Lee Hendrie grabbing the winner.

While the U's game against Hull City was postponed, I took the opportunity to watch the Steel City Derby and it was the Blue half of Sheffield who was celebrating as they came out on top 2-0 in front of over 30,000 at Hillsborough.

Last Sunday they dumped Manchester City out of the FA Cup thanks to one of the bizarre goals ever seen in the long-history of the Cup Competition. There appeared little danger when a low cross came over from the Sheffield left (from Geary I think) but as Michael Ball went to clear, the ball struck some balloons which the Man City fans had thrown onto the pitch. The deflection was huge, but it was enough for Ball to miss his kick and give Luton Shelton the easiest of tap-ins. United went two up mid-way through the second half but substitute Daniel Sturridge's goal almost immediately after the break gave City hope but despite large amounts of possession they couldn't find an equaliser.

On Tuesday evening, United were held to a draw by former leaders Watford. Adie Bothroyd's men took the lead through Nathan Ellington but United replied midway through the second half through Dean Carney to grab a share of the points - though the United faithful made it clear to Robson what they felt about another stuttering performance at home.

Just time to take a quick look at the United side that faced Watford. I really rate Paddy Kenny as being one of the top goalkeepers outside the top flight. Bromby has now moved to Watford and could well be replaced by Matthew Kilgallon who was signed in last season's January transfer window for £1.75m from Leeds United by Neil Warnock. Chris Morgan and Ugo Ehiogu were the two central defenders with Scottish International Garry Naysmith completing the back line.

Lee Hendrie played only the first half against Watford before being replaced by the goal scorer Carney. Veteran midfield Gary Speed protected the back four with the energy supplied by Stephen Quinn and Lee Martin. Quinn needs to be watched carefully as he does seem to go to ground very quickly if he feels the slightest touch. Upfront Rob Hulse partnered Shelton with Billy Sharp - who is yet to score this season after a bucket-load for Scunthorpe as they won promotion to the Championship - on the bench alongside opening day scorer Michael Tonge and Chris Armstrong. Leading goals corer James Beattie has been injured recently but has been included in the squad which will travel to Layer Road - I suspect that he may well be on the bench.

The two sides met on the opening day of the season at Bramall Lane where they shared four goals between them. After a quiet first half, Beattie opened his account for his new club but almost immediately, the U's went up to the other end where McLeod tapped in Mark Yeates' cross for the equaliser. Michael Tonge re-established the Blades lead as time ran out but a superb move involving Teddy Sheringham and Karl Duguid gave Clive Platt the chance to head home his first goal for the club and secure a decent point for the U's.

This is the first League meeting between the two sides at Layer Road for nearly 26 years to the day. On 6th February 1982 Match of the Day cameras were at Layer Road to watch the Division Four clash between two sides that were at the top of the table. Debutant John Lyons opened the scoring after just four minutes and with further efforts from McDonough, and a brace from Ian Allinson, the U's were four up before Tony Kenworthy's penalty made it 4-1 at the break. Kevin Bremner re-established the U's four goal superiority before Keith Edwards made the final score 5-2 with his goal just after the hour mark. The Blades would end up winning the Division 4 title by 5 points with 96 points with Bradford City in second. The U's finished 6th but at the time there were no play-offs and they finished some sixteen points shy of the fourth promotion place.

The full U's line up that day was Mick Walker, Micky Cook, Dennis Longhorn (Phil Coleman), John Lyons, Steve Wignall, Steve Wright, Tony Adcock, Kevin Bremner, Roger Osborne, Roy McDonough and Ian Allinson.

The Blades team was Keith Waugh in goal, Paul Richardson (Steve Charles), Paul Garner, John Matthews, Stewart Houston, Tony Kenworthy, Steve Neville, Mike Trusson, Keith Edwards, Bob Hatton, and Jeff King.

Graeson's Team

It will be interesting to see if Geraint Williams makes any changes to his starting eleven following Tuesday night's disappointing performance and result at Barnsley. There was little transfer activity at Layer Road with Dean Hammond and George Elokobi passing each other as the former Brighton skipper arrived for a £250,000 fee with Wolves shelling out an inflated £500,000 for the former Dulwich Hamlet man.

Hammond sits out the third game of a three match suspension tomorrow afternoon but Saturday should see the long awaited home debuts of Phil Ifil and Chris Coyne who arrived midway through the transfer window. It will also make the first home game for new Assistant Manager Kit Symons and I'm sure all four will be made very welcome by the U's faithful.

So what changes can Williams make? Well, he can tinker about a bit but in all honesty, with new players there can be occasions when things don't quite work out right. Williams will be hoping that Tuesday night was a one-off.

So with that in mind, I think Williams will stick with pretty much the same starting line-up as at Barnsley with perhaps one change. I would not be surprised to see Karl Duguid return to the side on the left hand side of midfield with Luke Guttridge dropping to the bench and Johnnie Jackson resuming in central midfield.

Therefore, my starting line-up will be Gerken in goal, with Ifil, Coyne, Virgo and White across the back four. The midfield will see Yeates, Izzet, Jackson and Duguid with Platt and Lisbie up front.

As always the key battle will be in midfield where Izzet and Jackson will have to prevent Gary Speed from exerting his influence over the game while Lisbie must start because I have a feeling that the two central defenders of Sheffield United lack pace. That could be key to the U's chances of success.

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Graeson's Prediction

The U's must start off brightly in this one. Home games are now a must-win if the U's are to start next season in the Championship at their new home ground. We must take the game to Sheffield United with pace, passion and power and once we've established the right to the game, then play the passing football that we all know we can play.

If we do that, I think the U's will start off the final stages of life at Layer Road with a 2-0 win over the Blades thanks to Duguid and Platt's goals in a frenetic first half hour.

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