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We knew before we got there that we were without Clarke Carlisle, and as the players warmed up there was no sign of Chris McCann either, nor Jay Rodriguez, whilst Alex MacDonald was there.
We'd worked out the team during the warm up, but suddenly as the teams came out there was Steven Thompson on the pitch but no Michael Duff. Who was going to play centre half? Who would the full backs be? There seemed no logical way of fitting the eleven players into a formation.
But with Wade Elliott at right back we sort of found ourselves a 4-4-2 formation against a strong Sheffield United side, and given our record here I think most of us suspected this could be a long and unproductive day.
Within the first couple of minutes the Blades had the ball in the net through Billy Sharp only for it to be ruled offside. Was it? Apparently not, but at the time no one cared, and in any case the error strewn assistant referee was to more than make up for it later in the half.
James Beattie then hit a shot wide and that was 1-0 to the Burnley fans in their vocal battle with former Blackburn striker Beattie, I'll leave it to your imagination to work out what they were singing but as a clue it started, "You'll always be."
It wasn't all one way, anything but. Chris Eagles almost got through and then, amazingly we took the lead. It came from a corner taken by Robbie Blake that was headed on by Steven Thompson. That's what we saw from the away end before seeing the ball go into the net, with Martin Paterson finding the net for his fifth goal since coming on a week last Monday at Barnsley.
Eagles came within a whisker of making it 2-0 whilst at the other end Beattie was doing his level best to get his own back on the Burnley fans by constantly blasting balls at us. I think he was shooting but they were certainly causing those sat in the lower tier of the Bramall Lane end stand more problems than they were Brian Jensen.
That was until just over ten minutes before half time. They got the ball towards Billy Sharp who went down in a clash with Brian Jensen. The assistant immediately stuck his flag across his chest and referee Anthony Taylor duly obliged by pointing to the spot.
The Burnley players were not too happy with the decision to put it mildly, but there was no way it was going to be changed and Beattie sent Jensen the wrong way to bring the scores level.
Thankfully they weren't level for long. This time the referee was pointing to the penalty spot at the other end as Eagles went down from a challenge from Gary Naysmith. Tyrone Dobbs, without his cheap perfume today, went the right way but hadn't a hope of saving Graham Alexander's spot kick. So back in front, and as we went in at half time we fully deserved that 2-1 lead.
The home side made a change before the second half got underway, bringing on David Cotterill for Greg Halford, but it was the Clarets who started the brighter in the second half with Eagles and Paterson both coming close.
With no sign of getting back into the game, Blackwell made a double substitution just past the hour. On came Anthony Stokes and Darius Henderson who is a forward version of defender Chris Morgan.
It made little difference as the Clarets continued to have more than their fair share of the play, but there was a surprise for us when Owen Coyle made his first change with just over twenty minutes to go. Robbie, having had another excellent game, made way with Alex MacDonald coming on for his first appearance of the season.
Sheffield United put us under some pressure and had a series of corners. From one Jensen got his judgement wrong as he came and got nowhere near. But from the resulting header it was Joey Gudjonsson on the line to sensationally head clear to keep the lead intact.
That lead almost immediately doubled. Chris Eagles, who was playing as well as I've seen him in a Burnley shirt, scored a superb third for Burnley, and do you know this is the first time in 89 years that we've scored three against them away from home?
Eagles took the ball forward before hitting a low shot past Kenny right into the bottom corner. He hadn't a hope of getting near it and at that point United didn't look to have a hope of getting anything out of the game.
They did go at us, as you would expect, but we held firm until two minutes from the end. A free kick just outside the box was hit into the corner by Stephen Quinn and we thought we might just have a worrying last few minutes.
Referee Taylor, who for me had a decent game overall, added four minutes on but we got through them with no difficulty at all and finally, after a 35 year wait, the points were ours.
I've seen some very good performances from us this season, and not just in the Carling Cup, but I think this was the best of the lot. Given the circumstances and the team we had to put out it was a fantastic achievement to come away with all three points.
As a fan you can ask that the players give you a committed performance, and they did that today and more. Each and every one of them must have been shattered at the end.
Again, as it was on Tuesday, it seems almost unfair to name a man of the match. In the end I had three candidates, the two central defenders and Eagles, with Jordan getting my vote just ahead of the other two.
A few minutes before kick off Stephen Jordan thought he was playing left back. To then move into the centre of defence alongside Caldwell and turn in that sort of performance was fantastic and I would say he played every bit as well as he did in the Arsenal win.
But this was another team performance, and no wonder they got yet another fantastic reception from our fans at the end. "Are you Arsenal in disguise?" we sang at the home side, which was then quickly changed to "Are you Chelsea in disguise?" before Fulham got a mention.
I'd prefer to remember it being Sheffield United, and finally breaking that long run and beating them on their own ground.
You were brilliant today Burnley, just brilliant.
The teams were;
Sheffield United: Paddy Kenny, Kyle Naughton, Matthew Kilgallon, Chris Morgan, Gary Naysmith, Greg Halford (David Cotterill 45), Matthew Spring (Anthony Stokes 62), Brian Howard, Stephen Quinn, Billy Sharp (Darius Henderson 62), James Beattie. Subs not used: Ugo Ehiogu, Danny Webber.
Burnley: Brian Jensen, Wade Elliott, Steven Caldwell, Stephen Jordan, Graham Alexander, Chris Eagles, Joey Gudjonsson, Kevin McDonald, Robbie Blake (Alex MacDonald 68), Martin Paterson (Ade Akinbiyi 85), Steven Thompson. Subs not used: Diego Penny, Remco van der Schaaf, Alan Mahon.
Referee: Anthony Taylor (Wythenshawe).
Attendance: 24,702.