Today ...

[pommpey]

Great day out. Got three tickets when I was up in Sheffield from the Lane (how ace it is to be at that place when you don't see it every weekend or other for us ex-pats?)

Travelled up via Petersfield (as we knew Chichester would be a fucking nightmare what with all the flooding) and across country on the A272. Stopped off at a Tesco Extra south of Crawley for a cashpoint where we saw a dumpy old boiler called Kerry Katona stepping out of her vehicle to go and get her ration of chicken nibbles and valium. Grim-looking. You wouldn't mess with her.

Anyroad, apologies to Ollesandro and co. We decided what with the time and that Crawley would be full of Katonas, that we'd stay local and parked up opposite the Broadfield Stadium and when up to the Half Moon where we enjoyed a shit pint of 1669 Extra Warm. Plenty of Blades in there. Then we walked down to the ground and had a bottle of warm lager in the car park when I discovered I lost JnrJnr Pommpeys ticket. We bought another from the Portakabinticketoffice. Seven Quid. 'Kin 'ell!

Inside we found our way to the right of the goal. Nice little ground. It was siling down.

The game. Well, apart from two cracking free kicks, here's the truth.

Long. 6/10. Low scoring, because he really had bollocks all to do but make a good tackle/save in the first half and collect a few pot-shots, crosses in the second. His distribution was solid. But underused all game.

Hill. 6/10. Ran well along the left, if drawn out of place a bit by the player in front of him and sometimes a bit run ragged by their nippy winger. But pulled off some safe tackles and worked well with the back four.

Maguire. 7/10. Safe as. Commanding and looking in control. However ...

Collins. 7.5/10. Again, safe as. But spent a lot of the match yelling and berating Harry, for some reason. Couldn't see why.

McMahon. 6/10. At times not 'with the game'. One really stray/daft pass in the second half and he looked really upset with himself. I missed his first goal as I went for a slash, but my lad said it was a beaut. The second was a doozie! I filmed it. Got the pile-on in front of me as well and the fans.

Blackman. 5/10. He doesn't like playing out wide. At all.

Doyle. 6/10. Did his job, battled and harried, but to be honest we could have done with three of him because he was a bit lightweight at times. The passing and moving was piss poor and if there is anywhere we do need to get better in, it is the 'drop midfield' role done so well in the past by the likes of McCall. We need someone to get his foot on the ball, shrug people off and carry it forward to the attack. And find the attackers, possibly.

McDonald. 6.5/10. Good to see him back and as usual, we saw nice touches, strength, and the ability (as he did) to carry it up the pitch to their penalty area. But there was no outlet.

Flynn. 5.5/10. Typical Flynn game, ran a bit, got bullied, fell over, cut inside, failed to support his defender effectively.

Miller. 7/10. Although he didn't score, fed off scraps and half chances and tried his best, he was far better than ...

Kitson. 4/10. Shite.

Subs

Ironside 7/10. Did well and looked like he wanted to be on the pitch.
Cofie (unmarked) but ran about a bit better than the tiring Miller
Williams (unmarked)

Game

Sat too far deep. Crawley, to their credit showed us why they have come so far with some neat, patient passing and their channel players are quick and agile. They threw a lot at us all game, but just couldn't land the ball un the box, or get round the back of us to effectively make a mark. Our back four were - not exactly awesome - but effective and did their job. We pissed about too much whilst on the ball and then spent an age chasing then about trying to get it back, and when we got it, wasted possession. We must have attacked four times throughout the game. Corners didn't find the tall blokes, wingplay was easily squashed and save for a standout chance for Miller around 80 minutes, there was little from open play to get excited about. The free kicks were ace. The second one a top-corner belter that looked like it was going over from where we were.

Officials

Fair. Missed some stuff but can't complain. It was pissing down for most of the game.

Crowd

Brilliant. Took my lad (last game, Reading some years ago (Warnock 0-1)) and my granddaughter (last game Wembley ... so it was some contrast for her) and we spent most of the game laughing at the fans and their humour:

To a steward: "If you wear a yellow jacket, you're a cunt!"
To a steward who was nice: "If you wear an orange jacket, you're a Blade!"
Jingle Bells
There's only one Danny Wilson
Is there a Fire Drill?
GCB (which echoed around the ground beautifully)
Sheff-United! (ten billion times!)
Top-o-the-league!
You should have gone Christmas shopping!

Santas doing the conga, pissing down with rain, a massive pile-on, two-nil, top corner free kicks and United at the top for Christmas!

Life is fucking brilliant!

pommpey

 

[pommpey]

McMahon's second, from where we were!

pommpey

 

[Kenilworth]

Cheers Vic - nice one

 

[Zlatan]

McMahon a 6? Sheer madness.

 

[pommpey]

McMahon a 6? Sheer madness.

None of our players excelled today Zlatan. McMahon huffed and puffed at times and I think he was no better than Hill to be honest. The back four as a unit were 8/10 because of how they kept Crawley asking, but individually he was average.

pommpey

 

[LoughboroBlade]

Did I just imagine it during game, but did McMahon score with two fairly excellent strikes from free kicks?

"If you take away Flynn's assists and goals, he's rubbish"
"If you ignore McMahon's goals today, he was average"
"If you ignore the occasions George Long has used his hands this season, he's actually been really average"

Merry Christmas everyone.

 

[Jehovah]

Thanks for the report. Obviously its all about opinions, but I am suprised by your ratings after listening on the radio. Edwards and Co said that even without McMahon's strikes today, he really had the bit between his teeth and had a great game.

Kitson also sounded like he did some decent stuff and if not for a last ditch tackle in the first half, we would have been 1-0 up. The two lads that sounded most disapointing were Blackman and Miller.

 

[pommpey]

You can't mark a player's whole-game performance on discrete incidents.

Okay, if you do, then:

McMahon (free kicks): 8.5/10. Hit two from outside the box and found the target with fabulous accuracy. However his third, late on in the second half after Flynn was hauled down, went sailing over the crossbar into the crowd.

McMahon (playing): 6/10 Put in a shift, but didn't connect well. Some poor passing and positioning had him struggling to cope at times and he made some errors which could have brought more trouble with a better capable set of opponents. He also seemed to know this.

pommpey

 

[pommpey]

Thanks for the report. Obviously its all about opinions, but I am suprised by your ratings after listening on the radio. Edwards and Co said that even without McMahon's strikes today, he really had the bit between his teeth and had a great game.

Kitson also sounded like he did some decent stuff and if not for a last ditch tackle in the first half, we would have been 1-0 up. The two lads that sounded most disapointing were Blackman and Miller.

Fair shout, but in Kitson's case he was almost static during the first half and continued this until he was subbed in the second. For a bloke who has known pedigree and has hit the net a couple of times for us with crucial goals it was evident he didn't relish turning out today. Maybe its because DW had us playing so deep, but he just didn't impose and bully their defenders, who really weren't up to much. Miller chased after everything but at times found himself alone and expose with Kitson still trotting up from the centre circle. No idea how many offsides we had, but that tells much of the story and Ironside certainly showed more urgency.

pommpey

 

[pommpey]

Error message

 

[UnitedBlade]

Good pile on

 

[bartman]

Fair shout, but in Kitson's case he was almost static during the first half and continued this until he was subbed in the second. For a bloke who has known pedigree and has hit the net a couple of times for us with crucial goals it was evident he didn't relish turning out today. Maybe its because DW had us playing so deep, but he just didn't impose and bully their defenders, who really weren't up to much. Miller chased after everything but at times found himself alone and expose with Kitson still trotting up from the centre circle. No idea how many offsides we had, but that tells much of the story and Ironside certainly showed more urgency.

pommpey

Funny how fans see things differently. I thought Kitson was superb in the 1st half. Held the ball up well,always available to received the ball (unlike Miller who barely touched the ball in the 1st half but was marginally better in the 2nd).I would have swapped the Miller and Kitson marks

I thought the two full backs were strong all throughout the agme and Collins was bollocking Harry throughout the 1st half because he was awful in terms of positions,passing and tackling(excellant 2nd half thou)

Out of curiosity... how do you know Blackman doesn't like playing wide right? His best games for us have been wide right

 

[Oreyt]

Good pilon.

 

[pommpey]

Funny how fans see things differently. I thought Kitson was superb in the 1st half. Held the ball up well,always available to received the ball (unlike Miller who barely touched the ball in the 1st half but was marginally better in the 2nd).I would have swapped the Miller and Kitson marks

I thought the two full backs were strong all throughout the agme and Collins was bollocking Harry throughout the 1st half because he was awful in terms of positions,passing and tackling(excellant 2nd half thou)

Out of curiosity... how do you know Blackman doesn't like playing wide right? His best games for us have been wide right

He just didn't play like a winger, Barts. Seen him play a game there before and okay, he maybe has poughed a furrow up and down and created, but today he seemed to me to be exactly what it says on the tin, that is 'a front man in a winger's jersey' and really out of position. He did look a bit lazy and uninterested in short spells and took a bollocking from McD once or twice.

Mind you, we've never been blessed with consistent wingers at this club for too many years, have we?

pommpey

 

[LardSardine]

McMahon's second, from where we were!

pommpey

I'm just to the left of you there. Got a couple of pics of the pile on too. Good atmosphere today.

 

[LA Blade]

Cheers here...

 

[cahill]

I always think Kitson looks overweight and unfit, ergo he probably limits his running and conserves the energy. Can't grumble though as we're TOP OF THE LEAGUE. Tranmere seem a spent force and it's nice to see Cov held

 

[Creepy]

Pommpey - Those are really harsh stats for a back four who were always in control. Despite all crawleys possession they never carved out one decent chance which is due to how well the back four played. What would they have to do to get higher marks? (maybe one of them would have had to score 2 outstanding free kicks to win the game.....)

Other than that, agree with most of the rest. I must have been stood pretty much where you were.

 

[BladeInThatcham]

I think we must have been stood right next to eachother Pommpey, we had the exact same view.
I would give Harry and Collins 8.5 and 8 out of ten respectively as I thought they dealt with everything that came their way. The real worry for me was just how many and how easy Crawley got crosses in - a better side would have nailed a few.

 

[Pinchy]

A big "Well Done" to:

Danny Wilson - doing all that could reasonably be asked of him.

Tony McMahon - excellent against Tranmere and the match-winner today. Maybe his star will rise now after a difficult start to his Blades career?

1200+ brilliant Blades who got the result they deserved.

The Football League for their excellent League One table.

Walking in a Wilson Wonderland.

 

[Ollessendro]

As BladeInThatcham says, we must have been very close to each other pommpey. However I saw things very differently to you. For me, in the third tier with the current set of players, you could not ask for much more of a better away performance. In absolutely awful conditions away from home we were in complete control. We did not play spectacularly, but the result was never in doubt. We certainly never looked like losing. I can only remember Long smothering the ball once and do not remember them having a shot on target. Outside of us scoring 2 goals, we created the better chances (Kitson's shot in the first half that, Blackman's shot and McDonald's shot). Our defence was rock solid.

All this talk of a better team would hve beat us is bollocks. You beat what is put in front of you. Yes I was slightly concenred at how easily they got crosses in (wingers not getting a foot in for me) but Maguire and Collins were excellent and Crawley did not get a sniff.

I disagree on a few other things. Flynn had a good game. I watched him quite closely, after the whole debate last week. He worked very hard. He tracked back, he offered an outlet, showed some good skill, ran at his man a few times and showed some neat touches. He did not 'nesh' it at all and won headers and get stuck in. I also disagree about Blackman, who showed flashes of brilliance. Every time he got the ball, the Crawley defenders shat themselves. They double up on him, but still had no answer. He was quiet, but on 2 or 3 occasions looked really dangerous. There was one particular occassion towards the end when he picked the ball up wide right, he beat 2 defenders and then got to the byline and into the box and was scythed down. It was an absolute stone wall pen and the ref wanted to give a goal kick (the linesman flagged for a corner). I also thought Miller was poor, but agree that Kitson looked off the pace.

Yes the game was a bit drab and for large parts the banter with the Father Christmas' was better thasn the game. But to go away from home and completely control a game in those horrible conditions pleased me. I really do not understand what some fans expect. A clean sheet, 3 points and top of the league and the team gets flack.

 

[Maidenhead]

As BladeInThatcham says, we must have been very close to each other pommpey. However I saw things very differently to you. For me, in the third tier with the current set of players, you could not ask for much more of a better away performance. In absolutely awful conditions away from home we were in complete control. We did not play spectacularly, but the result was never in doubt. We certainly never looked like losing. I can only remember Long smothering the ball once and do not remember them having a shot on target. Outside of us scoring 2 goals, we created the better chances (Kitson's shot in the first half that, Blackman's shot and McDonald's shot). Our defence was rock solid.

All this talk of a better team would hve beat us is bollocks. You beat what is put in front of you. Yes I was slightly concenred at how easily they got crosses in (wingers not getting a foot in for me) but Maguire and Collins were excellent and Crawley did not get a sniff.

I disagree on a few other things. Flynn had a good game. I watched him quite closely, after the whole debate last week. He worked very hard. He tracked back, he offered an outlet, showed some good skill, ran at his man a few times and showed some neat touches. He did not 'nesh' it at all and won headers and get stuck in. I also disagree about Blackman, who showed flashes of brilliance. Every time he got the ball, the Crawley defenders shat themselves. They double up on him, but still had no answer. He was quiet, but on 2 or 3 occasions looked really dangerous. There was one particular occassion towards the end when he picked the ball up wide right, he beat 2 defenders and then got to the byline and into the box and was scythed down. It was an absolute stone wall pen and the ref wanted to give a goal kick (the linesman flagged for a corner). I also thought Miller was poor, but agree that Kitson looked off the pace.

Yes the game was a bit drab and for large parts the banter with the Father Christmas' was better thasn the game. But to go away from home and completely control a game in those horrible conditions pleased me. I really do not understand what some fans expect. A clean sheet, 3 points and top of the league and the team gets flack.

Nice one Ollie. Long may this outbreak of positivity continue

 

[Hartley Hare]

Ollie,I think you should consider changing that line that pops up under your posts.

Perhaps I could suggest, changing the hate for tolerate? Also get rid of that reference to lager...ale is much better.

HH

 

[pommpey]

As BladeInThatcham says, we must have been very close to each other pommpey. However I saw things very differently to you. For me, in the third tier with the current set of players, you could not ask for much more of a better away performance. In absolutely awful conditions away from home we were in complete control. We did not play spectacularly, but the result was never in doubt. We certainly never looked like losing. I can only remember Long smothering the ball once and do not remember them having a shot on target. Outside of us scoring 2 goals, we created the better chances (Kitson's shot in the first half that, Blackman's shot and McDonald's shot). Our defence was rock solid.

All this talk of a better team would hve beat us is bollocks. You beat what is put in front of you. Yes I was slightly concenred at how easily they got crosses in (wingers not getting a foot in for me) but Maguire and Collins were excellent and Crawley did not get a sniff.

I'm with you on the 'solid' bit. The central pairing, once they'd stopped sniping at each other, were the ingredient to the clean sheet. I did feel though that the understanding between the wide midfield and full backs needs more work, and this is where (at times) we looked vulnerable. Yes, a more capable team would have exploited that, especially when they'd managed to get round the back and get a cross in to better attackers. You have seen that happen too many times this season where a lone striker ghosts in from nowhere to nod home. Luckily yesterday Collins and Maguire were on the end of everything but the onus is to stop the cross coming in in the first place.

I disagree on a few other things. Flynn had a good game. I watched him quite closely, after the whole debate last week. He worked very hard. He tracked back, he offered an outlet, showed some good skill, ran at his man a few times and showed some neat touches. He did not 'nesh' it at all and won headers and get stuck in. I also disagree about Blackman, who showed flashes of brilliance. Every time he got the ball, the Crawley defenders shat themselves. They double up on him, but still had no answer. He was quiet, but on 2 or 3 occasions looked really dangerous. There was one particular occassion towards the end when he picked the ball up wide right, he beat 2 defenders and then got to the byline and into the box and was scythed down. It was an absolute stone wall pen and the ref wanted to give a goal kick (the linesman flagged for a corner). I also thought Miller was poor, but agree that Kitson looked off the pace.

I think they cancelled out our wing threat quite well, to be honest and that is where Blackman looked so frustrated. He's a skilfull lad who wants to run at defenders, and the fact that there was precious little for him to go at yesterday was testimony to him being subbed. He did, however, pick up the ball outside our box and run sixty metres up-pitch to the opposite touchline only to discover the team were ambling somewhat after him and forced a throw-in. And quite a few times I saw him pretty much out of position where we were in possession and setting up to attack.

Yes the game was a bit drab and for large parts the banter with the Father Christmas' was better thasn the game. But to go away from home and completely control a game in those horrible conditions pleased me. I really do not understand what some fans expect. A clean sheet, 3 points and top of the league and the team gets flack.

As said, very pleased with the result and us at the top for Christmas. Brilliant feeling. But we have to keep this momentum sustained, now with some of the chasing pack themselves finding the wind in their sails. I also look at our team as next year's Championship team and yesterday's result, save for two spectacular dead-ball strikes, showed me nothing from open-play ... against a side we'd be usually playing in the opening rounds of a cup competition a couple of season's ago. Take away McMahon's very good free-kicks and we have a dull nil-nil draw away to a vastly inferior team.

pommpey

 

[SUFC Handsworth]

I know football is all about opinions and for the Crawley game my ratings are completely different to those in the OP. Thought Blackman and McDonald had good games, looked dangerous throughout and if we were to get a goal from open play, one of or both those two would be involved. McMahon was my MotM, his goals topped his best performance of the season for us (I also had McMahon as MotM versus Tranmere).

For me Kitson is a class act, although he looked a bit rusty after a few weeks out injured, and the one thing that does annoy me with him is his obsession with dropping deep - if I was McDonald or Doyle I would tell him to **** off back up front and leave the midfield to them. He wants to be make a nusiance of himself right up top, looking to play Miller in. Which probably explained why Miller had a quiet game yesterday.

The back four yesterday were excellent as a unit.

 

[Selly]

Ollie,I think you should consider changing that line that pops up under your posts.

Perhaps I could suggest, changing the hate for tolerate? Also get rid of that reference to lager...ale is much better.

HH

Wait. There are people who actually have forum signatures turned ON?????

 

[norfolkblade]

Wait. There are people who actually have forum signatures turned ON?????

Must be a Norfolk thing mate!