Stoke City vs Sheffield United

S24SU · OFFICIAL MATCHDAY EDITION · 2026/27 · No.11

19th September 2026 - Kick-off 12:30
Stoke City v. Sheffield United
EFL Championship Week 7 - Bet365 Stadium, Stoke-on-Trent

EFL Championship Week 7 – Saturday 19th September 2026, 12:30 – Bet365 Stadium, Stoke-on-Trent
Please keep all discussion related to the match within this thread.

Match Info

Competition: EFL Championship Week 7

Kick-off: Saturday 19th September 2026, 12:30

Venue: Bet365 Stadium, Stoke-on-Trent/frow]

Player Ratings: CLICK HERE (will open shortly after full time)

Officials

Referee: Tim Robinson

Assistants: Andrew Dallison and Hugh Gilroy

Fourth Official: Ed Duckworth

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Keep it on-topic and within the rules – see the forum rules if unsure.​

 

[ben1987]

You can’t say we don’t have a style it’s pretty clear from the stats that we do… hoooooooof View attachment 244476

But we had more throw ins so we must be statistically unlucky!

 

[bakeblade]

He already looks our best player with only 5 mins on the pitch.. only one with pace, positivity, ability to beat a player and win it back in a 50-50.

Mad that wilder put Chong and Ayew on before him - what is he watching?

He prefers experience

 

[Thrice]

3wks off now, surely the owners will be using this time to sound out a new manager?

I don't think these owners have any clue tbh. They probably see the results and the league table and think "Doesn't look that bad".

 

[Blademan89]

Set up for a draw, very poor in position still and very slow paced. Football on show has got to be the worst football played accross top 4 leagues, theres no direction no patterns of play and just terrible.

We got an unexpected goal and decided to conceed even more postion than before (60% in 1st half) to invite pressure on, even though we all know we're not good enough to defend a 1-0. Stoke pushed on and left gaps but he left the only player with pace and directness on the bench.

1st goal comes feom us sitting so deep.

2nd goal albiet offside, was shocking from Tanganga who let him bring it down and shoot, just stood off him and hes another ive had enough off, hes terrible player, think he may be even worse than McGuiness.

Another special note about cannon, bbd overlapping into box 1v1 witb keepr when we 1-0 and he tries to shoot on his weaker foot ignoring the run and pas it back to keepr, he is thick as fuck.

Why have we have we suffered become a team that all season has finished every half with under 40% possession, footballers ee have albiet end of their careers dont turn into shit footballers that can not retain the ball.

 

[bakeblade]

Yes but wheres Shackleton?

 

[Albert Grumble]

Time for a new manager

 

[Kenworthy’s Tash]

I don't think these owners have any clue tbh. They probably see the results and the league table and think "Doesn't look that bad".

Then we really are sunk as a club

 

[FulwoodBlades]

Has anyone seen a full pitch view of their second goal?

Everyone convinced it was offside and Gallagher was definitely a yard off based on our players in the picture on my feed, but Shackleton was out of picture and when it panned out, he seemed further back.

Is it possible he played him on?

Correct. He appeared to play him onside

 

[Champagneblade]

Donovan should have been on the left, not the right

And for more than 5 fucking minutes

Agree.

Who got us obsessed with inverted wingers anyway?

It’s a complete waste of Bamford having them. If we had players getting to the byline and pulling the ball back he’d get far more scoring opportunities.

That’s three straight defeats now. We haven’t scored from open play in the last 7 halves of football.

 

[Blademan89]

Another rant whilst im at it, why is wilder trying to play counter attacking football with players that cant run and the wrong formation for it and wrong players whilst leaving only player it suits (Donovan) on bench with 88 mins played.... the man js broken and out of ideas, its currently looking like hes nothing without knill who seemingly was the brains behind the operation.

 

[nickwr37]

Knew I should've cashed out at 1-0........Sit back after taking the lead again and invite wave after wave of attacks. The current Blades way and 53 years watching us despairs me again at the moment.

 

[SwissBlade]

Of course he can mention the offside, but he should also mention how badly we played. That’s the main reason we lost.

We didn’t play well, that’s for sure but we got done on two brilliant goals from distance.

It’s not dressing it up, we’ve lost the last two league games against sides expected to be up there and they’ve scored late on.

Could we have changed things in the middle when Stoke were on top and pushing for an equaliser and then winner? Not really because we don’t have better midfielders to bring in.

Would Donovan have been able to hold the ball up better than Shackleton or Chong? Not sure, there was a big gap.

That cannon chance before Stoke equalised was a bigger chance wasted.

 

[54yrblade]

They sacked the wrong man

 

[3Cheers4Ramirez]

Agree.

Who got us obsessed with inverted wingers anyway?

It’s a complete waste of Bamford having them. If we had players getting to the byline and pulling the ball back he’d get far more scoring opportunities.

That’s three straight defeats now. We haven’t scored from open play in the last 7 halves of football.

Stoke were always going to be able to squeeze him wide on that right side, with him the only threat

On the left he would've had the leeway to cross, at least from deeper, and we could have gambled on that and packed the box

 

[Addison]

I said I would wait until after the Stoke game to give my assessment of where we are. Todays game confirmed it we are in a relegation struggle with little sign of getting out of the mess we are in. We have no threat up front. No athleticism , no pace and little in the way of physicality. All attributes required for the moddern game.

The manager prefers to bring on a 35 year old geriatric instead of a pacy young forward and that sums up the mentality.

We offered virtually nothing throughout the game yet still managed to find ourselves in front. The plan thereafter was to retreat and hold on. We just dont have the players to do that and Donovan on earlier would have at least given Stokes defence something to think about.

The bizarre conclusion to yesterdays presser confirmed in my mind that CW is past his sell by date. I have avoided calling for him to go before now hoping he would at least get the players into an organised shape. It hasnt happened and his blinkered out of date view as to how the club should progress confirms in my mind that we are destined for league 1 if he remains at the helm. We are not Everton 2007. The team reflects the managers thinking always looking back instead of forwards.

No amount of sugar coating will escape the fact the team and coaching staff are tactically inept. Add in serious concerns about the sports science function with no backing from owners embroiled in legal actions and no one in their right mind would want to manage SUFC in its present state.

 

[SLB]

They sacked the wrong man

Somebody convinced the prince to rehire CW.
Somebody convinced the Americans to rehire CW.
Get rid of Bettis and you'll get rid of Wilder.

 

[uTurn]

Pitiful. Absolutely pitiful. We got more than we deserved by at least scoring, and it was still complete shite.

It's like watching a bunch of strangers get together for a game. Nobody seems to have any idea what they're meant to be doing, what their teammates are meant to be doing, or how they ought to approach any aspect of playing a football match.

I'll give Phillips a morsel of credit for the goal. He's abused a common expectation within football, in that a free kick in that position almost always results in a cross. Keeper should always be ensuring he's got that post covered though. I remember Fulham doing the same thing in the play-off final to David Raya when he was still at Brentford, so it can happen to anyone.

That though was the only moment all game, that any Blades player seemed to think, at all. Rest of the game was directionless, wasteful punting of the ball, as if it's a rugby match.

We can rue the fact that their goals were 2 extraordinary strikes of a football, but if we participate as a competitive team, instead of trying to defend for 40+mins from when we scored, we're far less likely to end up losing. Instead, we've basically told Stoke "take your best shot", and they did. Twice.

Same argument for the offside for the winner. It's possible that Shackleton plays their lad onside as he's not visible in the camera angle I've seen, but even if he is offside, had we done anything besides try and preserve a fragile 1-0 lead, we don't put ourselves at risk of that happening.

With all that said, it's staggering that Donovan didn't come on until 2-1. He would have been an excellent outlet to play on the counter, allowing our defenders to maintain a solid shape, while the midfield offers support from deep. But we just get brainless moments like BBD, smashing it up field with a quarter of the game to play, while his entire team is in their own half.

Wilder said in the summer of how he believed that players at this level shouldn't need coaching. The longer this season progresses with him in charge, the more I'm convinced of the veracity of that statement. The team looks like it just isn't being coached. They look devoid of tactical direction, individual instruction, or any sort of cohesion. Everybody looks like they're being left to figure it out themselves. Completely unforgivable.

 

[Pittsburg Blade]

I don't think these owners have any clue tbh. They probably see the results and the league table and think "Doesn't look that bad".

Probably think that this seasons low finish will lead to more favorable draft picks..

 

[Pittsburg Blade]

We are going down I am afraid

Rapidly coming to the same conclusion.
This season already has that depressing feel about it. Losing tight games and having a total lack of attacking nous.

 

[Shawy24]

So Chris. These were the players you could trust. These were the old heads who could manage out a game. Which ones didn’t stick to the plan this time. Which ones are you chucking under the bus now? Donovan?

 

[Greasy Chap Butty]

Has anyone seen a full pitch view of their second goal?

Everyone convinced it was offside and Gallagher was definitely a yard off based on our players in the picture on my feed, but Shackleton was out of picture and when it panned out, he seemed further back.

Is it possible he played him on?

Could have, he's off screen. But also Tanganga was really slow. It was a looping ball and he turned and watched it float over his head without jumping. Feel sure if he's been sharper he could have stopped it.

 

[FINUK]

 

[Pittsburg Blade]

Could have, he's off screen. But also Tanganga was really slow. It was a looping ball and he turned and watched it float over his head without jumping. Feel sure if he's been sharper he could have stopped it.

We looked vulnerable to any high ball. Tanganga always seems to enter panic mode when the ball bounces in front of him.
And what with RND and Choudhry being headless chickens on either side we look like conceding at every attack.

 

[LS5 Blade]

The offside winner gives him a smokescreen to pretend it spoilt a tactical masterclass. So much wrong at the moment and only a change of head at the top is going to give island hope of changing it.

Just hope he falls on his sword instead of trying to make himself into a martyr!

 

[The Crab]

Can we stop the culture crap it’s so boring

Ask Wilder to stop it then.

An inconvenient truth to some

 

[luffenhamblade]

Ask Wilder to stop it then.

An inconvenient truth to some

Agreed - how does one do that?

 

[The Crab]

Agreed - how does one do that?

Fuck knows mate. I’ve stopped letting it bother me. Players and manager have stopped giving a fuck so I’m doing likewise

 

[Champagneblade]

I said I would wait until after the Stoke game to give my assessment of where we are. Todays game confirmed it we are in a relegation struggle with little sign of getting out of the mess we are in. We have no threat up front. No athleticism , no pace and little in the way of physicality. All attributes required for the moddern game.

The manager prefers to bring on a 35 year old geriatric instead of a pacy young forward and that sums up the mentality.

We offered virtually nothing throughout the game yet still managed to find ourselves in front. The plan thereafter was to retreat and hold on. We just dont have the players to do that and Donovan on earlier would have at least given Stokes defence something to think about.

The bizarre conclusion to yesterdays presser confirmed in my mind that CW is past his sell by date. I have avoided calling for him to go before now hoping he would at least get the players into an organised shape. It hasnt happened and his blinkered out of date view as to how the club should progress confirms in my mind that we are destined for league 1 if he remains at the helm. We are not Everton 2007. The team reflects the managers thinking always looking back instead of forwards.

No amount of sugar coating will escape the fact the team and coaching staff are tactically inept. Add in serious concerns about the sports science function with no backing from owners embroiled in legal actions and no one in their right mind would want to manage SUFC in its present state.

For all the focus on what was a disastrous summer last year under Sellés, this one is looking no better.

Ok, I get that having Seriki and Burrows injured as well as Oné and Chong only further compounds O’Hare, Hamer and Brooks moving on.

However, we should be doing much better and it really isn’t clear to me HIW we expect to create chances.

But to my original paragraph, if Chris left, he leaves the new guy with a full squad (not a positive comment). He can’t bring in a single new player without having to sell, pay up or loan out one of the existing ones, or ending a loan of Phillips, Donovan, Kitching or BBD, at least the first three should be starters for any manager.

So the squad is really hamstrung in terms of improvements. Apart from Seriki and Oné, possibly McCallum, there is no pace in the entire 26 either.

There are so many player that will have one year to run at the end of the season too.

It’s not all on Chris, Bettis has to take some blame too on the contract front but it’s a really poor state we find ourselves in.

Perhaps we thought we’d battle theough this year as we come to terms with SCR? Well if that’s the case then we neee to acknowledge we still need to score goals. We have one flair player and he got about 6 minutes.

 

[Æthelstan]

It was an easy one to call as well. It was a floated ball from distance.

They need to bring in automated offsides. It’s absolutely ridiculous the blind bastard missed that. Cost us a point. Though as I said at the time, we needed Donovan on to give them something to think about.

It was absolutely horrendous game management. We needed an out ball. Cannon and Chong, two players who have largely shown to have a heart of a pea in most situations.

That being said I’d. make Peck take shots from the edge of the box until be leg is ready to fall off. Two ideal shooting chances and blasted them both over.

Let’s be honest, apart from Bamford’s bad control in the box and Cannon shooting when others were better placed, we’ve created nothing again from open play.

Yeah if Peck is gonna keep doing long shots (which I hope he does because we need someone who won't try to dribble the bastard ball into the net) then he needs to be practising constantly to improve.

 

[ChipButtyBlade]

https://www.s24su.com/forum/attachments/img_20260919_141333743-1-webp.244480/

In that image we only have 9 outfield players in view...where is the 10th..probably playing him onside.