Back From The Game - Sheff Utd (H)

[PieEater]

No Kebe against Leeds and we play poorly, no Kebe today and despite a good start we utterly capitulate.

We have absolutely no chance in the playoffs having bottled it today with very little pressure.

It should have been 2-4, I couldn't see anything wrong with Hendersons interception of McA's throw.

OK so their keeper and defence all played a blinder, but the turning point was Hunt missing the target with an open goal. 3-0 would have been game over.

On to Swansea in the playoffs, we'll lose.

[floyd__streete]

Well, the important thing to say after that is that we have just as much chance of being promoted now was we did before kick off. But frankly that was absolutely rancid today, to toss away a two goal lead against the bottom side who played us off the park after scoring their first. Doesn't bode well. Defended like idiots all game, but that is no surprise when your defence is lef by Matt Mills.

[Rex]

H(ooooooof)

[sandman]

Well, the important thing to say after that is that we have just as much chance of being promoted now was we did before kick off. But frankly that was absolutely rancid today, to toss away a two goal lead against the bottom side who played us off the park after scoring their first. Doesn't bode well. Defended like idiots all game, but that is no surprise when your defence is lef by Matt Mills.

Or when saint Zurab gets bullied by one of the worst strikers in the history of our club.

[floyd__streete]

Or when saint Zurab gets bullied by one of the worst strikers in the history of our club.

Henderson one of our worst ever strikers?

L
O
L

[Wimb]

Well, the important thing to say after that is that we have just as much chance of being promoted now was we did before kick off. But frankly that was absolutely rancid today, to toss away a two goal lead against the bottom side who played us off the park after scoring their first. Doesn't bode well. Defended like idiots all game, but that is no surprise when your defence is lef by Matt Mills.

Or when saint Zurab gets bullied by one of the worst strikers in the history of our club.

Can't agree with that, did you ever see Henderson play? more importantly did you never see Keith Scott or Paul Brayson :/

If we hadn't have signed the beast, Henderson wouldn't have been a bad signing, he's just very injury prone.

[Allyh84]

God we are quality without Kebe. You'd never have guessed we're basically home and dry.

McCarthy 6 Got very lucky with that stupid disallowed goal, perfectly good goal

Griffin 6 Did OK
Mills 5 Shocking passing and poor positioning
Khizanishvili 5
Harte 6 Expected more from his set pieces

Karacan 5 Couldn't get into it imo
Leigertwood 6 Tidy as usual
McAnuff 6
HRK 5 I don't care if he scored. He's shit. He can't take it round a man and only ever tries drawing fouls, and then fails. He's too slow as well.

Long 6 Quiet
N Hunt 6

Manset 6
Antonio 6
Howard 5

[LoyalRoyalFan]

Anyone who has about 10 touches of the ball throughout the match shouldn't be in the team. Robson Kanu.

[West Stand Man]

but the turning point was Hunt missing the target with an open goal. 3-0 would have been game over.

That would be Hunt missing such an open goal that his shot was saved - resulting in a corner ?

[Snowball]

Why is everyone so surprised?


Sheffield are fighting for their lives, they've just beaten Bristol City, recently beat Leeds and Forest
had 4 one-goal defeats and two draws in their last fourteen games, prior to us,

We, OTOH, lost the possibility of automatic by drawing at Leeds (and the team were reported to be very down afterwards)
and most probably were thinking of the play-offs and going through the motions.

True we looked great for 25 minutes, got two and could have had more. Had we got the third it would
probably have been 5 or 6 by the end.

Thee was definitely a feeling of not going in so hard, saving themselves for the POs

[PremAddict]

From all the comments, glad I missed it - thought it was a usual 745 start; get into the office and see all this...

[sandman]

Well, the important thing to say after that is that we have just as much chance of being promoted now was we did before kick off. But frankly that was absolutely rancid today, to toss away a two goal lead against the bottom side who played us off the park after scoring their first. Doesn't bode well. Defended like idiots all game, but that is no surprise when your defence is lef by Matt Mills.

Or when saint Zurab gets bullied by one of the worst strikers in the history of our club.

Can't agree with that, did you ever see Henderson play? more importantly did you never see Keith Scott or Paul Brayson :/

If we hadn't have signed the beast, Henderson wouldn't have been a bad signing, he's just very injury prone.

Yes I did see him play and he was useless. Clumsy, constantly falling over himself and made Bas Savage look graceful. Agreed He wasn't as bad as Brayson or Scott but he wasn't far off and at least the two mentioned had the excuse that the team they were in was awful Darius played with Forster, Cureton and Butler. Even Rougier was a better striker than the Carthorse.


Anyway. All the defenders were awful today not just Matt Mills (second goal was woeful defending by him) but typically you choose to blame him for the entire debacle. At the concept of a defence containing experienced players who have played in the CL and one who's played at the World Cup being led to a poor display solely by a 24 year old. No doubt you'll get support from the likes of Jeffers random numbers, Colin Cheesecake and Ian Royal though.

McCarthy - Unlucky with all the goals and horribly exposed by his terrible defence. 6

Griffin - Struggled today partly at fault for the 1st goal. 4
Harte - couple of nice passes including one beauty early on. Inexplicably fell over with no one anywhere near him but didn't do a whole loy wrong. 5
Mills - At fault for the 2nd as stated above and didn't have a great game. 4
Khiz - Constantly outdone by a striker who won a penalty against Wigan a few years ago by accidently falling over his own feet. Should have been hauled off for Pearce who would have dealt far better with United's long balls to Darius the carthorse. 3

Jobi - Hardly touched the ball after the second goal as we stopped playing around United and started giving their defenders heading practice. 6
HRK - Again went missing after an initial burst. Can't judge him too harshly considering we didn't play the ball to him. 4
Jem - Got lost in the shuffle. Will have a sore neck having watched the ball sail over him for the best part of the match until he was rightly subbed. 5
Ledge - lost his record and wasn't up to his usual standards. 5

Long - No chance against the massive Sheff U CB's. Injury pretty much curtailed his afternoon as a effective source. 5
Hunt - Took his goal well but struggled when we started hoofing. 5

Manset - Improving. Actually troubled the CB's in the air. 5
Antonio - Tried the long throw but we didn't attack them.5
Howard - Gave us some creative force. Unlucky not to score. 6

[Victor Meldrew]

What we need Snowball is for Long to break his goal drought.

[Carlos]

Could not believe what I was witnessing out there today. Text a mate at 2-0 saying this could reach double figures we were than comfortable and then Mccarthys' first touch of the ball was to pick it out of the net. That second goal was a killer right before half time, but the third has to go down as a keeper error. Free kick was straight at him but he only palmed it back into play. He needs to learn how to turn it round the post. No one played well today. Long looked like he was tired, which is understandable seeing as he has played 90 minutes of every game for most of the season.

Getting more and more frustrated by Mcanuff. Good ball for the second but after that was anonymous. 89th minute rolls on, he beats his man and then smacks it into the first man. Antonio got more balls in the box in 20 minutes than Mcanuff did in 90.

Still delighted we are where we are, but we will get thrashed in the play-offs playing like that. Hopefully that was just a blip, but was really hoping to send them down today.

[FiNeRaIn]

Anyone who has about 10 touches of the ball throughout the match shouldn't be in the team. Robson Kanu.

This proves you weren't at the game today. He had 10 touches in his first run which he beat two players lol

[bcubed]

That, for all the words that can be used - foul mouthed, disparaging, insulting, or whatever - can only be described as unprofessional. We were playing a team bottom of the league, cruising after 25 minutes, and then the switch off. No, not a switch off, a complete f*ckin power cut. All units woeful for an hour, goalkeeper shaky (and his error for the fourth goal - absolutely nothing wrong with it - was worse than any Federici has committed this season), defence (every one of them) all over the place, midfield bypassed time and again with the long ball to the completely ineffective Long and Hunt. Karacan and Leigertwood midfield partnership made to look distinctly average, the long ball has worked recently but today when something else was needed these two were found lacking. Very, very little of any significance goes through these two in an attacking sense ever, and today it harked back to the late Coppell days with a solid yet uninspiring midfield unit. Today proved the one-trick pony we are - cut off our wings and we don't create. Once Sheff Utd got to grips with us, they were comfortable. They effectively shut off the flanks, and left us with no creativity. Eventually McDermott did the right thing and brought on Howard but in all honesty what c an he do when the ball is continually pumped over his f*ckin head? Seriously f*cked off. Unprofessional cannot be a word that can describe a McDermott team up until now but that, today, was unforgiveable dirge, and it has ruined my weekend.

Don't agree with all of this but the main point is spot on - it was totally unprofessional

Why did it happen though? Complacency is not the answer as we should still have been able to win against a poor team that had all but given up.

Some players blamed the weather!

But I just think we do not have a good enough defence. Since Mills returned we have looked shaky in every game, even when winning. I don't think he is a good enough player at this level and is absent as a captain. Hardly set any example with his lack of effort and can't remember more than two contested headers won all game. Time for a change

[Man Friday]

"Complacency is not the answer as we should still have been able to win against a poor team that had all but given up."

But that IS complacency!!! That's the mindset the players had.

Unprofessional.

[Focher]

Im actually half pleased we showed such complete unprofessionalism today, because at such an important time in the seaon, that won't happen again.

What happened out there between 25mins and 55mins was totally unacceptable, if we played shit then fine that happens. Probably the biggest lack of respect for an opponent since weve been playing at the Spakker Dome.

[floyd__streete]

Yes I did see him play and he was useless. Clumsy, constantly falling over himself and made Bas Savage look graceful. Agreed He wasn't as bad as Brayson or Scott but he wasn't far off and at least the two mentioned had the excuse that the team they were in was awful Darius played with Forster, Cureton and Butler. Even Rougier was a better striker than the Carthorse.

Dearie me. Do you call yourself Sandman because you sleep through most of the games you watch?

Compare Rougier's scoring record at RFC with Henderson's and get back to me. Actually, don't bother eh.

[loyalroyal4life]

Complacent = Unprofessional.