Foxy, did you think the performance owed a lot to the psychological effect of the last 24 hours or so, or do you think the team cannot now function very well because of the enforced changes?
If it was more down to a reaction to what has happened off the pitch it gives some optimism that the squad might have it out of their system by next week. But if it is purely down to the changes in personnel, that might be harder to overcome and would be worrying.
I think the psychological side will have certainly played a part, after all, it was less than 24 hours after they'd seen their mate and teammate banged up. However well Danny has managed them, there was no way they wouldn't be thinking about it today.
I think the enforced change up front had an effect, as Hoskins and Porter have a different dynamic to Evans and Cresswell, but then again for most of the match we simply gave them no service anyway.
I thought Porter managed to win more balls than he probably should have, given that he got very little played near him. Hoskins didn't look fit to me.
We've seen before our midfield go missing, give the opposition too much space and offer little in terms of movement and showing for the ball when we are in possession, in fact I was talking about it before the game... It happened again today.
There were numerous times when Maguire or Collins had the ball, held possession and looked for a midfielder to play to... only to see both Doyle and McDonald stood looking at them and pointing to the other centre back. They passed to the other centre back, only to see the midfield still stood watching them and the opposition bearing down on them so then had to play it longer.
We just looked lethargic and a yard off the pace for most of the match. We still had the chances to get something out of the game (how Beattie/O'Halloran didn't turn that one in I don't know!), but we lacked leaders on the pitch and it was one of the poorest performances in quite a while.
It's still in our hands, we just need to put this week behind us and get back to the mood we were in before (players and fans!).
The fans were bound to be nervy today but still provided great support from what I heard on the radio - and I never heard their fans. Unfortunately, the team did not deliver and sounded very poor to me. Clearly the Ched scenario would affect them but I was still disappointed that the players just seemed to let the game drift by. It's looking like we will need to win both our games now. I'm sure the support will be vociferous but it's the team that need to deliver now.
You couldn't hear their fans for the most part as there weren't many there. Don't get me wrong, the Blades crowd in patches made some noise, but there were large, flat periods of the game where I'm sure we could have boosted those trudging around the pitch, however poorly they were playing. I'm more expressing my fear that the usual Blades end of season air of inevitability/despair has kicked in.
