Blades Blogs

Mistakes All Round – Opening Day Defeat For The Blades

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I think Swansea will struggle this season though, yes they were fast on the counter, but (and I don’t mean this with rose-tinted glasses on) they looked like Norwich did last season with a hell of a lot of time-wasting and drawing fouls from nowhere at all. I saw one of their lads go down and our midfield were nowhere near him, but he got the decision. The refs have to get a handle on teams that constantly take the mickey by time wasting. You could see their keeper keep getting urged on by the ref, only for the keeper to apologise and then have the gall to do it again and again and get away with it.

I now know why we will never have that new VAR system at the Lane. Judging by the referees we keep getting, season after season, it would embarrass the majority of their decisions. A lot of the refs decisions were questionable, and it was clear we weren’t going to get the same decisions as the opposition.

I know that I’ve raised the point before about teams being relegated and getting quite a windfall in cash, under the parachute payments, and with Swansea getting near forty-million for their relegation it’s easy to see that they can afford players etc, whereas we have to rely on sales such as Brooks, which is a fraction of their expenditure. I don’t think teams should get rewarded for being relegated, as I’ve stated before.

Bit of a sour note before kick-off though. Regardless of the background antics with the owners there was a guy walking along the front of the Kop in Arab head-dress with a row of toilet rolls in bandoleer style, with a placard of protest which read “Bog roll Prince Out McCabes mansion”. He was heavily wrestled by the stewards (with one I was surprised actually caught him due to his size), and then ejected. He wasn’t being violent or unruly in anyway and was peacefully trying to put his views across. To be ejected was a bit sour I reckon and very heavily over handed. Look at Coventry the last two seasons and their “pitch invasions” and protests. They never got kicked out, especially when they caused the players to be taken off the pitch against us in League One. I think the stewards at the Lane need to sort themselves out. Yes if there’s violence, pitch invasions or abusive behaviour, but surely not for a peaceful point of view.

Anyway, the Bramall Lane faithful were there in full voice, and got behind the lads immensely. I’m sure the new lads weren’t expecting such a full-on noise from us but hope it put some steel in their performance.

Anyway, looks like Boro away mid-week, followed by QPR away next weekend. I’m hoping we can get the midfield sorted before these games as these will be difficult I reckon.

Still, we’re all Blades for life!

UTB!!

Olly

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Olly Longden (Royal Fleet Auxiliary)
Sheffield United MOD/Armed Forces Supporter’s Branch
Tweet: @oliverlongden4

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Olly from the MOD