FAN’S VIEW: 24/25 – No.46: SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY AWAY

SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY 0 OXFORD UNITED 1

Our second away win of the season could not have arrived in timelier fashion. Boy did we need this after the setback in midweek.

There wasn’t much to choose between the two sides but I’m of the opinion that we were marginally the better and deserving of the win. Why not? I’m supposed to be biased.

Anyone who has observed how we’ve been playing recently but was not in attendance at Hillsborough having seen the final score would have been able to have a good guess as to how that came about.

Goal came from a Will Vaulks long throw. Tick.

The opposition had much more of the ball than we did. Tick. We had only 36.1% possession.

Oxford defended well and cut out the horrible mistakes that give goals away. Tick? This one is very debatable. Individuals did not make howlers but we had to rely on the poor standard of shooting by our opponents. There’s no question that there is a big difference in quality between L1 and the Championship in most aspects of the game. However in many recent games there have been some abysmal attempts to hit the target and Wednesday continued that trend. This helped us get the three points but that doesn’t make us lucky because the opposition is crap at something.

They had 15 shots. We blocked five and eight were off target leaving just two on target. Seven were from outside the box meaning they’d not really got close to goal but it shouldn’t be overlooked that a top team with top finishers would have inflicted some punishment. Next up its Leeds at the Kassam.

Of our 13 shots five were on target. Cameron Brannagan is striking the ball cleanly once more which means a goal or two from his boots may not be far away.

Gary Rowett made six changes to the starting line-up but this was as usual very much a Rowett type performance. No complaints from me on that front. We used our maximum number of substitutes but neither of our two most expensive signings got a single minute on the pitch. What does that tell us?

Two of those brought in, Stan Mills and Alex Matos, were soon combining well down the right. This resulted in a chance being created with the ball falling to Will Vaulks after Tom Bradshaw was crowded out. His side-foot effort from within the D was decent enough but was bent back towards young keeper Pierce Charles, who has recently taken over from James Beadle, to make a relatively comfortable save.

It didn’t take long for the Owls to start racking up their string of bad misses. There was a hopeless attempt at a finish from the not very marvellous 34 year old Marvin Johnson. With his experience one would have expected him to have done much better. He was completely unmarked on the edge of the box but approached the ball all wrong. The chance was made for the right foot. He took it on his left and put it way wide. That was a mistake for which we were not punished. Mills should have been marking him.

Wednesday began to play a bit but there was no panic on our part. Perhaps we knew they lacked the finishing touch.

Some of their efforts were better than others though. After we’d lost the ball in midfield Djeidi Gassama got a low shot away which Cumming had to get down to quickly, thrusting out a strong hand to keep his goal intact. Brannagan finished the job, hooking the ball away, but Tyler Goodrham unnecessarily immediately gave a foul away. If a goal had come from the free-kick that would have been deemed a gift.

Mills and Matos combined again with the latter being fouled. Goodrham delivered the free-kick which the defence got away but only to Brannagan who had hung back. He wasn’t marked. It’s all about percentages. From 20 yards he struck the ball first time keeping it down. It fizzed just wide.

The Wednesday misses continued to mount. Vaulks committed the sin of going to ground but got nowhere near Yan Valery. At least he didn’t give a foul away in a dangerous area but the alarm bells were sounding. With a perfect pass Josh Windass found Anthony Musaba unmarked at the far post. With the goal at his mercy the finish was imperfect. A laughable miss.

It was then our turn to clear a free kick to an unmarked opponent outside the penalty area. It was returned wildly over the bar.

Our attacking, when it happened, was encouraging. From a Bradshaw headed flick on, Matos cut the ball back to Goodrham who had read the situation well. He stepped on to it and fired a good shot which Charles had to repel going to his right. Brannagan got onto the rebound but it was difficult to take on the volley. It went into the ground then over the bar.

Continuing one of the main themes of the game in the second half, Svante Ingelsson put the ball way over the bar in a manner that suggested he had never scored a goal in his life (he has, he got one on Boxing Day). Goes without saying perhaps that he was in acres of space. We really will have to tighten up against better opposition. I thought though that there was a short spell in the second half when we knocked the ball around and kept it in quite confident fashion. Something that is often missing. Championship quality being shown?  

Long before the end it was clear that if the encounter wasn’t going to be goalless then just one would almost certainly settle it. That we scored it wasn’t predictable but when we did the source was very foreseeable. Two defenders jumped together when the long throw came in from Vaulks. They helped the ball on to the far post where Sam Long reacted the quickest and nodded home. No surprise that a defender scored it but a surprise that it was the lad from Bicester with his first goal since October 2023.

His reaction after that went in was genuine to the core. The Oxford United badge is his badge. Shall I be controversial here and say that in the moment this meant as much to him as it did to Rory McIlroy a day later when the short putt in the play-off round was sunk to give him the Masters and complete the Grand Slam at the 11^th attempt.

Sport hey, and what it gives to you and does to you both at participatory and spectator level.

Needless to say there were “scenes” in the away end as youngsters would describe it and “limbs”. When does one get too old for this sort of thing? Definitely already for me but I didn’t let that stop me. In fact I’d decided to go for it. If you can’t escape on the terraces where can you escape? I even got carried away and joined in with a fair amount of the singing. I refused to participate in “Sheffield’s a s******e I wanna go home” as a matter of principle. Firstly because it’s not and secondly it’s disrespectful.

I also refused to participate in “how s*** must you be, we’re winning away” and “the U’s are staying up” until the final whistle. It tempts fate rather too much. Having said that I thought our support was magnificent. 1,438 is a creditable turnout but it felt like there were more present. The backing a team gets makes a difference. It’s not all good at Wednesday and their fans turned their back on the game in the 10^th minute in protest at owner Dejphon Chansiri’s “disrespect towards players, staff, and fans”.

We will have transmitted more positive vibes on to our players, even though our away record was so bad, than the home supporters will have done on to theirs. They’ve now lost their last five games at Hillsborough and have not won there since New Year’s Day.

S*******s don’t have quality boozers. Sheffield does. Some wisely headed to Kelham Island which is a real ale paradise. We didn’t, we headed north of the ground where there’s plenty of street parking and went to the Blind Monkey. The intention had been to move on to the Raven which isn’t far away but even though we’d arrived just gone mid-day we stayed put until we set off for the match.

As it’s only a 1.3 mile walk to the ground, I was expecting a lot more football fans to be drinking in there. We were the first in and only a few came in during our stay. A kid came in wearing a Sheffield United shirt. It was hardly a stronghold. On derby day it was apparently half and half and all in good humour – as it should be but I find it hard to contemplate that there wasn’t some real edge. Probably elsewhere with a different type of fan.

Decent choice of beer including Don Valley Atomic Blonde and Little Critters Ginger Pale Ale. Good quality, reasonable prices and samples offered when choices were being made. I’d go back.   

Our league position now looks so much healthier and the results elsewhere helped contribute to that. Job not yet done though and we know what’s coming next on Good Friday.

I’m always drawn to the table at times like this when we win but try and avoid gazing at it when we lose.

Plymouth are still bottom but have picked up 6 points from the last three games and are now only three points from 21^st place but with a dreadful goal difference. How much of a feather in the cap is beating wobbling Sheffield United now? Three points are three points of course. Argyle are now 1/10 for the drop.

Luton have only got two points from the last three games and somehow lost at home to out of form Blackburn on Saturday. Plymouth have now caught them up on points. The Hatters relegation odds 1/4.

Cardiff have also only got two from the last three and lost at home to relegation rivals Stoke. A bitter blow. They’re 22^nd and 8/15 to be playing L1 football next season. Stoke are 18^th on 47 points with relegation odds of 16/1.

Derby are in 21^st position. After their run of four wins in a row they have drawn two and lost one of the last three. That defeat was to Swansea who were relegation rivals but they’ve won their last three which has propelled them into the top half of the table. The Rams have relegation odds of 13/8.

Hull are 12/1 one place above but have a game in hand at the time of writing this.

Portsmouth are 19^th and have only got one point from their last three games. That was a 2-2 draw with Derby on Saturday. Couldn’t have been better for us. Pompey’s odds 12/1.

Next come Stoke at 16/1 in 18^th place. They’re not losing at present and play Wednesday this coming Saturday.

And only now do we come to the Mighty Yellows. In 17^th position and 18/1 to go down. Plus we’re only a point behind Preston and two adrift of QPR.

Hands up all those who would take a point from the Leeds game.