City 2 Sheffield Utd 2
It had all started so well! Two recent consecutive wins and the arrival or near-arrival of more players had lifted expectations and for a change I predicted a City win. Sheffield were in a bad run and hardly ever scored a goal so surely easy meat for Sven's men.
That was exactly how the match began with lone striker, Waghorn, particularly lively. Gallagher had a free kick which came to nothing but this was merely his sighter. Waghorn won another free kick, this time in a more dangerous position and young Sam seated on my right told me to expect it to go in the top right-hand corner. He obviously has links with Asian bookmakers as the ball went – at some pace – exactly where he had predicted. What a shame that someone who can strike a ball as sweetly as Gallagher contributes so little in other areas – truly Oakley Mk II.
For almost 30 minutes it was like watching a Championship equivalent of Arsenal! City pinged the ball around in all areas of the pitch and created a number of near chances with attacks on both flanks. All United could do was just try to stem the flow and thus they were non-existent as an attacking force. Then it all changed!
The problem with a lone striker is that midfield have to play higher up the pitch to give support; in turn the back four push up as well to avoid communication links with midfield being cut. Add to this the general sense of euphoria as City pressed and pressed and you can see that a canny opposition – and that Sheffield were – could exploit the chance of a quick break. ….
One long ball out of defence passed over defenders' heads down the inside left channel and there were 2 United players streets ahead of any of City's. A simple ball across and Yeates couldn't miss. The match turned on its head as United gave City a taste of their own medicine. Just before halftime City conceded a needless free kick well within Gallagher range. Yeates took it and gave Weale no chance.
Bloody annoying that Yeates was anonymous in his spell with us 3 years ago but has been prolific wherever else he has gone! And in 12 minutes Sheffield had increased their season's goals for by 20%!
The second half was unrelentingly painful to watch! Surely we should not be playing 4-5-1 at home and especially when the 1 is not suited to the role. Sheffield played 4-6 -0, a formation more connected with the arrangement of wheels on a steam locomotive!
They had clearly worked out that City going forward have no pace, little strength and absolutely no aerial power so by putting every man behind the ball they could close the game out. I cannot argue with their reasoning. We had numerous corners but they were much less dangerous than United goal kicks! When did we last score from a corner? Was it really Steve Walsh? Anyway it definitely seems like it.
After 10 minutes of attempting to get the ball over the halfway line Sven had to make changes, bringing on Howard and Dyer for Waghorn and Vassell, both by that time making little impression on the game.
Surely this was the prelude to a long ball bombardment as City had shown that they could not pass their way to the penalty area let alone the goal. Incredible to say but we persisted with passing in short triangles which inevitably finished up back where we started. The United massed ranks swung balletically in unison to the left and then to the right as we probed first one flank then the other without going anywhere.
Howard might as well have stayed on the bench. We brought on Fryatt who promptly became invisible and we reconciled ourselves to another defeat to a team with nothing more than some basic organisation.
Two minutes into the four added on for United time-wasting a near miracle. You would have got long odds against a City goal given our woeful lack of potency but at least we kept trying. By this time the long ball had finally been given Sven's approval and Howard was able to compete with two excellent centre backs who had enjoyed a long walk in the park up to that point.
Enter Yeates, previously the villain of the piece. A long ball was headed on to nowhere but Yeates was waving to his Mum in the crowd and the ball struck his hand. The 20 000 crowd howled for a penalty and the referee, who by this time was being pushed more and more into decisions by the fans' reactions, eventually pointed to the spot.
We saw Howard was the appointed penalty taker and wondered if we could face any more disappointment in one evening. Clearly we were men of little faith as the burly striker smashed a splendid shot unstoppably into the bottom corner of the net.
Did we deserve a point? No given the awful second half performance when our attacking limitations were ruthlessly exposed. Did Sheffield deserve a point? No given their total lack of ambition in that same period. So neither side deserved anything and both got something. That's definitely life!
City: Weale, McNaughton, Davies, Hobbs, Cunningham, Wellens, King, Abe (Fryatt 74), Vassell (Dyer 55), Gallagher, Waghorn (Howard 55)
United: Simonsen, Jordan, Nosworthy, Bartley, Lowton, Montgomery, Britton, Yeates, Reid (Ertl 79), Quinn, Cresswell (Bogdanovic 86)
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