FAN’S VIEW: 24/25 – No.20: SHEFFIELD UNITED AWAY

SHEFFIELD UNITED 3 OXFORD UNITED 0

There’s always that tiniest bit of hope. If there wasn’t what would be the point? But it was so slender that it was almost non-existent so something like this was totally what I expected to happen and to be honest beforehand I thought the margin of defeat could be larger.

For a proper assessment of a team’s performance, the opposition and the way they play on the day, has to be taken into account. So is there always a BUT involved? I recall when we were in L1 and losing games and I’d thought we’d not played very well and someone coming up with “BUT team x are good”. My retort was that’s as may be but if we want to be successful we have to be regularly beating these good teams and at the very least be decent and competitive when not winning as will inevitably sometimes happen. I wasn’t having any of it. Particularly not game after game.

So is it possible for there to be any validity in me now saying BUT look at the absolute quality of the opposition in the last two games? Middlesbrough scored 4, 5 and 6 in their last three games. (Before playing Blackburn on Wed night – will that alter my thinking of how good they were?). The Blades have only dropped two points in their last six games and went top after beating us in such easy fashion.

So yes, I’d say there is something in it but not a lot because we’ve been incredibly poor. In our last six games we’ve dropped 15 points. Okay, where we are and what we’re trying to achieve, which is survival, we should be looking more at points gained. Just the three. We’ve been showing relegation form for some time now.

Safe to say that there’s a gap between the top and bottom which is becoming very clear. QPR, our opponents in two games time, and Argyle after that, are nowhere near the class of the title chasing outfits. So some hope? Um! They’re both away games and our record on the road is no wins, two draws and six defeats. Doesn’t bode well and at present there’s so much wrong with our game that even the weaker teams if they have a good day and get it together would probably beat us unless we show a noticeable improvement pdq.

After Boro annihilated us one of our supporters posted that we were soon going to do the same to another team. Perhaps they were joking but I think not. I’ve not got a lot of time for forced humour at a time like this. The harsh reality keeps getting harsher. There’s a saying that “it’s all about the journey, not the destination”.  The back end of last season was absolutely wonderful and that euphoric day at Wembley will live forever in the memory but now we’re here in the Championship and finding it the toughest of challenges would anyone rather we go down so we could possibly travel a similar sort of path again? Don’t forget it’s over 20 years since we were last at this level. I’d rather be struggling in tier two with hope of remaining there than going along swimmingly at the top of tier three with a very good chance of promotion. Nothing is a given.

If anyone genuinely believes that we really are going to give a team a tonking in a week or two I think they need their heads examining. People who say such things never have any back up to logically explain why they think so other than a “cos we will”. 

I rang Mrs FV at half time to see how she thought it was coming over on Sky: “Men v boys”. That’s exactly the same description as someone else got when ringing another watcher on TV.

We didn’t start badly but in the context of Championship football that doesn’t mean much. A team has to do way more than that throughout 90 minutes to win games. I’m pretty sure that the opposition often just take it easy and have a look to see what we’ve got to offer. The way we’re playing at the moment they probably soon conclude that they just have to wait for us to make mistakes and hand the game to them. That and knowing they have superior players as well gives them way more belief and confidence than we display.

Our performance was riddled with mistakes. I noticed hardly any from Sheffield.

Unlike Watford with Giorgi Chakvetadze and Middlesbrough with Ben Doak I didn’t spot one individual as a standout but that possibly says a lot about Chris Wilder. The whole team was on it, playing much better football than we were and giving us the run around. I asked myself the question, if Boro were to play the Blades in a crunch game – say the play-off final – who would win? I’d probably go for the team we played here because they’d likely have a bit more of the necessary pragmatism to get over the line. It would be a fascinating match.

No way did we look up to Championship standard. As someone pointed out to me on Saturday nine of our starting XI had played in L1 for us last season. Perhaps that’s why we looked L1 because that’s what we are with not much experience at this level at all. Will Vaulks to be fair who is a regular has previously played in five Championship seasons and has clocked up a lot of games at that level. Hidde ter Avest is new to the English scene but has played his football to date in the Dutch Eredivisie and in Serie A so should be up to scratch.

For this game Przemyslaw Placheta, who has played a few Championship games for Norwich, Birmingham and Swansea, came in. I thought he was one of the few positives of the night, particularly early on. He’d totally pissed me off on Saturday when he tried a stupid flick at a time when we should have been all about trying to keep the ball. Here he won me over though. He looked like a proper winger with a bit of trickery and with a good cross on him. If only we had the type of striker who can get on the end of such deliveries.

Could Will Goodwin be that man? He’s not being given a look in but that will be based on training and how fit he is. I certainly don’t think Mark Harris is that man and Dane Scarlett is more suited to the ball being passed to his feet in the box. I’m even beginning to question if we need two new strikers. It all seems so unclear. Nobody’s fault, just the way it is. We know that a 20 goal a season forward is worth their weight in gold and if they’re around will almost certainly be plying their trade at the top end of the table not the bottom.

The thought that I can’t totally get away from is that perhaps we weren’t ready for promotion because we weren’t expecting it. Our team building with the contracts we’d given to Goodwin, Mark Harris, Owen Dale and probably others being geared to getting us out of L1 with plans in place for the Championship in 2025/26? (No that’s silly thinking, I should stop it. Totally illogical and with nothing to back it up).

Time to throw in some positivity me thinks. All sounding too gloomy thus far. Matt Phillips. A huge positive in my book. To me he looks like a Rolls Royce of a player and we don’t get to say that very often. He may be 33 now but has Premier League experience and it shows. He’s a class above and gets players around him playing. He glides about and covers the ground deceptively quickly. He gets back into the defensive shape too and was pointing and advising others. He forced home keeper Michael Cooper into a good save, tipping a long range shot over the bar and he set up Idris El Mizouni when Cooper had to do the same again. If he can stay fit and we can get a decent amount of minutes out of him I have hope.

There is though no getting away from this being an error strewn performance with the back line we put out looking way short to me. I’ll be a lot happier with Elliott Moore and Peter Kioso back. I’ve become a big fan of Ciaron Brown but in the last two games he’s been nowhere near as good as he can be.

1-0.

A long throw. A simple goal. We had everyone back but three or four weren’t marking an opponent. The head of Harry Souttar, a £15m centre half on loan from Leicester jumping with Sam Long, flicked it on to the unmarked Tyrese Campbell who played it into the six yard box where two Sheffield players had managed to get themselves without being marked. It only needed one. Callum O’Hare was the scorer.  We just weren’t switched on enough. Probably too much ball watching and not enough awareness of the movement of the striped shirts. It all happens so quickly but this is the Championship after all. Have I mentioned that enough yet? Only 10 minutes had gone. It felt like it could be a long night.

2-0.

Being able to receive the ball when tightly marked and play in tight, claustrophobic conditions is an essential requirement in the modern game. Ciaron Brown picked up a Sheffield clearance that Greg Leigh had got a touch on and managed to get the ball to a marked Tyler Goodrham. TG controlled really well and clipped the ball between two Sheffield players back to Brown. It looked for a split second like Brown wasn’t totally ready for it and, being unable to instantly control the pass, was easily dispossessed. Seven seconds later we’d let another in. We didn’t have a defensive shape of note nor any time to form one before we’d been punished. It was young Sydie Peck who robbed Brown and his pass to Gustavo Hamer, another £15m player, was moved on first time to Campbell who had already begun his run through a gaping hole in our rear line. One on one he took the ball wide of Jamie Cumming and scored. He didn’t do a Mark Harris. There’s a difference in class as one would expect as there’s a difference in price.  Not yet half an hour gone. Very much felt like it could be a long night. We managed to get to half time with no further damage done but needed to thank Cumming for that as he pulled off two good saves.

3-0.

Not for us but for everyone else this goal was very pleasing on the eye. From my perspective it looked as if it was a training session move when the opposition was nothing more than a load of cones. They just walked through us.

With still half an hour to go I was fearful of the Blades sticking a few more in our net. That we didn’t concede again is a positive in a negative kind of way.  Again though we had to rely on Cumming to come to the rescue. He had to after Vaulks had given the ball away.

When this went in seven people to my right got up and left. They didn’t return, well not to that part of the stand. It is of course their right to do so. We had 863 fans there in the gate of 25,574 which I think is not too shabby a turnout. They supported throughout but I didn’t detect any real belief that we’d get anything from this. Most fans know what’s what.

The stats as well as the score line tell of the Sheffield dominance. They had 76.2% possession and 14 shots on goal of which eight were on target. We had nine and three. There are other stats around that indicate how meaningful these shots were. From Sporting Life I found “big chances created” and “big chances missed”. They created four. Obviously missed one as they only scored three. Big chances created by us, none. Expected goals recorded as 3.56 for them and 0.26 for us. They made over double the passes we did and were more accurate in doing so – 90% completion compared to our 81%. They had 33 touches in our box we had just seven in theirs.

Conclusion: inferior in every department. But (I’m using that word again) perhaps not quite so worrying. Other than in their first home game of the season they’ve not conceded a goal at Bramall Lane. So we’re not alone. However none of the other teams that have visited so far have let in more than two. A concern? Or can we put it down to us having a bit of a makeshift defence on the night?

What can we do to give ourselves a better chance against teams like SUFC on the form they’re in in their own back yard? More shithousery? I say more but we didn’t display any and truthfully that’s wrong but I don’t think that would have had any chance of working anyway. However whilst not being nasty at least don’t be nice. Okay, the game was gone when Goodrham clattered into a Sheffield player on the touch line. I don’t think they were going to get anything more than a throw in until TG apologised. You see lots of challenges like that when nothing is given. Once he held his hands up the linesman then started waving his flag about, the ref came across, Goodrham went in the book and they had a free-kick. Imagine Jamie Mackie or Chris Maguire saying sorry. Again I may have interpreted this incorrectly.

Another downer is that our goal difference which, compared to the other teams near the bottom, was worth half a point to us, has gone form just minus one to minus eight in two games. Hull who are in the bottom three are on minus seven.

For all the above I thoroughly enjoyed my evening out in Sheffield. Any disappointment I felt resulting from the game wasn’t deep because it was pretty much what I’d expected. A point would have been an unthinkable bonus.

In the Fat Cat

Our journey to Sheffield went really well until we pulled off the motorway and headed to Kelham Island. That frustrating delay was probably a given as it coincided with going home from work time. Once there it was worth it though. The Fat Cat – what a pub. It first opened in 1850 and the interior is little changed since then. It’s got a small central bar, mosaic in the doorway and a terrazzo floor. It did have a Formica bar top which was upgraded in 1981. That has to be for the better. It serves eight changing and one regular real ale. The choices are mostly, if not all, from micros/independent breweries, quite a few of which were new to me. There was a wide range of styles to choose from too. Think I had a pale ale and IPA each completely unique. No ubiquity ruling here although Timothy Taylor’s Landlord was on offer. If you think that would be your last pick that tells you all you need to know.

Mark got the first round in. He pulled his phone out of his pocket with a flourish and tapped on the card reader. Having done so he celebrated as if he’d scored the winning goal in a cup final. He’d moved into the modern world and for someone of his age had decided to catch up with the latest tech. I’m having none of it. Good old credit card for me.

Sat there with a perfect pint in such a pleasant environment with mates and feeling pretty well having at last seemed to have shaken off a cold that’s hung around for about a month, I thought life ain’t too bad even if we might be about to get a dicking.

The Fat Cat was so appealing that we didn’t bother to nip round the corner to the Kelham Island Tavern and that is an equally excellent establishment.

Our driver Tim who was obviously restricting his alcoholic intake, kindly agreed to drive us to the Rutland Arms which is much closer to the ground and then go and find a parking space. I’ve been in here before a few times. Another top pub. Again an extensive choice and the stout was, like the earlier pints, faultless. A bloke who was sat near us heard us wondering how far to the ground. Ten minutes he told us. “Never been to your new ground but went to the old one a few times.” “Ah the Manor”. “Yes”. 

Tim then arrived, didn’t have a drink and we walked to the ground. The stewards were checking tickets with a card reader before you could proceed to the turnstiles to scan them again and gain entry. All done in a much friendlier way than at Vicarage Road I thought. As we queued I noticed the ticket Tim had in his hand differed from those held by the other three of us. We had proper tickets, he had a home printed ticket. The steward tried but no green light was forthcoming. She took the ticket, inspected it and said “QPR”. Couldn’t help pissing myself laughing.

“Have you left the ticket at home Tim?” was replied to with a “No it’s in the car, I’ll have to go and get it.”  Mark then pipes up “I’ve lost 35 quid I must have dropped it in the car, can you have a look please”.

Tim missed the kick off but did get in not long after when he informed us that Mark’s money had not been found. Mark then worked out that it must have been lost in the Fat Cat when he whipped his phone out.

My conclusion from all this is that once you get to a certain age you should not be allowed out without a much younger carer.

Anyway on to Saturday. A home game. They’re usually much less eventful off the pitch but on the pitch 110% vital that we come up with a positive result. That league table is looking more and more precarious.

Millwall have only won one away game but have drawn four of the other six. In those seven games they’ve only scored six and let in seven. So not prolific but hard to score against. Dour springs to mind but somehow Millwall never conjure up the image of expansive attractive attacking football. They’re unbeaten in their last eight games, winning four and drawing four. They’ve beaten both Leeds and Burnley 1-0 in that run.

It’s going to be tough as it is every week. Looking forward to it in a masochistic sort of way.

After QPR’s win at Cardiff the bookies have naturally adjusted the odds on relegation. Reading up from the shortest: Argyle (4/6), Pompey (4/5), Oxford (13/10), QPR (13/8), Preston (7/2), Hull (4/1), and Cardiff (5/1). There’s then a jump to Derby at 9/1.

The way we’re playing at the moment I think the odds are quite generous to be honest. Very understandable that we’re in the bottom three.

Pompey, although bottom, are only five points behind us but have two games in hand. Hull, two points below us, sacked their manager this week after a nine game winless run. He only took over at the end of last season. Hope the next appointment is as disastrous. The Tigers finished 7^th last season yet they still dispensed with Liam Rosenior.

I have to say I’ve looked at league tables in the past and have felt more optimistic than I am at the moment. But KEEP THE FAITH.