MATCH DAY THREAD: The Mighty Blades v Reading

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After a slow 5 or so minutes to start, it’s basically just been an extension from last week – the usual controlled slicing of the back line, some of the openings we’ve carved have been excellent. Clarke & Sharp seeing more of the ball than last week. Was a superb finish by Coutts.
 
If only we’d spent money wisely in the close season.Clearly out of our depth :p
 
Should have been home and dry, but stopped going for it after the save from the Sharp header and ultimately made harder work of that than it needed to be. But, another great result – well done Blades.
 
rosy red said:
another half of hoofball lol
Come on the blades
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Thats exactly what it was the 2nd half! Really disappointing final 30 mins, not good enough at all. Lucky to get away with that, but we'll take it. Hopefully Wilder gives them a good dressing down in private as that 2nd half performance was no where near good enough.
 
Can't imagine Wilder will have been pleased with the last 10 or so. Other than that we battered them, first half was a joy to watch.
 
jekyll and hyde that one, should have been out of sight, in the end i was praying for the whistle, looked tired last 30 and for first time this season lost shape and went too long, but after everything they have given us so far ill more than forgive them for 1 poor half
 
Could see their goal coming, blades were backing off too much second half inviting it
 
Dunno why we stopped playing football and started hoofing it in the 2nd half. First half we were fantastic again.
 



They seemed to flood midfield which meant it was difficult to play through them. So we had to go a bit longer. Something we need to think about and work on perhaps.
 
Duffy and Fleck began to look tired in the last period I think that stoped our momentum. Also Readings number 10 came on and looked different class to the rest of their team.
 
We noticeably dropped our intensity after the hour as if it was too easy then invited them on and they grew in confidence and the goal was inevitable.
 
Bit shaky closing it out in the last fifteen but very good before then. If it weren't for seeing the dumpster fire that is Burton earlier this year, Reading would be the worst team I've seen so far this season
 
northsomersetblade said:
Started with the Reading substitution - what did they change?
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The big factor in the change in play was them bringing on Swift and Duffy going off with 15-20 minutes to go. We lost our shape and started hitting it long after we’d passed it around all game and Swift started pulling their strings.

Brooks isn’t a replacement for Duffy right now, he’s not disciplined enough (yet) and so in retrospect Caruthers would have been the better change and push Brooks alongside Clarke like we did in the end.

Minor points though, no complaints from me another superb performance all around.
 
;););)
GrayBlade said:
The big factor in the change in play was them bringing on Swift and Duffy going off with 15-20 minutes to go. We lost our shape and started hitting it long after we’d passed it around all game and Swift started pulling their strings.

Brooks isn’t a replacement for Duffy right now, he’s not disciplined enough (yet) and so in retrospect Caruthers would have been the better change and push Brooks alongside Clarke like we did in the end.

Minor points though, no complaints from me another superb performance all around.
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I didn’t think bringing on brooks at that stage was the greatest idea.
Still, 3 more points towards safety :)
 
Brooks looked a bit little boy lost today when he came on, will do him good to realise it's not a piece of piss all the time.

First 75 minutes was amongst the most dominant performances I've seen us produce and that includes games against some of the League one dross last season.
 
northsomersetblade said:
;););)
I didn’t think bringing on brooks at that stage was the greatest idea.
Still, 3 more points towards safety :)
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Best first half performance of the season. Second half more even but not in any danger until we took Duffy off. The one player that was causing them problems. Substitution should have been made 10 minutes later Brooks for Sharp. Swift came on and showed what a good player he is controlling midfield. CW spot on when he said Reading only played for 20 minutes we played for the whole game. 3 more points we move on.
 
Borbokisfreekick said:
Thats exactly what it was the 2nd half! Really disappointing final 30 mins, not good enough at all. Lucky to get away with that, but we'll take it. Hopefully Wilder gives them a good dressing down in private as that 2nd half performance was no where near good enough.
Click to expand...

We continued to be by far the better team until about the 75th minute. We were not ‘lucky to get away’ with anything. Any other result but a Blades win would have been an absolute travesty. We were, as usual, excellent. Quite why anyone would wish to undermine this outstanding team, I can’t imagine...
 
That final 20 minute run around was, IMO, down to one thing - Duffy going off and being replaced by Brooks. Brooks is class but yesterday, he didn't manage to fill the gap left by Duffy. Quite literally. Duffy, consistently, dances into and around the space between the opposition defense and midfield and is ALWAYS there to provide a pivot point around which Fleck, Coutts, Billy and Leon can rotate. He does this, all the time, regardless of how deep the team is. Brooks, OTOH, is more attack minded and as such, he's not always deep enough to link up and provide that pivot. It can only be a matter of 5 - 10 yards difference, but the intricacy and speed of the play with Duffy, Fleck and Coutts in the middle means that 5 yards here or 5 yards there make the difference. All IMO of course ;)
 
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