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.
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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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