Saturday bloody Saturday

[bricktop]

I've got a bit of a feeling it is going to be a case of saturday bloody saturday for the Blades.

We need a game at home against a Cardiff City side who can thump sides at will when the mood takes then, and a striker who has been on fire all season in Michael Chopra, like a whole in the head.

Defence looks shaky at best, Goalkeeper has no confidence in him, Midfield is largely bypassed, and we hardly have any goal threat to talk of.

I've got a nasty feeling we are looking at a hiding before we start, and i think that if we go a goal down early on saturday all hell will break loose at the Lane.

It's not the way i paticularly want to think, as i would sooner be attending the match on saturday and it was a battle for us and Cardiff jockeying in to position in the promotion race, but sadly it will not be.

The other thing is that i think is on the cards, is the mother of all bunfights on the kop and in other areas of the ground with people shouting for the head of McCabe, Blackwell and anyone else that they feel they hold culpable for the current decline.

I don't paticularly want to see it happen all over again, but i feel that it will happen and its disappointing

 

[SotonBlade]

I think it is going to take a very long while before there is harmony between the club and fans which is sad, as my fondest memories of supporting the blades have been when us fans unite together and back the club. At the moment I feel like this club is losing its unity...fast

 

[Micalijo]

It is disappointing but perfectly understandable, save for the personal, nasty stuff of course.

Going to be very interesting though.

People do go with the intention of getting behind them as best they can but it is becoming very difficult for many, myself included, to maintain any proper support when the team offer nothing in return. It will be more case of laughing at the ineptitude I think, before anger sets in and perhaps a decent, impassioned refrain of Blackwell Out in the closing stages.

 

[shorehamview]

There have been many times in the past when I have predicted that we would get tonked, and been pleasantly surprised when it hasn't happened. I think I can confidently predict a proper towsing for us this time though. We will get beaten like a ginger step-child.

 

[Trevor Hockey]

"...beaten like a ginger step-child"

Tut tut Shoreham - you've been watching too much Franky Boyle !!

 

[shorehamview]

"...beaten like a ginger step-child"

Tut tut Shoreham - you've been watching too much Franky Boyle !!

If that's a Frankie Boyle original I'll eat my own shit. That's from Viz, from at least fifteen years ago, long before Frankie Boyle first wanked himself silly over his own reflection. Frankie Boyle is as original as a seventh generation porn video.

Then again, watching any Frankie Boyle could be said to be too much. Because he's a cunt.

And it's shorehamview, cheers.

 

[sitwell]

Saturday will be a borefest ,no atmosphere ,no goals ,no excitement. We will be midtable mediocrity in April going nowhere fast.

I saw it in my Flashforward ,at least I'm not dead.

 

[clashing blade]

You would have thought an intelligent man like McCabe would have seen the dissent coming and acted before it all gets very nasty. Steve Gibson has seen that Southgate wasnt working and so made plans and got shut. I will be behind the team on Saturday 100% but Blackwell will not get the same treatment! He is a spineless lame duck.

 

[Coily]

I see where the sentiment is coming from, but let's not get the idea that Cardiff are world beaters. This is a side who got thumped at the Sty and Keepmoat after all. If the team play as we know they can, we will win.

A lot of the criticism has come Blackwell's way and justifiably so, but the players themselves need to take individual and collective responsibility to get us back on track and put in a performance to lift the crowd. They now know how much we are fucked off, they better be fucked off too and determined to put things right.

I refuse to believe that the Bramall Lane crowd are waiting for us to fuck it up, they are waiting and willing the team to work hard, pass the ball instead of hoof and entertain us. Give us something for us to cheer instead of waving arms about waiting for things to happen.

Also, I want to see someone, anyone, give that little twat Chopra the biggest (legitimate) hit the first time he's near the ball. Do that and he'll do fuck all.

UTB!

 

[Wards]

Great post on the Star Website...

"United fans have put up with hoofball tactics from 2 managers in the past 20 years because the club was essentially skint, and it was a way of trying to achieve something on the cheap.

The club is no longer skint, and the old arguments about not being Manchester United, not being able to compete on wages and transfer fees no longer apply. So, the fans are heartily sick of paying a fortune to watch the dire stuff on offer at the Lane. If it isn't bringing success, so it's simply not worth putting up with anymore.

The change of approach promised over 2 years ago is long overdue. If this manager and this board can't bring it, then they all need to step aside, before the off-field progress of the last few years becomes wasted and the club spends another 15 years drifting in or below the 2nd tier with 15k crowds again. Unfortunately, while the club's PR machine talks about it's progress and it's dynamic structure and modern planning, it's team management, financing and tactics betrays the fact that attitudes in the club haven't really changed since 1989. Cheap and cheerful is the modus operandi on the playing side.

If the team is going to fail, let it fail doing something worth watching, not something from the 80's that is just a percentage game, barely reliant on being better than the opposition, just stronger, fitter and luckier.

So, any dissent and unrest is not aimed at Blackwell the man, but at his tactical approach and his Chairman's direction that is neither winning or worth paying to watch."

Pretty much sums it up for me.

 

[SBSP]

I would love for us to go out Saturday and give them a good pasting.

But.........the problems will arise if they get an early goal, which will spark off all the Blackwell Out, McCabes a wankers shouts.

I honestly think the best we can hope for is a mediocre display and a lucky late win.

 

[torridon]

The feeling i've got right now regarding the visit of cardiff on saturday is akin to the feeling i get when i'm sat in the dentists waiting room, it's something i don't think i'm going to enjoy and it will probably bloody hurt!!!

 

[The Fox]

Saturday will be as much about the reaction of the suporters as the reaction of the team - unfairly in my veiw .
No doubt Radio Sheff will be waiting for the fans to turn as it makes a story , they and the club will then be blaming the "boo boys" for the teams lack of confidence etc.

As a supporter you cant win.

Like many on here, we pay our money a year in advance and if the club chooses to serve up rubbish were not supposed to complain . The inference is that if we were happy with the rubbish it wouldnt be rubbish anymore, eh?

There will of course be those choosing the "slip ons" for saturdays match and hoping we get stuffed .

Personally hoping for a 2-0 early lead ! UTB

 

[Lt. J Dangle]

The team isn't doing it so I can understand the fans getting on the manager's back. Having a go at McCabe I personally feel is ridiculous.

My main problem with the team (and this has been the case for years) is that I was always lead to believe that to be a professional footballer, you need to possess basic football skills - controlling a ball, passing it in the direction intended but also something extra to 'make it' - a football brain, the confidence to put a foot on the ball and do something with it. Ask yourselves how many of our players show the ability to perform simple football skills? Every week our opponents move the ball around better, have a better awareness of each other, look more confident with the ball at their feet, shoot at will - That's every week! whoever we play no matter of league position. Why not us? what do we work on in training? How many set pieces do you see sail straight to the goalie's grateful outstretched arms?
How difficult is it for someone who is supposed to be a brilliant coach, who has travelled the world fact finding on training methods & tactics (AC Milan to name one), to see what I see. THe same question to Robson, Warnock, Heath, Bruce, Thompson etc.

 

[Lt. J Dangle]

By The way., I don't think we should be hounding out the manager or chairman. Give Blackwell until Christmas at least. He says he can manage because the last 2 years prove this. Now is the time for him to back that claim up. He knows as well as anyone that a manager is judged on results.

 

[SheepdipBlade]

The part of saturday I'm most looking forward to is a couple of pints before kick-off.

The hopeful part of me says that we're usually pretty good when we're backs to the wall - the more realistic part of me knows that between 3.00 and 4.50 the over-riding emotion will be frustration. Whilst I accept that a fair chunk of that frustration is likely to come from what happens on the park, the bulk of it is more likely to come from having to listen to some of the crap that will be shouted from our part of the Kop.

I'm sure I'm asking too much of some of the brain-deads who sit around us - but for once could they leave their pre-conceived ideas and their "look at me - aren't I hard" attitudes ouside the turnstiles?

The reality of the situation appears to be that KMcC is not going to fire KB no matter what the Kop says. In the past KB has shown he has integrity and decency - and I suspect that for those reasons he will walk if things don't improve in the next few weeks.

It would make my Saturday if some of our "fans" could accept reality and for once turn up at BDTBL to support the team - and not to support their own egos.

Sorry for the rant - It hasn't even made me feel that much better either

 

[Grecian2000]

"It would make my Saturday if some of our "fans" could accept reality and for once turn up at BDTBL to support the team"

Just as a matter of interest, what is this reality that the "fans" have to accept.
The "fans" will, as always, be right behind the team if they see the effort and application that goes with wearing the shirt and that is backed up by a decent attempt to play football. Are you saying the reality is we can't expect to see this?

 

[broomhillblade]

'The "fans" will, as always, be right behind the team if they see the effort and application that goes with wearing the shirt and that is backed up by a decent attempt to play football.'

If only that were the case. There are some "fans" who abuse players even during the warm-up. During the game itself some players are consistently picked on, no matter how well they play.

T'was ever thus, of course, but it's got steadily worse. That's why I've stopped going to matches this season..

 

[SheepdipBlade]

"It would make my Saturday if some of our "fans" could accept reality and for once turn up at BDTBL to support the team"

Just as a matter of interest, what is this reality that the "fans" have to accept.

The reality of the situation appears to be that KMcC is not going to fire KB no matter what the Kop says.

I was saying that no matter what the Kop wants - KMcC has made it clear he will not be sacking KB any time soon (IMO KB would walk before he's pushed because he's basically a decent human being) - and if the "fans" could accept that reality (and therefore that any calls for Blackwell Out etc are a waste of breath at this time) and get behind the team - - then we might get somewhere - and I'd certainly enjoy my 2 hours at the Lane on saturday far more.

 

[happyhippy]

"It would make my Saturday if some of our "fans" could accept reality and for once turn up at BDTBL to support the team"

Just as a matter of interest, what is this reality that the "fans" have to accept.
The "fans" will, as always, be right behind the team if they see the effort and application that goes with wearing the shirt and that is backed up by a decent attempt to play football. Are you saying the reality is we can't expect to see this?

I don't think that what SD means at all. I think he means that the reality is that we are where we are, and it's just about at our level, and constantly harping on about the Premier League merely encourages negativity. And that whether we like it or not, Blackie is going to be here for a bit yet.

As for the fans being "right behind the team if they see the effort and application that goes with wearing the shirt and that is backed up by a decent attempt to play football", that doesn't happen round where we sit.

Granted, bar the first half v Midweek we've seen precious little effort recently, but even when there is effort, it's a continuous stream of bile and invective from round us.

What we can't expect is to reach the heights we did a few years ago. We can aspire to them; we can still reach them; we can't expect to get there though.

Ok, ok, so I'm a Grumpy Old Git (aged 35!), and I can remember a lot more disappointing times than these. That's maybe why I get so narked when people think that this is the end of the world.

Getting absolutely hammered away at Altrincham was the end of the world.

 

[SheepdipBlade]

Ey Up HH.

I hadn't actually thought of half of that - I was just saying that the brain deads ruin my match days - and I wish they'd wake up to reality. But I agree with your stuff too

Have a fish :fishbowl:

 

[happyhippy]

Cheers SD

:fishbowl: Look after him well

They ruin it for me to the point where I almost don't want to go.

 

[Deleted member 1486]

All this talk of "what the kop wants"... I thought all four sides of the ground housed home fans and a only a minority of fans sit on the Kop.

Thanks for setting the record straight; it appears I must have been sitting with the away fans in the South Stand for the past few seasons without reaslising.

 

[SheepdipBlade]

All this talk of "what the kop wants"... I thought all four sides of the ground housed home fans and a only a minority of fans sit on the Kop.

Thanks for setting the record straight; it appears I must have been sitting with the away fans in the South Stand for the past few seasons without reaslising.

So do the away fans round you have a better grasp of reality than the Blades fans round us?

I wasn't for a minute suggesting that fans in other stands don't count - just that the fans round us seem to have missed the current reality, or aren't concerned with reality - more with making themselves feel "bigger" by having a pointless pop at KB and the team.

I can't hear what goes on around you - though Foxy's posts suggest you have your fair share of brain-deads in the South Stand too.

 

[Deleted member 1486]

So do the away fans round you have a better grasp of reality than the Blades fans round us?

I wasn't for a minute suggesting that fans in other stands don't count - just that the fans round us seem to have missed the current reality, or aren't concerned with reality - more with making themselves feel "bigger" by having a pointless pop at KB and the team.

I can't hear what goes on around you - though Foxy's posts suggest you have your fair share of brain-deads in the South Stand too.

It's the same on the South Stand. It was rather amusing to hear a vocal minority calling for him to resign when we were losing against Port Vale, way back when, with more than half the team rested. I think calls for him to go will be much stronger now to be honest, especially if we lose on Saturday and I'm not sure it will just be the "brain-deads".

I'm conflicted. I do think we should back the team and the manager but this is starting to feel like Robson part II, in the sense that a win will just paper over the cracks. Don't get me wrong, I never want us to lose, ever, it puts me on a downer for the rest of the day. But we're in freefall at the moment and something needs to change. Actually, everything needs to change, the whole ethos of the club, that can only happen with a new manager as far as I'm concerned.

Maybe the people voicing their opinions are doing so in the belief that they are helping to affect that change? Another dour, clueless, hit-and-hope performance on Saturday and I may join them in expressing that opinion.

 

[beightonblade]

mmmmmmmmmm...............
what cums first the chicken or the egg?

cheap as chips and the players get paid, we the supporters pay.

So i say gi us sumat to shout about, not the shite thats been served up of late.

 

[The Fox]

Good point raised by Flawed regarding Papering over the cracks

Like flawed , i never want us to lose but neither do I want a lame duck manager holding on to his job by the skin of his teeth , never quite being bad enough to justify being fired but neither good enough to actually get us anywhere.

Its like pulling of a Plaster , it hurts less if you do it quickly

 

[jamieward18sufc]

I agree with a lot of what's been said here.

My own view is whilst I do not approve of the manager's style of play, his tactics and his temprement, it is still early days. I also appreciate his passion for the club and I do think he really wants to win games, but he is going totally the wrong way about it. I think the fans deserve a lot more than what they are being given. Losing and playing well and giving 110% I can take, but I can't taking losing in the style of the last two games with no guts and no desire. If we are to accept that we might as well phone Bryan Robson to come back from Thailand right now.

I think it's fair to say that we complained about this style of play last season, yet it all began so rosey when we played QPR in our first home game and beat them 3-0 comfortably (Sharp's famous hat trick game). That day we were excellent all over the park. What I do not understand is how we can go from that to the kind of long ball garbage we've seen on countless occasions since then.

Fair enough, the manager's overall record is pretty decent and he led us to within a whisker of Premiership football. I suppose you don't get 80 points in the Championship for playing as bad as we suggest, but the fact is, just like at Leeds, the tactics are being read easily and Blackwell's real ability as a manager should be coming to the fore at the present time. However, instead of getting back to basics and admitting his wrongs, hes attacking certain players (Cotterill), attacking the media and trying to lay the blame just about everywhere else he can except on his own shoulders.

If he was anything of an honest man, he would take the blinkers off and realise that performances since the Wednesday game have been abject. The Ipswich Town game definetely did not feel like an entertaining 3-3 result, in fact, for the first 75 minutes it was just a case of us chasing shadows and being passed around and outplayed by a team who are having it worse than we are but still staying as true as they can to playing the game the right way.

I am against Blackwell at the moment but I am not exactly calling for his head either at this moment as it is still early days. I would give it at least three more matches and if we lose all three his position needs to be seriously reviewed. The sad fact is, I don't think he is going to change his tactics because he is stubborn and self-righteous and with that in mind there's only going to be one outcome in the end and that's Blackwell leaving the club, because like all of you, I have had enough of the abject style of football we have seen of late.

 

[SheepdipBlade]

Maybe the people voicing their opinions are doing so in the belief that they are helping to affect that change? Another dour, clueless, hit-and-hope performance on Saturday and I may join them in expressing that opinion.

I can certainly understand your feeling - it's clear that "Something is rotten in the state of Bramall Lane" (sorry Bill ) - but my point is that as KMcC is going to stand by KB, they are wrong in their "belief that they are helping to affect that change".

That leaves limited options -
People continue to protest for the forseeable future in the hope that KMcC is eventually persuaded to change his mind.
People take to the car park again in a major protest - but how many times can fans do that (especially in a short space of time) and still remain credible?
People accept that there is unlikely to be a change, and on match days concentrate on supporting the team - instead of criticising the management.

The only other option I can see is that KB walks. I think this is the most likely outcome - but will only come about once KB decides for himself he can take the club no further. I don't think the fans need to tell him things aren't going well - and I don't think the fans opinions will count for much in the bigger professional picture - - therefore screaming for the managers head is more an act of frustration from the fans that is an act that will in reality lead to change.

Frustration is driving the fans - and any claim of influencing "regime change" is IMO simply self-deluding.

Sorry!!