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'It'll never happen again': West Brom's Andy Johnson recalls infamous Battle of Brammall Lane

Andy Johnson believes nothing like the infamous Battle of Bramall Lane will ever happen again as he reflected on the furore 20 years ago.

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Former midfielder Johnson was involved for Albion when their clash at Sheffield United became the only game in Football League history to be abandoned due to a lack of players.

The Blades were down to 10 men already when George Santos, who had been left with a broken nose and fractured eye socket following a collision with Johnson earlier his career, was handed his marching orders for a horror tackle on the Albion midfielder.

In the melee that ensued, Patrick Suffo was then sent off.

And when Michael Brown and defender Robert Ullathorne went off injured and with the home side having used all their substitutes, referee Eddie Wolstenholme had no choice but to abandon the game.

The FA later ruled that the result should stand and awarded Albion the three points the following week.

It is now two decades since the infamous incident and on the first episode of the Baggies Broadcast guest series, Johnson revealed how Albion fans still want to talk about it until this day.

He said: “It was pretty crazy even back then for anything like that to happen.

“I set the first goal up for Scott Dobie, it was a great move and then Derek McInnes scored the best goal of his career and were were winning comfortably and they tried to spoil the game.

“But, we were the ones who got the three points and went on to get promoted, we did our jobs and that is how I really remember it.”

Albion, who were 3-0 up in the game when it was called off were made to wait until the following week until the Football League officially awarded them the points.

Johnson added: “It is a shame it happened. It will never happen again, we got the three points and we were the only team to win six points in one day – as they (the FA) gave us the points on a (later) day that we won another game.”