Exiled Blades fan Emma Gilks follows the fortunes of Sheffield United from afar these days, but even though she lives in Toronto she has plenty of good memories of a player who earned himself an England cap after his exploits for the club.

My favourite United player of all time would have to be Brian Deane. Even though he defected to that other team in Yorkshire I would have to say his goals helped secure promotion and I don’t think his partnership with Agana has been matched since.

We got him from Doncaster Rovers and although he was a little bit rough around the edges when we first got him he developed into one of the most feared strikers outside of the top flight and continued to be prolific with the Blades when we got in there. He’ll go down in history as the first man to score in the Premiership when he scored after four minutes or so against Manchester United.

Don’t forget he played for England and after he failed to get the goals at Elland Road we got him back for almost half the price we received when he went up the road and he continued to score the goals for us, in total I think he managed to get 119 Blades goals.

Deano was also part of the side that played in my favorite game as a Sheffield United fan and it would have to be my most memorable moment. That would have to be United gaining promotion to the old First Division – last day of the season at Leicester and we won 5-2 which guaranteed promotion. After each of the five goals, Blades would invade the pitch with their fancy dress costumes. I hope this moment can be experienced again at the end of this season!

Brian didn’t score my favorite goal though, that has to be Paul Peschisolido’s against Forest in the 2003 Play Off Semi-Final.  At half time we were 2-0 down everybody was so low and thoughts of getting through to the final were slim.  However we got back to 2-2 and then Peschy scored a fantastic goal to make it 3-2, the ground went wild and I think his celebration reflected how much the goal meant to him and the Blades.

Emma Gilks