The free kick

[Ricky]

What a fuck up that was. Could see it straightaway from the other end of the ground.


1. Why only a 3 man wall?

2. There was only a right footer standing over it - the wall could easily afford to move more to the left.

3. Know your opponent. This is most annoying of all. Joe Allen is a quality player easily capable of doing something like that - yes, even if he's blatantly looking towards Crouch.


What a fucking needless throwaway. Especially frustrating as we deserved the win, weren't even hanging on like usual and it was against a hugely underperforming expensive, well fancied side who were absolutely there for the taking.

 

[Guesty]

Our own player scored with the same trick a few weeks ago. Allen never even looked to see where his team mates were. Appalling stuff.

 

[Pollingtonblade]

What a fuck up that was. Could see it straightaway from the other end of the ground.


1. Why only a 3 man wall?

2. There was only a right footer standing over it - the wall could easily afford to move more to the left.

3. Know your opponent. This is most annoying of all. Joe Allen is a quality player easily capable of doing something like that - yes, even if he's blatantly looking towards Crouch.


What a fucking needless throwaway. Especially frustrating as we deserved the win, weren't even hanging on like usual and it was against a hugely underperforming expensive, well fancied side who were absolutely there for the taking.

Think if we’d have had a ‘fan’ presence in upper tier we could have put him off by booing.

 

[madeinsheffield]

Was it even a free kick, I didn't see any contact

 

[YouFUMS]

Didn't need a quality player to score that one!
Schoolboy error from Hendo. He never lined up the wall properly. We were bang in line with the free kick, and the gap between Basham (at the RHS of the wall) and the right hand post was over a metre. Allen didn't need to curve or bend the ball, it was a straight shot into Hendos left hand side.
Golden boy cost us the win
Apart from that, I thought we were terrific once again tonight.

 

[Digger]

I thought the biggest travesty was giving the free kick away in the first place. You are not going to beat Crouch in the air, defend the second ball.
Nieve

 

[Karaoke Blade]

Was it even a free kick, I didn't see any contact

Of course it was, the ref must protect poor old crouchy.

 

[Kozzy_is_my_Dad]

We really we're terrific, I agree YouFUMS. But yes, sadly and annoyingly that free kick was blatantly obvious.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

I think the problem lies elsewhere. In the main why can't we convert brilliant approach and posession play when we have every fucker apart from the keeper camped around their box and also why do we shit our pants when we have something to defend?

 

[BettingBlade]

What a fuck up that was. Could see it straightaway from the other end of the ground.


1. Why only a 3 man wall?

2. There was only a right footer standing over it - the wall could easily afford to move more to the left.

3. Know your opponent. This is most annoying of all. Joe Allen is a quality player easily capable of doing something like that - yes, even if he's blatantly looking towards Crouch.


What a fucking needless throwaway. Especially frustrating as we deserved the win, weren't even hanging on like usual and it was against a hugely underperforming expensive, well fancied side who were absolutely there for the taking.

We were definitely hanging on. More through our inability to keep hold of the ball more than anything else

 

[stringer]

Didn't need a quality player to score that one!
Schoolboy error from Hendo. He never lined up the wall properly. We were bang in line with the free kick, and the gap between Basham (at the RHS of the wall) and the right hand post was over a metre. Allen didn't need to curve or bend the ball, it was a straight shot into Hendos left hand side.
Golden boy cost us the win
Apart from that, I thought we were terrific once again tonight.

Couldn’t tell myself from my angle but a few on Twitter saying he was screaming at the wall to move to the left. He was spewing at a few defenders at full time, too

 

[Ricky]

We were definitely hanging on. More through our inability to keep hold of the ball more than anything else

I don't recall us being camped on the edge of our own box for any length of time. We looked more comfortable than usual to me. Had very few crosses to defend, and only one corner and one free kick after Crouch came on (before the equaliser).

 

[JohnDenver]

I thought the wall was misplaced from my view in the south stand. Poor mistake but a good effort tonight otherwise.

 

[Ricky]

Think if we’d have had a ‘fan’ presence in upper tier we could have put him off by booing.

Extremely funny, well done. If only certain people had stuck to their word and turned up, eh?

 

[Bergen Blade]

Couldn’t tell myself from my angle but a few on Twitter saying he was screaming at the wall to move to the left. He was spewing at a few defenders at full time, too

Made me think of a goal I remember from my childhood, Mattheus' goal against Morocco in 1986. Morocco's goalkeeper was having a brilliant World Cup, but positioned his wall wrong for Mattheus' winner:

 

[BettingBlade]

I don't recall us being camped on the edge of our own box for any length of time. We looked more comfortable than usual to me. Had very few crosses to defend, and only one corner and one free kick after Crouch came on (before the equaliser).

It wasn’t constant pressure, but the way in which we were giving up possession. I agree they didn’t really look that threatening other than hopefull balls into the box but I felt we just kept giving them the ball back when we didn’t need to

 

[Ricky]

View attachment 45365

Made me think of a goal I remember from my childhood, Mattheus' goal against Morocco in 1986. Morocco's goalkeeper was having a brilliant World Cup, but positioned his wall wrong for Mattheus' winner:

There he is, making sure everybody can see him looking towards Crouch. Called it straightaway that he was giving them the eyes. It's the sort of thing a good player will do.

 

[Rob86]

Sometimes you have to accept, he’s a great tactician is Rowett, bring Crouch on, win a foul near the box, pretend to cross to Crouch. Shoot. Masterclass

 

[YouFUMS]

Couldn’t tell myself from my angle but a few on Twitter saying he was screaming at the wall to move to the left. He was spewing at a few defenders at full time, too

He didn't appear overly concerned with the position of the wall, and if he felt that it wasn't placed correctly, then he shouldn't have over committed himself to his right hand side.
He's a young keeper still learning his trade, but this really was a basic basic error.

 

[wizadry]

It shouldn’t have been a freekick in the first place. He made contact with Freeman, not the other way round, the ref fell for it hook line and sinker. Not suprising though after missing 2 clear bookable offences and about 10 mins injury time for time wasting.

 

[stringer]

He didn't appear overly concerned with the position of the wall, and if he felt that it wasn't placed correctly, then he shouldn't have over committed himself to his right hand side.
He's a young keeper still learning his trade, but this really was a basic basic error.

Bergen’s post #15 suggests he was quite concerned!

 

[HighfieldBlade]

Imagine how frustrated Boro fans must be at drawing at home to Rotherham.

 

[JackSUFC]

Didn't need a quality player to score that one!
Schoolboy error from Hendo. He never lined up the wall properly. We were bang in line with the free kick, and the gap between Basham (at the RHS of the wall) and the right hand post was over a metre. Allen didn't need to curve or bend the ball, it was a straight shot into Hendos left hand side.
Golden boy cost us the win
Apart from that, I thought we were terrific once again tonight.

Henderson’s first mistake in a Blades shirt. He’s won us a lot of points this season and will win us many more. If anything, Stevens was just as at fault for giving away a needless free-kick.

I can’t grumble at all with the performance, we played them off the park for most of it, but it was an outcome reminiscent of last season.

 

[Danny_Blade]

Imagine how frustrated Boro fans must be at drawing at home to Rotherham.

Shocked at that too, credit to Rotherham though and means the gap doesn't increase.

 

[Ricky]

Henderson’s first mistake in a Blades shirt. He’s won us a lot of points this season and will win us many more. If anything, Stevens was just as at fault for giving away a needless free-kick.

I can’t grumble at all with the performance, we played them off the park for most of it, but it was an outcome reminiscent of last season.

It reminded me of Villa at home last season. That goal was right up there with Snodgrass's in the stupidity stakes.

And yes, Henderson will win us many more points. He might even get us in the play offs.

 

[northsomersetblade]

It's not fair

 

[Rob86]

Imagine how frustrated Boro fans must be at drawing at home to Rotherham.

Maybe, so what sets a team apart from the rest. Not losing points. So Boro dropped points so it’s ok we did ?

 

[wizadry]

Henderson’s first mistake in a Blades shirt. He’s won us a lot of points this season and will win us many more. If anything, Stevens was just as at fault for giving away a needless free-kick.

I can’t grumble at all with the performance, we played them off the park for most of it, but it was an outcome reminiscent of last season.

It wasn’t a foul, the ref was wank.

 

[him behind you]

For me we were simply scared stupid of Crouch getting the ball in the air - from the moment he came on we seemed to focus more on him that anything else. Almost as we did for a few games against Bolton when they had Madine.

For the free kick - it was a stupid challenge by Stevens and probably not one he would have made against anyone else. And when we set up for the free kick, we were so concerned about him that we forget to do the basics of setting up wall properly (and I might be wrong but I think it was a 4 man wall initially then someone pulled away from it to defend the box?).

It was schoolboy defending from start to finish and slightly spoiled what had been an excellent performance IMO.

Very soon, someone is going to get a royal clobbering as we put away some of the chances we create and, after seeing how the pork defend, you never know, the 9th could be a very special night.

 

[him behind you]

It wasn’t a foul, the ref was wank.

TBH Wiz, I thought it was a foul because he went into the back of him. It might have been soft but it gave the ref a decision to make and 9 of 10 times, they give them.