Category: sport

Stable condition

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An early start up to the Milnerton gallops this morning. Lots of horses around (as you might expect), but we were there to see this boy being put through his paces.

Frustrating fencing from a photography point of view, but as was pointed out, it’s quite useful to keep the horses going one way or of the way of the horses going the other way.

So fair enough.

Like watching the TT, it’s blink and you miss it stuff. They don’t hang around. And there’s no second or third lap. But the camera did its job ok, as you can see from these unedited pics.

Dinner out in town this evening, and then tomorrow morning… a lie in.

Up!

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What a night under the lights at Bramall Lane! An expectant sell-out crowd. An opposition set up to defend and frustrate. A tense first half. And then, through patience and persistence, with a touch of Premier League quality, the breakthrough. And from that moment on, nothing ever looked to be in doubt.

The party atmosphere was augmented by a second goal 15 minutes from the end, and after that, it was just dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s as we cruised to a victory and promotion back to the Premier League.

And then one big party for the 30,000 fans in the ground. I would have loved to have been there. There were a few tears last night and actually some mixed emotions. Sure: joy, relief, pride, but also a tinge of sadness, as well. It doesn’t happen often, but it’s missing out on these sort of shared moments that make me most homesick, even though I’ve been here for almost 20 years now.

But, what a night. What a team. What a club.

The Premier League is going to be a massive challenge – more so than maybe ever before – but with that combination of youth, experience, team spirit and those fans, I know we’ll give it our best shot.

Rain all day

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It’s been a pretty miserable day here. Gloomy, grey skies and plenty of rain. We’ve managed almost 75mm over the past few days: a good start to the winter season as far as the dams are concerned. It’ll be interesting to see how we’re doing on water levels after this weekend.

The fire has been burning since early, and I’m tucked up in front of it watching the other FA Cup semi final, and wondering about what might have been.

It wasn’t the end of the world yesterday, and we gave a good account of ourselves against literally world-class opposition, but I’m disappointed that we didn’t get at least a goal.

Still, onward and upward, if only to put another log into the fireplace.

United’s Big Day Out

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So. Today.
An FA Cup semi-final down at Wembley Stadium in The Big Smoke.

Weirdly, while it’s obviously a big deal to be in the semi-final, it’s not that unusual for us to be there.
In fact, given that we’re not one of the Big 6 (or even the Big 20 right now) and have spent a lot of time down in the third tier of English football of late, you might be surprised to learn that this is our 5th FA Cup semi-final appearance in the last 30 years. And you can add another 3 quarter finals to that, and a couple of League Cup semis in that time, as well.

Probably the best things about this semi-final are the absolutely complete lack of expectation, and the knowledge that whatever happens, and whatever it’s taken to get this far in the competition, this is unlikely to be our biggest achievement of the season. Hopefully, that comes later in the week.

And so, while the management and the players quite rightly won’t describe it as such, I think that most of the supporters see this as a bit of a “free hit”. We’ve got injuries (of course), key players that are ineligible to play, an expectant Dad. We’re 17-1 outsiders (go on, Ant – gooi twenty bucks on us!). No pressure, no expectation. Just an opportunity to go and play arguably(?) the best club side in the world at the moment – literally a billion pounds worth of talent – in front of a sell-out crowd, including 35,000 vocal United fans.

Of course, I’ll be ecstatic if we can win. But I’m completely at peace with any result already. I won’t be disappointed if we lose. Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened, and all that. All I want is us to give a decent – and fair – account of ourselves. Because the players and the fans deserve that. Apart from that one wish: just go out and have a good time amid a party atmosphere.

And hope that it’s just the warm up for an amazing week.

Luton draw

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A lacklustre football match in Berkshire last night, attracting only 14,000 spectators, ended in a 1-1 draw. This was unexpected, as the home team are struggling for survival, and the away team have only lost one game in their last eighteen.

But it did happen.

What are the knock-on implications of this (aside from some tautology)?

Well, I’ve been doing some rudimentary calculations, and it does seem like Sheffield United need just one win from their remaining four games to clinch a return to the Premiership.

Finally, it does seem like it’s actually plausible.

The thing is, as a seasoned Sheffield United fan, you learn never to count your chickens. So instead of celebrating the fact that something is now more likely to occur than it was at this time yesterday, I’d rather wait and enjoy it when it actually happens.

Which could be as soon as Wednesday evening.

But before that, a little trip to Wembley and a match-up with quite literally the best club side in the world.

More of that later. In the meantime, carefully-controlled, quiet excitement will continue Chez 6000.