Sheffield United vs Middlesbrough

EFL Championship Matchweek 31 - Monday 9th February 2026 - 20:01 - Bramall Lane
Please keep all discussion related to the match within this thread.

Player Ratings:
Matchday Stats/Player Ratings - https://www.s24su.com/forum/match-day/match/sheffield-united-vs-middlesbrough.781/

Officials:

Referee: Gavin Ward
Assistants: Hugh Gilroy & Shaun Hudson
Fourth Official: David Webb

Coverage:

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[Cheesebored]

boro best side weve seen at lane this season whittaker hackney and conway 3 brilliant young players pacey and skilful just what we are lacking we know arblaster isnt fit and shouldnt be starting but when will wilder realise him and peck cannot be in same team they play the same.roles arblaster needs putting to bed now were not going up and not going down and o'hare needs benching gave us nothing tonight just running about like a headless chicken and couldnt even control the ball when he did get it

Thought their no.18 Aiden Morris was the best player on the pitch. Ran the midfield.

 

[Hillsboro Blade]

The most important signing of this Summer is a top quality fitness coach. Tonight Boro were two yards faster than us, broke at speed and didn’t have any man tits or kebab guts in site. It’s so bleeding obvious it’s untrue. What’s Tony Daley up to nowadays? We had the fittest side I’ve ever seen down at The Lane when he was fitness coach.

 

[ATL Recs]

]

Rabbit will end up trying to plug the gaps

Game could be over before he makes the changes needed

Thought their no.18 Aiden Morris was the best player on the pitch. Ran the midfield.

until Phillips joined Rothwell for a short period

 

[Dynamo Kev]

14 shots on target 9 boro 5 blades. not very often you see stats like that in a season. proper game of football. i hate the champo now. most teams just park the bus even at home. smells of small time doing crap like that.

 

[ATL Recs]

Remind me of us when we got promoted. Grind out the results after getting goals in a 20 minute great spell.

They some luck tonight with 2nd balls bouncing straight to their players, ANOTHER terrible referee (outside of red card) and good finishing/keeping when needed

We never played pass n move like that they could have had 4 in the first
Half we were chasing shadows after the first ten minutes only changed when we had a different midfield pairing

 

[The Fox]

Just to add .

Not his night going forward but Sereki played a good defensive game tonight and probably MOM .

 

[Blade56]

Cooper cost us tonight along with tactics from 15 to 60 minutes.

Clearly wasn’t working after the end to end of the first 15mins. MF was overrun and several times when COH broke upfield there was nothing in the middle to pass to.

Cooper was too slow for first and his poor kick resulted in second.

 

[bonobo]

Ive enjoyed some of our defeats this season, more than our wins last season. We will score a lot of goals and have some good results before the seasons out, even we are not really going for the Play Offs. We were weak in areas, but also though Boro were very very good as team, so many players who can really handle the ball under pressure, with great close control.

 

[Edgar Allan Poo]

Started well but Boro started even better. They looked slicker and more organised than when we last played them and took their chances.

Fair play to them.

 

[Mendi]

Just a bad night.

 

[KMC-1889]

Just a good demonstration of how far of the standard we are. They were more athletic, better coached and had a real identity. Every player knew their role and did it without thinking. Not sure if we clawed our way back into it or if they let us back into it after they made subs.

Referee was buying everything they were selling, fair play to them for taking advantage of it. Just wish we could be a bit smarter with stuff like that.

 

[Isaw Joeshaw]

Ive enjoyed some of our defeats this season, more than our wins last season. We will score a lot of goals and have some good results before the seasons out, even we are not really going for the Play Offs. We were weak in areas, but also though Boro were very very good as team, so many players who can really handle the ball under pressure, with great close control.

I thought they put in one of the best performances by an away team I’ve seen for a very long time . In fact , since the last time they did this to us some years ago and in some style .

Based on that performance , they well deserve to be promoted and look much better equipped to have a chance in the Prem than Coventry or Ipswich .

We weren’t poor by any standards but they managed to outplay us for large parts of the game and earned a thoroughly deserved victory .

 

[Champagneblade]

We'll see if Wilder learns from this, if we start Blaster-Peck next game it's clear why

We have to make up this three points by winning the next 4 matches.

That has to be the mentality and the e way to do that is by winning the midfield.

We need at least Peck and Phillips and potentially Riedewald and Phillips in the middle asap.

 

[SwissBlade]

14 shots on target 9 boro 5 blades. not very often you see stats like that in a season. proper game of football. i hate the champo now. most teams just park the bus even at home. smells of small time doing crap like that.

Thought it was a really good game. Can't knock Wilder for trying to match Boro and have a go, last season we would've parked the bus, as you say. What we got was a really open end to end game, fast paced with both sides pressing when out of possession. That first 20 mins was really the time when we had to take chances and we had a few. After Boro scored, they took complete control of the game. I don't think for that first half that we were bad, Boro were just better.

Second half Boro came out strong again and it was only with the changes we made after an hour, Phillips being the main change and adding quality, that we were able to get back in the game. Rothwell's tackle was reckless and unnecessary on a player breaking in his own half. It was a red, no doubts. Boro were able to mop things up though. Set piece delivery, just wasn't good enough.

Fair play to Boro quality side and some good players, don't think we'll play a better side this season and looked streets ahead of Ipswich.

 

[Blade56]

Pigs complain about having to play Accadamy kids. Thought we suffered that fate tonight. Seriki and Brooks gave it a good go but didn’t manage to create as much as usual. They obviously knew their threat and tamed them. Ditto MF, Peck and Blaster just doesn’t work in dominating the play. As good as all those lads are four of them as a large part of our regular starting 11 plus Cooper in goal who was involved in the second with a miss kick and Bindon.
Not excuses or criticism of individuals but we looked second best as hard as we tried. We need Jairo and one of the new loans in MF (albeit Rothwell out for 3 already) to get fit to put a foot on the ball, we can’t rely on Davies (my guess he’s the latest failed experiment) because COH gets very little service to create from Peck and Blaster.
Fair play to Boro, they were slick and took the chances that we failed to do, our defence was stretched and they often had an overlap on both wings with Burrows often missing on the left. Not seen any other team to challenged them on that form.
As for us, if some of our starlets deservedly get pick off by PL teams and our loans / short contract players move on in January our owners will need deep pockets to rebuild.

 

[Flumps]

Thought it was a really good game. Can't knock Wilder for trying to match Boro and have a go, last season we would've parked the bus, as you say. What we got was a really open end to end game, fast paced with both sides pressing when out of possession. That first 20 mins was really the time when we had to take chances and we had a few. After Boro scored, they took complete control of the game. I don't think for that first half that we were bad, Boro were just better.

Second half Boro came out strong again and it was only with the changes we made after an hour, Phillips being the main change and adding quality, that we were able to get back in the game. Rothwell's tackle was reckless and unnecessary on a player breaking in his own half. It was a red, no doubts. Boro were able to mop things up though. Set piece delivery, just wasn't good enough.

Fair play to Boro quality side and some good players, don't think we'll play a better side this season and looked streets ahead of Ipswich.

Can agree with all of this. I enjoyed the match, Boro did deserve the points and for just a moment we had our backs up and looked like we'd equalise.

I'm happy to accept the ref was a bit errr... questionable but I won't be blaming him for the loss. Boro had better quality in front of goal, it's hardly like we didn't have more tham ample chances. In an ideal world those sides could have gone in at half time with about 4 goals each.

Tough night at the office for us but it happens.

 

[SwissBlade]

Can agree with all of this. I enjoyed the match, Boro did deserve the points and for just a moment we had our backs up and looked like we'd equalise.

I'm happy to accept the ref was a bit errr... questionable but I won't be blaming him for the loss. Boro had better quality in front of goal, it's hardly like we didn't have more tham ample chances. In an ideal world those sides could have gone in at half time with about 4 goals each.

Tough night at the office for us but it happens.

Yeah, i think its one of those games where nothing went particularly wrong, we had a pretty much full strength side, we picked, what i think was the best and right team to start, we didn't park the bus and had a go. The ref was, as you say, questionable, but didn't change the game. There was no controversy. I don't think that we really had anyone that had a really off day. Blaster was not quite there, Bindon / Burrows were tested beyond their limits and Cooper made some errors, but none of it was game changing as such.

We had chances as you say, Brookes and Seriki were decent, Hamer had moments of class, O'Hare and Bamford had their chances, as did Peck.

We just have to suck it up and say that in a game where we went out to match them, they were just that little bit better all over the pitch.

 

[Balham]

We never played pass n move like that they could have had 4 in the first
Half we were chasing shadows after the first ten minutes only changed when we had a different midfield pairing

We won't ever play pass and move football with Peck and Arblaster on current form in midfield. Peck isn't dynamic enough, Arblaster isn't match fit.

 

[Flumps]

Yeah, i think its one of those games where nothing went particularly wrong, we had a pretty much full strength side, we picked, what i think was the best and right team to start, we didn't park the bus and had a go. The ref was, as you say, questionable, but didn't change the game. There was no controversy. I don't think that we really had anyone that had a really off day. Blaster was not quite there, Bindon / Burrows were tested beyond their limits and Cooper made some errors, but none of it was game changing as such.

We had chances as you say, Brookes and Seriki were decent, Hamer had moments of class, O'Hare and Bamford had their chances, as did Peck.

We just have to suck it up and say that in a game where we went out to match them, they were just that little bit better all over the pitch.

I think despite the negativity on here we all hold a glimmer of hope we can scratch the play offs I think personally more people were annoyed that we've put that in an even more unreachable position now.

I've said on dozens of occasions I can happily accept losses as long as they're deserved, I'll lose no sleep over last night.

 

[finlaytheblade]

We won't ever play pass and move football with Peck and Arblaster on current form in midfield. Peck isn't dynamic enough, Arblaster isn't match fit.

From what Wilder has said he really shouldn't have played at all.
Wilder should have brought Soumar in he has the legs! Ok he does make mistakes but Arblaster is contributing nothing .
Is he still knocking Wilders daughter off as that would add a pressure to Arblaster which he could do without while trying to make a difference.
Don't know where Wilder gets the Peck off the pace with Arblaster struggling that adds to the work for peck.
Sometimes I don't agree with Wilders version of events but who am I to say that.

 

[originaltrueblade]

Blaster ill or not he shouldn’t have started At present he ain’t good enough