My thoughts on the game.
Overall we dominated the first 20 minutes. McGoldrick & Duffy looked on song, we were playing in the right areas and probing away. We didn’t create any great openings, maybe one where Baldock made a cracking run inside off his wing (Freeman likes this run, defenders never know what to do with it) but then fluffed his lines once in behind.
After Middlesborough (fairly comfortably) weathered this early pressure they began to establish a foothold in the game. They harried us into mistakes in midfield. We became disjointed and sloppy. We always seemed to be playing passes over long distances to a man under pressure, it wasn’t working. Middlesborough created a couple of chances during this spell, but we were defending well - particularly Egan and Cranie.
Second half, with Flint off, Wilder decided to throw Madine into the fold (probably a little earlier than he would have done otherwise). Straight away he caused them problems. Middlesborough didn’t have an answer for him, they panicked completely. They fouled him twice in the box, both should have been given.
It makes me chuckle, and I often comment on it, but the only thing that gets our crowd going these days is a bad ref. It’s a shame in a way, because once our crowd gets going the team really does respond well to it, but all the sublime football in the world can’t get the Kop excited anymore. Anyway, I had a feeling we were going to score during this period of ascendancy, with the crowd behind us. When we won the free kick in Norwood’s favourite spot, it felt on.
We then see the game out fairly comfortably.
Positives
Martin Cranie - no need to panic about losing Basham, or even Baldock. He looked very assured tonight defensively and showed us some attributes we werent aware of. Composure on the ball and a willingness to attack. He brought a real level of calm and his experience showed back there. An excellent performance.
John Egan - Superb in everything he did.
Kieran Dowell - Unfamiliar position, put in a huge shift for us tonight. He’s up to speed now. Showed a great engine and desire. Super competitive. A proper Blades player.
John Fleck - Second half he woke up. He didn’t hide in the first half, but his touch was poor and he wasn’t handling receiving the ball under pressure very well. Second half he made sure he found space and drove.
Oli Norwood - I was slating him a bit first half. Thought it was another no show from him. But he delivered the key moment. He whips in a beautiful ball from that angle as we’ve seen before. I had a feeling we were going to score from there. He grew into the game.
Billy Sharp - He’s a completely different player now. He’s not just hit some goal scoring form. His all round play was majestic. He hustled and bustled, little balls round the corner, great movement. It was classy stuff from the Captain.
Gary Madine - I was against him signing. He’s proving me wrong. He made all the difference second half.
Negatives
McGoldrick started really well. Then faded badly. Everything he tried just didn’t come off. I’ll let him off because he’s been outstanding and he didn’t hide, just had a bit of a stinker following on from Friday night where really he could have buried Villa with a square ball to Baldock.
Henderson - Worried about his confidence. He was targeted and made mistakes again. Could have been costly.
Crowd - if we can get behind them every game, if even just for a 20 minute spell in the 2nd half then it’ll make a huge difference. It shouldn’t take adversity to always be the catalyst, the lads are playing some outstanding stuff at times (granted tonight wasn’t the greatest spectacle due to Boro).
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