It's been a while but, to be fair, it usually is nowadays. The joys of being an adult are starting to bed in now, sometimes it's fun, sometimes it ain't but such is life. Anyway, it's been quite a turbulent month since I last wrote about United which I believe was just after the Coventry City game. Since that bore draw, we've gone on an unbeaten run, changed manager and had a HELL of a lot of football matches cancelled due to a little known thing called COVID-19. As I write this article, we should all be getting prepared to venture to The Lane and see our red and white wizards take on Hull City in our last game of another fairly strange year but due to Hull having a slew of COVID cases, it has been cancelled. So I decided what better time to review a game that happened over a month ago? So, cast your minds back to a very snowy day back in late November as United began another new era this time under Paul Heckingbottom, Jack Lester and Stuart McCall.
After our away win against Reading, the only change that was made from that game was an enforced one as Conor Hourihane came into the XI for John Fleck. United started on the front foot and had a few chances via record signing Rhian Brewster. Firstly, good play down the right hand side eventually saw a cross arrowed across the six yard box with Rhian just being unable to get his foot on it. A few minutes later Rhian was at it again with a shot from a tight angle just outside that six yard box smashing onto the outside of the post and running along the outside of the Bramall Lane End net. Just as it looked like it wouldn't be happening for Brewster, the narrative changed. Good build up play around the Bristol City midfield eventually saw Rhian collect the ball on the edge of the penalty area with his back to goal. With the help of Morgan Gibbs-White, Rhian manged to hold off his man, turn around an smash home a bullet of a shot that flew past the outstretched arm of Daniel Bentley to get his second league goal in three games and his first home league goal. It was a lovely moment to be a part of and it's been really nice to see Rhian finally get into a bit of form and show everyone why he is one of the most highly thought of strikers in the country. After Rhian scored his goal, not much else happened in the first half and United went into the break with a deserved lead. The second half began with not much happening but then just after the hour mark there was a coming together between Basham and City's Nathan Baker with the Bristol man coming off worse in the clash. There was an anxious wait of about 10 minutes as the medics tended to Baker and he was eventually escorted off of the pitch on a stretcher, thankfully Baker has since been discharged from Hospital which is fantastic to see and I'm sure everyone wishes Nathan well as he continues his recovery. After play resumed, Bristol City had an effort on goal through Tyreeq Bakinson who's long range effort Wes Foderingham took two chances to eventually claim. United were back in the ascendency shortly after and some great close range passing between Norwood and Gibbs-White eventually saw the Wolves loanee have a clear view of goal with Bentley pulling off a lovely save at his near post to deny the Under 23 international. Billy Sharp was next to go closest with a volley akin to the one he scored against Leeds back in early 2019 forcing Bentley to tip the ball over the crossbar after the ball bounced up off of the turf. Sharp wasn't to be denied for much longer however and more good play from The Blades eventually saw McGoldrick set free on the right hand side of the Kop End box with Dave sending in a whipped cross that Billy managed to get on the end of ahead of Bentley and the ball slammed into the net to secure us the win and the three points. Not much else happened during the 13 minutes that were added on and United had a first win under Heckingbottom as the snow continued to fall at The Lane. This was a nice return to what we had almost been accustomed to over the course of the last five years. Earlier on in the season, we looked lethargic. We were winning the possession battle and did have one of the better XG records in the league but by and large we just didn't look very quick going forward. It usually took us at least 5-10 passes to get to our opponents attacking third and once we got there we took another age to get a high quality shot off at goal. That all changed against City. We were a lot quicker in the pass and our verticality was back alongside a willingness to press the opposition. Alongside this, we looked a lot more defensively solid with a return to a 3 at the back. Since this game, that solidity has continued with two clean sheets in our last three games including a clean sheet away at top of the table Fulham where we got an unlikely win. It's been a promising start to life under Hecky and long may it continue. I would say I'll see you all again sometime after the Boro game but who knows if that game will even go ahead? So, all I'll say now is I hope you had a very Merry Christmas and I hope you have a cracking New Year's and I'll see you soon. 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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