CITY 2 SHEFFIELD UTD 1
By one of those strange quirks of the fixture list – allied to some seasonal weather – we hosted the two Sheffield sides in consecutive home games, bagging six points in the process. The first three were easy but the other three were ultimately hard-earned.
The first 15 minutes gave little clue as to what was to follow. Sheffield were quick out of the blocks and put us under some early pressure though they failed to capitalise on some promising positions. Twice we saw what can only be described as the 'panic press.' The ball fell loose in our box and the nearest four City players surged around it each oblivious to the others. Simple opportunities to calmly clear the ball were totally ignored and the ball squirts out to a solitary attacker who wastes the chance. We won't always be so lucky!
Eventually City shook off their lethargy and a surging run by Dyer, albeit terminating in a poor (i.e. right-footed) shot, signaled the start of better things. A strong penalty appeal was turned down when Wellens shot from outside the box hit a defender's arm but this simply spurred City on. The splendidly combative Morrison pushed deep into enemy territory and his shot from distance was tipped over at full stretch by Bunn. Not to be denied Morrison met Oakley's superb whipped-in corner at the far post and buried his header in the United net…..
The game had now turned completely with City on top and Sheffield managing the odd counter-attack. Another surge in-field by Dyer culminated in a fine cross-field ball to Fryatt. The striker dribbled his way into the penalty area then switched direction to improve the angle of the shot. Defenders hate strikers to do this as it shows how few of them can tackle properly. Fryatt glided past two defenders only for the second to make sufficient contact for Fryatt to go to ground. The referee, excellent most of the time, hesitated and then pointed to the spot.
The decision was as harsh to them as the earlier decision was harsh to us. My neighbour had a one-word text from a friend watching the match at home. The word was 'Dive!' Those who had misgivings about Fryatt's penalty-taking skills were put to shame as he rolled the ball into the right corner as Bunn headed left.
By this time the crowd had relaxed and were enjoying an open game which we looked certain to win with some ease. Cue 'Are you Wednesday in disguise' from the delighted crowd of 24 000, not bad in all the circumstances. There was still time for Wellens to try his luck from outside the box and thump his shot against the bar with Bunn beaten. Rightly the crowd rose to the team as they trooped off at half-time.
Little did we know that the game was about to be stood upon its head! The shock news was that Hobbs could not make it for the second half. Very early on he had slipped and in trying to stop – I thought illegally – the attacker he hurt himself but seemed to recover after treatment so it was very unexpected to see him subbed. As Brown was not in the squad we had no back-up in central defence so McGivern moved to centre-back and an Academy youngster, Luke O'Neill came on at left-back. This caused major palpitations amongst the home supporters and even more when United promptly brought on Camara to add to their attacking power.
Our worst nightmare was immediately realised! From the kickoff United attacked down the left and a cross from the bye-line led to a contest to see which City defender could put through his own goal. The ball travelled serenely across the goal as legs hacked furiously at it, eventually settling in front of Camara who could not have missed with both legs in plaster! Very few in the crowd would have put money on City winning at this moment.
For what seemed an eternity City desperately tried to build some defensive organisation not helped by the fact that O'Neill had a torrid time though by the end he was beginning to show the odd decent touch, invariably with his right foot which made his selection ahead of Berner even more surprising. The play was far from being all one way and City threatened regularly without finding the killer punch. One Fryatt run and mesmorising dribble stood out as he cut the ball back for Howard to shoot over from a good position.
The final minutes ticked by at a snail's pace and as time ran out Sheffield finally hit upon the right tactic – bang it straight down the middle. How they must regret being besotted with exploiting the weakness down City's left flank, where Dyer incidentally did his fair share of defending. By this time it was too late and City held out for a heartening victory. What had been a stroll in the park eventually turned out to be a very hard slog indeed. Once again the strange policy of having far more attackers than we need and little or no cover for the central midfield and back four had taxed us to the limit.
City: Weale, Neilson, Morrison, Hobbs (O'Neill 46), McGivern, Oakley, King, Wellens, Dyer (Gallagher 90), Howard, Fryatt
Sheffield United: Bunn, Morgan, Kilgallon, Taylor (Camara 46) Stewart, Walker (Geary 49), Montgomery (Evans 73), Harper, Quinn, Cresswell, Ward
The views expressed in this report are the opinions of the Trust member nominated to file the report only and do not represent the views of the Foxes Trust organisation