August feels unnecessarily long this year. I'm not really sure how that measures in comparison to previous August's, but it does feel long or is that just me? As such, it feels like a long time since we all gathered at The Lane to watch United kick some hybrid materials roughly denigrated into the shape of a sphere around a patch of grass for an hour and a half. In reality, there were 11 days between our game against Millwall and last night's against Sunderland which seems somewhat barely believable despite it most definitely being true. Since the last home game, we've played twice with a League game and a cup game seeing us lose to West Brom in the Carabao Cup (heart-breaking I know) and draw inexplicably at The Riverside against Middlesbrough. And so after all that and all that time here we are. Our first midweek League match of the season which saw us take on newly promoted Sunderland for the first time in a League bout since 2017. How did we fare? You probably already know but please do read on. You might find some cutting comments about Baldock's hair or something of the like and everyone likes that don't they?
Team news and United made a couple of changes to the team that started against Boro with Rhian Brewster coming in to replace Billy Sharp and James McAtee making his full League debut replacing John Fleck. Sunderland lined up with in form Everton loanee Ellis Simms leading the line alongside Ross Stewart with Pritchard, Cirkin, O'Nien, Gooch and ex-United and Wednesday man Danny Batth the other notable starters for the opposition. The game kicked off and United were on the back foot for quite a bit of the opening fifteen with Sunderland deploying a high line that kept us penned in a bit. A few early crosses and a couple of half chances were either claimed by Wes or skimmed just wide of the goal to keep us in it. United did start to rally a bit as we approached the midway point with Brewster and Norwood sending efforts towards goal with varying degrees of success. The first being flashpoint of the game came just after the half hour mark and it would go in the favour of United. Good pressing between Brewster and McAtee saw the Man City loanee nick the ball off of Dan Neil just outside the area. McAtee looked like he was through on goal but was hauled back by Neil leaving the referee no choice bit to give The Black Cat's defender his marching orders. With the numerical advantage in their favour, United began to enjoy more of the ball and more chances on goal and a few minutes after the sending off, we broke the deadlock! A corner from Norwood(!) Was whipped into the box and saw Anel Ahmedhodzic meet it to crash home a bullet header to get him and us off the mark. Anel went close again not long after with a cross-cum-shot that kept Patterson on his toes. United did continue to ask questions with a couple of efforts almost breaching the Sunderland backline but that was that for the first period with good fortune smiling down on The Blades to give us the lead. No changes were forthcoming at half time and United started the stronger as we looked to kill the game off and two minutes after kick off, we had our goal! Brilliant link up play down the right saw Norwood play Anel in behind the Sunderland defence with the Bosnian sliding the ball across to Max Lowe who placed the ball under Patterson in front of the Kop End for his first United goal and the monet that gave us breathing space against The Black Cat's. United continued to look for more goals but the final touch just wasn't there and it looked like we would be made to pay for our tardiness when converting chances. 8 Minutes after we doubled our lead, poor distribution in our own half allowed Sunderland a clean break on goal which Lynden Gooch happily capitalised on to loft the ball over an onrushing Foderingham to reduce the areas and set up a needlessly nervy second period. Despite being down to ten men, Sunderland now had the impetuous to get something out of the game and began to press for a second. Some last ditch defending and fortunate fouls going United's way stemmed the flow of momentum a bit for the visitors but they did look more likely to get another goal as the game headed toward the hour mark. United did slowly but surely work their way back into the game however and were unfortunate not to get a third when a deflected Sander Berge effort looked like it would nestle into the Kop End net but floated just wide and tickled the post and away before anyone could tap in the rebound. The killer coup de grace just wouldn't come for United as we continued to pressure Sunderland as the clock ticked towards the end. Norwood went close with a rasping drive that had Patterson at full stretch to turn behind and Oli McBurnie had a couple of chances to extend the lead and end his year long goal drought. In the end however, United managed to see out the game and get our second home win of the season and propel ourselves into the top four ahead of the visit of early league leaders Blackburn at the weekend. A positive night tonight despite the close score line. United had control of the game for large parts after the sending off and could have killed Sunderland off long before we even had our second goal had our finishing just been that little bit better. It's been an issue that's plagued United for a while now and is something that will hopefully be addressed as the season goes on and we get more into the competitive flow of games. The big positive is that we did create those chances to extend our lead and, as has been mentioned, on another day we get another two or three goals and run away with the game even if we have a defensive lapse which ultimately Sunderland exploited and set up a nervy finish. Not an awful lot to complain about however and despite us being notorious bad starters the past couple of years, we've actually made a decent start to this season and find ourselves nicely placed in the table after the opening games. We're now unbeaten in three and look very capable of playing good football at home. Let's hope for another positive result this weekend eh? Until then, UTB.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
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
Categories |