FAN’S VIEW  2025/26 – SHEFFIELD UNITED AWAY

But First

The frustration with the process for purchasing tickets to watch OUFC never seems to go away.

As an away club member I waited until after midday on 26 Jan to purchase my tickets for Middlesbrough and Stoke and whilst I was at it wanted to make sure the family all got our seats for the Sunderland cup tie. Getting them all at once should save time and I thought also save a few quid.

I popped the away tickets in my basket and then set about getting the three home tickets. Message received, I don’t have the privileges to do so. Mrs FV mentioned that some fans had posted on social media that they had the same problem. She said she thought the tickets may have already been put in my basket. They hadn’t but I then noticed a button declaring “reserved tickets”. All three had indeed been reserved. From there I transferred them to my basket which now held all five tickets.

Away I’d go now with ease I thought. However, next message: “There are errors on this page. Unfortunately the items you have selected do not have a common delivery method assigned, please purchase them separately”. Ah, I remembered I’d encountered this once before.

Of course the tickets for the Kassam were digital so I removed the away ones and set about paying. But no: “We couldn’t load your content. Please refresh your browser and try again”. I did and at last some success.

I placed the two away tickets in the basket once more only to get the message again about the delivery methods being different so I had to do them separately. For the Boro it was a real hard copy ticket that I needed to pick up at our stadium, for Stoke it was digital.

So I ended up paying three lots of admin fees at £2 a pop. It’s nothing much in the greater scheme of things but nevertheless frustrating and annoying. Over the course of a season if they are getting money in this fashion off lots of our supporters it will add up to a tidy sum. I don’t know whether “they” are Ticketmaster or the club or a combination of both.

Perhaps I’d missed some small print somewhere telling me which were digital and which were not but if that small print didn’t exist it would be nice to know.

I have a lot of time for the ticket office staff. They’re very helpful on the phone and face to face at the ground. Getting tickets online saves them work and there are occasions when they seem rather overworked, but if I need more than one ticket in future, I’m coming round to thinking that it will be much easier and less time consuming for me to ring the ticket office and I’m assuming I’d only have to pay one two quid admin fee.

Much has happened since my last FV

At the end of our previous manager’s tenure the fans had sung “Gary Rowett, your football is shit.” Matt Bloomfield’s first two games in charge were both at home. Neither game saw a goal. They were fixtures we could really have done with winning and they were against mid-table sides but hey, we didn’t lose and some spirit that had been missing was evident.

Then Leicester away. Wow. One of the best and most supportive atmospheres I’ve experienced on my travels for years and a thoroughly deserved win. I thought we looked like a “proper” team. A proper Championship team.

On reflection my getting carried away should have been reined in somewhat by proper consideration of the opposition. All is not well at Leicester off the pitch and seemingly on it too. You can only beat what’s in front of you of course.

Then back to reality. Soundly beaten on our own patch by an in-form team with big money who were full of confidence. They were streets ahead of us. Some people have argued that we were good for the first 10-15 minutes; I’d argue otherwise. Even in that period if you look at what actually took place there were so many mistakes made it did not bode well. When it was all over, which was a relief, our passing accuracy stood at 66.3%. That is dreadful.

It takes me a while to even remember the names of new players we bring in let alone recognise them. This season I am all over the place with trying to understand what style and line up we’re aiming for. Each head coach needs time to get their men and then set up as they want. Also in this equation, there’s the recruitment team. What a conundrum.

There are plenty of players who have put on the yellow shirt thus far but who are no longer with us, be they permanently gone or out on loan.

Elliott Moore. Louie Sibley. Gatlin O’Donkor. Luke Harris (Only a loanee anyway). Tom Bradshaw (Recently left the club. Gary Rowett’s mate. Got no value out of him). Matt Phillips (Another recent leaver. A big wage to get off the books?).

Nik Prelec, an injured loanee. Groin. Not played this year.

Philip Krastev, another loanee. We’ve not seen him since he came on for Cameron Brannagan about a month ago. Injured?

We’ve had many arrivals in the January transfer window. I really do struggle to keep up.

Jamie Donley, a midfielder, came in on loan from Spurs on 2 January. We’ve allegedly got an option to buy at £4.5m. He lasted 17 minutes against Franchise FC before imho being cynically and nastily fouled in front of an inept referee. This was really bad luck on his and our part. We’ve no idea how good he is yet. Back in training now, which is a positive.

Myles Peart-Harris came in from Brentford for one of those “undisclosed fees” (go on tell us, don’t be a tease) but his contract only lasts to the end of the season. Um, anything to do with whether we get relegated or not?

Yunus Emre Konak, another midfielder and loanee, moved from Brentford mid-month.

Then yet another midfielder came in. This time on a permanent deal. We got Jamie McDonnell from Forest for about £1m if reports are to be believed. He’s not kicked a ball competitively for the premier league outfit and spent the first half of this season on loan at League One Mansfield.

On 20 Jan it was Jeon Jin-Woo incoming permanently from K-League champions Jeonbuk Hyundai. Variously described as a midfielder and winger he has had goals in him and it would be an understatement to say that we could do with a regular goal-scorer who is not just borrowed. We’ve not seen him on the pitch yet as he got a bang on the head in training and rightly concussion protocols kicked in. He was though on the bench at Brammall Lane.

On the last day of the month we gathered another centre-half. Christ Makosso on loan from Luton Town, but with an option to buy.

Then two more in-comings snuck through the tiniest of gaps as the window closed. Ruben Roosken, a forward according to Soccerbase and described as an attack minded left-back on our official site, on loan from League One Huddersfield. Another option to buy here.

And finally, Aidomo Emakhu, a forward, on a long-term deal from Millwall.

Phew, think that’s all the new boys.

When new players join, we hear the usual PR. “Been tracking them for a long time”. “Been sought after by many clubs at our level and above”.

If they’ve played in the Premier League, we’re told about it as if it is a big thing. Look them up and it will be a minute or two right at the end of matches.

They may be from countries all around the globe and have represented their nations internationally. They may have been successful in other leagues throughout the world.

But all of this counts for very little. The Championship is something altogether different or so we’re told and have told ourselves based on what we’re witnessing week in week out.

I keep saying this over and over but it really is proof of the pudding time.

The point I’m at last going to make or, more accurately, the question I’m going to ask, is do we as a club actually know what we’re doing with regard to building a squad and from that a team which has an identity, clear playing philosophy and is competitive as far as possible at the level at which we are competing? Championship or League One? Surely not the latter but most of the evidence on the pitch at present points to us being there next season. Short, medium and long term plans?

With the list of players above being so long I can’t help but wonder if this is a scattergun approach. Hoping one or two will make good, really good. Or perhaps there is some method behind it all that I have not been able to fathom.

We’ll never have all of our players fit at any one time but occasionally will have greater numbers available than we currently do and when that happens is it going to be possible to keep them all happy?

Plus I’ll throw in to the debate what about the youth coming through? What chance have they got? How motivated will they be when no-one has properly made it into the first team since Tyler Goodrham? Perhaps I should count Gatlin O’Donkor but I’m not going to.

And what is the cost of having so many players on the books?

Sheffield re-visited

Not for the first time this season I drove to the steel city for this fixture. This time we got to see the football. Kind of wish I hadn’t.

I already had Sheffield down as one of the very best cities in the country for pubs and its reputation was only enhanced having visited three establishments on this occasion which were new to me. There were plenty others we walked past that looked tempting too, micros and classic looking locals.

Our first port of call was the Broadfield in the Nether Edge region, an area which the Times fairly recently named as one of the best places in the country to live. Plenty of independent businesses about and a strong and friendly community feel in the area. The pub is part of that local social scene although there weren’t many in whilst we were there. Very food orientated but, with a good choice of top-quality ales and a few alcoves for the beer drinker, I won’t hold that against them. Sonoma pale ale at 3.8% from the Track Brewery in Manchester for me. A cheeky unrefined fruity tipple. Music from the mid noughties in the background. 

The other two we visited were within sight of each other in Heeley. First the Brothers Arms. One of the many classic, traditional local pubs around. This was quite crowded but we did manage to get seats even if we were a bit crammed in. Plenty of home fans in here. No music just the numerous pre-match conversations filling the air. Yorkshire Pale Ale from Roosters in Harrogate for me this time. Nice it was too.

Then the Sheaf View. Packed with home fans. Brightly lit. Didn’t seem to be many seats. Looked more like a social club to me. That’s not a criticism by the way. Again no complaints about the beer. Another pale ale and another 3.8%er, this time Font from the Ashover Brewery. The pub did a lovely home-made pork pie for three quid. No jelly between the porky lump and the pastry for me to have to throw away here.

Not for the first time and probably not for the last I’ve been reluctant to get onto the football match, which after all was the only reason we were in South Yorkshire.

Basically it was a case of follow the crowd to get to the ground on the basis that thousands won’t be going to bingo and red and white scarves were the clue anyway.

I was expecting us to be facing a team that were better than Leicester by quite some distance but not as good as the Brummies.

I celebrated as you do when going 1-0 up away from home inside the first quarter of an hour. That was good for starters. Unfortunately there was a main course to come. I’ll readily admit I wasn’t overly confident of the win or even the draw at that stage.

The goal was a pleasing one though and if we’d been capable of consistently doing this type of stuff over the season we’d be higher up the table than we are. Sam Long got his head on a clearance from keeper Michael Cooper. After Will Vaulks had lazily waved a foot at the ball, Myles Peart-Harris took it on. He held off a challenge enabling Shemmy Placheta to touch it back first time to Cameron Brannagan who shot from distance. The ball dipped slightly and, on a wet surface, Cooper couldn’t hold it. Sharper than anyone else Peart-Harris smashed the rebound home. I like Peart-Harris.

There we had determination, a first-time pass, a very good shot from a player who can shoot and alertness that was better than that shown by the opposition. A very good combination of positives. How often can we say that?

From then on, the attacking just about all came from the hosts. We didn’t look as comfortable as we had done against the Foxes but as the clock moved towards half-time, I began to sense a slight bit of unease amongst the home support. The longer we were able to hold on to our lead the greater that would become. This would be very helpful to us.

We made it to 40 minutes but no further. Truth be told it was only a matter of time.

A corner wasn’t cleared and Sheffield won the battle for possession on the edge of the box. Gus Hamer bent a ball to Harrison Burrows out wide. Vaulks was completely oblivious to the danger behind him. Sydie Peck stepped on to the cut-back for the equaliser. No-one was marking him. This time they were better than us in all aspects of this phase of play and were more than deservedly level.

Hope of getting anything from this encounter was now almost zero. Before the break our bar had been rattled by Hamer from distance. It was concerted pressure from the team in stripes. For us a breakaway from Placheta came to nothing because we have no-one who can keep up with him.

A lot of desperate defending kept the scores level until mid-way through the second period. Ciaron Brown, chasing for a ball with Tom Cannon, just seemed to stumble over, leaving the Blades’ no.7 free to advance down the wing, into the area and to the by-line. The ball back found Andre Brooks who skilfully beat Brannagan and, although partially off balance, managed to keep going enough to score a very good goal.

My hope declined even further now and a handful of our fans headed for the exits. Miserable night, long way home, work in the morning. I can see why. It wasn’t as if we’d looked remotely like getting a second goal.

After the 83^rd minute even a second wouldn’t have been any use as we’d gone two behind. They cut through us so easily for their third.

I absolutely understand that there’s a large gap between us and our opponents in just about everything one can list. Bigger club. More fans. Bigger budget. Better players. Parachute payments. But the gap in quality on the pitch should no way be as huge as it is. In games like this over 90 minutes it doesn’t look like we’re giving it a go. We must be trying our best surely, so it’s just that we’re so lacking in class.

Our passing accuracy was 60.3%. Theirs was 82.4%. We only made 36 successful passes in the final third, they made 108. We touched the ball 7 times in their box, they touched it 31 times in ours.

It would be unfair to ignore some of the stats that don’t shed us in such a bad light. Our xG was 1.06. That of the Blades was 1.00. xG of course is a load of old bollox.

For all their dominance Sheffield only had three shots on target meaning our keeper made no saves.

We have a massive problem in that we can’t keep the ball nor do we win it when we play it long.

To repeat, and this is a comment I hear from fellow fans over and over at matches, so many of our players look L1 not championship. It’s never my intention to pick on players but much as we admire battlers who give their all and a bit more, even Ciaron Brown does not look comfortable now with the ball at his feet.

Another player who is disappointing me is Stan Mills. I thought we’d be getting more from him.

And whilst I’m being critical, I have to hold my hand up and apologise. I know that yelling at individuals does no good at all and is rather rude. I get angry when I hear this sort of thing. I’d had a gut full of our inability to lay a glove on our opponents when right in front of us Mark Harris did his usual of not even looking at the high ball that was coming his way. All he had was eyes for the defender and just barged into him. That’s what he does time and time again. Winning nothing, just giving away free kick after free kick. Someone pointed this out to me months ago and having looked out for this it now seems as plain as day. I loudly called him a rude word. All this said, I don’t think Will Lankshear contributed anything much either.

There are those who defend Sparky and our loanee from Spurs with the argument that they get no chances created for them. I can see that too, but it all goes to show how poor we are.

And bloody Blackburn won. Well, they were always going to weren’t they? They were playing Sheffield Wednesday. Eiran Cashin got his first goal for the club and I really hope his nickname is “The Attic”.

Positives, I need a positive to end on. Here goes. Makosso got tired towards the end but looked class. He can defend and was really assured on the ball. We very much need that. I have eulogised early doors about incomers before only to be disappointed further down the line. Fingers crossed not so here.

And on to Coventry. Top of the table, but not the form team they once were. Get your money on us at 13/2 if you don’t think we’ve got another 90 minutes of suffering ahead.