Reds pay for penalties – Barnsley 2-2 Sheffield United

By: Oli | November 10th, 2009

Kevin Blackwell's top secret plans

On a cold, cold South Yorkshire night, temperatures ran high as an on form Barnsley side did battle with a Sheffield United side which has been described as ‘decimated’ and ‘injury stricken’. The atmosphere was great, especially considering the abysmal quantity of away supporters, however, due largely to Morgan not playing and Hume only coming on, it stayed heated without boiling over. I can only speak for Barnsley supporters when I say the game was great entertainment. We would think that, because we passed a Blades side, that wouldn’t look out of place a few leagues lower, out of the game.

I don’t say United would look out of place a few leagues lower because they have bad players, the likes of Walker , Henderson and Ward are great players, I say it because Blackwell has them playing passes that would look more appropriate in the NFL. This showed from the first minute, as we took a strangle hold on the game, with Anderson and Bogdanovic largely unplayable. We had a wide, wide variety of chances in the first half, however Henderson also managed to muster a few from what passed as ‘service’ to him. But, neither team edged it. I feel that if Hallfredsson had started instead of one of Doyle and Colace, we could have opened them up down the centre more, especially judging by the way Andersons runs cut through the tired Quinn and Harper.
Our Brazilian midfielder really seemed to want a goal, and when he was given time to think about it all just inside the area, the roof of the net must surely have seen the ball coming. Cue penalty number one, as Rob Kozluk and Steele conspire to bring down Ched Evans on the edge of the six yard box. I haven’t seen it again yet, and will tell you what I think when I do. But, we still had fight, and we still had Bogdanovic’s weekly goal, which he duly obliged with. Macken can be pleased with his assist, but good god his finishing. Before the first penalty, Macken had two absolute sitters, and should have made us the top club in South Yorkshire without any more ado. But, it’s an old cliché that you will rue missed chances, and that we certainly did. I saw no problem with the second penalty, Dickinson and Hammill got beaten, and the winger went in with a typical strikers challenge. 2-2.

Not a fair result, not even close to one. We were the only team who tried to play football. For the first time I disagree with Mark Robins, because he described United as one of the best sides in the League. Wit a full squad, maybe, but on last nights showing, they’re worse than us. Easily. There were certainly a lot of positives to our performance however, and it was one of our better home games of the season. The defence only seems to concede to two things now (1) penalties (2) Man United. 4 penalties in 3 games is a problem. Luke Steele should just do penalty training all week, our defence doesn’t let anything else through. The question is, is the problem us, or is the problem the referees? Or, to put that another way, do we only get shit refs?

We had to make a key change to our defence because, like the Blunts, we had no captain. Foster suspended, so in comes Kozluk to do a decent job at right back, and the excellent Ryan Shotton moves in wards, to make forwards look embarrassingly bad there instead. It’s incredible really, that we’ve managed to concede three goals in two games without me having a bad word for any of our stoppers, but I don’t.
As usual the attack was hugely effective. Under Robins, Anderson thinks he’s Kaka, and often seems to play like him. T’was a good goal too. Macken did all his usual excellent work, without his usual finishing, while Hammill spend his time trying to outwit two, or at times three, markers, a task which even Messi would have to think about. But, the real plaudits in the attacking department go to Boggy. Said Maltese forward had possibly his best game for us. Usually, we get little really good work on his defenders when the ball isn’t near the goal. Today he did everything he could do, and was close enough to the complete forward. How do Hume and Gray get a place back?

Sheffield United have these mythical ‘financial problems’. I’ve got a soloution, sack all the midfielders. Think about, you’d save on wages, refreshments, coach fares etc. I mean, it’s not like they ever get given the ball anyway. United have some good players all over the park, however these good players can’t deal with a ball that spends most of it’s time 20-30 yards in the air. I don’t like Blackwell, but you’ve gotta give him one thing. He lets you know when he’s talking garbage, his mouth is open. I feel really sorry for a lot of Blades fans. Two reasons, (1) They get over shadowed by the idiots who support their club (2) You have to put up with a string of excuses from that crawling, moaning, tactically impotent excuse for a football manager. I feel sorry for you, I really do.

And now, to the non-playing side. And by that, I mean Morgan. Before the game, I was, like so many other Reds fans, angry to not see him playing, and the ‘coward’ banner sums it up. But, on reflection, I’m glad that he didn’t. It would have taken away from the concentration on the actual game, which is what we were there to watch. The most important thing can only be playing as well as possible, and Morgan would have stopped that. This matter will never go away, or at least, not for a long time. However, I do think a largely peaceful game that was focused on the football has helped us along the way, and some normality has been restored. Took a year though.

Ratings
Dickinson: 8- Missing; Jamie Ward. Last known location, this man’s back pocket.
Darren Moore: 8– Boom.
Ryan Shotton: 8- turns out he plays in the middle too.
Anderson: 9 MOTM
Doyle: 5- Not really right for this game.
Hallfredsson: should have played.
Daniel Bogdanovic: 9- Good, good, good.

There was nothing functional about our performance here. We out played United, but didn’t actually get the job done. Having said that, if we play anything like this in future, we’re likely to continue climbing that table.