I've been a season ticket holder at Bramall Lane for 4 years now. In that time, I've seen some great footballers and some not so great footballers. This series will take a look at the various players that have pulled on the red and white of Sheffield United. Starting with the opening day fixture against Bristol City. Any players still with the club will not be covered. So, lets start with the goalkeeper Mark Howard.
Mark Howard Date of Birth: 21/09/1986 (31 years old at time of writing) Place of Birth: Southwark, England Playing position: Goalkeeper Teams played for before Sheffield United: Falkirk, St Mirren, Aberdeen, Blackpool Joined Sheffield United: 2012, on a free transfer Appearances/Goals for Sheffield United: 80/0 Teams played for after Sheffield United: Bolton Mark Howard joined Sheffield United from Blackpool after a successful trial period during the 2011/12 season and was used as cover for the number one at the time Steve Simonsen. (OH GOD WHY!!!!!!) Simonsen was released in the summer following play off failure against Huddersfield and so Howard became number one for the first half of the 2012/13 season and made his debut on the opening day against Shrewsbury Town. Howard however was injured against Leyton Orient and was replaced by George Long. Howard was unable to regain his place from Long and it remained that way until February of the following season when Howard was recalled against Fulham in the FA Cup and went on to have a fine second half of the season even setting a record in consecutive clean sheets during that period. After a successful end to 2013/14 season, Howard was rewarded with a one year contract extension. Howard remained as the undisputed number one during that season as United spluttered to a 5th place finish and play off defeat. The 2015/16 season ended up being Howard's last with the club and although he started the season as the number one, he was displaced by George Long after a 1-0 loss against Crewe on October 31st. At the end of the 2015/16 season, Howard left United and joined Bolton on a two year deal and he enjoyed a return to Championship football after finishing second in League One behind United. So, there we have it, a brief look at Mark Howard's career as a United player and a briefer look at where he is now. Next time, we'll be taking a look at Craig Alcock.
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What's this? A home game? After 3 weeks away from Bramall Lane, United will be taking on Nigel Clough's Burton Albion tommorow evening under the floodlights of our historic home ground. So since i last wrote, we've played twice with both games not really providing the results we needed in our push for the play offs. Lets start with the midweek defeat to Fulham.
After victory at Reading, United looked set to face tommorow's opponents at the Lane, however, due to a WWE PPV, that didn't happen so instead we played Fulham and had a bit of a break. You'd think the break would have done us some good? No. No it didn't. Fulham ran riot scoring 3 goals with a brace from Newcastle loanee Alexander Mitrovic and a goal from talented midfielder Tom Cairney put the Blades to the sword and left us off pace in the race for the play offs, anyway, enough about a defeat, lets talk about a 0-0 draw now shall we? After the Fulham defeat, United travelled to perennial mid table Championship team Ipswich Town looking to get the play off push back on track. We didn't really do that but a point is a point and it could be crucial in the grander scheme of things however, we should have put Ipswich to the sword. Wilder had to leave out Mark Duffy who had a slight muscle pull and so John Lundstram came in to take his place. This seemed a strange call be Wilder due to Ricky Holmes and David Brooks both being present on the bench. Leon Clarke was still injured and due to a drop off in form, Ched Evans made a first start for the Blades since Norwich at home back in the early stages of the season. Not much else to report really, so lets cover tommorow nights game. Burton Albion have once again struggled in the Championship and find themselves among the bottom teams of the division. Ever since their miraculous promotion to the Championship back in the 2015/16 season, Burton have overacheived by all accounts in staying in the division for as long as they have and credit must go to Nigel Clough in how he has managed to keep Burton in the second tier. Clough returns to the Lane for the second time since he left after a failed playoff bud in the 2014/15 season. Although Clough did get United away from relegation and almost got us into the playoffs and get us to an FA Cup semi final in his first half season, he struggled in his second season and although he guided us to a playoff place and almost got us to a Capital One Cup final, the football on show was largely negative during that first full season and in the grander scheme of things, United underacheived during that season. His sacking may have been a little quick with retrospect to what came after Clough was sacked, but at the time it seemed like Clough just couldn't get the players playing for him and it speaks volume that only two of the signings he made during that season are currently still at the club. Anyway, lets look at the last meeting between the two clubs. United were pushing for the automatic promotion places when we first met Burton this season and many have said that this game was the beginning of the end for our early season form because altough we won 3-1, we lost arguably our most influential player Paul Coutts in a horror injury suffered when Marvin Sordell made a studs up challenge on Coutts which left Coutts with a broken leg and effectively ended his season. Other than that, United were comfortable and goals from Billy Sharp and Leon Clarke were enough to beat Burton. However the game was overshadowed by the Coutts injury and it could be argued that United never really recovered from the Coutts injury. So, how do I see tommorow panning out? I see United coming out 3-0 winners with Sharp, Duffy (if fit) and Lee Evans getting the goals. The last time we played was Tuesday. That seems like a long time ago in the grand scheme of things. Since then, Britain had bad snow that was imaginatively named after a WWE Pay Per View and United's game with Burton Albion was called off due to the area around Bramall Lane looking like something from The Day After Tommorow. So, we did well on Tuesday though didn't we?
United got back to winning ways and put the dredge that was the game versus Hull behind them by beating Reading 3-1 with Billy Sharp notching another double and Mark Duffy scoring a wondergoal. The Blades didn't take long to assert themselves on the game with Sharp netting after initially shooting into the Reading keeper. The Blades continued to dominate and were rewarded with a goal of the season contender from Mark Duffy. Duffy picked the ball up on the left flank and took on the nearest defender and curled the ball into the top left hand corner. The Blades went in 2-0 up at the break but then Sheffield United did a Sheffield United after halftime... Within the first five minutes of the first half, Reading had pulled themsleves level. Simon Moore (replacing an injured Jamal Blackman after 20 minutes) palmed a cross from a Reading free kick into the path of the Reading striker and he tucked it home, Oh well, no clean sheet but it can't get worse, can it? Well, it did after Richard Stearman conceded a soft penalty allowing Reading a chance to draw level. Moore was equal to it though and more than made up for his earlier error. Then there was contoversy... Reading seemingly wanted to put the ball out of play so one of their players could recieve treatment for an injury however, the Reading player got up before the throw in was taken and as Reading half heartedly protested, John Fleck sent a wonderful ball forward to Sharp who vollyed it into the bottom right hand corner of the net to restore the Blades 2 goal advantage. Apart from that, the match ended with little else going off. The Blades put in a commanding performance and re entered the top six. Everything looked good going into the weekends game against Burton. Then it decided to snow. The Blades return to League action against Fulham and oh boy is it a bad time to play them. Fulham have had an amzing season thus far, spearheaded by their young prodigy Ryan Sessangon who has scored 7 goals in his last 8 games and scored a hat trick in the 5-4 game in the reverse fixture at the Lane. Ryan Sessangon is 17. He shouls be doing his A levels and instead he's playing Championship football on a regular basis with England's elite looking on and there are even calls he should be taken to the World Cup or at least called up for the next round of internationals. He's also a left back. Not only do Fulham have Sessangon, they also have Tom Cairney who was subject of some PremierLeague bids in January as well as Alexander Mitrovic who they signed on loan from Newcastle in January. So a dangerous team and one on form all could make for a tricky game on Tuesday. However, David Brooks, Ricky Holmes and James Wilson are all confirmed to be avaliable for the game which is a definite boost for the team especially Brooks. So how do i see this one panning out? I'll go for a 2-2 draw with Sharp getting a double. |
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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