'Slack' Blades wait on Morgan

[Bladesman]

'Slack' Blades wait on Morgan

SHEFFIELD United hope to have skipper Chris Morgan back sooner rather than later after the 2-2 draw with Colchester drew criticism of "slackness" from manager Bryan Robson.

United were in front twice on Saturday but managed to hold on to the lead for a total of less than seven minutes.

Centre back Morgan was forced to sit the game out with a calf strain. But he should lead the team out next weekend at Watford.

United striker James Beattie got a goal on his debut on Saturday but within 60 seconds Kevin McLeod equalised.

Said Robson: "For the first goal I thought we were over excited when we scored.

"Teams do that in the first game of the season, they were far too excited and it cost us a goal straight from the kick-off."

Michael Tonge came off the bench to make it 2-1 to United but six minutes later Clive Platt headed home to earn Colchester a draw from the first game in the Championship.

"Once we got the second goal, we should have been better and really defended" Robson remarked. "I thought Matt Kilgallon had an excellent game but he was too far away from his man and that's why he got a clear header in the box.

"Colchester with their two lads up front are a handful and they worked very hard in the game. You've got to give a bit of credit to them.
"We're disappointed because through pre-season we only gave one goal away and when it really matters we've given two goals away. For me with the quality of players that we've got that should have been a 2-0 result and it's not... because of slackness."

He added: "You saw the way Colchester tried to slow the game down, waste time on freekicks, goalkicks, corners and everything. A lot of teams are going to come to Bramall Lane and do that because they want to take the sting out of here. We know that is going to happen and we have to try and get the tempo as high as we can."

United do not have time to dwell on Saturday's draw. Close neighbours Chesterfield, from League Two, are at Bramall Lane tomorrow night for a first round Carling Cup tie.

Robson could well ring the changes in his team. Before Saturday he hinted that the entire squad would be involved at sometime during the first week of the season.

I do hope Morgan is back for the watford game.

Certainly missed him on saturday.

 

[S64 Blade]

Me too. We'll need him to watch King.

 

[DazBlade88]

With what I heard on Saturday Morgan's injury is worse than they thought. He's been in the oxygen tent 3 times and there's been no improvement, so he's having some more tests week.

Don't hold your breath for him returning Saturday

 

[happyhippy]

That's bad news Daz. Football Heaven might give us some news tonight.

 

[dingledog]

Slack, if only they had just been slack, they were dire. Not good news though if Morgs is out longer. This division is made for him.

 

[matth]

Dire? Seriously? Were we watching two separate matches? Now I'll admit we weren't amazing, but we were far, far away from dire. There were certainly more positives to take away from the performance, if not the result, than negatives.

 

[dingledog]

Dire? Seriously? Were we watching two separate matches? Now I'll admit we weren't amazing, but we were far, far away from dire. There were certainly more positives to take away from the performance, if not the result, than negatives.

I was talking about the defensive masterclasses that led to two simple goals for the opposition. I watched Chelski yesterday and by comparison we were dire..

Yes there were some positives, but the pale into insignificance if you defend as badly as we did on those two occasions. Any challange for promotion has to be built on a solid defence.

 

[jodman]

I watched Chelski yesterday and by comparison we were dire..

I assume this post is tinged with irony (i didn't watch the footy on sunday), to compare our deffence with Chelsea is like comparing a ford focus with a ferrari.

I didn't think the deffence were great but i don't think it was as bad as is being made out. If poeple are willing to give Billy Sharp time to settle, they should afford the likes of Naysmith and Kilgallon the same priviledge.

That said i hope Morgs is back too as i felt we needed some leadership on Saturday.

 

[Bladesman]

I didn't think the deffence were great but i don't think it was as bad as is being made out.

Maybe not as bad as it is being made out.

Although they were two shockingly poor goals to concede.

 

[jodman]

Maybe not as bad as it is being made out.

Although they were two shockingly poor goals to concede.

Agreed. The goals were absolutely shocking from a deffensive point of view, i don't think anyone will debate that.