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Blades family jet in from down under for Wembley

David Spereall
BBC News, Yorkshire
Tony Donnellan Three men sat in a pub. The one on the left is in his twenties and holding his drink aloft. The man in the middle is in his seventies and has a pint of beer next to his left arm on the table. The man on the right, who is taking the photo, is in his fifties.Tony Donnellan
Jack, Tom and Tony Donnellan flew into London on Thursday

Three generations of one Sheffield United family have flown 10,000 miles from Australia to watch their team's Championship play-off final.

Tony Donnellan, along with his dad Tom and son Jack, touched down at Heathrow on Thursday, ahead of the Blades' match against Sunderland at Wembley on Saturday.

Tom emigrated from South Yorkshire to Perth in 1982 when Tony was aged just eight.

But the family always kept in touch with their roots and remained Sheffield United ers down under.

While 76-year-old Tom managed to get to a game at Bramall Lane two years ago, Tony has not been back to the UK for 43 years. Jack, who is 23, is visiting his dad's native country for the first time.

Tony, 51, said: "I'm just buzzing. It's unbelievable to be here and we can't wait for the game.

"We always said if we made it to a final at Wembley we'd come back for it. My old man thought he'd missed the boat, but when we got to the final I said to him, "get packing".

"The first pub we got into in London was full of Sunderland fans so we had to bail out of that one pretty quickly! It was all red-and-white, but the wrong sort of red-and-white!"

Tony Donnellan Three men sat in a public venue of some description. The one on the left is in his seventies, has white hair and a beard and is wearing a blue shirt. The man in the middle is in his twenties and wearing a white t-shirt.. The man on the right is in his fifties and wearing a black t-shirt.Tony Donnellan
The trio follow the Blades from down under

Tom, who was a welder by trade, took his family to Australia as industry in Sheffield hit hard times in the early 1980s.

Tony then followed his dad into welding and even ended up becoming his father's boss.

Although following their team's results was hard in the early years after they emigrated, the internet and technological advances made it easier more recently.

"When we first went to Australia we obviously couldn't watch any of the games, but now we can get SUTV (Sheffield United's in house TV channel) over there," Tony added.

"I've started to follow the (Sheffield United-ing) Blades Ramble podcast in the last couple of years and you feel a bit more engaged with it now, because you're part of a community rather than just watching games by yourself at three o'clock in the morning.

"My old man lives in a part of Perth called Little England and he goes drinking with some of the Pommie couples who live around there, so we still feel connected to England."

Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.

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