Name of Sheffield United cult hero will send a shiver down Hull City spine | OneFootball

Hull City will have bad memories of former Sheffield United striker Leon Clarke after he scored four goals against them in November 2017.

There are not too many players who have represented both Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday, but striker Leon Clarke is one man who has spent time on both sides of the Steel City.

After joining the club from Wolverhampton Wanderers in January 2007, Clarke had an underwhelming three-and-a-half-year spell at Sheffield Wednesday, during which time he scored just 18 goals in 87 games, before being released in the summer of 2010 following the club's relegation to League One.

Spells with a host of clubs followed over the next six years, including the likes of Queens Park Rangers, Swindon Town, Charlton Athletic, Coventry City and Bury, before he made a surprise move back to South Yorkshire with Sheffield United in the summer of 2016, and he certainly found a home at Bramall Lane.

Clarke scored just seven goals in 24 games in an injury-disrupted first season with the Blades as they won the League One title, and supporters could have been forgiven for assuming he would only be a fringe player in the Championship the following season.

However, Clarke instead produced the best season of his career for United in the second tier, and while his campaign had plenty of highlights, his performance against Hull City will live long in the memory.

Hull City will be desperate to forget Leon Clarke, Sheffield United nightmare

Thanks in no small part to the goals of Clarke, Sheffield United made a stunning start to life back in the Championship in the 2017-18 season, and coming into their game against Hull City, they sat third in the table after winning 10 of their opening 15 matches.

In contrast, the Tigers had struggled on their return to the second tier following relegation from the Premier League, and with the club sitting 18th in the table, manager Leonid Slutsky was under pressure ahead of the trip to Bramall Lane.

Many would have expected a routine United victory, but it was actually Hull who took the lead in the first half through Kamil Grosicki's 25-yard strike, and the visitors managed to retain their advantage until half-time.

However, the Blades did have chances, with Clarke twice being denied by Allan McGregor, and the Tigers clearly did not heed the warning signs as the striker incredibly scored four goals in just 35 second half minutes to completely turn the game around for Chris Wilder's side and move them back into the automatic promotion places.

Clarke became the first United player to register a four-goal haul since Keith Edwards in 1983, and after the game, manager Wilder described him as "outstanding" and praised him for a "first class" performance.

While the Blades celebrated their return to the top two, it was another devastating blow in a below-par season for Hull, and Slutsky only lasted four more games before being sacked following a 2-2 draw against the other team from the Steel City, Sheffield Wednesday, which left them in 20th place, just three points clear of the relegation zone.

Hull City haul was the highlight of Leon Clarke's Sheffield United spell

It is fair to say that Clarke was now winning over any Sheffield United supporters who had misgivings about his Hillsborough past, and his four-goal showing against Hull would mark the start of a remarkable month for the striker.

Clarke was on the scoresheet again in his next outing in the 3-1 win at Burton Albion, and he then netted a hat-trick in the eventful 5-4 home defeat to Fulham before ending a successful November with another strike in the 1-1 draw against Birmingham City, taking his tally to nine goals in just four games.

While Clarke would only score six more goals during the remainder of the season, he ended the campaign with an impressive total of 19 goals in 39 games, which beat his previous record of 18 goals in the 2015-16 season at Bury, and that was enough to earn him a place in the PFA Championship Team of the Year.

After sitting in the automatic promotion places in early November, a disappointing second half of the season saw United finish in 10th place, and as Wilder strengthened his squad in the summer in pursuit of promotion, Clarke began to fall out of favour.

Clarke scored three goals in 26 games for the Blades in the first half of the 2018-19 season before being loaned out to Wigan Athletic, but his time in Lancashire did not prove to be fruitful as he netted just three times in 15 appearances.

United achieved promotion to the Premier League in Clarke's absence, and that certainly did not help his case for more game time, but despite being transfer-listed by the club after returning from his loan spell with the Latics, he remained at Bramall Lane in the top flight.

However, as expected, Clarke barely featured in the 2019-20 season, making just two appearances in the league and a further three in the cup competitions, and he was released at the end of the campaign when his contract expired.

Clarke's latter years in South Yorkshire may not have gone as well as he would have hoped, but the 40-year-old, who announced his retirement from football in May, will always reflect fondly on the 2017-18 season, particularly his heroics against Hull.