No greasy chip butty, just an emptiness which has engulfed our sporting world - Stuart Rayner at Sheffield United

The skies are blue, the clouds light and fluffy. It is the sort of lovely spring afternoon to make you realise cup finals and trophies are just around the corner. Yesterday, at the home of Sheffield United, they felt a million miles away.

Not only is English professional football in lockdown until April 30 at the earliest, but now even the pubs have been closed in the desperate fight against the spread of coronavirus. The lucky ones not suffering directly are being hit by the attack on normality.

The odd person is strolling up or down Bramall Lane, getting some air in their lungs or just silently going about their business. Bramall Lane’s main car park is all but empty.

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The petrol station might still be open for business but the stalls hawking scarves, badges, T-shirts and flags will not be seen either side of it for some time.

Bramall Lane, as coronavirus has brought a temporary halt to the football season. Picture by Simon HulmeBramall Lane, as coronavirus has brought a temporary halt to the football season. Picture by Simon Hulme
Bramall Lane, as coronavirus has brought a temporary halt to the football season. Picture by Simon Hulme

An earnest-looking jogger has earphones strapped to his head as he comes past in his grey-and-blue tracksuit and for once, you wish their noise-cancelling capabilities were not so good. A bit of music to break the eeriness would not go amiss.

An aeroplane buzzes overhead, a crow squawks and the ventilation grills on the main stand chug out air. A bus trundles past. You should not be able to hear any of it.

It is 1.50pm on Sunday and until life was turned upside down, an FA Cup quarter-final between Sheffield United and Arsenal was supposed to be in full throe. Quarter-final replays are a thing of the past, sacrificed on the altar of Premier League greed, so by the evening we would have known if the Blades were on their way to Wembley, their knees all going trembly at the thought of a two-pronged assault on Europe. The empty pubs would have been thronging with fans celebrating or drowning their sorrows.

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It is not being over-dramatic to say there is a good chance the match might never take place.

Who next?Who next?
Who next?

The incomplete 2019-20 FA Cup campaign is in danger of becoming an asterisk in football’s history books.

Had the famous old ground been ten times nosier, the away fans would still have been asking, “Is this a library?” Even libraries have more of a murmur than this.

The coronavirus has not just dragged football down this weekend, but just about everything else with it.

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The Cricketers Arms has been open since 1859, but not today. Its cheery welcome – “Come inside, there are no strangers here, only friends we have not met yet!” – is suddenly cruel.

A quiet Sunder afternoon in Sheffield.A quiet Sunder afternoon in Sheffield.
A quiet Sunder afternoon in Sheffield.

The blackboard listing the televised games to be shown has a smudge where there used to be a list.

Just up Bramall Lane, The Railway Hotel did not wait to be told by Boris Johnson to shut its doors.

“This decision has not been taken lightly and is because of BOTH health and safety concerns and economics,” a sign on the wall explains.

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“We feel that it is irresponsible to potentially jeopardise people’s health by continuing to trade.”

No one should want a drink that much.

Across the road, the Copthorne is ghostly and empty.

The street sign for “Baron Street” looks mis-spelt. Chairs are stacked up in the window of The Bread Bin further down John Street.

The statue of Derek Dooley in front of the main stand is waving to nobody.

This serenity ought to signal more simple times, but in some ways they are more complicated.

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That the man lugging two 
bags of shopping past The Railway is wearing a mask tells you that.

Should I be uncomfortable at the sight of a young couple holding hands as they walk on the opposite side of the road to the closed turnstiles?

Even paying for milk in the convenience score has become a dance.

“Put the money down and I’ll pick it up,” suggests Lukas politely.

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Michael Roberts always planned to be at Bramall Lane on Sunday but with a scarf around his neck, not a hi-vis jacket wrapping his chest.

“It was a big game we were looking forward to,” he says, perched on his bike. “We were quite optimistic we could win that, then get to the semis and a chance of an FA Cup final. With the season going as it is, it would have just been the icing on the cake, really.

“Some clubs are benefiting (from the break) and for others it’s more difficult.”

The Blades definitely fall into the second category, from a footballing if not so much a financial perspective. This has been a campaign of such unbelievable joy for them, they would not have wanted it to end naturally, never mind like this.

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“At the beginning of the season it was, ‘Are we going to stay up?’ but once we hit them 40 points (the accepted safety mark against Premier League relegation), it didn’t matter, we could see what happens,” Michael continues.

“The way they’ve been playing, home and away – particularly away... when you start the season and see Chelsea and Man United coming up you think, ‘We’ve got no chance,’ but now you think, ‘We’ve got a chance.’

“We were due to be playing Newcastle last week and we were quite optimistic about beating them.

“A cup game is a different ball game, even if Arsenal have picked up since we beat them here in October.

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“It’s better than anybody could have expected. If the season ended now it would have been superb, really.”

Now Michael, a retired teacher, is trying to make the most of his free Sunday. He and his friend Kevin are meeting three others for a bike ride but even then, football is on their minds.

“We always go on a Tuesday and cycle into Derbyshire, around Ladybower and places like that,” he explains.

“Now it will maybe be twice a week until the football season comes back. You’re together with people but you can keep your distance.

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“The original idea was to go between the Sheffield grounds – here, Hillsborough, Sheffield FC and Hallam – but we decided it was too steep so we’re just going to Rotherham United instead.”

They could scarcely have picked a better day.

No one with an ounce of sense could stand outside a Sheffield football stadium and claim the absence of an FA Cup kickabout as some kind of tragedy, but it was sorrowful nevertheless.

To the right of Dooley stands a bronze of Joe Shaw. As he clutches a ball to his midriff, traffic cones which ought have been frustrating the hell out of latecoming drivers desperately looking for a car-parking spot they do not have to pay through the nose to use are stacked up alongside him.

Shaw made the first two of his club-record 714 appearances for the Blades during the six-year suspension for World War Two. This lay-off has only been nine days and nobody is dropping bombs on the Kop.

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While most businesses are suffering through first the lack of football, then the social distancing measures imposed on Friday evening, not all are.

“Football matchdays are a bonus day for our shop,” says Lukas from a safe distance behind the counter at the Go Local Extra on Shoreham Street. “To have a game every weekend would be nice.

“But Sunday is normally a very quiet day here. It’s not been any different.

“During the week we’re a bit busier now. Everybody knows the big shops are running out of stock but a little corner shop like ours has access to the wholesalers. Even today we went to the cash and carry.

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“The products people cannot get in the supermarkets they are getting from this shop. We’ve even got toilet roll!

“Now people are starting to appreciate the little corner shops.”

Step outside, though, and it is back to the nothingness symptomatic of the wider problems – physical, psychological, social and economic – grabbing the whole country.

The fish and chip shop a few doors down should just be starting to catch its breath after the chaos in the run-up to kick-off. Instead, even Man Fryday looks lonely, not a greasy chip butty in sight.

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Although The Sandwich Corner offers takeaway, its graffitied shutters are pulled down.

Whatever you are doing today please stay safe and be responsible. The sooner this emptiness comes to an end, the better.