Paddy Kenny’s desperate ill fortune (or blunder depending on how you look at it) saw our dreams of a trip to Wembley slide away last night. Against a fairly toothless Boro side the Blades grafted and scrapped for 120 minutes but the luck and, more crucially, the cutting edge just weren’t there. If ever a game of football summed a team up this was it. The current Sheffield United side are very hard to beat, they also find it very hard to win.
The coverage started in typical ‘make you want to smash your TV in’ BBC style. Lineker and his smug chums giggled to themselves about how bad the first game was and how this one could be the same. Why bother showing it then lads? It was akin to Peggy Mitchell opening an episode of Eastenders by saying ‘It’s going to be a dull old half an hour in Albert Square tonight’. Combined with a complete lack of knowledge about anything non-Premier League (i.e us) it made for a most irritating night’s viewing. Is Kilgallon so hard to say? I don’t think the commentary team managed it once in 3 and a half hours.
United were up against it on occasion during the opening period but were never under any sustained pressure or forced to repel attack after attack. In ShearerWorld they should have been 3 or 4 up though. Downing missed the best chance when Gary Speed completely failed to track his run.
Michael Tonge had a good first half but most of the Blades midfield and attack struggled. The number of times they failed to bring the ball under control when under no pressure was embarrassing.
The second half saw more of the same, fairly stale stuff with chances at an absolute premium. Extra time was little different until a long punt took a cruel bounce off Kilgallon, a further deflection of a sprawling Morgan before spinning off the post and into the net off a surprised Kenny. A decent Blades shout for a penalty was waved away shortly after and the game was gone.
Obviously to come so close and to lose in such a fashion was massively disappointing. That emotion wasn’t helped by the feeling that we just don’t have enough in attacking positions to win games at present. This was a poor Middlesbrough side who, with a makeshift back 4, were there for the taking. Unfortunately though, we’re totally devoid of any real attacking threat at present. It took Mark Lawrenson about 10 minutes to realise that Billy Sharp is too slow and with the less than rapid Beattie alongside him, where is the penetration going to come from?
The midfield never delivered in an attacking sense. Jon Stead, so often our most potent threat, never got into the game. Stephen Quinn was full of industry and running but his passing seemed to deteriorate as the game progressed. Michael Tonge was better than most but like Quinn faded with time. I’m hoping someone will put me right and point out something I’ve missed but at the moment I see no benefit whatsoever to having Gary Speed in the side. How many times did he touch the ball last night? Fewer times than he looked like an old man trying to tackle the kids in the park, that’s for sure.
There were some positives, the centre back partnership were excellent. Morgan snarled and fought as usual and Kilgallon just gets better and better at the moment. Killa’s form at the end of last season and the beginning of this led me to label him as one of Warnock’s biggest mistakes. That seems a long time ago now as he starts to look like a credible replacement for Phil Jagielka, not in Jags class yet but a very good replacement.
What about the tactics then? I couldn’t decide if we’d set up to defend from the off and play for a 0-0 or whether our personnel dictated that that was the outcome. A central midfield of Tonge and Speed playing behind Sharp and Beattie made us horribly slow through the middle and unable to get at Boro with any purpose. If we’re to progress then we must get more pace into the side. We’re still easy to defend against with teams getting plenty of time to organise themselves defensively when we’re in possession. Although Shelton’s crossing was awful, there was a noticeable change when he came on, we had a threat at last.
So, the cup dream is over for another year and it’s back to the relegation dogfight on Saturday.
Player Ratings
Kenny 6/10
Hesitant at set pieces early on. Made some decent, if fairly routine, saves throughout the game. The late error will haunt him but, like Blackwell says, he’s a good ‘keeper.
Geary 6/10
Stuck to his task well. Never managed to get in attacking positions as he usually does so well.
Naysmith 4/10
Seems to invent new ways to lose possession. His collection of caps just highlights that any notion that Scotland are an emerging force in international football to be nonsense.
Morgan 7/10
Good, solid performance from Captain Morgan. Unlucky to be booked when making no contact with Downing.
Kilgallon 8/10
A top quality showing, didn’t deserve to be on the losing side.
Quinn 5/10
Kept going but as guilty as any for being sloppy in possession.
Tonge 6/10
Very good in the first half and kept on running until the end. Standards just slipped a bit as the game went on.
Speed 4/10
Nodded the odd ball and that was about that. Seemed to be taking Mido on for the most anonymous man on the pitch crown.
Stead 5/10
Never got going. I think he has something to offer on the right but with us struggling for goals, I’d like to see him back at centre forward soon.
Sharp 4/10
It’s hard to criticise a player who works so hard but last night, and in many other games, he was totally ineffective.
Beattie 5/10
Not sure how he can be a threat in this side. No crosses and no pacey partner to make up for his own lack of a turn of foot leave him completely impotent as a goal scoring threat.