Being a First Division side the Blades have faced just two side in this seasons competition so far. Wayne Allison's header in Round 3 saw the Blades win 1-0 away at Cardiff City while Nottingham Forest were on the wrong end of a 3-0 thrashing the following round, Jack Lester, Chris Morgan and Allison with the important goals.
Neil Warnock has hinted that he may field some unusual players, this means either Jonathan Forte, Dries Boussatta, Kevan Hurst or Steve Jagielka could play some part in this game as Ashley Sestanovich, Paul Shaw and Carl Robinson are cup-tied.
Defender Chris Morgan is a long term injury as he recovers from keyhole surgery on a knee, strikers Ashley Ward (knee), Jack Lester Steve Kabba and Dean Sturridge (hamstring and knee) are all injured.
Colin Cryan is injured though is also cup-tied, Michael Tonge has a minor injury but is expected to be rested which paves the way for highly rated youngster Jonathan Forte. Andy Parkinson has been re-called from Nott's County due to the number of injury's.
The U's however started way back in Round 1, a 1-0 home win at home to Oxford United saw them into second round while Rowan Vine's goal beat Aldershot Town 1-0 again at home.
Joey Keith gabbed a brace against Conference hopeful's Accrington Stanley to win 2-1 in a replay after a 0-0 draw. Round Four brought a very tough tie against Coventry City at Highfield Road, Dale
Adebola scored an own goal to the strikers embarrassment but Julian Joachim equalised minutes later.
In the replay the U's took a surprise lead when a costly defence mistake by the Sky Blues allowed Rowan Vine to score after 12 minutes, Joachim leveled on 25 but Vine added two on 43 and 57 to score a hat-trick and set up a tie at Bramall Lane.
U's manager Phil Parkinson is expected to be without former Chelsea and Bradford City striker Andy Myers who is a long term injury. Jamie Cade will miss our encounter due being cup-tied after taking part in Chesterfield's cup campaign.
Craig Fagen who is on loan from Birmingham City will be kicking himself after serves a suspension after receiving his red card against Bristol City two weeks ago.
Former Sheffield United defender Scott Fritzgerald may be selected for the visitors, Fitzgerald played 6 games for the Blades when on loan from Wimbledon in November 1995.
Man in the Middle: Referee for the Blades v U's game will be David Pugh (Wirrel, Mersyside), Pugh has yet to be in charge of a United game this season and has in fact only took charge of one Division one fixture when Millwall beat Cardiff City 3-1 at Ninian Park.
Last season this referee was in charge of the 5-0 drumming of Bradford City at Valley Parade but this season has managed 12 games while the Yellow card has been shown 36 times and the red just once to Matthew Gill of Peterborough United.
| Possible Starting Line-Up | ||
SHEFFIELD UNITED | VS | COLCHESTER UNITED |
| Sunday 15 February 2004 FA Cup Round 5 at Bramall Lane Kick-Off: 2pm | ||
| Paddy Kenny | 1 | Simon Brown |
| Robert Kozluk | 2 | Liam Chilvers (loan) |
| Robert Page | 3 | Sam Stockley |
| Phil Jagielka | 4 | Paul Tierney (loan) |
| Alan Wright | 5 | Joey Keith |
| Dries Boussatta | 6 | Alan White |
| Stuart McCall | 7 | Thomas Pinault |
| Nick Montgomery | 8 | Karl Duguid |
| Michael Tonge | 9 | Kem Izzet |
| Paul Peschisolido | 10 | Rowan Vine (loan) |
| Peter Ndlovu | 11 | Scott McGleish |
| Last Time We Met @ Bramall Lane... |
| Blades 3-0 U's, 19/09/2000 - League Cup Round 2, 1st leg. |
| Scorers: Devlin (18), Clark (80 og), Kelly (83) |
| Sheffield United: Tracey, Murphy, Sandford, Quinn, Uhlenbeek, Woddhouse (Cryan), Brown, Ford, Kelly, Bent, (Smith), Devlin. |
| Colchester United: Brown, Dunne, Johnson, White, Tanner (Keith), Clark, Stockwell, Dozzell (Keeble), McGavin, Duguid, Lock. |
| Referee: Paul Danson (Leicester), Att: 3,531 |
| FA Cup Record v Colchester | ||||||
Venue | P | W | D | L | F | A |
| Bramall Lane | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| Layer Road | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Total | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 3 |
Full Round Draw: Manchester United v Manchester City, Tranmere Rovers v Swansea, Millwall v Burnley, Sunderland v Birmingham City, Sheffield United v Colchester United, Arsenal v Chelsea, Liverpool v Portsmouth, Fulham v West Ham United.