Shellacking is a hell of word, I assume it's a word in the English Dictionary because it's not flashed up with the dreaded red squiggly line in fact, just before we continue, let's have a quick look at the definition of 'shellacking'. Give me a moment...Yep, definition is that it's just a decisive defeat or to beat someone decisively. It's also derived from verb shellac that's a type of varnish, the more you know. Anyway, enough dictionary corner, let's talk about United and the demolition job we unleashed on Coventry.
For a third game running, United's starting XI stayed the same with the only change to the 18 being Mia Enderby returning to the bench. Coventry made a change between the sticks with Heeps coming in for Whiteman after their loss against Palace. A cagey start soon saw United put the peddle to the meddle with Sophie Haywood nodding agonisingly over Heep's bar from a Cusack corner. United would make the early good start count and open the scoring on the 10th minute with another Cusack corner causing chaos in the Coventry box which Grace Riglar capitalised on and headed home to open her Blades account and our first of the day against her old club. Joy soon turned to worry however as Heeps didn't get to her feet after a clash of heads. Quick work from both medical teams saw the Coventry stopper eventually lifted off the pitch to rapturous applause from everyone in the ground. I wish her all the best and we all hope to see you back between the sticks soon Eleanor! The game restarted with Whiteman replacing Heeps in the Coventry goal. United continued to probe with Rayner having an effort blocked and another fizzing over the bar, Chene Muir also threatened but was denied by some good Coventry defending. Courtney Sweetman-Kirk went down after a tough but fair challenge and had some treatment. Almost immediately after coming back on, she had the ball in the back of the net after a superb bit of play by United but the goal was cruelly ruled out by the offside flag. That was forgotten shortly after however as United got a second! Riglar sent a header crashing against the bar that saw the rebound fall to Rhema Lord-Mears who stabbed home for the goal. Alethea Paul almost had a third after a burst down the left but her effort crashed against the side netting despite having runners in better positions, that didn't matter however as not long after United had a third and what a goal it was! Cusack spotted Whiteman off her line from about 35 to 40 yards out with the veteran midfielder lobbing the ball over the keeper's head and into the net for a spectacular finish that would make Cantona blush. A minute later and it was four! Quick interplay down the wing saw Newsham set free with our wing back's low hard drive beating Whiteman and surely putting the game beyond the visitors. United went close again from a corner with Haywood, Rayner and Muir all going close. As we entered 12 minutes of added time at the end of the half, Cusack was at it again with another special finish! Our longest serving player floated a free kick from near the corner of the penalty box over everyone and into the Bramall Lane End goal to get her second and our fifth, yes fifth, goal of the first half! That was that from a first period that never really stopped with action or goals as United went into the break with a very commanding lead. Could we add to it in the second period? Mia Enderby entered the fray at the half replacing Chene Muir and made an almost instant impact in getting our sixth of the afternoon! An RLM corner deflected around the box and fell to Enderby who's driven effort beat everyone and settled in the Kop net for Enderby's first league goal. The pressure continued from United as Sweetman-Kirk and Rayner had further efforts blocked as we hunted for a seventh. We did eventually get it just after the hour mark and it would by Rayner who'd get it with her great performance being capped by a bullet header getting on the end of a Cusack corner. A platoon of subs entered the game after this with Walters, Brown, Wilson and Francis-Jones coming on. Wilson was causing chaos down the right and battled her way down the pitch to earn us a corner mere minutes after coming on. From the resulting corner, United would get an eighth of the afternoon, Enderby would again get on the end of some penalty box pinball and see her goal bound effort deflect slightly off a Coventry player and squirm past Whiteman for her second. The efforts would continue to rain on the Coventry net as Haywood had an effort saved and Walters sending one wide after some sloppy distribution from Whiteman, Enderby nearly had a hat trick from the bench but her deflected effort was easy for Whiteman. After all of that and all those goals, the game eventually came to an end with United setting a benchmark of a performance and a slew of goals on a fantastic afternoon in front of 1,149 Blades at The Lane. I don't think there's much else to say about that performance other than a simple wow. It was incisive, decisive and stunning. United just completely dismantled a Coventry United outfit that looked shell shocked by the scintillating performance that they were on the receiving end of. I said that United needed to start taking chances after the Blackburn game and since then we've done just that and then some! 11 Goals to open the home campaign is a hell of a return and it could and probably should have been more. Just a fantastic day for all involved with United. Everyone was fantastic and at it from minute one. It was iconoclastic and just downright superb. There's something special about this team, let's keep this early momentum going and get ourselves firmly ensconced in that promotion race. If an 8-0 win doesn't convince you to get down and support the girls, I just don't even know what to say to you, if you can, get down for the match against Bristol City and let's back these players because they're playing some cracking stuff and deserve to be backed. 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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