A Wembley return for Blades? 100 years in the making

Sheffield United's 1925 team head out for the FA Cup Final against Cardiff at Wembley

25 April 1925 is a key date in Sheffield United's history.

It was the last time the Blades won at Wembley, as they beat Cardiff City 1-0 to lift the FA Cup for the fourth time – the last major honour won by the club.

Well United are potentially two games away from another return to the national stadium, this time in the Championship play-offs.

It will be the 10th time the Blades have contested the end-of-season play-offs, since they began in the late 1980s.

United have never won. They've made four finals – two at the new Wembley in 2009 and 2012, one at the Millennium Stadium in 2003 and one at the old Wembley in 1997 – and they've lost four finals, without scoring.

So could the stars be aligning to end the Blades' 100-year wait for a Wembley win with a first play-off success in 10 attempts?

An immediate return to the Premier League, in these circumstances, would certainly be a headline-writers dream.

But Sheffield United shouldn't need to rely on fate for success this month.

Chris Wilder's latest team of star players aligned this season to comfortably finish third in the Championship.

The Blades accumulated 16 more points than Sunderland in fourth and they took 24 more points than Bristol City in sixth – their opponents in the play-off semi-finals.

In fact the gap from the play-off places to Cardiff at the bottom of the final table is the same as the difference between United in third and the Robins.

It's right to say those statistics are now consigned to history, with four teams having an equal chance of promotion, but the 46-game season should show that the play-offs are United's for the taking.

They have the Championship's player of the season in Gus Hamer, they now have a squad fit enough to provide nine first-team options from the bench – something that hasn't been possible for most of the season - and crucially, they have Chris Wilder.

Not only does the Blades boss bleed red-and-white as a boyhood supporter, but he's a play-off winner with Oxford United, and this is his first opportunity to break Sheffield United's play-off hoodoo.

Anything can happen in the play-offs, history has taught us this, and Wilder won't let his players take anything for granted against three good sides who have all taken points off the Blades this campaign.

But history also shows us that more often than not, the team who finishes third in the Championship, does get promoted via the playoffs. Nine times in the past 20 seasons, this has been the case.

Blades supporters, young and old, have every right to go into the play-offs with more than a hint of trepidation given past failures, but they, and their team, need to stick their chests out and show why Sheffield United are the third best team in the division.