This is de riguer now, Football is busy, I've been busy, let's just review the games since Derby.24/10/2021 This won't be as extensive a game round up of days gone, no, there won't be any five or six game streaks reviewed in this article. I'm proud(?) to say that there will only be three games covered in this round up! Yay! Are you happy with that? There won't be six big block paragraphs of thoughts and feelings to trawl through! Only three, I will briefly cover the games I didn't see but they won't be as in depth as the games that I have seen. Is that all good? Brilliant, let's get on with the review!
A Brief(ish) Review Of Middlesbrough and Bournemouth To be honest, I'm quite happy that I didn't watch these two matches because we lost them both with the game against Boro being one that we lost in quite convincing fashion. Yes, after the euphoria of the last minute winner against Derby, a ghost of Sheffield United past came back to haunt us a couple of days after our win with Neil Warnock once again getting a win over the club that he supports. Goals from Duncan Watmore and Paddy McNair in the first half were enough to keep Neil happy for once and may have kept him in a job due to some pressure on him in the build up. We do treat our past employees well, don't let anyone else tell you otherwise. A few days later, we visited high flying Bournemouth in our final game before the October international break and despite a spirited performance where we took the lead via Morgan Gibbs-White and probably should and could have scored more, a very (and I mean VERY) generous penalty call that led to Dominic Solanke almost losing 3/4 of his leg hair in a tackle outside of the box saw the ex Liverpool and Chelsea man dust himself off and slot home. A few moments later Bournemouth had a second with Phillip Billing getting the winner and despite late efforts from McBurnie and Mousset United were condemned to a second defeat and the momentum that was built after the international break appeared to have been lost. Game 1: VS Stoke City (2-1) Our first game after the October international break saw us recording a win! It wasn't as bombastic and stylish as our win against Peterborough but it was a win none the less. After a rather dull first half that made watching the grass growing world cup seem like a pulse pounding Edgar Wright film, United went behind ten minutes into the second half after ex Barnsley (and Wednesday trainee) man Jacob Brown made space for himself just inside the 18 yard box and duly slamming home past Olsen with his Paolo Rossi-lite celebration going down well with The Potters fans in the Bramall Lane end but seemed a bit excessive with 35 minutes of the game left and, thankfully, when David McGoldrick was introduced with about 15 minutes left it did look very excessive. McGoldrick changed the course of the game. His build up play and eventual pass for Mousset's equaliser was top class and few minutes after that he stabbed home from close range in front of The Kop to leave us in dreamland and The Potters in disbelief. It was the best substitute appearance at The Lane for a long time and reminded everyone how class and how good David McGoldrick is and the difference that he can still make to our team. It was a quality appearance from a quality player Game 2: VS Millwall (1-2) Well... what did we ever do to Jake Cooper? I'd love to know because this man is up there with Daniel Johnson and Amadou Bakayoko in the 'opponents that always seem to score against Sheffield United' hall of fame. In a game that saw a 'did he mean that?' Goal from Jed Wallace and a performance from United that can best be described as dire. We actually did have a fair few opportunities to win this game out right which makes the late thunder cracker from Cooper all the more infuriating to have conceded. Billy Sharp manged to get our equaliser from the spot on the cusp of half time but we should have had our equaliser a few minutes before that when David McGoldrick was played one on one with Bialkowski which the Championship stalwart keeper manged to produce a very good save to deny Dave a second goal in three days. After the restart, United began positively and should have scored and I mean SHOULD have scored when a ball in from Osborn saw McGoldrick having to tap the ball in from about two yards out, he was practically in the net himself. Somehow, someway, Dave spooned the ball high over the ball and almost hit the roof of The Kop. It has to be up there with the Sammon miss against Blackpool in 2015. That's when it all started going wrong. Morgan Gibbs-White was sent off not long after that for a perceived dive in the box after feeling pressure from a Millwall man. After that, it was more or less about absorbing pressure and trying to hit Millwall on the break which we did try a few times and had it not been for another terrific save from Bialkowski from an Ndiaye effort, we could be talking about a win rather than a loss but then it happened. With one of the last kicks of the game, centre back Jake Cooper got the ball 25 yards out from goal, took aim, and ploughed the ball past Olsen to give The Wall a last gasp winner and condemn us to a defeat that despite our good chances in the game, was just about what we deserved. A very, very disappointing night. Game 3: VS Barnsley (2-3) The last game of this stretch and it was a win but bloody hell did we make hard work of it but then when is it not hard work with United? After a fairly drab first half where our best efforts were two tame efforts from Mousset, our mercurial Frenchman proved to be our star of the second half with a quickfire double that quickly asserted ourselves in the second period. Mousset's first was a reminder of how good he can be at this level if he manages to keep fit with him blazing past a Barnsley defender, cutting back in then curling home from just outside the box. It was a wonderful goal and then two minutes later he had his second with Osborn putting in a pinpoint cross that Moose sent into the roof of the net. It was the least we deserved after our fast start. 20 minutes later, it appeared that we had the goal that would kill the game dead when a Baldock cross(!) found Ben Osborn who duly slammed home in front of a raucous travelling support to make it 3-0 with 18 minutes left. How could we throw this one away? Well, we certainly tried our hardest to do just that. Six minutes after our third, ex United target and son of Andy, Devante Cole managed to muscle off our centre backs and scooped the ball up into the air and slammed home to reduce arrears. 4 minutes later and it was unbelievably 3-2 with Leya Iseka powering past some very cookie cutter defending to set up a nervy finish with 8 minutes left. Despite late pressure, United did manage to hold on and secure a win in the first meeting of the local sides. It was the definition of a Jekyll and Hyde performance but we got the three points which sets us up nicely for the visit of Blackpool next week. You can't say we're not a dull side to watch this season. Screamers, last minute goals, sending offs and occasional fast paced football have all happened in the last 3-5 games that we've just spoken about. Even though it might be entertaining for the neutral, the only consistent thing about United this season has been our inconsistency. We'll win a game, then we'll lose a game it's a pattern that might've been OK had this been our first season back in the Championship under Wilder but being a team relegated from the Premier League that have spoken all summer about the end goal being getting back in that division come August 2022, this form does not scream 'promotion contenders' does it? Jokanovic and his players really need to start buckling down and start to chain some wins together because the hindered pre season line and the lack of time being together really shouldn't still be an issue now we're two months and 14 games into the season. Thanks to the nature of the Championship, we're still only three points off of the play off places and 11 off the automatics so if we can get those aforementioned wins going, we could be in contention sooner rather than later and this stodgy start to the campaign could soon be forgotten. But we seriously need those chain of wins to start or we could just become what we've been these first 14 games. An average team that shows flashes of brilliance but just doesn't have the nous to trouble the top six. Time will tell to see what type of team we will become. Until next time, 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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