Sheffield United (A) League One 20th Dec, 3pm

[SWS1]

30 minutes gone and we haven't had a single shot off-target! Brill :lol:
Er, now we have. First shot. Off-target. Unbelievable. :wink:

[Guest]

We've had a shot!

[Welsh_Saddler]

Barnsley 2 Leyton Orient 0 now

...and Crawley 0 Port Vale 2

...and MK Dons 2 Oldham Athletic 0

Incidentally, another early goal saw Vile 1 ManUre 0 :shock:

[BarnsleySaddler]

Chambers booked. Adam that is.

[Welsh_Saddler]

Rochdale 0 Notts County 1

Peterborough 0 Preston North End 1

Sky bookies now have the draw as favourite (11/10). Blades were odds-on at the start, now 11/8, and Walsall win is 4/1

[BarnsleySaddler]

Now the ref has been substituted by the 4th official.

Baxter hits the bar.

Half time 0-0

[Guest]

HT 0-0. Still only one shot from us.

[Welsh_Saddler]

HT 0-0. Still only one shot from us.

Eight shots from Sheffield Utd, but only one on target.

Early 2nd half sub?????? Forde for Bax, maybe??

Gillingham 1 Chesterfield 2 now,

...and MK Dons 4 Oldham 0 (Grigg scored Dons' 3rd, btw)

[BarnsleySaddler]

ATT: 20,209 (462 Walsall)

[Welsh_Saddler]

Oh dear............... 1-0 Blades ...... to be expected after loads of pressure?

If you're feeling rash, a Walsall win is now 25/1

[BarnsleySaddler]

Rats, still, we can pull this back. C`mon lads.

Forde replaces Baxendale. cyclic`s working this time. :wink:

[Welsh_Saddler]

Rats, still, we can pull this back. C`mon lads.

Forde replaces Baxendale.

1-1 !!!!!!!!!!!!! (Tom Bradshaw - who else?????) :D

[BathSaddler]

Well, we have to attack now...

[BarnsleySaddler]

Rats, still, we can pull this back. C`mon lads.

Forde replaces Baxendale.

1-1 !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bradshaw. :D

Now for the 2nd as per prediction.

[BathSaddler]

Bradshaw - what a player :lol:

[Welsh_Saddler]

20 minutes to go, and the text reports suggest they're throwing the kitchen sink at us.......

Elsewhere, here's one for ya...... Crewe Alex 1 Bristol City 0 :shock:


Mal Benning on for Cook, 75 minutes

Cuvelier on as a sub, 84 minutes

...and Grimes on for Sawyers, 85 min.

[BarnsleySaddler]

Grimes on for Sawyers. Does`nt give him long to get involved!

[BarnsleySaddler]

1-1. Sounds like a good defensive game. A hard won point me thinks.

[Welsh_Saddler]

1-1 full time. The unbeaten League run continues, although it sounded like a hard-fought point !!

[tipton saddler]

That will do for me, a good point away from home...even more so looking at the stats. Same from the next 2 games and I will be happy.

Merry Christmas fellow saddlers

UTS

[Sadders]

1-1 full time. The unbeaten League run continues, although it sounded like a hard-fought point !!

What were you expecting?

Great point that is. Great buzz about them, 5th in the league and they've just beaten a virtual full strength premier league Southampton side to make it through to the League Cup semi-finals. Clough will have said in the dressing room Tuesday, every single player at the club now has an opportunity to make a starting XI in a big cup semi final - take your chance, starting with Walsall. The entire of the squad they have (which is big, expensive and paid about 10 times ours) would have been absolutely and totally up for it today infront of a larger crowd than normal.

We had to hold on, statistically weren't great and got a hard fought point in what, is a very unlucky time for us to play Sheffield United. Probably the worst time all season so far.

Happy with that, unbeaten run goes on!!

[BathSaddler]

Great point and one goal out of only two attempts on target - not a bad strike rate!

With Swindon losing at home to Donny, maybe it's just the right time to play them. Should be 6,000+ on Boxing Day.

7 games unbeaten now and 13th position in the table [Chesterfield going above us with their win at Gillingham]. Dean Smith is certainly a sequential manager, its either a good run or a bad run, very little in between.

[Welsh_Saddler]

Great point and one goal out of only two attempts on target - not a bad strike rate!

With Swindon losing at home to Donny, maybe it's just the right time to play them. Should be 6,000+ on Boxing Day.

7 games unbeaten now and 13th position in the table [Chesterfield going above us with their win at Gillingham]. Dean Smith is certainly a sequential manager, its either a good run or a bad run, very little in between.

If I may be pedantic I think we're actually joint 12th, level with Fleetwood on points and goal difference, only below them in terms of alphabetical order. :D

[BathSaddler]

Great point and one goal out of only two attempts on target - not a bad strike rate!

With Swindon losing at home to Donny, maybe it's just the right time to play them. Should be 6,000+ on Boxing Day.

7 games unbeaten now and 13th position in the table [Chesterfield going above us with their win at Gillingham]. Dean Smith is certainly a sequential manager, its either a good run or a bad run, very little in between.

If I may be pedantic I think we're actually joint 12th, level with Fleetwood on points and goal difference, only below them in terms of alphabetical order. :D

I didn't notice that, W_S, but it is pedantic all the same :wink:

[SWS1]

Great point and one goal out of only two attempts on target - not a bad strike rate!

With Swindon losing at home to Donny, maybe it's just the right time to play them. Should be 6,000+ on Boxing Day.

7 games unbeaten now and 13th position in the table [Chesterfield going above us with their win at Gillingham]. Dean Smith is certainly a sequential manager, its either a good run or a bad run, very little in between.

If I may be pedantic I think we're actually joint 12th, level with Fleetwood on points and goal difference, only below them in terms of alphabetical order. :D

I didn't notice that, W_S, but it is pedantic all the same :wink:

They are legitimately ahead of us on GOALS SCORED. There are other criteria for who-heads-whom when points are tied, in a list of diminishing importance, so that it's extremely difficult for a genuine tie to occur. I'm not sure which criteria the Football League use to decide between tied teams but I think that, after goals scored, it's decided on results between the two teams. After that...? Remember, we got relegated from the Championship by ONE GOAL a few years back.
Nevertheless, a great point today :D and signs that we are becoming a little more clinical? (As opposed to outshooting the opposition but failing to score or scoring fewer than the opposition (which we have done on numerous occasions).

[funk_hits_the_fan]

I find it astonishing some of my posts are labelled petty with some of the discussions that take place on this board :shock:

What a point - feeling really positive this Christmas & it's bloody wonderful. Decent following up there today also - well done those that went

[Ghostofwalsallpast]

Sounds like a hard fought point today - well done to the lads!

[Big Dave wfc]

Excellent point, very much a good start to a hard run of fixtures, a huge difference Bradshaw makes, if only we can keep cook chipping away and Sawyers to add a few these draws will be turning into wins and who knows we're we end up.

I can see Swindon being a good game to watch with both sides playing an attractive game.

Merry Christmas UTS

[PT]

Dull first half. We were under the Kosh for fair amounts of time and Bradshaw was too isolated.

Baxendale had an absolute 'mare and should have been off at half-time. His substitution was all ready but the ball just wouldn't go out, which gave him one more chance to give away possession just one last time which lead to their goal. He got the hook before we kicked off.

With eleven players on the pitch we were mildly better and scored a really good goal (Clough might be fuming though - good!!). Good wing play from Cook and the coolest of headers from Bradshaw.

Was a bit end to end in a lively last twenty. They were probably edging it.

They are a decent side and should end up in the play-offs. They work hard and close down well which meant that Cain and Sawyers in particular had frustrating afternoons.

Henry grew into the game. Looked slightly in awe for the first twenty or so, but got stronger and stronger.

MOTM - Adam Chambers. More than matched their work-rate.

Good point in front of a good noisey following. Far better for noise when we get put upstairs there. Perhaps our singers should think about that at home.

[SoccerHQ]

Good point.

What an awful team Sheffield United are to watch. I know they have their cup runs but no way could I watch that 23 times a season, no wonder the Kop was in a comatose state before the goal.

Good result with 10 men as Bax I'm sorry to say was a complete and utter waste of a shirt today, gave it away countless times which eventually lead to a Sheffield goal.

Sawyers wasn't much better, too slow in possession which is his flaw on occasions even if the pitch wasn't great. Time Forde started again I think.

It's the sort of game you'd think a top 6 standard team would after getting back so quickly, would go onto win. That's probably Smith's weakness, he's too happy to settle for draws in this type of games than really try to gamble for the 3 points which eventually reflects the final league position.

Still no one else immediately above won. Given pretty much half the season has been played and Rochdale are in 6th place despite winning only 1 of their last 6 games then you'd have to be pretty miserable to say there's no chance of a play off challenge.

Heck those cup Messiahs Sheffield united are only 5 points ahead in 5th although they'll probably bore enough teams into submission to claim enough 1-0 wins for yet more play off heartbreak.