City 0 – 1 Sheffield United
City lost 1-0 to Sheffield United on a bitterly cold Tuesday evening at the Walkers Stadium. The fans saw nothing on the pitch to warm their mood and after chants of “What a load of rubbish” and “Megson for Bolton” towards the end of a very poor game there will be few tears shed for a man who was never really at ease in the City dugout, five game unbeaten run or not.
City began the game with some decent possession culminating in a chance for Fryatt which went just wide and a long shot from McAuley that never troubled Paddy Kenny in the United goal. Sadly this was to be the trend for the evening as chances of any sort were few and far between.
The Blades began to put some good balls into the City penalty area courtesy of former City man Keith Gillespie, the majority being dealt with efficiently by the solid looking back line and city keeper Fulop who along with Clemence currently looks like the best of the signings made over the summer.
Clemence however was forced to leave the field after only 18 minutes, being replaced by Newton and highlighting the critical shortage of quality central midfielders despite the size of the City squad.
The latest man to join City on loan, Collins John, replaced DJ Campbell after 32 minutes but looked a long way from being match fit and failed to trouble the replacement United keeper Ian Bennett, who came on for Kenny after 39 minutes…..
At half time the mood was one of resignation. Former City men David Oldfield, Alan Paris and Steve Guppy were on the pitch to show off their recently acquired Masters trophy, prompting fans to wonder if they had their boots with them.
City began the second half poorly and seemed incapable of keeping hold of the ball in midfield. There was too much hesitancy down the wings with Stearman and Sheehan looking scared to move across the halfway line.
United then went ahead in the 56th minute when Danny Webber got inside Kisnorbo and finished Bardsley’s low cross from close range.
Megson reacted by bringing on Levi Porter and reverted to a 4-4-2 which should have yielded more attacking options however Porter was for some reason quickly swapped to the right hand side with Newton going to the left, rendering both ineffective. Chambers and Wesolowski put admirable effort in to their running but neither had the ability to affect the game in a meaningful way.
Chances for the home side during the remaining 30 minutes were few, City had a free kick on 74 minutes but Sheehan only achieved a booking for not waiting for the referee to complete his pernickety checking of the Sheffield wall.
The only real action of note occurred at the United end. After Gillespie was replaced by Jon Stead in the 82nd minute, James Beattie had a goal ruled out for offside.
A solid defence is one thing but to play with so little attacking ambition in front of a home crowd who have only seen four wins in the last 12 months was never going to endear Megson to the fans. The football was very poor and so was the result. Good bye Gary, we won’t miss you.
City: Fulop (6), N’Gotty (6), Kisnorbo (5), McAuley (6), Stearman (4), Clemence (5), Chambers (6*), Wesolowski (5), Sheehan (5), Fryatt (5), Campbell (4) Subs: Newton (18 for Clemence) (4), John (32 for Campbell) (4), Porter (61 for N’Gotty) (5), Kenton, Henderson
United: Kenny, Bardsley, Kilgallon, Cahill, Naysmith, Gillespie, Tonge, Shelton, Armstrong, Webber, Beattie Subs: Stead (82 for Gillespie), Morgan, Quinn, Sharp, Bennett (39 for Kenny)
Attendance: 21, 146 Referee: A Woolmer (Northamptonshire)