Usually after a United match, I'll write a semi-humorous (I use that term extremely loosely) review on the game that's just happened. Today, United played London City Lionesses in a league fixture in front of 11,137 fans. Yeah, you read that correctly, United smashed the record for an FA Championship game that either us or Liverpool set last year. For the second tier of women's football, that's an incredible turnout. The support for United has been incredible those this season, we've regularly had over a thousand fans through the turnstile every week this season. It's been incredible to see and be a part of. But enough about attendances, what am I actually here to talk about? That, dear reader, would be the possibility of our women's team becoming professional because let's face it, it's something that we should seriously be considering.
For the past four years, United have been a fixture in the second tier of women's football in this country. During that time, we've had a fantastic record of more or less finishing in the top half of the table despite us being a part time team, heck, in our second season in the league we finished second and had a chance to go up had the season not been curtailed by Covid. We've had very good times in the Championship, we've taken scalps, we've battered teams, we've taken games to teams on paper no one gave us a sniff of getting anything out of. We've done it all. But last season the top half finish finished, narrowly I might add, as we finished 7th. At the end of that season, a lot of key players left. Fran Kitching, Georgia Robert, Kasia Lipka, Sophie Bradley-Auckland, Lucy Watson. All key players in the past few seasons and they're not the first to leave. Sam Tierney, Jade Pennock, Kate Wilkinson, Sophie Barker (the first time) all moved on, usually to top tier teams. It's frustrating, but that's just football, isn't it? The real frustration is that we didn't get a fee for any of those players to reinvest into our squad to try and have another crack at promotion because we're part time. By the way, please don't take me listing those players as me holding a grudge against them leaving, I'm thrilled for them, genuinely, they've all got an incredible chance to go an earn a living doing what they love and testing themselves against some of the best footballers in the country. Anyone who would be offered that chance would jump at it. My gripe is solely with United and perhaps our owners to an extent. As time has passed in the FA Women's Championship, more and more teams have become professional. Whether that be by dropping down from the WSL or just by betting on themselves and securing themselves against player sales whilst at the same time giving players the chance to earn a living from football. Teams like Durham City and today's opposition London City Lionesses have taken that jump as fully independent teams which is incredible and full credit to them for being able to offer that. You've then got the league affiliated clubs with teams like Palace, Charlton and Bristol City all offering full time deals to players. It's all good stuff and should be championed. Then you have Sheffield United. We've been in the division for a while and have had some encouragement in regard to us wanting to get into the WSL and compete with the big teams. So, why is the biggest thing we've done in those five years be to move back to Sheffield after an extended stay outside of our city boundaries? Don't misconstrue that as a bad thing, it's not, it's a brilliant thing and it's allowed families the ability to get down to The Lane and finally get a chance to see a team that runs itself into the ground for the red and white stripes in a more accessible location than Chesterfield. Our promotion of our women's team has been very good over the past few years, they always get a plug on Saturday's and our last record setting attempt at The Lane and our willingness to host Euro games over the summer is genuinely fantastic and I love that our women's team actually feels like a part of the club this year. But why aren't we a professional outfit yet? We're a big club at this level, or at least we should be. So why is it that League 1 Charlton Athletic can find change to offer full time contracts but Championship outfit Sheffield United can't? It's not a particularly good look that a team a league below us can offer that security to players but we can't. Another thing, when was the last time our owner actually went to a women's game and had a look at the effort and hard work that the team put in? Does Neil Redfearn actually have any contact with our owner? What happened to the plans to have our owner's daughter involved in the women's team? Why are our Continental Cup games against WSL opposition being moved to Scunthorpe when they have the potential to be big money earners for the club? If anyone wants to answer those questions, please get in touch. I think I've gotten away from the point I originally wanted to make but I'll try and put it more concisely here. We need to go professional if we're serious about getting out of this league. It's as simple as that. These players, many of whom who've been here for those five years, players like Maddy Cusack and Alethea Paul who absolutely buy in to everything that this club stands for and leave everything on the pitch week after week after week. Players like Bex Rayner who the ball just seems to stick to like glue as she picks apart defences like a master lockpicker. Players like Ellie Wilson and Naomi Hartley who are not only wicked tough defenders but who represent themselves and the Rainbow Blades impeccably and offer the community two shining beacons of professionalism and proof that you can do anything no matter what. I could name check them all, because they all offer so much and deserve the chance to be able to be professional footballers, whether they've done it before or not. What needs to be emphasised more than most is that we risk losing these incredible players the longer we stay semi pro. Sheffield United need to be a team that players want to come to and stay at for the long run. It already is to an extent with Barker and Hartley both coming back after stints away. We need to be able to compete not just at this level but at the next level and being semi pro just doesn't allow us to do that. We didn't receive transfer fees for Watson or any of the players I mentioned earlier. If we had, we could have used those to improve our squad further or put money towards improving our already impressive RTC centre that continues to provide a conveyor belt of talent with Mia Enderby, Charley Docherty, Chene Muir and Tamara Wilcock being the latest graduates from an initiative that does so much for our team but also our community. It provides young players that opportunity to get that foot in the door at a club that welcomes an injection of youth. We need to protect that going forward and funds would provide that. The longer United stay semi pro, the less chance we have to progress as a team and that would be such a shame. It's honestly such a massive pleasure to be able to watch this bunch of players in red and white because you can tell they care. The camaraderie shines through like a lighthouse in the dead of night and the amount of happiness they bring to the young people who come to watch them is heart-warming. Every week, Sophie Barker is at the front of the South Stand either having chats with fans in the stand or the ball girls at pitch side. But it's not just Sophie, they are all incredible with the fans. Be it signing autographs and taking pictures after games or sitting down with kids at games like CSK did against Sunderland in the Conti Cup last year. These moments mean so much to those young people and are things they probably won't forget. These players are helping to create a community that makes everybody feel included no matter who you are or what you do. They're incredible representatives of this club and the least the deserve is the opportunity to be able to play the game they love full time. Thank you for reading this slightly different post-match review. I'll see you all again at some point soon. As ever, UTB.
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Much like the game against Coventry, was it? I probably will be keeping to the brief part of the title of this piece because I don't want to talk about last night too much because of how godawful it was. So, let's get on with the review.
For the first time in an eternity, United were unchanged from our last game with no one from the previous game actually getting injured. A novelty I'm sure you'll agree. Would that stay the same as we got to the end of the game? Of course it didn't. John Fleck went down injured after twenty minutes and we had to bring on McAtee. You may have noticed that I've just completely glossed over the first twenty minutes of the game. John, I hear you bellow through your computer screen, that's a hell of a long time that you've just ignored, surely there's something you can write about? And I'll answer that question with one of mine own, do you remember anything that happened in that first twenty? I don't think so, and don't go consulting OneFootball. Very little happened in this football game apart from the ball being launched from one end of the pitch to another. McBurnie confused the Rotherham defence with a tapped shot that actually allowed him the chance to get a better shot off on goal, then he hit a pearoller at Johansson before we could all call him a misunderstood genius. Anyway, it looked like it was going to one of the most tepid halves of football at The Lane in a while, until we cocked up and let Rotherham score an easy goal. Egan and Robinson both gravitated to Ogbene like moths to the flame with neither tacking the man who simply rolled the ball to Wiles with the freedom of The Kop to place a shot past Wes and give Rotherham a lead. That was genuinely that for the first half. Nothing else of note happened and it didn't change after the break. Will I still write about it. Yeah sure. Nothing happened apart from Egan forcing Johannson into a good save about two minutes after the restart and that was it as far as good chances for United went in the second period. Rotherham made us look like amateurs and should have had a second from a free kick that was claimed by Wes. Thankfully, that didn't happen, and we just lost by one goal which was nice of us to do. To be fair, there was one positive about this match and that was some visitors we had from Taiwan in Taichung Blue Whale. They were taking pictures in John Street before kick-off and, my goodness, what a fantastic badge they have. I have not thought of anything else all day and that's serious. The badge has A WHALE EATING A FOOTBALL ON IT. It's ace, I love it. It's a top ten football badge for sure. If anyone from Taichung Blue Whale would like to send me a flag with the badge on it, please get in touch because I love it. I love the whale. United? Really bad yeah, not good, really need to improve against Cardiff on Saturday, don't we? Yeah, yeah, we do. Well, that's your lot, I'll see you sometime next week for the Cardiff review (if a stream can be found) if not, I'll see you for the review of United vs London City Lionesses, get down to that if you can, be well good. tickets available here Buy Tickets: Sheffield United Ticketing (sufc.co.uk). Until next time, UTB. Some may say that Saturdays are made for dads, but on the early afternoon of Bonfire Night 2022, Saturday was made for Sheffield United as we proceeded to 'Ryan Gosling during the elevator scene in Drive' a table topping Burnley side that were unbeaten in 16 before visiting The Lane. It was scintillating, it was spectacular, it was all the words that Lady Gaga says in the popular meme format (you know the one) as United continued our mini resurgence back towards the top end of the table. It's been a couple of days but I'm sure all Blades don't mind reminiscing about the weekend for just a little bit longer? We're all agreed then? Good stuff let's get on with the review.
Three changes were made from the midweek win against Bristol City as, for the first time in forever, we had players in their preferred positions. Stevens, McBurnie and Anel all returned to the starting XI and McBurnie would have a couple of headers narrowly miss the target as Muric in the Burnley goal struggled with our aerial threat (more on this later). Despite our good start, Burnley would be the ones to open the scoring with our lack of closing down the dangermen being our undoing. A half-cleared corner was worked back to Benson Manuel who's curled effort on goal was diverted past Foderingham by the forehead of Jack Robinson. It was disappointing after we made a decent start, and we did try and get an equaliser with McBurnie again going close with his deflected effort from a Stevens shot forcing a clearance on the line. Burnley could have had a second from corner with more poor defending allowing Harwood-Bellis a free header on goal that just floated over the bar as the game went a bit end to end. On the half hour mark, United would have the goal that our early pressure warranted, and it was that man Iliman Ndiaye who kneed home after a McBurnie knockdown from a corner for his ninth of the season. After this however, Burnley went straight up the other end and perhaps should have had a second. A quick break eventually saw the ball worked to Zaroury with the Burnley man free as a bird, but his effort was straight at Wes. Maatsen was next to test Foderingham with a stinging effort seeing Wes at full stretch to tip the ball onto the bar. It looked like we would be heading to the break all level, and then Jack Robinson decided he wanted to be Paolo Maldini. Wes chucked the ball to Robbo who tried jinking past Manuel to comical effect with the Burnley man dispossessing JLT and slotting past Wes to give them the lead going into the half time break. It was a very disappointing end to a half where we more than matched Burnley. Indvidual errors cost us massively. How would we respond after the break? It turns out, we'd just come out a thrash Burnley who were shellacked like government mule in the second half. Three minutes after the restart and we were back on terms with our set piece prowess (ha!) causing more problems. A Robinson throw was cleared back to Robbo whose cross reached Anel with our Bosnian blade knocking the ball back across the six-yard box for McBurnie to turn past Muric with a diving header. The blue touch paper had been lit and it now looked like only one team would win the game from here on in. McBurnie had another header saved not long after his first and Anel even busted out an overhead kick that narrowly went wide of the post. Just after the hour, United would take the lead after another set piece caused chaos in the Burnley Kop with Anel clanging the crossbar with a header that bounced around the box and eventually deflected off of Jack Robinson and looped into the goal for the lead. Very pleased that Robbo got the goal and played a massive part in our second half resurgence after he had a tough first half to say the least. The pressure continued and so did the set pieces with Anel and McBurnie both forcing Muric into last ditch stops to stem the flow. The tide could not be stemmed for long, and we had a fourth as we entered the final twenty minutes! Another corner was half cleared to Osborn who sent an effort flying towards goal that was blocked but only as far as Anel who slammed home to put us firmly in charge. The turnaround was finally completed minutes later when a scything ball from Norwood saw Baldock clean through on goal. Our Greek international failed to turn the ball home but Muric's save only deflected as far as McBurnie who slotted home to give us a fifth and give full justification to a game that was turning into a mauling. As we entered the final phase of the game, United relented a little but still nearly had a sixth when Ndiaye saw an effort go narrowly wide after Norwood laid a ball into the box. Burnley did rally a little bit as they looked for a consolation with Harwood-Bellis going close with a header that Wes made a smart save from. The consolation didn't come however, and the final whistle came as the Bramall Lane faithful applauded and serenaded our boys after they made top of the league look very, very ordinary. Astounding. After the return from the international break where we couldn't buy a win for love nor money, we now go into tomorrow's game against Rotherham on the back of three wins and annihilating a team that up to this point had strolled the league. It was scintillating football from The Blades and the five goals flattered Burnley with Muric making some good saves to keep the score down. Our pressing was fantastic, and our set pieces were spot on which is something that we don't often get to say as United fans. To be fair actually, our set piece play has been decent this year and it's another arrow in our quiver as we gather weapons for the assault on the top two. But this was just brilliant. Bramall Lane was rocking, and the team reciprocated with a great performance. More of the same on Tuesday? We can only dream, but we with see. Until next time, UTB. Our problem a lot of the time is that we're sometimes too nice as a football team. It seems like every season at The Lane, we get at least one match where we lose by the odd goal against a team we dominate but just simply cannot score a goal whilst our opposition get the goal then tap into the dark art of football shithousery. This can be players going down injured, needless timewasting whether at throw ins or goal kicks, it's very frustrating and I've probably complained about teams doing this to us countless times in the 5(!) years that I've written these articles. It's a tactic I never thought I'd see United employ because we're. Just. Too. Nice. Then last night happened and my God, it was beautiful. We went to the quintessential Southern city of Bristol in the pouring rain and shithoused our way to a second away win in 3 days. Dear reader, are you prepared to revel in the sweet, sweet nectar of our dirty, filthy victory that we got last night? know you are, so let's get cracking with the review.
Four changes were made from the weekend's win over West Brom with Wes returning from suspension, Robinson coming in for Anel due to his suspension and Sharp and Khadra coming in so Doyle and McBurnie could have a rest which is nice isn't it? Ciaran Clark also made a welcome return to the matchday 18. Our hosts started quickly and had a couple of efforts that didn't really threaten Wes in our goal. United would be the team to have something resembling a solid attempt on goal when quick work from a throw set Illi free down the wing with his whipped cross finding Sharp whose weak header was easy pickings for O'Leary. The match became a war of attrition after this with the weather turning worse. Nahki Wells (he's still playing?) sent an effort wide after a corner and sent a header over the bar but it would take until minutes before the half time break for either team to have a proper attempt on goal that looked dangerous. Bristol City would be the ones to go close with some good interplay seeing our serial tormenter Andreas Weimann striking the bar with a whipped effort from just outside the box kissing the top of the bar. There were a couple more half chances for the hosts as the half ended but a pretty ugly half of football ended all square as both teams went back to the changing rooms to try and dry themselves off a bit and try and change something to unlock a game that was offering very little. The game would be unlocked five minutes after the restart, and it would be United and that man Iliman Ndiaye who would get the opening goal! Some nice build up play on the left saw James McAtee loft a ball into the box that Billy Sharp forced Vyner to knock onto the back post for our Senegalese star boy to nip in before O'Leary could claim the ball, knock it home and send the away end into raptures as Illi had his eighth goal of the season. It might have been against the run of play but who cares? We were winning and that's all that matters. United perked up a bit after this and more good play from Ndiaye saw him dance around the City box and send a low curling effort that O'Leary got down well to save. After this however, Bristol City were the ones looking more likely for a goal and the aforementioned shithousery started. Alex Scott appeared to have been possessed by prime Jack Grealish in this game as he had a couple of mazy runs that we just didn't look like we wanted to defend with the City man sending an effort curling wide of Wes's net and another forcing Wes into a smart save at his near post. The Robins continued to press for an equaliser but just couldn't get a clear shot on goal with some decent rear-guard effort from United restricting our hosts to pot shots from distance. The closest City went in this period was a shot from Semenyo that the Ghanaian international sent narrowly wide of the post with Wes well beat. The pressure continued and Tanner was the next to sting the post with a cracking first time effort from distance. It just wasn't coming for our hosts however, and everything was coming up Bladesmen. Frustrations boiled over for City as we neared endgame when Tanner poleaxed McAtee which saw the defender given his immediate marching orders and seeing McBurnie restrained by Norwood like Scooby-Doo handling Scrappy-Doo. Baldock also looked like he was going to body slam O'Leary or steal his lunch money one of the two. Anyway, United held on for the final whistle and secured the three points for our second away win of the week! Was it pretty? Absolutely not. Did we play well? It wasn't our most fluent performance that's for sure but who cares, we won and that's all that matters. Winning ugly has been a real problem that this group of players has had going back to the Wilder years. We seem to have gotten better and getting points from our bad games this season with this and the win against Swansea games where we weren't great but got the three points. It's that killer edge that teams who are gunning for promotion manage to get through and secure those maximum points. We're doing it more often now which can only be a good thing! Let's just remember that we can also win when we play well. So, two wins from two and we're back in the race for automatics again. A top of the table clash with Burnley beckons this weekend. It should be a cracker. Until next time, UTB. Just before I go, I'm not one to plug stuff that I do outside of this on here, but I hope you'll forgive me for doing it just this once. I've been lucky enough to be a part of the Young Programmer's programme currently running at The Showroom Cinema near Bramall Lane and as a part of that, we put on screenings of films once every month or so. Our next screening is coming up this Sunday at 6PM and I'll be presenting a screening of South Yorkshire classic Kes. There's been a lot of hard work gone on to getting this screening on and it'd mean a lot if some of you lovely lot who read my ramblings buy a ticket and turn up to watch the film! Please don't feel obliged to buy it or come but I'll just leave a link to buy tickets here if you're interested! Anyway, that's that! I'll see you in the aftermath of Saturday for the next review! Young Programmers Takeover: Kes - Showroom Workstation - Sheffield |
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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