The 1980-1981 season proved to the last campaign that saw Harry Haslam in charge at the club as the campaign proved to be a debacle for the Blades as they were humiliated in the third division, finishing the season off in an awful 21st position, in turn, relegating the club, for the first time into the forth division. Losing against their bitter local rivals, Sheffield Wednesday, in the first round of the league cup summed up their miserable campaign. Martin Peters took charge at the club for a few months as Ian Porterfield stood in after to take the full time job and with the players at their disposal, United were expected to breeze through the forth division. They finished the 1981-1982 season off as expected, top of the table, resulting in promotion back to the third division.
Keith Edwards was inspirational for the club through out the season in their automatic promotion winning campaign; They put on a brave performance against Arsenal in the second round of the league cup, losing by two goals to nil.
The 1982-83 season was a reasonable one for the Blades, adjusting back in to the third division, they finished the campaign off in 11th place.
The 1983-1984 season was a great success for the Blades as they were emphatic in the third division finishing the campaign off in 3rd position, in turn resulting in automatic promotion back into the second tier of English football.
In the summer of 1984 Brian Marwood signed for the club from Hull City moving to the club for £115,000 and it proved to be an inspirational signing, despite only managing to finish the season off in18th position back in the second division. They suffered heavy defeat in the third round of the FA Cup and League cup losing against Everton and Watford by 5-0 and 4-0 respectively.