The 'must win game' is a phrase banded about more and more in football vernacular, you could call it a football cliché (*wink* *wink*) alongside fellow phrases like 'relegation six pointer' or 'keeping their destiny in their own hands'. But United's game against Cardiff last Saturday was up there in regards to 'must win' games as we enter the final stretch of a season that looked dead from a United perspective at the start of the year. But now we're firmly entrenched in a battle for one of the last two play-off places left in the top six and with teams breathing down our neck, our indifferent form as of late needed a shot in the arm and we aimed to give it that shot as we took on Sean Morison's mid table Cardiff.
Only one change was made to the starting XI from Bristol City with Ben Osborn coming in for an injured George Baldock. Billy Sharp returned to the matchday 18 after a period out. For Cardiff, perennial United villain Aden Flint could only make the bench with the only other notable inclusion in their starting XI being former Preston and West Ham man Jordan Hugill. The game kicked off and for the first fifteen minutes, the game looked a lot like it would go the way of our last home game against Reading. United struggled to string passes together and couldn't really get out of our own half. Watters was barely challenged by Egan through the middle of the park as our centre back basically unclipped the proverbial velvet rope and let Watters have an unchallenged shot on goal that required a tidy stop from Wes with his feet. Foderingham was next to let Watters have another go at goal after his pass out from the back found the feet of the Cardiff forward just outside the 18 yard box. Watters laid the ball off to Hugill but good defensive work from Robinson eventually saw the ball cleared but it was two big let offs for The Blades. United woke up a bit after this and Ben Osborn saw a rasping drive from about 20 yards tipped behind by Phillips. United continued to probe and excellent play from MGW saw Berge clean through on goal with only the keeper to beat. Our big Norwegian brought down the ball but his poked finish just couldn't quite squeeze through Phillips legs. The game calmed down a bit after this opening salvo as both teams tried to build a clear chance. It would be United who would get the next good opportunity and it was that man Berge again testing Phillips with his effort from a tight angle forcing the Cardiff man into another good stop. The half came to a close not long after and after an initial scare, United began to look a little bit sharper at the end of the half. Cardiff made a couple of changes at the break with McGuinness and former Rotherham man Vaulks replacing Drameh and Ralls. Despite the changes, United would get the lead two minutes after the restart with good work on the right eventually seeing Gibbs-White put in a peach of a cross that Iliman Ndiaye powered home with a bullet header to send The Lane into raptures and giving the Frenchman his second goal in three games. There were a few minimal chances after this for both teams with the most notable being Berge winning us a corner that came to nothing and McGuinness flicking on a throw that Foderingham dealt with. Billy Sharp came on for Ndiaye and saw the next big flashpoint in the game after he brought down a Gibbs-White pass in the box and under pressure from the Cardiff defender went to ground but saw nothing given. It was the last incident of note in the game and as the final whistle blew, United secured a huge three points as we look to secure a place in the end of season play off lottery. It's been a week since this game but I don't think my opinion on our performance has changed much since then. It was a comfortable game for United and, aside from the first 15 minutes, we didn't really allow Cardiff a chance to threaten Wes or our backline. We probably should have had the game wrapped up before half time and Berge probably could have done better with at least one of his two chances in the opening exchanges. Overall, a very professional performance from our boys in red and white and it puts us in a position where if we win tonight against QPR, we can effectively seal a play off place before our season ender at home against Fulham next week. Whisper it quietly, but I'm feeling cautiously optimistic. Will that optimism be shattered come ten tonight? Maybe, but fingers crossed all goes well! Until next time, UTB.
0 Comments
Over lockdown, like most football fans I think, I got heavily invested in playing Football Manager. Over the course of the past two years, I've taken charge of teams like Curzon Ashton, Aldershot and most recently York City as I look to take them from the Vanarama North/South to the dizzying heights of the Football League. One of the most frustrating things in FM is when your team, usually on a good run of form, comes up against one of the teams in a division that is down at the bottom whilst your boys are challenging for promotion/the play-offs. What will happen 90% of the time is that you will absolutely batter the opponent with a load of shots and the lion's share of the possession but somehow, someway, you'll either lose the game narrowly or concede a 90th minute equaliser that leaves you wondering what would have happened had your boys taken the opportunities they made earlier in the game. This (long winded) metaphor perfectly encapsulates what happened on Monday tea time at Ashton Gate as United were left ruing missed opportunities against former bogey team (maybe they still are?) Bristol City. United had the opportunities to win but had to come from behind to get a scrappy point that fortunately still sees us with play off contention still in our hands but puts a hell of a lot more pressure on us to get maximum points from our last three games. Enough build up, let's take a look at the game.
Five changes were made from the XI that disgraced Bramall Lane on Friday with Berge, Robinson and Ndiaye coming on from the bench and after long injury lay offs, John Fleck and Chris Basham made long awaited returns to the Xi. City lined up with our old friend Andreas Weimann in the starting XI who has had a very decent season in a pretty poor Bristol City team scoring 18 goals in the league. United asserted themselves early doors with Norwood dragging a shot wide. The first real big opportunity of the game came after intricate passing play involving Basham, Ndiaye, Fleck and Gibbs-White saw the Wolves loanee hit a shot at Bentley in the Bristol City goal with The Robins keeper making himself big to deny Gibbs-White a tenth of the season. The United pressure continued and Berge broke through bodies and sent an effort from just outside the 18 yard box wide of the post. Baldock was set free by Norwood not long after but his stabbed lob over Bentley was eventually cleared before it could cross the line. The second good opportunity of the half came just before the half time whistle with more good work between Gibbs-White and Ndiaye saw our academy stand out in front of goal with just Bentley to beat but our young Frenchman blazed over the bar when it looked easier to score than miss. Stevens had a half chance just before the whistle blew for half time but despite the missed chances, surely it was just a matter of time before United opened the scoring? The deadlock was opened not long after the restart but, unfortunately, it wasn't United who opened the scoring, it was our hosts. Jack Robinson got on the end of a lovely Fleck cross but after Bentley stopped the header, he quickly sent Semenyo free on the right wing with Basham making a hash of defending the winger who duly brushed aside Bash, squared for Chris Martin who smashed the ball home past Foderingham and just like that, with their first attack of the game, we were one nil down despite all our attacking. Heads didn't really drop however and soon we were back on the attack looking for an equaliser. This did leave us stretched at the back and City did manage to get a few good shots off at Wes but none that looked like truly bothering him. United eventually did get our deserved goal and it came via another bit of magic from that man MGW. Stevens had a shot parried by Bentley with the ball in the air, Gibbs-White adjusted himself and scissor kicked the ball into the empty net to get his tenth of the season. Bizarrely, this didn't see us kick on and win the game. Instead, we regressed a little bit and both teams seemed to be fairly content with the point and an exiciting game petered out into a 1-1 draw. Nahki Wells probably had the best chance of the final 15 but he put his effort wide and as the clock wound down we managed to secure the point and keep in 6th but there was a real sense of what could have been had we taken our chances. Performance wise, this was leagues above how we performed on Friday with our first half performance probably being the best we've played for a while, possibly since Boro. But the main problem with this game has been a general problem for the majority of the season which is our inability to take the chances we create. We should have been out of sight before the half time whistle blew but our lack of a clinical finisher beside Sharp really has hurt us a lot this season. Hopefully, we address this either in the summer or Brewster continues to show his ability to find the back of the net like he was just before his injury when he comes back. But all in all, it was a positive performance from the boys and was a decent response from the debacle of Friday. It would have been nice to have won but that's done now. Now we look forward to Saturday and the visit of Cardiff to The Lane. It's a big one, let's get that win. Until next time, UTB. Have you ever been to a restaurant and felt like you've eaten too much after ordering three courses? This isn't an attempt to veer the blog into producing more #relatable content, I think that feeling of being bloated and tired after eating food is the best way to describe our three matches against QPR, Bournemouth and Reading. It started well with a commanding victory against the R's, hen we got to the main course of entertaining but frustrating draw against Bournemouth then we got to the tired, disinterested, bloated loss against Reading on Friday. Right, let's have a go at reviewing this three course match serving.
Match 1: VS QPR This match was a while ago now, or it feels like a while ago (just shy of two weeks, that's pretty long isn't it?) Due to this match being a while ago I've forgot a lot of what happened apart from the goal from Oli Norwood within the first ten minutes after a well worked corner routine involving Fleck and Baldock which Norwood despatched past Westwood to ultimately give us the win and the three points. Despite the 1-0 score line, it was a pretty easy game for United and we managed to restrict QPR to not many chances whilst we tried to probe for more goals, Morgan Gibbs-White might have missed a good opportunity in this game after good footwork to get in the box, that might have happened in this game? Maybe not? Oh well, we won, we looked decent, that's all that matters. Match 2: VS Bournemouth A crucial match in the race for promotion and the play-offs was next with the visit of second place AFC Bournemouth to The Lane. This match can best be described as the perennial 'fantastic advert for the division' with United being very unlucky to not come away with the three points after Morgan Gibbs-White was denied twice by Mark Travers in the Bournemouth net. Before these two chances, Bournemouth nearly helped us out a bit with a header going narrowly behind Travers goal and an attempted clearance slamming onto the crossbar. John Fleck felt he needed to repay Bournemouth's generosity just after halftime with a whipped cross across his own box that almost nestled into the bottom corner of Wes's net. The big controversy of the game came in the last ten minutes when MGW was hacked down in the box which the linesman gave as a penalty but the better placed referee didn't despite Gibbs-White being kicked by Nat Phillips with the Liverpool loanee getting nowhere near the ball. Disappointing? Absolutely, but surely this good performance would be followed up against Reading? Match 3: VS Reading I don't want to talk a lot about this game because we were just the absolute pits. We never looked bothered about trying to win this game and until Ndiaye got our equaliser in the 90th minute we never looked like scoring. Reading were well worthy of the win and it wouldn't have been a fair reflection of the game if we did manage to get a point. That doesn't mean I'm not annoyed we didn't defend for literally two minutes but it is what it is. We were bad, Reading weren't, let's just leave it at that yeah? It all looked so positive against QPR but now after the loss against Reading, everything is looking a bit more precarious. We had a chance to ensconce ourselves in the play-off picture but now we're clinging on a bit. Our run in isn't too bad compared to teams around us but we'll probably need to go unbeaten from now until the end of the season to ensure we get in. Can we do it? Let's hope so. Until next time, enjoy Bristol if you're going today and, as ever, UTB. |
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
Categories |