Why, hello there! Fancy seeing you around here after so much time! What have you been up to? Have the kids been keeping well? How's the partner? How have I been? I've been alright, been ticking along whilst hoping that this lockdown really does take after the written rule of Hollywood franchises and finishes after the third film (fingers crossed it's more Dark Knight trilogy and not The Fast And The Furious). So, now the pleasantries are out of the way, let's talk about the reason why we're all here that being Sheffield United. Since the game against Plymouth, United have played 7(!) games with 3 wins and, of course, 4 losses. Over the course of this article, we'll do a very brief (not even brief(ish), that's just too much writing) reviews of every game we've played. Let's start with the frankly bonkers game against Man United at Old Trafford.
Game 1: Manchester United 1, Sheffield United 2 27th January 2021 Yes, you're reading that result correctly, Sheffield United did indeed get their second league win of the season and our first away league win of the season at the 'Theatre Of Dreams' (trademark Man United) against a Man United team that could have gone top of the division if they beat us. Who were the goal scorers I hear you cry? Bloody Kean Bryan and Oli Burke. As if the result was crazy enough as it is, the players who scored for us were the man who hadn't even played a league game for us until the 28th of November against West Brom (Bryan has been contracted at the club for THREE YEARS at this point and only made his first league appearance for us 2 years and 5 months into that contract being signed) and the lad who West Brom didn't want and swapped us him for Callum Robinson back in the summer. Not only that but Phil Jagielka wound back the clock and turned into prime Phil Jagielka with a defensive masterclass that saw him stop the likes of Rashford, Greenwood, Fernandes and Cavani from getting a clear shot on goal in the whole game. Even writing about this game now nearly a month after it happened, reading what I've just wrote sounds like something that you genuinely might have a vivid dream about it was that insane. But it really did happen and proved that even in this season of absolute drivel, United are more than capable of turning the status quo on it's head and reminding us all the we're not actually that bad a team. And just like that, there was a small glimmer of hope back in some United fans hearts. Game 2: Manchester City 1, Sheffield United 0 30th January 2021 Even though we lost this game by a very fine margin, we were still a little bit unlucky to come away with nothing from this game. United were behind within the opening ten minutes after we allowed Torres the opportunity to fall, and I cannot stress this point enough, on. His. Arse, get up, cross the ball into Jesus who was unmarked after Bash ran away from the ball and allowed the Brazilian to smash the ball past Rammers from point blank range. Well, back to the dredges again then. Actually no, we continued to contain City to no other real chances on goal throughout the rest of the 90 minutes and were about a foot away from a daunting trip to Manchester with 4 points instead of the expected none. John Fleck was the man who had Ederson flailing across his goal with a lovely strike from about 25 yards out that flashed wide of the post. So even though we lost, we once again showed a glimpse of the side that took the Premier League by storm next season, could we continue our little resurgence going into the next game against West Brom that could be crucial in deciding whether either team will have a chance of staying in the division come the end of the season? Game 3: Sheffield United 2, West Brom 1 2nd February 2021 We actually did! And for the first time since November we actually looked like we might be able to go above someone in the league table! We didn't start the game very well however though and on the cusp of half time, it was an ex-Blade who opened the scoring (out of the few that were playing for the Boiler men that evening) Matt Phillips powered home after some dodgy defending to make it look like we'd definitely not be able to catch anyone at all this season. But then we woke up in the second half and began to play like we had against Man United and Man City and began to ask questions of West Brom. The pressure paid off not long after the restart with arguably the breakout star of the season Jayden Bogle smashing home past Johnstone to get us back in the game. We continued to ask questions of West Brom and we were rewarded with a second goal scored by who else but Billy Sharp. He used all of his striker instincts to get on the end of an Egan knockdown and stab home from just in front of the six yard box and despite some late West Brom pressure, largely spearheaded by none other than Robert Snodgrass, we held on for a crucial three points that brought us up to the 11 point total that Derby set back in 2007/08 and, more importantly , brought us within a point of overtaking West Brom in the league standings. Game 4: Sheffield United 1, Chelsea 2 7th February 2021 After the relative excitement of the past three matches, we were due to be brought back down to earth and the game against Chelsea did that and then some. The bit of fight that we had against Man U, Man City and West Brom looked gone in this game with the score line flattering us and allowing the commentators around the country to continue their condescending stat about us losing the majority of our games by one goal despite us being pretty awful in all of the games we have lost by a goal. We managed to hold the Chelsea attack back until the cusp of halftime when Frank Lampard's favourite son Mason Mount hammered home past Rammers to give them a deserved lead. We came out looking a bit better in the second half and actually pulled a goal back in the most amusing of circumstances. Attempting to clear a pass from McGoldrick, Antonio Rudiger instead played a cool as you like pass past his goalkeeper Mendy with the ball slowly trickling into the left hand corner of the Kop end goal to give us an unlikely way back into the game. But just as we were celebrating that, Chelsea went straight up the other end with Werner going one on one with an onrushing Ramsdale. Rammers brought his man down and despite play continuing shortly after, the ref was told to look at the challenge on VAR and once he had a look he gave the penalty and Jorginho slotted home to give Chelsea the lead and we never really looked like scoring again after that. It was a disappointing result but at least we had the chance to enter the FA Cup quarter finals in midweek. Game 5: Sheffield United 1, Bristol City 0 10th February 2021 Despite being very bad in the league (to put it lightly) the FA Cup has really been a bit of a lifeline for United this season. We got our first win of the season in this competition and ever since that result, we've had a bit of a resurgence. So when the opportunity to get into the last 8 for the second season running came up, United looked like they were going to take it and after 70 odd minutes of the game we looked in firm control of the game, We'd just had a penalty converted by Sharp to put us 1 up and City had a man sent off after it was deemed Webster had denied a goal with his hand thanks to our old friend VAR. You'd think that after this sending off we'd take control of the game and aim to get a second. Well, we didn't. Instead, we looked terrified of a team that was spearheaded by Nakhi Wells. Despite some late pressure from Rovers, we managed to hold onto our victory and booked our place in the quarters were we'll be playing, of course, Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. Fingers crossed we turn up in that match more than we did in the league games this season. Game 6: West Ham 3, Sheffield United 0 15th February 2021 This was just depressing. We looked toothless, uninterested and just terrible as we allowed the beanz man himself to run as ragged as we lost convincingly against West Ham at the big bowl in London. Despite having an early positive in getting an offside from a penalty but then after that it was just a drubbing. West Ham got a penalty that Rice duly despatched to put us behind at half time and then in the second half we just imploded. Issa Diop scored a header from a corner, John Egan broke his toe and he's out for eight weeks and then Ryan Fredericks scored a bullet shot to really Old Yeller us and put us out of our misery. Game 7: Fulham 1, Sheffield United 0 20th February Jesus Christ it just gets worse. I compared us to Old Yeller before but this was much worse than that. This was like if you shot Old Yeller in the head and then just decided to keep on pumping rounds into it. Either that or like in the Simpsons with the 'stop, stop he's already dead' clip, yeah, that's probably more appropriate. We got battered by Fulham and we were lucky it was just one. Bash got injured, that's fun. We've now got none of our starting back three for a while potentially. It's depressing, I don't want to talk about it any more. I'm done. So we're all caught up, it started off quite nice and then it just got bad. Very bad. We've gone from having hope at the start of the month to once again having none at the end of it. But hey, at least we've won some games now. So, it's onto Liverpool at the weekend. Let's see how we do there. Until then, UTB.
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AuthorHi my name is John and i will be giving my thoughts on the blades matches and all blades related news in this section Archives
November 2022
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