The Blades last game was against Norwich City on Saturday where United lost 1-0. Wayne Quinn was sent off for two book able offences before Paul McVeigh scored for visitors, Peter Ndlovu was too then sent off after receiving his second yellow card of the game. The Blades performance was not bad but a bad referee cost United of the game.
Blades fans are still unclear as to how long Dean Windass will be out for after going off injured against Reading, though new news suggest that he and Phil Jagielka may be fit to play against the Millers. However United can welcome back Shaun Murphy and Steve Kabba who both missed the Canaries game due to suspension.
During that defeat to Norwich, United did pick up some worrying injuries, firstly was defender Steve Yates (hamstring) who has only just come back from injury and also Michael Tonge (ankle) who had to be replaced at half-time by Nick Montgomery.
We are not 100% sure what the team line up will be due to all these changes but it could mean that new winger Owen Morrison could make his first team debut as Tonge will defiantly be out..
Blades Possible Starting Line-Up: Paddy Kenny (GK), Robert Kozluk (RB), Shaun Murphy (CB), Robert Page (CB), Wayne Quinn (LB), Peter Ndlovu (RM), Stuart McCall (CM), Michael Brown (CM), Owen Morrison (LM), Steve Kabba (CF), Tommy Mooney (CF). Substitutes: Paul Peschisolido (CF), Wayne Allison (CF), Colin Cryan (CB), Tyrone Thompson (CM), Laurens Ten Heuvel (CF).
The Millers did not have a great game either on Saturday has they crashed 3-0 at Reading. James Harper fired home just after 15 minute minutes before Andy Hughes power driver from 20 yards out
gave Royals a 2-0 lead with in half an hour, Nicky Forster capped off great victory just before half-time.
Guy Branston was expected to start on the bench against Biscuit Men but he failed a late fitness test and was left out of the team but we believe that he will start on bench on Friday. Ronnie Moore's team are luck in the sense that they currently have no injury's or suspensions to deal with but rumours are that the Millers are about to sign former Blades target Gareth Farrelly from Bolton Wanderers but this is not 100% fact.
Arguably, the Millers weak link is their left-back Paul Hurst who always puts in a 110% effort but is somewhat not up to the standards of Divison One. There star player's though seem to be Alan Lee, who some would say that he belongs in the Republic of Ireland squad (Us Blades fans know someone else who would do a great job in that team too) but as scouts do not visit Yorkshire very often it is unlikely that he is to be picked.
As fans search through that possible Millers line-up (see below) they should notice one name in there, that is of course Curtis Woodhouse who is currently on loan from Birmingham City. Woodhouse is a product of the Blades Youth Training System and spent just two and a bit seasons with United before being sold to the Blues for a cool £1,000,000, though on the same day United got Peter Ndlovu from Brum on the same day on a free.
Millers Possible Starting Line-Up: Mike Pollitt (GK), Marvin Bryan (RB), Martin McIntosh (CB), Chris Swailes (CB), Paul Hurst (LB), Chris Sedgwick (RM), Curtis Woodhouse (CM), John Mullin (CM), Darren Garner (LM), Darren Byfield (CF), Alan Lee (CF). Substitutes: Ian Gray (GK), Nick Daws (CM), Paul Warne (RM/CM), Andy Monkhouse (LM), Ritchie Barker (CF).
We would like to thank Millers fan John Hardy for helping us with this particular match preview.
Our last meeting at Millmoor was last season. At the time it was our first meeting for over 15 years, it was also the first South Yorkshire Derby to be shown on the new ITV Digital channel which later went bust.
The game was on Thursday night and ended 1-1. Ex-Blade Rob Scott took the lead on the stroke of half-time with a fine header on edge of 18 yard box from a corner. However United equalised with a Laurent D'Jaffo penalty and United should have won the game when Peschisolido met a Paul Devlin cross, his shot beat the keeper but somehow hit the post.
Blades v Millers Record (All Competitions):
Home: P12 W7 D1 L4 F21 A19
Away: P11 W6 D3 L2 F22 A11
Total: P23 W13 D4 L6 F43 A30
One-to-Watch: Alan Lee (Millers), Robert Page (Blades)
Weak Link: Paul Hurst (Millers), Tommy Mooney (Blades)
Prediction: Rotherham United 1-2 Sheffield United