60 Minutes is one of those time spans that cover a lot of time but don't actually cover a lot of time if you catch my drift? Compare watching an hour long programme with a two hour long film. The film looks daunting and your thinking it'll take up a huge chunk of the 24 (12 hours really) that you have during your day but that hour long programme? That's doable! That's not too long, you can engross yourself in the programme without feeling like you've spent all day watching something. All this is a build up to our second (and third if you want to be pedantic) pre-season friendly against League One outfit Lincoln City. The set up was thus, two one hour games with the games split into 30 minute halves with two different starting XI's competing in the games. Got that? Good, let's get into game one.
Game One Game One started with an eleven that was similar to the line up that finished the game against Casa Pia with the only change being Adam Davies in goal in lieu of Jordan Amissah who would start the second game instead. 3 minutes in and United had already opened the scoring! Jebbison held the ball up and laid it off to Stevens who sent in a low cross to Danish youth international Will Osula who fired home to give the Blades a lead. 6 Minutes later and it was two! A raking ball from Norwood looked like it had fallen behind Osula but the academy product produced a sublime touch to bring it in to his running stride and with just the keeper to beat, Osula placed the ball past Rushworth to give us a quickfire double. After this however, the game became a bit of a training ground exercise (apropos considering the games took place at our training ground) with a more experienced Lincoln side dominating possession but not really doing anything with it aside from a couple of pop shots from distance and an effort that saw Coulibaly make a block. The last real effort of note in the first 60 was Jebbison being played in by Osula with Jebbo's chip being kept out by an onrushing Rushworth. The game lulled to a stop and United secured a first victory of the day fairly easily. Game Two A much more experienced XI started for the second game for United with Amissah, Belehouan and Arblaster being the only academy team members in eleven. Jack Robinson made his first start of pre-season coming in for an ill Ahmedhodzic. Similar to the first game, United took the lead early doors with fantastic link up play on the left eventually seeing Ndiaye play a lovely back heel into an onrushing Osborn who's effort appeared to catch Long out as it hit his hand but nestled in the net to give us the lead! United took control of the second match and began to play some lovely stuff on the wings with some brilliant one touch passing seeing us get up the pitch really quickly as we searched for a second goal. The second goal did come with just ten minutes left of the first half with more good link up play, this time on the right hand side, seeing Baldock cut back to Berge who took on the whole Lincoln defence before coolly slotting past Long to double the advantage. Lincoln did have a couple of efforts before half time but nothing came of them so United went into the break two to the good. Dylan Wharton took over the gloves for the last 30 minutes after Amissah had an extended stint in goal after Davies was taken off not long into the second half of the first game. Wharton was nearly called upon not long after the restart after Jack Robinson dawdled on a pass from the ex Chesterfield keeper allowing the Lincoln forward who picked his pocket with only Wharton to beat. Thankfully for JLT, the Lincoln man somehow put his effort past the post in what was a massive let off for United. United heeded the warning and made it 3 four minutes after the Lincoln effort with Rhian Brewster sending a bullet of a shot past Long that the Lincoln keeper could only get a hand to and divert into the corner of the net as our record signing scored his first goal of the pre-season. Ndiaye began toying with the Lincoln defence after this and could have had a goal just before he played a big role in our fourth. Our fourth did you say? Yep, Brewster got his second of the game after Ndiaye and Osborn connected allowing the ex Forest man to slip a ball across the six yard box that Rhian tapped home to fully finish off The Imps. The final fifteen passed with very little else happening and United made it two wins from two in a good tune up for our next game of the pre-season on Saturday against Scunthorpe. It was a real yin and yang between the two games yesterday. The first ten minutes of the first game saw us assert dominance early, get two goals, then more or less shut up shop and let Lincoln try and break down our younger line up. The second game saw a much more experienced eleven assert it's dominance over Lincoln with the 4-0 being a fair reflection of how much we dominated the game. All in all, It was a positive morning/afternoon that saw us compete against a very game League One outfit and dispatch them pretty comfortably with both our 'scratch' eleven and a more first team eleven. We carry on unbeaten and can now look forward to the half way point of pre-season on Saturday and a visit to Scunthorpe. 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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