Reunions are a thing that always seem to be in vogue no matter what is going on. Your favourite television programmes may have a reunion episode as actors double the age of what they were when the programme they were in come back and knock about a recreation of a set from said TV programme and reminisce about the glory days whilst playing some type of party game loosely linked to the show. Nigel Clough, John-Joe O'Toole and Stephen Quinn had one of those reunions with United on Tuesday but rather than be a bit half arsed about reminiscing about the past, they played like they did in their prime and put United to the sword. Let's take a look back at a match that almost happened in a haze as we all tried to negotiate what was the hottest day ever recorded in English history.
Wes Foderingham returned to the starting XI for his first appearance of pre-season after recovering from a slight leg injury that has kept him out of the first few fixtures in the friendlies. The first 10 minutes was a write off completely, not because we played terribly (that would come later) but because it appeared that someone in the media team had left the cameras out in the 35 degree heat as still images flickered on and off screen like those twisty devices with the moving horse in that first brought us moving images about 125 years ago. Either a replacement camera was found or someone found a way to cool the camera as we eventually got a stable feed going around the quarter of an hour mark. As the feed stabilised, we were immediately treated to a stoppage in play as the teams took a break to take on fluids. The first real chance United managed to create came when Baldock played a ball in behind The Stags defence that Brewster latched on to but he was bundled over in the box before he could get a shot off. The ref said no harm no foul and the match continued. United were back in behind a couple of minutes later when Berge played a defence splitting pass to Ndiaye who closed down the angle but was denied by a great save by Pym to turn the ball behind for a corner. From the resulting corner, Mansfield cleared only as far as Baldock who whipped a ball onto the head of Ahemedhodzic who was free as a bird but put his header from close range narrowly wide of the post. Mansfield broke away not long after this and Enda Stevens had to pull off a cracking recovery tackle to stop a one on one. Another drinks break occurred, United continued to probe after that but were let down by either a poor final touch or final ball before we could get sight of the Mansfield goal. The last chance of a frustrating half for The Blades fell to Iliman Ndiaye who when played through by a cracking Brewster ball couldn't quite get the ball out of his feet and his effort was denied by the legs of an onrushing Pym. That was that for the first period, could it get any better for United? In true Blazin Squad style, the match flip reversed as the second period began with Mansfield coming out of the blocks quickly with some quick pressing causing our backline some issues. Akins had the first effort on target of the second half with his weak effort thankfully being easy for Wes after a good cross from Gordon. United began to slowly get back into the game with some good work down the right seeing Baldock and Ahmedhodzic link up with our new Bosnian international seeing his low cross blocked and cleared. Mansfield were asking questions not long after this with Foderingham being forced into a good save to deny Oates. The Mansfield pressure paid off a couple of minutes later with the League 2 outfit taking the lead. A botched offside trap allowed our hosts midfielder time and space to pick out Boateng in our box who duly smashed home at the near post to open the scoring. United did almost have the perfect response to falling behind when Berge slid in Baldock who fired in a cross to Brewster with Rhian heading home. Unfortunately, George was adjudged to have been offside. United did continue to look for an equaliser and almost found it again when a Norwood corner found Robinson alone at the back post unmarked. Robbo proceeded to somehow cannon his header back to Norwood on the wing when the goal was at his mercy, play was recycled and Brewster had a strong effort caught by Pym. It would be our hosts who would find the next goal however with Robbo culpable. Oates got the better of Robinson in a foot race and slotted home past Wes to double the lead. The game became a bit of a possession exercise for United after this as we probed to at least find a consolation. That consolation would not come and more poor defending would see us concede a third goal. Robinson sold Wes short with an awful backpass that was intercepted by Mansfield, United half cleared the ball only as far as Boateng who curled a delightful finish onto the far right post and in to fully bury The Blades. That was the last real action of note in the game as United were left wondering what might have been as we fell to our second consecutive loss of our pre-season preparations. Despite the score line, United did have a fair few chances to get at least a couple of goals in this game during the first period. Compared to the first half at Scunny, our first half outing was a much better effort with just the final pass or poor first touches denying us as we looked to open the scoring. Despite it only being pre-season, it's still pretty disappointing to lose comprehensively to an outfit from a lower league for the second game running (all due respect to both Mansfield and Scunthorpe). The way we've conceded these goals has been especially disappointing with some of our more senior defenders making some head scratching decisions as Mansfield and Scunny tore us apart with ease at times. Hopefully these mistakes will be out of everyone's system come opening day against Watford but it'll be interesting to see if these errors will be arrested in our final two pre-season games. Overall, another bad night for United, both on the pitch and off the pitch. But we go again tomorrow at Burton, fingers crossed for a good result! 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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