and tonights scapegoat is

[cooperblade]

Forget the pens, Sharp has missed 4 really good chances in open play in the last 2 home games.

Their winner was fortunate but how did we end up 2v2 at the back? It seemed to happen a lot where Colchester had as many attackers as we had defenders. The organisation looked really poor tonight.

 

[Lord Bos of Eckington.]

Scapegoat should be the man whose not sorted the defense.

Eh Mr Adkins?

The scapegoat is us fans . Adkins and the board have to stop taking us for the scapegoat .

UTB

 

[Alfreton14Blade]

Tonight's scapegoats are
Edgar
Collins
McEvely
Baxter
Basham
Woolford
Sharpe
Sammons

JCR, Howard and Freeman did ok

Yeah, agree with you there. Freeman's the one of those who came out with real credit, for me.

I know it's probably illegal, but I'd add Nige to the list of scapegoats for tonight. The rigid 442 makes us look so pedestrian & clueless. We got played around, through, beyond, & in-between, & we were made to look mugs in our own back yard.

We had chances, but Colchester deserved their win - they were by far the better, more fluid side. We looked like clumsy chumps.

 

[Blade82]

Garbage tonight. Hopefully we get a response like we did after Gillingham, we need 3 wins on the bounce to put this right. The lack of pace is hurting us badly

 

[PeteBlade]

Just out of interest, before Saturday when we'd conceded one goal in four games, and had a blip(what it looked like before saturday) against gillingham, would you honestly say the defence was in desperate need of strengthening immediately? And since bury he's had two days to sort something, which is really hardly enough time is it? obviously now everyone including Adkins im sure will be looking at the defence, but surely its harsh to blame him using hindsight when up untill saturday many thought he had sorted the defence for now bringing in edgar?

Yes. Multiple people have said it since the day Adkins was appointed.

 

[bartman]

Tonight's scapegoats are
Edgar
Collins
McEvely
Baxter
Basham
Woolford
Sharpe
Sammons

JCR, Howard and Freeman did ok

I would swap JCR for McEveley in that list

 

[Fulwood Blade]

In fairness billy was shite all game, same on Saturday

You do realise that "Sheffield United" is too big for Billy Sharp with him being a fan too.

He tires too hard, wants to do well for everyone and in the end that type of situation will always count against you.

I wish him luck, and want him to do well but in our predicament of L1 it can only end in tears.

UTB

 

[Jon Bon]

Post 1st World War period ?

Crimean

 

[FatLadFromSheffield]

Billy , missed 2 out of 3 penalties Sharp , could have won

lets see how many are as quick to blame him

Sharp shouldn't have taken that last penalty after nearly messing up the first one. Plus he missed 2/3 good chances tonight, which would have affected him. Baxter/McEverley would have been better taking it

 

[SwissBlade]

You do realise that "Sheffield United" is too big for Billy Sharp with him being a fan too.

He tires too hard, wants to do well for everyone and in the end that type of situation will always count against you.

I wish him luck, and want him to do well but in our predicament of L1 it can only end in tears.

UTB

Said that last time as well, thought he'd get his 10 goals this season from the penalty spot, but looks like he's doing his best to make a mess of that too

 

[Fulwood Blade]

Said that last time as well, thought he'd get his 10 goals this season from the penalty spot, but looks like he's doing his best to make a mess of that too

Billy missed enough chances to win 2 games of football.

Unless he gets the Sheff Utd monkey off his back it is going to effect him big time.

Time for Mr Adkins to earn some of the considerable corn we are probably paying him.

UTB

 

[Alfreton14Blade]

Billy missed enough chances to win 2 games of football.

Unless he gets the Sheff Utd monkey off his back it is going to effect him big time.

Time for Mr Adkins to earn some of the considerable corn we are probably paying him.

UTB

Cliche I know, but I suppose the one encouraging thing from tonight is that Billy is definitely getting himself into positions bringing him very good chances. By the law of averages, his conversion rate's got to improve soon (surely? or just clutching at straws?).

 

[crucialkneeligaman]

I was a bit surprised when I heard he was stepping up to take the third penalty as well. My immediate thought was that Baxter should have had a go.

Looked like some kind of discussion going on between Billy and Baxter prior to missed pen. Didn't Billy miss one for Leeds just before joining us. Was it part of the deal when he joined us that he had to take all the penalties. Baxter is a decent penalty taker anyway, lack of professionalism cost us.

 

[Fulwood Blade]

Cliche I know, but I suppose the one encouraging thing from tonight is that Billy is definitely getting himself into positions bringing him very good chances. By the law of averages, his conversion rate's got to improve soon (surely? or just clutching at straws?).

Billy tried very hard - too hard which is going to be his problem.
We lost it in midfield in the first half by players who passed and moved - very very simple.

We upped the tempo 20 minutes into the 2nd half - hey presto - Colchester were shit. We then dropped off again at 2-2 FFS.

Argh.................so cross..........

UTB

 

[Large Mendonca]

Looked like some kind of discussion going on between Billy and Baxter prior to missed pen. Didn't Billy miss one for Leeds just before joining us. Was it part of the deal when he joined us that he had to take all the penalties. Baxter is a decent penalty taker anyway, lack of professionalism cost us.

As awful as Baxter was tonight, I was hoping he was going to take that pen.

 

[Olij37]

I don't know why everyone is blaming sharp. He has been a great player so far and yes he should have scored the 3rd penalty, but the first the keeper came well of the line. He scored 1 pen and created our 2nd goal so I don't blame billy at all. Howard and mceverly did shite tho.

 

[super_pig]

new scapegoat?? backwards baxter.. he slows the play down and makes a backward pass nearly every time and can't tackle for shit..just from jcr
beats his man every time and then turns back and beats him again and again until he loses the ball.. meanwhile forwards are making runs and checking out and turning round and doing it again and again
super pig match report. (bear in mind i'm rather annoyed)
howard .. cardboard cutout. agiiltiy of my 75 year old mum.. did make a save though.. so i've finally seen him make one
freeman.. ok
mceverly.. did well.. amaze
edgar/collo.. totally exposed by midfield (?) for first two goals
jcr.. infuriating
bash.. tries hard but i can't work out what his position is
baxter.. backwards.. and round again
woolford.. did ok
billy.. forget you play for the blades billy. pretend you are at scunthorpe and relax.. trying too hard
sammon.. lamp post
mcnuts.. did ok

adkins. nigel you can't play baxter in a 442 it simply won't work bash is all over the place trying to play two positions at once.. baxter gives the ball away constantly and can't tackle

overall
possibly the worst half of football i've ever seen at the lane (first half).. it was almost a perverse privilege to be there to witness such crap.. appalling..

 

[super_pig]

I don't know why everyone is blaming sharp. He has been a great player so far and yes he should have scored the 3rd penalty, but the first the keeper came well of the line. He scored 1 pen and created our 2nd goal so I don't blame billy at all. Howard and mceverly did shite tho.

mceverley?.. you can't be serious.. yeah it surprised a few that did
sharp shouldn't have took the third penalty but who else?? baxter? he'd have passed it back to the half way line

 

[LoughboroBlade]

Sharp holds his hands up, says he had enough chances to win two games tonight, and apologises...

http://bbc.in/1Qg0Gtb

 

[sitwell]

Billy sharp and JCR were the only threats we had ,Sharp had a great spell in the second half and the chance weren't on a plate he had work to do to make them ,some weeks those go in ,some they don't. We had far poorer contributers than Sharp and JCR.

 

[Revolution]

If Sharp missing a penalty in a game we lost by one goal doesn't matter, Don Givens will be relieved.

 

[judge]

Billy , missed 2 out of 3 penalties Sharp , could have won

lets see how many are as quick to blame him

Maybe its the players fault for being shit
Just a thought
Wouldnt be any scapegoats if we were winning

 

[Hodgyman]

Why do people blame Sharp for not scoring the 3rd penalty. I saw it as a tremendous save by their keeper. That would have been a goal against most L1 keepers.

Keepers are allowed to contribute to games too. I think that the last 2 keepers to visit the lane have both earned their teams the points.

Don't forget that Howard made 2 really good saves from free kicks last night. I didn't hear anyone complaining about that

 

[davidpinder]

Your problem is right there

 

[Caseh]

Why do people blame Sharp for not scoring the 3rd penalty. I saw it as a tremendous save by their keeper. That would have been a goal against most L1 keepers.

Keepers are allowed to contribute to games too. I think that the last 2 keepers to visit the lane have both earned their teams the points.

Don't forget that Howard made 2 really good saves from free kicks last night. I didn't hear anyone complaining about that

Stop defending Howard, its not allowed! Seriously though, all Howard did wrong today was a soft punch near the edge of our area, but it didn't lead to a goal.

 

[shrubbery]

Why do people blame Sharp for not scoring the 3rd penalty. I saw it as a tremendous save by their keeper. That would have been a goal against most L1 keepers.

Keepers are allowed to contribute to games too. I think that the last 2 keepers to visit the lane have both earned their teams the points.

Don't forget that Howard made 2 really good saves from free kicks last night. I didn't hear anyone complaining about that

Sorry, can't agree with this.

I was sat in the Kop with perfect view of all three of Billy's penalties and they were all in exactly the same position as each other which looked about shoulder height and only about 2/3 of the way across the goal to the keepers right. All three of them were perfectly saveable (hence 2 of them being saved). If you are going to choose a corner of the goal to constantly hit with your penalties then this is not necessarily a problem so long as it is the 'corner' of the goal that is hit. It doesn't matter if the keeper dives the right way if you put the ball in the right place. They were just poor penalties fair and square and that is from a top striker in this division.

I like Billy and want him to do well but he should't have took the third kick tonight as the keeper had worked him out.

 

[HighfieldBlade]

Come on, Blades, I was seriously pissed off at last night's result, regret some of the things I said in the heat of the moment. I was fuming on the drive back to Leicester. But we're 5th, we've got some top players coming back from injury. Look at the much-fancied Wigan, they're below us, long way to go yet, things change so quickly. Got to stay positive (keep telling myself), put faith in Adkins. It's Day 1 again at Bradford on Sunday. A couple of good results and we'll have that feel-good factor again. Who's with me? Anyone?

 

[Small Mendonca]

I think McEveley is a poor player but it might be an idea for sections of our crowd to engage brain before hurling abuse at him. There were times in the first half where he was jeered when he played the ball badly, when in actual fact, he was given an awful ball by another player. There were a couple of occasions also where he received abuse, when he appeared to defend poorly, even though he had 2 Colchester players, another player wasn't doing their job of tracking back - Woolford springs to mind on one occasion.

He was one of the players in the 2nd half who was trying to make things happen. He is limited in his ability but you can't fault his effort. Blame Clough for renewing his contract and Adkins for playing him/making him captain.

It might be better to direct our moaning towards one of our players who takes the piss out of us on a weekly basis. He steals a wage from the club and I'm starting to really dislike him. He goes by the name of Jose Baxter.

 

[AlienBlade]

when you lose to a shot deflected 7 yards the other way you know your lucks out
come on tell me luck has nothing to do with it after that

thats looking at 1 play in isolation... the build up to the shot being taken might as well have been in a "how not to tackle" video, similarly with the first two. (although I think the first was more "how not to pass directly to another player")

this isn't down to bad luck, this is down to poor play, and the vast majority of players thinking they can just turn up against teams in the bottom half and expect to win.

 

[AlienBlade]

Come on, Blades, I was seriously pissed off at last night's result, regret some of the things I said in the heat of the moment. I was fuming on the drive back to Leicester. But we're 5th, we've got some top players coming back from injury. Look at the much-fancied Wigan, they're below us, long way to go yet, things change so quickly. Got to stay positive (keep telling myself), put faith in Adkins. It's Day 1 again at Bradford on Sunday. A couple of good results and we'll have that feel-good factor again. Who's with me? Anyone?
View attachment 13369

but we are now 5 points from top and the gap is growing... if you look at 5 pts below us... that's 20th.... so in terms of points... we are as close to 20th as we are to top.... now there is a depressing thought...