I was having a bad day today what with my washing machine breaking and the car throwing a bit of a wobbler. I also had a bit of a nightmare getting parked as the car wash bloke has stopped people being able to park on his forecourt, apparently threw a wobbler! Getting to the Lane after parking was a bit of a long and nervous walk, a bit of trouble outside of the ground going on and we ended up getting corralled by the police down towards John Street. I cheered up though when I got parked (eventually) and got on to the Kop. The atmosphere with 27,900 football fans in the ground was amazing. We must have had one of the biggest attendances today, and the Greasy Chip Butty song was deafening!
We started well, going close to scoring just after kick off, and had many other chances in the first half. It was a good effort from the team as they were constantly being pushed off the ball and had to put up with challenges that weren`t being picked up by the referee. When Toffolo was shown a straight red in the second half you would have thought that the nicks and pushes would have stopped a little, Bishop was another offender with all this stuff going on but he got away with it.
When Scunny came out in the second half, kicking to their away end, we knew on the Kop that there was a goal coming, you could tell. Credit to the team though, we got one back straight away and kept the game level. With the sending off we should have pushed more to grab the winner, we did come close but didn`t manage a winning goal.
I thought that Hanson should`ve stayed on though, when he came off and Lavery came on we lost the target man up front and had to resort to trying to pass the ball into the goal. I did have to agree with one of the lads on BBC Radio Sheffield`s Praise or Grumble, who said that we should have put another striker on as well as Sharp and Hanson to press them more. O`Shea came on for Lafferty late on and he hit the post, good effort but still seeking opening his account for us.
Done made an appearance late on just into injury time, but didn`t have chance to sway the game, and I think he played at the back as well so wouldn`t have had chance to.
The Blades played their socks off today and to say Scunthorpe are in 2nd spot you wouldn`t have thought it. They were dominated throughout the match, yes they hit the post and grabbed a goal with their only shot on target, but they were pinned back for most of the match. If we can put that shift in every week until the end of the season I reckon we`ll have no problems in going up automatically and not have to suffer the play-offs again. Next week we have Bolton visiting and this is another must win match. We have to take points off the two teams below us, we`ve missed out on widening the gap with Scunthorpe after sharing a point today, but to pin Bolton back would be a good result.
Anyway, we push on and do it all again next week!
UTB!!
Olly
Olly Longden (RFA)
Sheffield United MOD/Armed Forces Supporter`s Branch
Email: oliverlongden@aol.com
Tweet: @oliverlongden4
Share this article
