Back From The Game - Sheff Utd (H)

[loyalroyal4life]

Well we couldn't pull out the win for our slim auto chances and for chris armstrong!

I just thought we stepped off it after going 2-0 up and sheff utd had more desire to win the game. Mills looked poor throughout, leighterwood wasn't up to usual standard (hasn't looked as good last few games IMO)

It looks like we do not know what to do when Antonio uses his long throws, really should try work on them as they can be such a useful attribute!

Gutted Howard didn't score against his old club with that effort towards the end. Nevertheless it could well be a nice wake up call for our playoff efforts and hopefully we can finish strongly in our last couple of games!

[Royals-lad14]

first 25 minutes brilliant. the rest we were shit. theres nothing else to say to that

[SouthDownsRoyal]

is kebe ever going to be fit again?

[loyalroyal4life]

is kebe ever going to be fit again?

Hope so even if it means he comes straight in for the playoffs, quite evident he was missed today and at Leeds!

[chilipepper91]

Well. Great, high-tempo first 20 minutes, well set up goal from Noel and then Hal's second 6-yarder in a few matches, 2-0 up and cruising... then we turned off. For both their goals in the first half there was absolutely no tracking, just seemed happy to let them run with the ball without ever stepping in, and we went in 2-2. Heard Jobi scream in frustration just after they scored their goal, summed it up really. We knew we shouldn't have let it happen.

Come the second half, and it was a sucker punch to concede so early. I might be wrong here, but I thought McCarthy was too far behind his wall for that goal and not near enough the post, which led to him overstretching and losing the ball, resulting in the goal. But either way, a poor goal to concede. From there, well, just frustration - they defended with their backs to the wall, and we couldn't find that equaliser. Somehow, we never looked urgent enough. The substitutions made sense to me - Hal had faded from the game (as he did against Leeds), and Noel's first touch really is abysmal. Karacan, whilst giving us energy, doesn't offer enough going forward, and Howard was always looking for the ball on the floor rather than going for the long pump forward (as most of the team seemed to go for). He also hit the bar.

Ratings...

McCarthy - 6 - may have been at fault for the goal, otherwise his distribution was good I thought (apart from their disallowed goal from his throw)
Griffin - 6 - A few good runs, should have tracked better for their second goal.
Mills - 6 - Composed, won most of his headers.
Khiz - 5 - First bad game in a while - kept losing to Henderson.
Harte - 6 - No complaints.
McAnuff - 6 - typical performance, did well then did nothing for 10 minutes. If we were going to equalise it looked like coming through him.
Karacan - 5 - hustle and bustle, but no range of passing.
Leigertwood - 6 - again a typical performance, but lost concentration a few times.
Robson-Kanu - 4 - just like Leeds; did nothing after about the first 20.
Long - 5 - set up the first, his head injury rendered him less useful after that.
Hunt - 4 - yes he scored, but he did little else. Woeful first touch.

Manset - 5 - what he did was good, but he still isn't quite fitting with the rest of the squad.
Antonio - 5 - has a good long throw, but we didn't have the right tactics for it. Good on the ball.
Howard - 5 - performed the role he was brought on for, to help transition between defence and attack.

Just heard that Kebe will be fine for Coventry - boy do we need him. I'd go 4-5-1 with Howard just ahead of Ledge and Karacan.

[handbags_harris]

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.

[Readingfanman]

McCarthy - 5 Wasn't all that impressed with him today, had quite a few times where I felt he could have come for the ball and instead stayed on his line giving Sheff United chances, nothing wrong with their 4th goal whatsoever either.

Griffin - 5 Not quite sure how he escapes criticism every week, massive culprit of the long ball, despite his runs down the right hand side, lost track as well for the 1st goal.

Mills - 5 Long ball is not his specialty.

Kish - 6 Still looked reasonably composed despite the fact we had conceded 3, but never looks urgent enough on the ball.

Harte - 5 Crossing the ball in from deep every time is all well and good, but unless he looks up and spots people attacking the ball in the box it's a waste.

Robson Kanu 4 Tries to beat his man once too often down the line when in all honesty he doesn't quite have the quality.

Ledge 6 Looked good, and tried to play the ball forward, wish he could attack the ball when we go forwards a bit more though.

Karacan 6 Put himself about a lot.

McAnuff 5 Did well for the second goal, but after that until the 80th minute he vanished.

Long 5 - Completely anon today.

Hunt 5 - Took his goal well, but was also pretty out of the game really.

The more I watch Karacan and Ledge, the more of a relationship I can see developing which was a major positive. I wasn't disgusted with the performance today, however the complacency shown was shocking after the second goal. Disappointing, and will have to hope we can do the business on Saturday and confirm our playoff place. Would like to see Mills dropped for Pearce, as he must be wondering what he needs to do to get into the team. Kebe needs to be bought back into the side, if not for his quality, just for the actual output we have instead of hitting the ball 30 yards down the field and just bypassing the midfield completely which we did far too often today.

[Libertine]

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.

Even McD went at them, after the game, about switching it off. No going up to win headers, no doing the things a team needs to do to win any game. That is not the way to play the game at any level. I can understand a loss, all teams lose from time to time, but not the way they kicked away the game today from lack of effort. I would expect, and hope, there will be a different line-up for the next game...with some of the culpable players finding a nice warm seat on the bench.

Inexcusable imo...

[royal-ross]

Disappointing and frustration are the two words which spring to mind. I and many others don't understand how we can go from fluent play to absolute shambles in the space of a few minutes. As everyone else is saying, we thought we'd won against a bottom of the league, soon to be relegated side.

Maybe this is what we need. A wake up call, a kick in the right direction to show them they're not invincible.

Roll on Coventry!

[blade 1]

Can anyone tell me what Slews goal was disallowed for.

Havn't heard myself but they seemed to think it looked legit on the local radio

[chilipepper91]

Can anyone tell me what Slews goal was disallowed for.

Havn't heard myself but they seemed to think it looked legit on the local radio

Looked like McCarthy threw it out, it hit Henderson, rebounded to Slew who knocked it in. Guess the issue was whether Darius did it intentionally (he didn't), and I don't think there's technically anything against him as it was the keeper's fault. Was quite amusing watching the boy dash to the fans, celebrate with all of them while the rest of the stadium (and the players) knew it had been disallowed.

[blade 1]

Can anyone tell me what Slews goal was disallowed for.

Havn't heard myself but they seemed to think it looked legit on the local radio

Looked like McCarthy threw it out, it hit Henderson, rebounded to Slew who knocked it in. Guess the issue was whether Darius did it intentionally (he didn't), and I don't think there's technically anything against him as it was the keeper's fault. Was quite amusing watching the boy dash to the fans, celebrate with all of them while the rest of the stadium (and the players) knew it had been disallowed.

Bit like Henry a few years back then? Believe that got disallowed as well because it was dangerous?

Shame for slew, that would have made it three in three for since his promotion to the first team.

[chilipepper91]

Can anyone tell me what Slews goal was disallowed for.

Havn't heard myself but they seemed to think it looked legit on the local radio

Looked like McCarthy threw it out, it hit Henderson, rebounded to Slew who knocked it in. Guess the issue was whether Darius did it intentionally (he didn't), and I don't think there's technically anything against him as it was the keeper's fault. Was quite amusing watching the boy dash to the fans, celebrate with all of them while the rest of the stadium (and the players) knew it had been disallowed.

Bit like Henry a few years back then? Believe that got disallowed as well because it was dangerous?

Shame for slew, that would have made it three in three for since his promotion to the first team.

Yeah, judging by the reaction of Henderson this wasn't dangerous at all, just a keeper error he got out of jail for. Similar example for Reading this season would be our home game with Forest, where Federici hit it into the back of Karacan, leaving Earnshaw to tap in.

[FiNeRaIn]

I think the ball was passed across to someone who was offside, not 100% sure though.

Performance was absolutely DIRE when they scored their first. Not hopeful for the play-offs at all if we defend anywhere near how we did today. Another time this season where our centre backs have been laughed at by a big centre forward, the other time that sticks out was grant holt. We do not like playing against physical presences at the back so to everyone worried by swansea, it might be a blessing playing against quicker centre forwards rather than one's that hold the ball up and win headers.

I'm a pessimist, but I really can't see how this team can get promoted, too many false dawns in the play-offs, we play well going into them and lose, we are favourites and lose, we are underdogs with momentum and lose, the continuous pattern is....we always lose. Not up for seeing swansea celebrate getting to Wembeley in our ground like they've won the world cup, seen it all before.

[handbags_harris]

Not up for seeing swansea celebrate getting to Wembeley in our ground like they've won the world cup, seen it all before.

Well hopefully we'll finish below them so they can celebrate in their own hovel.

[Mad Dog's Ghost]

Roll on Coventry - just have to get the worst 60 minutes since Plymouth away last year out the system.

Simply did nothing a professional team should do after the first 25. No closing down, no winning ind battles, no composure on the ball, no movement.

But it's done. Glad Liegertwood's unbeaten run is done now and that we realise we can't just sit back and hope to hit on the break without Kebe in the side.

A bit of a sobering reality check, but Saturday will give us a good idea of where this team and manager are at.

[Readingfanman]

I don't know. Bristol City away this season was pretty terrible as well.

[Jackson Corner]

Very disapointing should not take anything away from what's been a fantastic effort to get where we are. And hey things could be a lot worse.


19 Notts County
20 Walsall
21 Dag & Red
22 Bristol R
23 Plymouth
24 SWINDON

[Mr Angry]

Bemused, frustrated and disappointed after that today; as has been said, playing some great football for the first 20-25 mins, totally ripped Sheffield Utd apart, and if it wasn't for Simonsen in goal the game would have been out of reach before the half hour mark.

But the Shef Utd seemed to switch to playing 5 across the middle and 3 at the back, and with Quinn totally running the show from then on (thats the worst game the karacan/leigertwood combo has had) they got back in with a terrible goal from our point of view (a typical Henderson goal......a mishit that bobbled over the line) but even then its a case of "well, keep your shape, get to half-time, re-group, begin again and finish them off..." but instead we concede ANOTHER soft goal right on half time, followed by their winner early im the 2nd half, which came from a needless foul conceded by HRK which McCarthy did well to parry, but Shef U followed it up better and that was that.

Lots of huff & puff after that, Howard unlucky with the shot that hit the bar whilst Antonio showed glimpses of what he can do but in the end Shef U comfortable winners.

Play-offs are ALL but secured (we would need to lose both games badly and have Millwall win both their games well) so this result in the context of will we reach the play-offs is in many respects an irrelevance; HOWEVER, it is how the team pick themselves up after this which is going to be vital. Win the last 2 and it sets up the Play-offs nicely; lose them, and we go into the play-offs without momentum.

[Gunny Fishcake]

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