Day 99 – That was fun

I must admit that when I sat down for Sheffield United’s match with Tottenham Hotspur yesterday evening, I wasn’t exactly brimming with positivity. We haven’t really got going since the resumption of the league (although not everything has gone our way).

But coming off the back of three straight defeats, with key man Jack O’Connell still injured and our midfield duo of Lundstrom and Fleck unavailable (shoulder injury and “physical discomfort” (??!?) respectively), we literally didn’t even have enough players to fill the subs bench.

Not that they had any choice in the matter, but the new format of one game every three days really doesn’t suit the smaller clubs in the league. Spurs have only played a couple of games since the restart, and were unbeaten, so they were well rested and looking confident.

Not. Great. Omens.

We started well, but after a bright 10 minutes, we were under the thumb. Defending well, but trapped in our own half and the commentators were just waiting for the inevitable.

I should point out here that I was watching in the living room, while Mrs 6000 went through her work emails on the couch opposite and the kids were in an online Scouts meeting. The beagle was dozing in front of the fire. An image of domestic bliss, albeit that I was watching in pretty much silence, occasionally muttering through gritted teeth, when suddenly, just after the half hour: Berge, Baldock, Basham… Berge!

It caught us all by surprise.

I exploded quite a bit.

The laptop was well caught by my wife on the second attempt after a brief – but entertaining – juggling act. The boy literally half fell off his chair, headphones dislodged, unwittingly amazed at the speed with which adrenaline can act.

The beagle has yet to recover fully.

If anything, this goal (and the instant reply, which was then disallowed) (hate the rule, not the ref) merely increased the tension in the household. It was a stressful remaining hour.

Of course, history will show that we added a second through Mousset and a third through McBurnie (which was when I began to relax), before Kane scored a consolation goal for them in the last minute.

I’ll pop the video up on here when it’s released later today DONE, because that was one of those nights I will always want to remember.

The beagle? Not so much.