By Paul Holland
April 5 2002

Sheffield United have been hit with six charges from the FA following the abandoned "Battle of Bramall Lane" against West Bromwich Albion. But Blades boss Neil Warnock has been cleared of claims that he deliberately engineered the chaos to have the game abandoned.

Warnock, however, has been charged with improper conduct, skipper Keith Curle has been hit with a charge of using insulting and abusive words to a match official.

Patrick Suffo has been charged with violent conduct after his sending off and Georges Santos faces a charge relating to the tackle which prompted his red card and one for threatening behaviour in the tunnel.

Sheffield United also face a charge of failing to ensure players conducted themselves in an orderly fashion.
Warnock said: "In 20-odd years in football I have never known so many respected journalists and soccer people act as judge and jury within 24 hours of a game.

"Everyone knows how passionate I am, I wear my heart on my sleeve. But I would add that I would never want to put my family and friends through what they experienced after that match."

Game stopped

Sheffield United football executive Terry Robinson reacted to the news by saying: "We have fully co-operated with the FA during its investigations and are satisfied with how matters have been handled.

"We always knew there was no evidence to support the allegations of cheating and feigning injuries to get the match abandoned."

Robinson said that the club's board would meet to consider its response to the charge of failing to control its players on the field of play.

He added: "As such, this is a technical breach of regulations introduced following the incident of Manchester United players confronting the referee in a Premiership match."

The game was stopped with the Blades having only six men left on the field.

Georges Santos, Simon Tracey and Patrick Suffo had already been sent off when injuries to Michael Brown and Rob Ullathorne meant the game had to be abandoned.

West Brom were leading 3-0 when referee Eddie Wolstenholme brought the match to a halt with eight minutes remaining.

Santos out of favour

The Baggies were later the three points from the fixture.

The club charge relates to incidents where "up to five players harassed match official Eddie Wolstenholme in an apparent attempt to influence his decisions".

Injuries to Rob Ullathorne and Michael Brown forced referee Wolstenholme to abandon the match amid claims from Baggies boss Gary Megson that Warnock had engineered that outcome.

But a statement of the FA's official website. www.thefa.com, today insisted: "None of the charges above relate to this issue.

"No independent evidence was forthcoming to indicate that there was a deliberate attempt by any Sheffield United player or official to force the match to be abandoned."

Suffo has since been loaned to Spanish side Numancia while Santos has also fallen out of favour with Warnock following the incidents.

this story was brought to you by BBC Football