Blades: Howard, Maguire, Flynn, Doyle, Porter, McDonald, Miller, Collins, Quinn, McMahon, Williams.
Subs: Westlake, Blackman, McAllister, Long, McFadzean.

Short on quality and long on unknown potential. Might be the start of something big, but then again...

Interesting that neither Creswell not Monty feature. Are they both on their way out? The Monty haters might have to find a new scapegoat.

As long as we're in the mix at the end of the season I'll be as happy as I ever am being a Blade.

Welcome back WW.
See my post above re the season.
Enjoy
UTB

Hi Kent

Seems like last week that I was at Wembley. Where does the time go?

Fasten your seat belt. We're off again.

Please no play offs again.
As you say where does the time go!
UTB

Behind 1-0 all the other 13 cup games have no score only Burton have found their scoring legs.

Not want the defence wanted, but we have been here many times before.
Sounds as if being played at a slow pace.
It is important to keep the winning run going and make progress in this competition.
I am expecting Danny to fire them up in the second half to be honest.

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DW not wasted any time in making a substitute.
Porter off again,never sure that we should have offered him a new contract,but trust in Danny.
Blackman on.
UTB

Inspired sub by DW, Blackman.
Is that the quickest goal on a debut.
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Sure didn't take him long and good for his confidence in front of the fans.

Well no one believed it would be easy.
But surely we will not loose at home in the first round of the league cup.
Still time to level and go to the dreaded penalties.
UTB

Yes Collins
UTB

Perhaps penalties aren't so bad after all!

Then again, a football penalty shootout isn't like Olympic Hockey. You don't get several bites at the cherry.

Still time to get two and avoid penalties!

As ever optimistic oldblade
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Would any one have thought that we play the first official game and it goes to penslties at home, after the last game of last season.
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Words fail me....

We continue where we left off last season.
Albion down to 10 and we fail again on penalties.
Not a good start for the Blades.
Hardly likely to inspire the confidence of the fans.
UTB

Penalties or not with a full team out we shouldn't be dragged into extra time against a fourth division team at home.

I'm not disappointed.

At least now we can concentrate on the league...

I am always disappointed when we lose. But it's all a matter of degree, and there arer other matches that I would be a lot more disappointed to lose.

No matter that this ultimately counts for nothing, but we have lost to a second division team at home in our first real game of the season. If the players aren't up to this, then God help us.

I think we might have signed the wrong player from Crewe (5-0 if you haven't seen their score).

Lets just hope that it is a reversal of last year. this time we start on a low with the penalty shoot out and end on a high !

A confidence sapping defeat on penalties against a struggling division 4 club who were down to 10 men says it all.Danny has work to do.It was a long ride back home to Grantham.

UTB

We didn't lose. We drew and then lost a penalty shootout. But, as you say, still a poor result.

If you want some more comfort, they didn't go down to 10 men until well into extra time too...

I think yesterdays result is a shame but happily take the loss if we record a decent win next saturday.

I think a deadbat report would help understand where we are. I wondered if DW would start Nick Blackman but maybe with signing friday its a bit too soon. Not sure if we should be worried that there was no Cofie in the squad.

Shrewsbury next week is the important one. They will be tough, newly promoted team with some confidence and vigour. A win next week will settle nerves. Win by a couple of goals and good displays from the new boys will make yesterday go away.

Personally, I think we must concentrate on the league - it has to be our priority.

UTB

We played some good football in our own half and sometimes in the first third of their half where it mattered less, occasionally we got into their final third and made one or two chances on goal which were not converted(other than the lucky goal Nick Blackman scored) and the penalty.Blackman looked faster both on and off the ball than the others and with some decent service he will score plenty of goals in this league and will I think be in the starting 11 on Saturday

They scored both their goals by exploiting gaps in our defence which left them with clear shooting chances,with our goalkeeper unable to execute any reasonable attempt to save them.I cant help thinking that Monty might have plugged those gaps,or made a better attempt at plugging them than any of the midfielders or defenders on show yesterday did.Similarly Simo just might have pulled off one of his specials and saved the day

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I am very concerned that you are already expressing concern over the goal keeping position.
Having previously looked at the playing record of our keeper he does not to me anyway ever seem to have featured for any club on a long and consistent basis,even though he has been at some major clubs ie Arsenal.
I hope this is not going to be a weak link.
Noted your comments re Monty closing players down, very good at that and again concerned that we concede 2 goals at home against a club of their stature.
The left back position seems to be a consistent problem for Danny Wilson,I expected he would have resolved it in the close season.
Could be a difficult one with the financial constraints.
UTB