Good afternoon everyone.
We are to be off again in a few minutes.
How will we do?
After the horror of last season I refuse to get excited until the final ball is kicked.
UTB
Scoring disabled. You must be logged in to score posts.
After watching the game last Saturday I left with the impression that we will need to score 2or3 most games to make up for the frailty of the defence.No doubt they will improve over the season.
UTB
Scoring disabled. You must be logged in to score posts.
Sounds to me that Danny and Frank have a lot of work to do.
3 points to kick off the season is not to bad and it will take time to bed in the team.
Concerning however if Quinn is one of the players on the sale list due to having to reduce the wage bill.
Probably Monty and Creswell head that list.
Where is Matt Hill and Porter today?
A lot of young players on the bench and a lot of responsibility on their shoulders.
The goals will not be as easy expected,as Coffie sounds very inexperienced.
Still do not think it will be easy this season.
UTB
PS We live in hope.
Scoring disabled. You must be logged in to score posts.
I think a win is a good result and makes the saturday night beer taste that bit better.
We are not going to win every game with an excessive amount of possession. We did well to hold on for pretty much the whole game.
Everyone and every club will be short of match fitness but for me today is a good result.
UTB
Scoring disabled. You must be logged in to score posts.
I just hope that in the early part of the season we can keep in touch with the leaders while the squad settles down and frailties are addressed.
Followed most the game on twitter today and many indicated that Shrewsbury did well,some even said they deserved a share of the points and they were Blade supporters.
UTB
Scoring disabled. You must be logged in to score posts.
We kept the ball OK but didn't threaten much. We defended too deep, midfield didn't link up well, we put too much in the hold-up play of the two young lads by playing it long to them, (couldn't help but think we needed Cressy. I'll lie down till the feelings pass...).
Cracking goal from McAllister, Harry played well against their centre forward who's only interest seemed to be wrestling. Howard looked reasonable good today. Williams did OK for me. Crowd 18.5k, sang well for 15 minutes but then went flat as the team did likewise.
It will get better...
Scoring disabled. You must be logged in to score posts.
'it will get better' - let's hope so. That was dire. Maybe it was my perspective as I was down in the disabled area at low level because my lad has broken his leg, but that was woeful. Apart from Mcallister's goal I don't think he is anwhere near good enough to make the first team. Defence looked shaky. Most of our players were beaten for speed. Cofie should be sent back to manure as he was lightweight, disinterested and at times he was so unfocussed that he didn't even realise that the ball had been passed to him. We need to start with Miller (looks a bit like Billy Sharp in stature) as he has potential and is ours; he won't be recalled at any moment at the whim of old red nose.
The crowd was much biggger than I expected but as the Shrews' fans let us know we were silent and a set of poor supporters. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. And how people can leave before the final whistle when it is on a knife edge I will never understand.
The positives: Howard saved us today. He moved several very good saves, a couple of which would have gone in. Possibly better than Simmo. Also, Blackman looks a class apart with speed and technigue although he didn't really look like scoring today. And it was sunny.
Finally a big thumbs up to the club for making it so easy to change from the Kop to the disabled area (and a very fast reponse to my email query earlier in the week about this).
Scoring disabled. You must be logged in to score posts.
Can't expect too much from a 19 year old.Fergie sent him to League 1 to learn his trade against some experienced tough defenders if he is lightweight he is going to have a rough time.
That was our main worry when Ched went down where are the goals going to come from.From the sounds of it Blackman shows promise. I just hope we don't lose Quinn we already struggle for goals and he was the main supply line last season.
Scoring disabled. You must be logged in to score posts.
I know there is already a fair bit of doom already 'in other places', but now I've had chance to think about it, it wasn't so bad. Shrewsbury are a 'rough and tumble' side with big centre halves, a terrier midfield and 'two falls, two submissions or a knockout' forwards. Very 'Graham Turner'. Turner says they deserved a point. Only on the basis that neither team really did enough to win. We got the break with the goal. They had a couple of decent chances that could easily have gone in, but apart from that? I thought we coped comfortably with them for most of the game. Doyle was a bit anonymous for me, well in truth about four or five of them were for long spells.
Quinny was instrumental and I agree that we would look a lot poorer without him. Liked the look of Blackman and of Miller too when he came on, but, two pacey kids up front and the best we could do was launch it from left back either towards the front two or out wide to McAllister? Any ball in the air is a 50/50 and it won't be difficult to play against us like that. We should put Cressy out or get Hendo back if we are going to do that, not trust to two kids to out-muscle some hairy arsed 6ft 4ins, hard as nails, lower league centre half.
We looked so much better when we had the ball to feet although a bit short on 'gel' and the control and passing was disappointing once more. Maybe we will be better away from home where we can play on the counter a bit more. Wilson said in his post-match that there was much work to do. True enough but at least we did get the result, clean sheet etc etc. 1 down 45 to go...
Scoring disabled. You must be logged in to score posts.
I think we will need somewhere between 5 and 10 games before we can have any idea what sort of season we are having. It is too early to say what we may or may not do.
It sounds as though Cofie hasn't trained for 3 weeks properly so we haven't really seen any of him. I think with Shrewsbury being a long ball team, it was never going to bring the best out in our midfield, Doyle and McDonald had good seasons last year and looked important players, if they are still getting iffy write ups in a month or so I will be concerned.
I always think the opening day feedback from Blades tends to be quite negative, I don't know as I wasn't there but decifering Wilson's comments and Deadbats report, I think we did alright.
UTB
Scoring disabled. You must be logged in to score posts.
I'm not sure what to think about yesterday's performance.
I didn't go to the match and I don't subscribe to Blades Player, so I have relied on second-hand information.
I sporadically watched the BBC's live internet match report, which gave some very odd information at times. It showed no shots on goal for the Blades long after we'd scored, and at one point the possession figure was 96% to the Blades and 4% to the opposition. It was corrected by full-time but it does make you wonder if a lot of the stats are made up.
The three points could be very important when we reach the end of the season however.
Scoring disabled. You must be logged in to score posts.
I just hope that in the early part of the season we can keep in touch with the leaders while the squad settles down and frailties are addressed.
Followed most the game on twitter today and many indicated that Shrewsbury did well,some even said they deserved a share of the points and they were Blade supporters.
UTB
Scoring disabled. You must be logged in to score posts.
BladesReunited - the SUFC forum for grown-ups