We don't really score a lot of free kicks. The last time we scored directly from a free kick was way, way back in September 2018 when Oli Norwood on what I believe was his League debut, curled home to put the cherry on top of a particularly tasty first half cake when we beat Aston Villa 4-1 on our way to eventually winning promotion to the Premier League at the end of the season. Since then, there's been nothing. Nada. Despite us having plenty of players who could be deemed as 'set piece specialists' on our roster in the ensuing 4(!) Years, we've not been able to score a direct free kick. That all changed today however, but more on that soon. Before that, we've got some more things to discuss...
A couple of changes were afoot for United after the midweek win with Reda Khadra and Oli McBurnie both earning starts after impressive showings in cameo appearances. League topping Blackburn started with main man Ben Brereton-Diaz (I remember when he was just called Ben Brereton) leading the line with perennial United transfer target Sam Gallagher next to him. Sammie Szmodics and Daniel Ayala were the other notable starters for Rovers. United came out of the blocks like prime Usain Bolt and should have opened the scoring when good work on the left saw John Fleck square a ball from the John Street by line to McBurnie who's poked effort was blocked by Phillips with Kaminski out of the picture. The probing continued with a deflected Anel effort from a Norwood corner going close but we just couldn't unlock the Blackburn backline, until the 31st minute that was. A foul just outside the 18 yard box saw a very long wall consisting of Blackburn and Blades (with a Blackburn player very casually laying on the floor) looked to have blinded Kaminski who could only watch as Oli Norwood proceeded to whip a cracker of a shot high into the right hand corner of the Bramall Lane end net. There was a mix of shock and euphoria as the score was opened in a way we haven't seen in 4 years. The pressure continued but there were no more goals and the half ended with most of the stadium (perhaps it was just D block on John Street, I'm not sure what the rest of the stadium thought, answers on a postcard please! Or the Twitter comments) still slightly in shock at the fact we'd scored a goal directly from a free kick. Was a good first half though, and we deserved the goal. Second half you say? Oh, that was even better. Blackburn did improve a bit after the halftime break and started to knock the ball around our box a bit more and tried to work an effort on goal. Some last ditch defending from Anel, Lowe and RND restricted Rovers whilst at the other end Khadra nicked the ball in the Rovers half and raced away from the defenders with Oli McBurnie in support. Reda held onto the ball just a little bit too long however and Blackburn crowded out Khadra before the ball could be released to McBurnie or he could get a shot off. Just after the hour mark, Illiman Ndiaye entered the game for Khadra not long after that and proceeded to have a half hour or so that simply blew everyone away. Firstly, scrambled play on the Kop by line saw McBurnie hook a ball into the area where Sander Berge sent a shot barrelling towards goal and, lo and behold, it ended up in the back of the net for what appeared to be Sander's 3rd goal of the season but wait! Before the goal nestled into the bottom corner, it took a mighty deflection that wrong footed Kaminski. That deflection was off of Illiman Ndiaye and what appeared to (this hasn't yet been confirmed, Illi, if your reading this, get in touch) hit his arse and in. That however, doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things and it certainly didn't matter to illi who came away with his 2nd goal of the season. He would soon have his third six minutes later with a hell of a goal. Describing it does a disservice to this goal, if you can, stop reading this and go watch it. It's that good. If you still want a transcription of the goal, then here it goes. Illi picks the ball up inside our half and proceeds to dribble forward. He slips and slides around three Blackburn players, riding tackles and beating men, before taking aim from just outside the box and firing home with the ball kissing the post before it rippled the net. A superb goal to wrap up a superb performance from a superb player. Two goals off the bench from Illi was a hell of an impact. United nearly had a few more goals before the ref blew the whistle with McBurnie and Brewster going close to adding insult to injury but, alas, it wasn't to be but that didn't matter. All that mattered is that United blew away Blackburn, got the three points and topped the Championship for the first time since 2017. All in all, a very, very good day at the office. What. A. Performance. We completely dismantled Blackburn who, let's not forget, were top of the league at start of play. It could and should have been more than the three goals we did score in that game and the xG shows with a 4.09 from 23 shots. our attacking play was something that a lot of the fanbase (myself included) were worried would drop off with the departure of Morgan Gibbs-White but, so far, we've managed to cope just fine with our plethora of players who are creating chances most pertinently Illiman Ndiaye. What a player this young man has been, after looking like he'd be heading for the exit door last year, Illi has become arguably our most important attacking player who we actually own. His ability to run at defenders and beat them is something we've not seen for a very long time in a United shirt and it's an absolute joy to watch him play. Hopefully, fingers crossed, he'll be here for a long time yet alongside Sander. But let's not think about that right now, let's just bask in the glory of a third home win in a row. 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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