Almost feels like a loss

[raul]

Indded. After the second, just when you start thinking" can we hang on for a draw", they stopped coming forward. It was almost as though the realisation of what they could do was too much for them. Plus, we had allowed the game to get too open and started to shut it down a bit.

 

[GainsboroBlade]

who cares that pigs got 2 goals in the second half, we won 3-2 and thats ALL that matters!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[DuncDisorderly]

Apologies for the thread title, but I wasn't overjoyed at the final whistle, just relieved. The contrast between the performances in each half was stark, and I genuinely believe we were lucky to get the victory.

Chin up Highbury. We won, could have scored another 2 or 3 in the second half had their keeper not made excellent saves. It was nervy, but we won and deserved to. Don't give them any more comfort than they are creating in their little imaginations...

 

[Mojo]

Doesnt feel like a loss to me!! If it was the other way round, I certainly wouldnt be happy, i would be absolutely gutted. Any piggy who says otherwise is lying!!

 

[S64 Blade]

I agree with what you're saying Highbury. At half time we could have gone on to get 4 or 5. But in true United style we hung on for most of the second half. But, that's what it's all about being a Blade .

 

[super_pig]

well i'm on here as much as anyone moaning about the lack of brazil style football .. but lads 3-2 against the pigs.. who cares.. i'll take that.

 

[Greg]

A win's a win. We beat the pigs, and in my opinion, deserved to do so throughout the whole 90 minutes.

 

[tat]

The half time buzz was so high, the second half could not and did not match that, hence yea i too was a little deflated at the final whistle.

Soon snaped out off it. A great match, a even better result.

 

[Ollessendro]

We were very, very lucky. IMHO Wednesday were the better team. They looked more composed, played better football and had the lions share of possession. However, football is about taking chances. For all Wednesday's football and slick passing they rarely looked dangerous. The first goal was decent, but Bunn should have saved the 2nd. Other than that they didn't really have a decent chane that I remember (other than the header Bunn tipped over the bar). We scored 3 goals and had 2 clear cut chances in the 2nd half.

People who think that we deserved a win have got their red and white tinted spectacels on. At half time we were lucky to be in front, especially by 3 goals. However, who gives a flying f$ck? We stuffed Wednesday and thast is all that matters. The points and the result are the most important thing.

I'm not going to read too much into Friday nights perfromance. Like I said it's the results that matters. However we were awful and that concersn me a little. My mian concern is Blackwell not dealing with the pressure at home. We are great away from home when the pressure is off but at home in the big games we just can't handle it. On Friday we looked very, very jittery. I think KB's nervousness worked its way onto the pitch. It was literallly pass, hoof. Pass, hoof. I don't remember us stringing more than 4 or 5 passes together in the whole game!? Wednesday on the other hand played some pretty decent football. Thye just lacked that final ball. There first goal was a great move and they strung together more passes than we did in the whole game. We took our chances and that is what matters. However we can't afford to play like that at home in the big games. Teams such as Newcastle, Boro and Cardiff will give us a dicking if we play as badly at BDTBL like we did against the pigs.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not on here moaning and groaning. I'm happy and it certainly does NOT 'almost feel like a loss'. We stay in touch will the leaders after a difficult week of football and stuff the Pigs.

 

[Northyorksblade]

That's absolute rubbish that 'we were awful'. Yes, they strung passes together and ended up further away from goal than where they started! Very pretty but not necessarily good football. I didn't think we looked jittery at all. The fans were, when it went to 3-2.

 

[Highbury_Blade]

The first goal was decent, but Bunn should have saved the 2nd. Other than that they didn't really have a decent chane that I remember (other than the header Bunn tipped over the bar). We scored 3 goals and had 2 clear cut chances in the 2nd half.

.

That dutch winger had a spectacular shot that flew just wide that could have made it 3-3 and ealier in the second half they spooned three gilt edged chances in the space of 5 seconds.

 

[Revolution]

Tudgay should have buried that volley from about 6 yards out when it was 3-1 - that was the miss of the night by either side.

 

[Ollessendro]

That dutch winger had a spectacular shot that flew just wide that could have made it 3-3 and ealier in the second half they spooned three gilt edged chances in the space of 5 seconds.

I must have been a bit pissed because I don't remember that!? I do remember Tudgay having a volley he blazed over though which was a good chance.

That's absolute rubbish that 'we were awful'. Yes, they strung passes together and ended up further away from goal than where they started! Very pretty but not necessarily good football. I didn't think we looked jittery at all. The fans were, when it went to 3-2.

You opinion is that we played well. Mine vastly differs from that. IMO we were awful. We lacked composure, didn't look comfortable on the ball and generally chased shadows. It was just hoof, hoof, hoof. At one stage we passed the ball 5 times (one was a lucky hoof that fell to a United player) and I was amazed!? I don't remember a single player looking good on the ball for United. They played much, much better but lacked that final ball or killer instinct.

 

[Highbury_Blade]

I must have been a bit pissed because I don't remember that!? I do remember Tudgay having a volley he blazed over though which was a good chance.

Just outside the box on the left hand edge of the 'D'. Struck a thunderous shot with the outside of the foot and Bunn would have had no chance had it been on target. Obafemi Martins scored a similar goal for Newcastle a couple of seasons ago.

 

[GoldCoast Blade]

Surley the fact that we can play a lot better and the pigs think they played fantastic football just helps to show how big the divide is. Imagine if we played our best and they played crap. COYRAWW

 

[Northyorksblade]

I must have been a bit pissed because I don't remember that!? I do remember Tudgay having a volley he blazed over though which was a good chance.




You opinion is that we played well. Mine vastly differs from that. IMO we were awful. We lacked composure, didn't look comfortable on the ball and generally chased shadows. It was just hoof, hoof, hoof. At one stage we passed the ball 5 times (one was a lucky hoof that fell to a United player) and I was amazed!? I don't remember a single player looking good on the ball for United. They played much, much better but lacked that final ball or killer instinct.

I didn't actually say we played well, just that we weren't awful.

 

[oldblade]

We were very, very lucky. IMHO Wednesday were the better team. They looked more composed, played better football and had the lions share of possession. However, football is about taking chances. For all Wednesday's football and slick passing they rarely looked dangerous. The first goal was decent, but Bunn should have saved the 2nd. Other than that they didn't really have a decent chane that I remember (other than the header Bunn tipped over the bar). We scored 3 goals and had 2 clear cut chances in the 2nd half.

People who think that we deserved a win have got their red and white tinted spectacels on. At half time we were lucky to be in front, especially by 3 goals. However, who gives a flying f$ck? We stuffed Wednesday and thast is all that matters. The points and the result are the most important thing.

I'm not going to read too much into Friday nights perfromance. Like I said it's the results that matters. However we were awful and that concersn me a little. My mian concern is Blackwell not dealing with the pressure at home. We are great away from home when the pressure is off but at home in the big games we just can't handle it. On Friday we looked very, very jittery. I think KB's nervousness worked its way onto the pitch. It was literallly pass, hoof. Pass, hoof. I don't remember us stringing more than 4 or 5 passes together in the whole game!? Wednesday on the other hand played some pretty decent football. Thye just lacked that final ball. There first goal was a great move and they strung together more passes than we did in the whole game. We took our chances and that is what matters. However we can't afford to play like that at home in the big games. Teams such as Newcastle, Boro and Cardiff will give us a dicking if we play as badly at BDTBL like we did against the pigs.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not on here moaning and groaning. I'm happy and it certainly does NOT 'almost feel like a loss'. We stay in touch will the leaders after a difficult week of football and stuff the Pigs.

I do not think Wednesday were the better team at all!

Yes, for a 25 minute spell in the second half they were playing a very high tempo game, pinging the ball about quite well and were on top. But then, they didn't have a lot of choice did they? They had to come out and really go for it or else they could have been buried. But, you can only keep that pace up for so long and I think they ran out of steam in the last 20 minutes. In the last quarter of an hour we looked far more likely to score than them.

Also, you cannot just dismiss the first half. Their defence was all over the place and I genuinely felt we could score every time we got forward. The half time deficit could easily have been higher.

The game is played over 90 minutes (or 98 in this case), and overall they were not better and did not do enough to salvage a point.

 

[themaninblack]

This much I know; I had a dreadful hangover on Saturday morning and the Blades were by far the better team!

Some people on here seem to have a real inferiority complex which I cannot understand; we are a much better side than Wendy and we proved it over 90 minutes. Our real rivals are the good teams in this division not the half-arsed bunch of wasters from down the road.

 

[Ollessendro]

I do not think Wednesday were the better team at all!

Yes, for a 25 minute spell in the second half they were playing a very high tempo game, pinging the ball about quite well and were on top. But then, they didn't have a lot of choice did they? They had to come out and really go for it or else they could have been buried. But, you can only keep that pace up for so long and I think they ran out of steam in the last 20 minutes. In the last quarter of an hour we looked far more likely to score than them.

Also, you cannot just dismiss the first half. Their defence was all over the place and I genuinely felt we could score every time we got forward. The half time deficit could easily have been higher.

The game is played over 90 minutes (or 98 in this case), and overall they were not better and did not do enough to salvage a point.

I'm not dismissing the first half. I'm taking it into consideration. Problem is that I don't think we played well in the first half either. Wednesday were playing the better football in the first 45 but just couldn't defend for toffee. Sure we took our chances and I was happy that we were 3-0 up at half time when we hadn't played particualry well.

This much I know; I had a dreadful hangover on Saturday morning and the Blades were by far the better team!

Some people on here seem to have a real inferiority complex which I cannot understand; we are a much better side than Wendy and we proved it over 90 minutes. Our real rivals are the good teams in this division not the half-arsed bunch of wasters from down the road.

Not at all. I personally think that our staritng 11 (the one we put out against Wednesday witht the exception of kilgallon) is one of the best in the division. I'd even go as far as saying that there is not a better starting 11 in the Championship. That is not an inferiority complex. However we did not play well on Friday night. As I keep saying we looked nervous and we didn't play a scrap of football. It was the tactics and management that was the problem.

I'm amazed that some Blades fans are keeping up this chirade that we deserved the 3 points. I was over the moon that we took them but thought that on the night we were inferior to Wednesday. They shouldn't just be thinking that they desrved a point, they should have taken all 3. But luckily for us, they cannot defend for all the tea in China and we have more of a killer instinct and took our chances.

 

[SwissBlade]

Funny feeling as we really should have put them to the sword in the 2nd half.

Wardy's injury didn't help along with Cotterils complete inability to put a foot in anywhere. Cotterill really frustrates me in this respect.

Final whistle was a huge relief and the Euphoria of halftime on the back of the Kop was shortlived.

As for the Wendy fans, I can't believe them. They're making out it was a big result for them... They lost the chuffin Derby!!! They should be gutted.

Or do they just accept now that we're so much bigger and better than them that it seems that they're happy just to get away with keeping the GD down to -1. Even Strap on was proud of them... I'd be disgusted if United went 3-0 down in a derby, even if we managed to claw back 2 goals. I'd want questions answering.

I had a few beers with some piggy mates on Sat and not normally one for holding my tongue, the pigs asked what was wrong with me. Don't get me wrong, I was absolutely chuffed to bits to win and I managed a little bit of gloating, but to almost throw a 3-0 lead away is almost criminal and slightly embarrassing.

Were just lucky that Strap on's boys are so shite that they couldn't take their chances.

Up the Blades and heres to hammering them at their place and doing the Double

 

[Berks_Blade]

I'm amazed that some Blades fans are keeping up this chirade that we deserved the 3 points. I was over the moon that we took them but thought that on the night we were inferior to Wednesday. They shouldn't just be thinking that they desrved a point, they should have taken all 3. But luckily for us, they cannot defend for all the tea in China and we have more of a killer instinct and took our chances.

In no way were we inferior. Yes, they played well for much of the second half, but by the last 5-10 mins we'd got our act together again and were able to keep the ball better, so while I'd been nervous after the 2nd goal I was feeling much more confident towards the end of the game. And we had the best scoring chances after it went to 3-2, denied by fantastic saves.

Remember, we played with a CB that had hardly met his team-mates before and who looked like it in the first half (and didn't win a header in the first 20 mins), but who settled down and improved as the game went on. And the Ward injury hit us massively I think, as not only had he caused problems going forward but also gave great support to Walker when we were on the defensive. With Killa, and without the Ward injury, it would have been much more comfortable but over the 90 mins (despite a v creditable Pigs performance 2nd half) the right team won.

The only disappointment is that at half-time I was looking for a result that would put Boxing Day to bed once and for all and give us something to taunt the piggies about, but that'll have to wait for another day. We won, and despite the nerves for part of the 2nd half the feeling at the end was still great.

 

[Toronto Blade]

The only downer was losing ward so early on.The unclean only had 25 minutes of being on top.Even with a hours old centerback the unclean couldn't take advantage .They couldn't get any penetration into the box.
They were reduced to hopeful shots from outside the box which sailed off target.
Yes they missed some chances but they didn't make Bunn work!
The real star of that team was their keeper who made two top class saves in the second half if either of those are not stopped it could have been a long night for them.
Lets not forget a team that is up 3-0 at half time has all the pressure lifted its easy to take the foot off the gas!
The unclean did mount a comeback as was to be expected but they couldn't sustain it in fact where did they disappear to in the last ten minutes a time when they should have thrown everything forward.
Come april maybe we can have the first eleven face them for the first time in years.

 

[Ollessendro]

In no way were we inferior. Yes, they played well for much of the second half, but by the last 5-10 mins we'd got our act together again and were able to keep the ball better, so while I'd been nervous after the 2nd goal I was feeling much more confident towards the end of the game. And we had the best scoring chances after it went to 3-2, denied by fantastic saves.

Remember, we played with a CB that had hardly met his team-mates before and who looked like it in the first half (and didn't win a header in the first 20 mins), but who settled down and improved as the game went on. And the Ward injury hit us massively I think, as not only had he caused problems going forward but also gave great support to Walker when we were on the defensive. With Killa, and without the Ward injury, it would have been much more comfortable but over the 90 mins (despite a v creditable Pigs performance 2nd half) the right team won.

The only disappointment is that at half-time I was looking for a result that would put Boxing Day to bed once and for all and give us something to taunt the piggies about, but that'll have to wait for another day. We won, and despite the nerves for part of the 2nd half the feeling at the end was still great.

You must have been watching a different game than I was. They played us off the park.

Agree that if Killa and Ward had have played 90 mins then it would have been different. And yes we had a CB who joined us 20 minutes before kick off. This no doubt contributed to us being crap. There are mnay reasons why we underperformed, but my point is that we did underperform .

The only downer was losing ward so early on.The unclean only had 25 minutes of being on top.Even with a hours old centerback the unclean couldn't take advantage .They couldn't get any penetration into the box.
They were reduced to hopeful shots from outside the box which sailed off target.
Yes they missed some chances but they didn't make Bunn work!
The real star of that team was their keeper who made two top class saves in the second half if either of those are not stopped it could have been a long night for them.
Lets not forget a team that is up 3-0 at half time has all the pressure lifted its easy to take the foot off the gas!
The unclean did mount a comeback as was to be expected but they couldn't sustain it in fact where did they disappear to in the last ten minutes a time when they should have thrown everything forward.
Come april maybe we can have the first eleven face them for the first time in years.

Yes they mounted a comeback, but they were the better team even in the first half. They are just awful defensively. Our second goal summed it up. There was 5 or 6 blue and white shirts around Henderson and seemingly no danger. We only scored due to the blatent incompetence of the Wednesday defense. The 3rd goal was fantastic, but from a defensive point of view unbelievable. It was a good ball but there was no danger whatsoever. Yes there keeper made a few good saves, particularly from hendersons header. But again there defending was crap.

The point is that a decent side would have dicked us. We were disjointed, lacking in composure and creativity and completely devoid of any ideas. We humped the ball up to Henderson. Luckily he played very well and did his fair share of winning the ball and keeping possession. Our hoof ball tactics would not have dented a decent sides defense. It bwas only because Wednesdays defense was awful that we got chances. We were gash on Friday; you know it, I know, Blackwell knows it, Lawa knew it.

People are going to think that I am a pessimistic moaner. But I'm not. If you read my posts carefully you'll see that I was happy with the result and that's it. However, unlike many on here with their red and white tinted spectacles, I am not under any illusions that we deserved to win the game. We got lucky and that is the only reason why we took 3 points. I was embarrassed at how badly we played during that match!

 

[oldblade]

I'm not dismissing the first half. I'm taking it into consideration. Problem is that I don't think we played well in the first half either. Wednesday were playing the better football in the first 45 but just couldn't defend for toffee. Sure we took our chances and I was happy that we were 3-0 up at half time when we hadn't played particualry well.

Wednesday did not play the better football in the first half. Ability to defend is as much a part of the game as ability to attack. And their defending was very very poor in the first half. They looked as though they would concede a goal every time we attacked.

I did not feel like that about them when they attacked in the first half. Tudgay was pretty quiet and Johnson was almost non existent. Added to that we were in control in midfield. Even Monty managed to get past two players and put a cross in from which Davies almost scored. And attacking cannot really be described as the strongest part of Monty's game!

We weren't brilliant in the first half, I agree. But we didn't need to be. We were still much better than them.

By half time we could have been more than 3-0 up and they were rocking all over the place. If the positions were reversed we would have considered we'd taken a right tonking in that half.

In the second half they passed the ball about quite well, and made threatening inroads. But, their goalkeeper was the one who was forced into a superb save, not our's.

They scored two well taken goals, and had another clear cut chance. Apart from that, yes they pinged the ball about quite well for 25 minutes, but really after their second goal went in I don't recall too many valium reaching moments.

Football is about getting the ball into your opponent's goal more often than they do to you. The team that does that is the team that has played the better football. Wednesday did play some pretty stuff for a while, but it was not effective enough to get them a positive result.

We were much stronger than them in the first half and also finished the second half stronger. We could, and should have finished with a more comfortable win. But that never seems to be our way!

 

[oldblade]

That dutch winger had a spectacular shot that flew just wide that could have made it 3-3 and ealier in the second half they spooned three gilt edged chances in the space of 5 seconds.

If it's the shot I remember then I wouldn't say it was 'just' wide. And the highlights don't show a shot that was 'just' wide either. On the night, from the moment it left his boot I didn't think iut was going in - and I'm not known for being very optimistic!

Two of the three gilt edged chances that they had came from the same passage of play and ended with Tudgay missing a good chance from close range. But at that time the score was 3-1 not 3-2. Had it gone in you cannot deduce that they would have got a third. The whole of the rest of the game would have been different and Esajas may well not have had a free kick to score from.

 

[oldblade]

Yes they mounted a comeback, but they were the better team even in the first half. They are just awful defensively. Our second goal summed it up. There was 5 or 6 blue and white shirts around Henderson and seemingly no danger. We only scored due to the blatent incompetence of the Wednesday defense. The 3rd goal was fantastic, but from a defensive point of view unbelievable. It was a good ball but there was no danger whatsoever. Yes there keeper made a few good saves, particularly from hendersons header. But again there defending was crap.

They were not the better team. Their defence saw to that. You can carry all the attacking threat you want (and I saw little of that from them in the first half), but defence is a vital part of the game.

Brian Clough always used to claim that you've got to get your defence right first, and the Italians have won 4 world cups based on sound defence.

Yes, they played with tempo, urgency and passed the ball around nicely for 25 minutes. But in this game that wasn't enough because for a good portion of the other 65 minutes we were better in defence than them, more effective in attack than them and even exerted more control in midfield.

 

[oldblade]

Just outside the box on the left hand edge of the 'D'. Struck a thunderous shot with the outside of the foot and Bunn would have had no chance had it been on target.

On the night it looked as though it was missing from the moment he struck it, and having just examined the TV clip of it, it did not look particularly threatening - largely because he hit it too early instead of trying to control the pass, take it past the defender who was coming across (might even have forced him into a rash challenge) and then shooting.

 

[SouthEssexBlade]

You can't separate teams defensively and attacking-wise to decide if they played well or not. We were nothing more than average for the whole game; back four, midfield and up-front were never more than OK. They had a purple patch for 25 minutes in the second half when it all came together, but before that and for the last 20 minutes they were well below the level we were at. But for two good saves in the second half we would have had 5 on the night, and their superior second half would be looking nowhere near as good. Overall the result was about right. I still aged by 20 years in the second half though

 

[oldblade]

You can't separate teams defensively and attacking-wise to decide if they played well or not. We were nothing more than average for the whole game; back four, midfield and up-front were never more than OK. They had a purple patch for 25 minutes in the second half when it all came together, but before that and for the last 20 minutes they were well below the level we were at. But for two good saves in the second half we would have had 5 on the night, and their superior second half would be looking nowhere near as good. Overall the result was about right. I still aged by 20 years in the second half though

I think that about sums it up. No we weren't particularly good, and yes a better team than Wednesday may well have beaten us. But we weren't playing a better team, we were playing Wednesday, and overall on the night we were better than them.

 

[shorehamview]

From what I can remember from past lessons the team who wins is the better one. When the final whistle blows it's the team with the most goals that gets the three points. That's all that matters. Pretty football gets you fuck all, which is what Wednesday got.