Blades to bring strong squad to battle the Gladiators

Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder’s pledge to bring a strong side to the Proctor Cars Stadium to take on Matlock Town on Tuesday night looks like being fulfilled.

Having announced over the weekend the inclusion of midfielder Mark Duffy and strikers Leon Clarke, he followed that up on Monday telling the Gladiators that seven more first-teamers would be involved.

Probably the two most well known are midfielder Ravel Morrison and striker Lys Mousset.

Morrison started out at Manchester United before moving to West Ham. Wilder had Morrison on trial during the summer and now has him as part of his squad for their first season back in the Premier League.

Mousett joined United in the summer from Bournemouth with Wilder having paid a record fee to the Cherries, believed to be in the region of £10 million to bring the former French under 21 international to Bramall Lane.

The other players announced by Wilder today to play at Matlock are defenders Richard Stearman, Jake Wright, Ben Heneghan and Kean Bryan plus playmaker Luke Freeman, signed from QPR recently.

The game kicks off at 7.30 pm with fans advised to arrive in good time with a sizeable crowd expected.

Ian Richardson