09/08/08 - Birmingham Match Thread

[Greasy Chip Butty]

Sun impressed for me, ref was touch ad go...but why did Stead get booked, shocking decision!!

 

[ScUzZ]

It says for 'unsporting behavior' on the BBC website, dunno if that's official tho

 

[Come from away]

Too many give aways and long balls to nowhere. Would have liked Spring on and maybe Cotterill - but if we had covered the last free kick there would have been no complaints. Have to see if we can get stuck in at home, but the back four did look solid.

 

[Fife]

Halford was playing out of position today - Cotterill should have been the supplier we needed upfront, and anyone instead of Tonge in midfield would have improved our passing! Was not overly impressed with Henderson either but other than that top marks.

 

[TonyAgana]

Great debut for Sun Jihai (got megged a couple of times, mind! ), disappointed with Henderson and Halford - Halford looked completely uninterested after taking the knock on his knee.

Tonge was poor in the 2nd half (great through ball for Sharp though) and was a little disappointed in Blackwell for not making the third substitution (which should've been Cotterill for Halford IMO) but overall good game plan, matched them perfectly, should've walked away with the point but for some Phillips magic rather than any Blades mistake.

Great defensively today - Morgan lead brilliantly, Sun Jihai's ball through the park to Quinn and then his follow up run to the penalty spot? Incredible flexibility. We're going places this season.

 

[City Till I Die]

Hi, Overall not a thriller of a game but not too surprised as both teams had quite a few new players and as people mentioned both teams had to put players out of position, but overall i feel that we did just enough to deserve a win. Your back four was tough to beat but on a few occasions it was opened up we and should of taken the oppurtunity's. Although our defence wasn't solid by any means and the pace of henderson created many chances for you. Apart from him though i didnt feel that anyone else really hurt us and i was relieved too see him get subbed! Good luck in the season anyway and i wish you the best.

 

[Sensiblade]

Match School report for the day
Solid defence A
Central Midfield First half A- Second half C-
Wingers First Half B Second half C-
Attack B-

Could/Can/Will do a lot better.

Hope Birmingham fans don't get too carried away because of Winning cos they need to improve like we do to stand a chance of being up top all season.

Never ever play Halford on the wing again IMO, get Cotterill in from the start next Saturday and Hendrie/Monty on the bench just in case Tonge does his second half dissapearing act like today.

 

[Foxy]

but why did Stead get booked, shocking decision!!

Because unlike a certain bald headed bloke he was in a red and white shirt.

Jumping to head the ball once in a Blades shirt = booking

Dive in late loads after the ball has gone, talk back and generally be an arse = only a booking after the 30th bad foul.

 

[Sensiblade]

My Step Dad (Whose a Wendy fan) thought Marcus Bent was shocking today and asked the question 'Why do teams keep signing him?'
I wondered this too

 

[Linz]

MOTM poll added

 

[Foxy]

MOTM poll added

Without a doubt, the often unfairly slagged Sun Jihai.

 

[rachyblade]

I thought we defended well today, we were unlucky at the end Phillips even admitted it was nearly his first and only touch.

I thought Quinn had a good game but Sun Ji was by far man of the match for me.

Not sure about Henderson, early days yet for him, what he doesn't need is people on his back after one game.

Ref was shocking, he gave me a head ache.

I'm not sure why Cotts didnt start or even come on as a sub, we have seen what he can do from last season, in my opinion he should be one of the first names on the team sheet.

And also.... Birmingham in my eyes is still a shit hole.

 

[butchaboy]

absolutely gutted, right at the end, cant believe cotts didnt start, and then stead came on instead of him

though our defense was good, attack was weak, jihai our MOTM

 

[beightonblade]

Not long to go now before some AMBITIOUS club offers the Blades big money for Kilgallon ! , if only the other players at BDTBL were of his QUALITY.

This is going to be a long hard season.

 

[The One]

Jihai MOTM.


Thought the ref was terrible. As usual everything seemed to go against us. Except from the odd decision.

Both henderson and sharp were pretty poor but sharp needs to learn how to put pressure on players. Thought we looked alot better going forward when Webber came on- he looked quite decent.

And Tonge 2million? HAHAHAHA.

 

[Linz]

A serious case of 1-0 to the referee. A 0-0 draw would probably have been a fair result.

They looked more commanding in the middle third but we seemed to create more chances and push forward more.

Referee was shocking... and I don't know where to start with Tonge, so I'll repeat what I've already said in this thread...

At the moment, he'll pick the ball up in midfield, panic, take about five touches too many, turn around on the spot and then either pass it back to the keeper or be dispossessed.

 

[Sheffield-Bl4de]

Tonge, Halford and Henderson, what the fuck? Would have rather had Tom, Dick and bastard Harry, Cotteril should definatly had started, Sun was fantastic for us, great signing. Team looked good, but like said, can do better, S'Quinny played well too, did not deserve that unlucky blow at the end, to be honest I think we should have had all 3 points.

 

[Foxy]

Question is, if Cotts had started, would the excellent Sunny J have had such a good game?

Cotts isn't the greatest on the defensive side of the game and in the absence of someone like Monty in the middle, we could have been stretched big time.

Having said that though, it came to a point where i'd have prefered Cotts to come on, especially when it became apparent Halford wasn't exactly aiding the attacks or the defence

I don't think it was a disasterous opening game, it just feels crap because in all honesty, we could have been coming back with 3 points with a bit more conviction.

Restricting one of the teams tipped to win the league to one shot on target between the wealth of attacking options at their disposal isn't bad. Especially with the ref so clearly a homer.

 

[Linz]

Especially with the ref so clearly a homer.

I read that as homo to start with and was about to tell you off

 

[shorehamview]

Having watched it on the telly, I think the MOTM award should go to Sun Jihai. He certainly did more in the first five minutes than Li Tie and Hao Haidong did in their entire Blades careers.

 

[Samantha]

Wasn't the greatest performance I've ever seen - but don't think we deserved to lose. Draw would have been a fair result.

 

[butchaboy]

better performance is needed next week, we are at home, hence we need a more attacking style

get off halford, tonge, and sharp, put on spring, webber, and cotterill

 

[Samantha]

Oh yeah...here's a laugh for ya.

When we were queuing up to go through turnstiles, I was near the front and this bloke steward shouted that I needed to go to the female stewards to be searched, but that meant I could queue jump so don't worry about it etc.

I went to said female stewards and said "that steward said I have to come to you to be searched"
Female steward "do you mind if I ask how old you are"
Me "24 why"?
Female steward "oh sorry, it's just that we're not allowed to search under 16s and you look a lot younger than 16"

 

[butchaboy]

I had a screamer

walked up to the turnstile, man takes my concession ticket

"How old are you"
Ummm 16
"Whats your date of birth?"
25 december, 19.....88
"So ur 19?"
No NO i mean 1992
"So ur 15?"
Yeh
"Jus walk through"


Mind lapse

 

[Gazza1984]

This is going to be a long hard season.

Only first game 45 more to go yet. Dont panic

MOTM I think was killa he was excellent all game.

Sun Jihai- also impressed- did not think much to his signing but looked really solid and hopefully it continues

Tonge and Halford did not have great games- maybe cotterill not match fit yet

 

[butchaboy]

Tonge did more that not having a great game, the mans a liability, how many times did he pass it to their team, or that free kick he basically crossed to the away fans, he needs to sort it out or piss of imo

 

[Come from away]

Can't believe Blackwell will drop Tonge just for one bad game. If it continues can see him being subbed at QPR - Spring Hendrie and Monty are ready to try bt after a solid end of season Tonge will need to dig a deeper hole before he gets cut. Halford looked tired at the end, but I probably would not have complained about him as much if we had not lost as we did stop Birmingham - O shots on target till the end is amazing.

 

[The One]

Who gave Sharp MOTM? HAHAHA.

To be honest I don't think it should matter whether you are at home or away to decide which formation to play. It's still the same team - where you play doesn't change that.

And I don't think the fans can do that much to influence a result. Yes - they may be able to motivate the players but I reckon most of the time they are pretty oblivious of it.

 

[Sheffield-Bl4de]

Who gave Sharp MOTM? HAHAHA.

To be honest I don't think it should matter whether you are at home or away to decide which formation to play. It's still the same team - where you play doesn't change that.

And I don't think the fans can do that much to influence a result. Yes - they may be able to motivate the players but I reckon most of the time they are pretty oblivious of it.

Who put Robson back in the drivers seat?

 

[jodman]

How fine the line between success and failure?

A point away at birmingham would have been a great start to the season; i would imagine that there will be very few tougher games this season (on paper at least).

The perfomance was mixed in my opinion; the back five were excellent with Sun Ji Hi looking like an early contender for the "Rob Hulse Suprising Success" award this season.

The midfield were a mixture of good (Mini Quinny), average (Speed), very poor (Tonge) and infurtiatingly up and down (Halford).

I thought Sharp started okay but went missing in the second half; the tarditional lack of service from Midfield didn't help his plight because Billy is a penalty box player and the majority of our attacking possession was squandered by the time we reached the danger area.
Henderson struggled on his debut; far too early to make any kind of judgements so i will leave it at that.

There seems to be some raging debate regarding the prudence of adopting a deffensive formation in order to try and get a draw. My personal opinion is that it was the right thing to do on this occassion but i hope it is one of the only occassions where we adopt such an approach.

The league table makes horrible reading right now but it's still great to have the footy back; i'll take a saturday ruined by football over a saturday wihtout football every time.

Perhaps i'm just a glutton for punishment!