Battle of Bramall Lane: Inside story of Sheffield Utd's "humiliating" West Brom clash

Gary Megson wants to put the record straight 20 years on from one of football’s most-infamous games.

Megson was West Brom boss when their Division One match at Bramall Lane was abandoned because Sheffield United had been reduced to six players.

Neil Warnock’s side had three players dismissed before two more went off injured, forcing referee Eddie Wolstenholme to end proceedings with the Baggies 3-0 up with eight minutes remaining.

“What riles me is there has to be a name for it, and people call it the Battle of Bramall Lane,” Megson told Mirror Sport.

“It’s a complete misnomer. That suggests there were two teams battling. One had no players sent off, finished the game and won 3-0.

“The other had however many players sent off and others injured so they couldn’t finish, so it speaks for itself.

“It wasn’t a battle, it was a bit of an onslaught we couldn’t do anything about it.

“I live in Sheffield and have a lot of friends who are Sheffield United supporters and quite a few of them have said it was quite humiliating for them.”

The exodus of United players began when goalkeeper Simon Tracey was sent off for handling outside his area.

Georges Santos and Patrick Suffo followed for violent conduct and West Brom led 3-0 with 11 minutes remaining when Michael Brown went off with a groin injury.

Rob Ullathorne left the pitch three minutes later with a hamstring problem, forcing Wolstenholme to abandon the game because the rules state matches cannot continue if a team has fewer than seven players.

Megson has always been dubious about Brown and Ullathorne’s injuries and suspects Warnock told the duo to come off to force the abandonment of the game, even though both were independently verified.

“Everybody, every single person with