Bladepicker
Paul Coutts Fan Club Founder Member
Inspired by the thread looking at all our goalscorers during this spell in the third tier of English football I was going to post on there about what my favourite one of those goals was from a selection; but then thought this can also be done for other categories (whether good or bad) for our rather longer than anticipated stay in League 1 and thought it deserved a thread of its own. All my opinion of course – feel free to chip in with suggestions and categories of your own. (cup matches not included) - and I will caveat it by saying I have not attended every match but have watched most back on Blades player during our time here.
It does go on a bit so tldr responses are totally valid
Best Goal
We have had some wonderful individual goals and strikes in our time at this level.
The cleanest strikes that stand out for me are Blackman’s goal at Leyton Orient, Clarke’s volley at Port Vale the other week, Murphy against the 10 men of Doncaster, Lafferty at Rochdale and McMahon’s 2nd free kick against Crawley are in the mix. But for me this season obviously stands head and shoulders above the others and so does this team – the goal that encapsulates this team more than anything is having your right wing back bombing into the near post to finish off a 10 man passing move. There was even a comedy clean up celebration. So mine is:
Kieron Freeman v Swindon (a)
Best Game
Despite being involved at the top end more often than not during our time here we have had some turgid periods of watching football under defensively minded or clueless managers and taking the cup run’s out of Clough’s reign the cupboard is quite bare in the mid years.
That said, the ongoing ability of United to happily snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and (thankfully this season) vice versa – we have had some stand out see-saw matches interspersed amongst lots of dross. The 4 – 2 win at Preston in DW season 1 when Matt Phillips starred and the 5 - 2 at Rochdale in the same season were great, as many have been this season – the 4 -2 at Southend seems a stand out; the 5 – 3 victory against Bournemouth was bizarre in DW1 Season 2 and the 3 all at Wigan last year and the 3 – 2 win at Colchester having been 2 nil down with 10 minutes left under Clough were sterling turnarounds. Again though, in a ‘best’ category, you can’t look beyond this season and for me you cannot look beyond the glourious day we were finally out of this League:
Northampton Town (a) 2017
Best Player
While 6 years in league 1 is not the most successful of times in this club's history to say the least – even during this horrible time we have had some quality footballers represent us. While Matt Phillips mentioned above was great for a month – I’m going minimum 20 games to be counted in this category . You cannot ignore lots of DW1’S first season side; Ched is the standout of that team but Quinny, Lowton and Williamson were brilliant in that season. McDonald and Maguire carried that forward into following seasons while Jamie Murphy was the stand out of Clough’s time at the club. I have always been a big fan of Coutts and any of the League 1 team of the year from this season could be easily selected - Fleck may well be the right answer but, allow me to indulge in a bit of Bladey Bladeness here:
Billy Sharp (c) (golden boot) (Blade)
Best Win
Lots of those mentioned in the best game section could also be used here – and it is hard to look beyond Northampton - but for this category I have tried to look at the win that made the most impact/laid down the biggest statement in our time down here. The one nil win at Huddersfield fits this criteria as does the 3 nil win over fellow stragglers Bristol City as part of the turn around under Clough. However, time and time again we have failed in big home games; Charlton, Wednesday, Huddersfield, Donny, Brentford, Bristol City, Swindon – so to finally get 3 points at home against Bolton, especially after how we had failed to turn the dominance into 3 points against Scunny the week before, stands out for me as the one:
Bolton (h)
Best Kit
This season’s home kit. Success, Adidas and back in Red and White stripes – sure fire winner.
Best Manager
Worst Goal Conceded.
Where to start. We seem to have had defensive howlers as a constant accompaniment to our time down here, even when we have been successful. Poor goals that stand out are Crawley at home which did for DW1 when Maguire and Collins went postal, Long’s awful error against Yeovil is embedded in my memory and you have a whole host of Simonson specials to select from that ultimately cost us an immediate return to the Championship. Leyton Orient away and Stevenage at home make me shudder but – given the opposition – the last minute equaliser against the pigs still makes me angry when I think of a 6ft odd ‘keeper displaying the strength of Stefan Scougall as a 10 year old:
Simonson v the Pigs.
Worst Game
Again separate to worst loss which I am looking at later and taking as the loss with biggest impact, this is just the worst game in terms of result, performance and entertainment. There are more than I would like to choose from. Fleetwood and Crewe at home under Clough; the Yeovil and Crawley games under DW1; Yeovil away under Clough. But romping away with first place is the most non descript, tactically inept, absolute non event of a performance I have ever seen. It was so poor, that it wasn’t even anything you could get angry about as we didn’t actually appear to exist for 90 minutes and you cannot get angry at nothing. Step forward:
Burton Albion (h)
Worst Player
Ah – to save some players and make it easier for me I am limiting this to minimum 20 appearances - which I think just saves the total shyster that was Darryl Westlake. My gosh though, we’ve had some shite play for us in such a short period of time. Now we are up I can safely reel off the names of the likes of McEverly, Baxter, Brandy, Marcus Williams, Stephen McGinn, Simmo, McCarthy, Alcock, Sammon and Higdon without causing nightmares. But due to his supposed missing link signing and what he actually delivered, my ‘winner’ is the great unseen one:
Dean Hammond
Worst Loss
As stated above, many of the worst games fit this too. Using the similar criteria for biggest win though 4 stand out for me. Pigs away when even a point would have stopped them having the catalyst and belief that it wasn’t over. Yeovil away in the play offs when we tried to hang on against a poor side. Huddersfield in the play off final is the obvious one but mine is the strangest game I have ever known. One where our massive away following and team just played in total shock – and after which I thought an entire season’s hard work was going to be down the drain through little fault of our own. The fact that it was against an awful club and was on the same day as a piggy 95th minute winner just added to the sense of what turned out to be literal injustice.. An awful day:
MK Dons (a)
Worst Kit
Some might think last season’s home kit but – while it wasn’t a Sheffield United home shirt, there is no denying it is a decent looking shirt not taking that into account and is no where near our worst for me. I do think we’ve had awful away kits every season down here – oh for a quality all white number like the Wards one again. But the winner for me is the horrible yellow and green number as hilariously marketed by Tony McMahon.
Worst Manager
Some might say DW2. Some might say Morgan. Some will say Clough but, given the cup memories this is very harsh in my opinion (though he invariably failed). There is a clear worst manager for me here - the most tactically inept team I have ever known, unbelievable interviews full of political like soundbites and ridiculous ‘David Brent’ like business speak, an array of awful signings and decisions save for one notable exception, the worst finish in our 6 years here and by far the worst performance up against expectation. He’s out on his own orange self:
The Nigel Adkins.
Thank God It’s over. (Our stay here not my post before any of you twats finish off the open goal there).
It does go on a bit so tldr responses are totally valid
Best Goal
We have had some wonderful individual goals and strikes in our time at this level.
The cleanest strikes that stand out for me are Blackman’s goal at Leyton Orient, Clarke’s volley at Port Vale the other week, Murphy against the 10 men of Doncaster, Lafferty at Rochdale and McMahon’s 2nd free kick against Crawley are in the mix. But for me this season obviously stands head and shoulders above the others and so does this team – the goal that encapsulates this team more than anything is having your right wing back bombing into the near post to finish off a 10 man passing move. There was even a comedy clean up celebration. So mine is:
Kieron Freeman v Swindon (a)
Best Game
Despite being involved at the top end more often than not during our time here we have had some turgid periods of watching football under defensively minded or clueless managers and taking the cup run’s out of Clough’s reign the cupboard is quite bare in the mid years.
That said, the ongoing ability of United to happily snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and (thankfully this season) vice versa – we have had some stand out see-saw matches interspersed amongst lots of dross. The 4 – 2 win at Preston in DW season 1 when Matt Phillips starred and the 5 - 2 at Rochdale in the same season were great, as many have been this season – the 4 -2 at Southend seems a stand out; the 5 – 3 victory against Bournemouth was bizarre in DW1 Season 2 and the 3 all at Wigan last year and the 3 – 2 win at Colchester having been 2 nil down with 10 minutes left under Clough were sterling turnarounds. Again though, in a ‘best’ category, you can’t look beyond this season and for me you cannot look beyond the glourious day we were finally out of this League:
Northampton Town (a) 2017
Best Player
While 6 years in league 1 is not the most successful of times in this club's history to say the least – even during this horrible time we have had some quality footballers represent us. While Matt Phillips mentioned above was great for a month – I’m going minimum 20 games to be counted in this category . You cannot ignore lots of DW1’S first season side; Ched is the standout of that team but Quinny, Lowton and Williamson were brilliant in that season. McDonald and Maguire carried that forward into following seasons while Jamie Murphy was the stand out of Clough’s time at the club. I have always been a big fan of Coutts and any of the League 1 team of the year from this season could be easily selected - Fleck may well be the right answer but, allow me to indulge in a bit of Bladey Bladeness here:
Billy Sharp (c) (golden boot) (Blade)
Best Win
Lots of those mentioned in the best game section could also be used here – and it is hard to look beyond Northampton - but for this category I have tried to look at the win that made the most impact/laid down the biggest statement in our time down here. The one nil win at Huddersfield fits this criteria as does the 3 nil win over fellow stragglers Bristol City as part of the turn around under Clough. However, time and time again we have failed in big home games; Charlton, Wednesday, Huddersfield, Donny, Brentford, Bristol City, Swindon – so to finally get 3 points at home against Bolton, especially after how we had failed to turn the dominance into 3 points against Scunny the week before, stands out for me as the one:
Bolton (h)
Best Kit
This season’s home kit. Success, Adidas and back in Red and White stripes – sure fire winner.
Best Manager
Worst Goal Conceded.
Where to start. We seem to have had defensive howlers as a constant accompaniment to our time down here, even when we have been successful. Poor goals that stand out are Crawley at home which did for DW1 when Maguire and Collins went postal, Long’s awful error against Yeovil is embedded in my memory and you have a whole host of Simonson specials to select from that ultimately cost us an immediate return to the Championship. Leyton Orient away and Stevenage at home make me shudder but – given the opposition – the last minute equaliser against the pigs still makes me angry when I think of a 6ft odd ‘keeper displaying the strength of Stefan Scougall as a 10 year old:
Simonson v the Pigs.
Worst Game
Again separate to worst loss which I am looking at later and taking as the loss with biggest impact, this is just the worst game in terms of result, performance and entertainment. There are more than I would like to choose from. Fleetwood and Crewe at home under Clough; the Yeovil and Crawley games under DW1; Yeovil away under Clough. But romping away with first place is the most non descript, tactically inept, absolute non event of a performance I have ever seen. It was so poor, that it wasn’t even anything you could get angry about as we didn’t actually appear to exist for 90 minutes and you cannot get angry at nothing. Step forward:
Burton Albion (h)
Worst Player
Ah – to save some players and make it easier for me I am limiting this to minimum 20 appearances - which I think just saves the total shyster that was Darryl Westlake. My gosh though, we’ve had some shite play for us in such a short period of time. Now we are up I can safely reel off the names of the likes of McEverly, Baxter, Brandy, Marcus Williams, Stephen McGinn, Simmo, McCarthy, Alcock, Sammon and Higdon without causing nightmares. But due to his supposed missing link signing and what he actually delivered, my ‘winner’ is the great unseen one:
Dean Hammond
Worst Loss
As stated above, many of the worst games fit this too. Using the similar criteria for biggest win though 4 stand out for me. Pigs away when even a point would have stopped them having the catalyst and belief that it wasn’t over. Yeovil away in the play offs when we tried to hang on against a poor side. Huddersfield in the play off final is the obvious one but mine is the strangest game I have ever known. One where our massive away following and team just played in total shock – and after which I thought an entire season’s hard work was going to be down the drain through little fault of our own. The fact that it was against an awful club and was on the same day as a piggy 95th minute winner just added to the sense of what turned out to be literal injustice.. An awful day:
MK Dons (a)
Worst Kit
Some might think last season’s home kit but – while it wasn’t a Sheffield United home shirt, there is no denying it is a decent looking shirt not taking that into account and is no where near our worst for me. I do think we’ve had awful away kits every season down here – oh for a quality all white number like the Wards one again. But the winner for me is the horrible yellow and green number as hilariously marketed by Tony McMahon.
Worst Manager
Some might say DW2. Some might say Morgan. Some will say Clough but, given the cup memories this is very harsh in my opinion (though he invariably failed). There is a clear worst manager for me here - the most tactically inept team I have ever known, unbelievable interviews full of political like soundbites and ridiculous ‘David Brent’ like business speak, an array of awful signings and decisions save for one notable exception, the worst finish in our 6 years here and by far the worst performance up against expectation. He’s out on his own orange self:
The Nigel Adkins.
Thank God It’s over. (Our stay here not my post before any of you twats finish off the open goal there).
