Tag: sheffield united

Day 635 – What a night!

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Considering how much I watch football, I blog about it very rarely.

This is one of those rare occasions.

We took on Fulham last night. They are top of the table and I didn’t really realise how good they have been until the commentator started throwing stats out left right and centre: Most goals scored of any team in England this season. Most goals scored in the first 15 minutes and most goals scored in the last 15 minutes of games. Most goals scored from set-pieces. Most goals scored by substitutes.
Centre forward Aleksandar Mitrovic is top scorer in any of the 4 English leagues. He’s also a bit whiney and divey, but apparently that’s not an thing they officially record.

Every time something happened in the game, there was a stat to say that Fulham were the best at doing it.

Apart from defending against Iliman Ndiaye:

What a win! And to indicate just how unlikely it was, we started the game at 6-1 against for a win.

Which also made it a nice little earner for believers like myself. Senses well and truly filled.

Sidenote: Powered almost entirely by adrenaline, it was also the latest I have stayed up since before Covid: 00:22 for the purists (although it wasn’t like I managed to get much sleep afterwards, either).

Day 608 – Fleck

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Great win for United last night, but it was tempered by my having to stay up until midnight to watch it, which has left me completely broken today, and also by the concern over midfielder John Fleck, who seemed to have a seizure on the field during the second half.

Thankfully, medical attention was quickly administered, and apparently, he’s conscious in hospital and asking about the result of the game (he’ll never believe it). But it wasn’t a nice thing to see – and we did see a bit, even though they pulled the feed as quickly as they could.

Fleck had Covid in June while on duty with the Scotland team, but has played 18 games for United this season without incident. Fingers crossed for him for a quick and complete recovery.

Day 535 – Surprising screenshots

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Yesterday turned out to be a pretty good day. I pushed myself (on doctor’s orders) to see what I could get done, and I got quite a lot done. Yes, I am suffering a little bit today, but nowhere near as much as I would have expected.

I’m almost – almost – daring to hope that I’ve turned a corner.

I put my watch on for the first time in weeks, mainly just to keep an eye on my heart rate (doctor’s orders again), and well, wow, look at this:

A whole dog walk round the block, sure, but the steps! The steps!
That’s the first time I’ve even come close to that figure since I got this damn thing. I really wasn’t aiming for anything, so it was a huge surprise when I spotted it.

Other points: 72 resting HR is still too high, but that’s why I had the watch on. 150bpm is also still too high, considering I didn’t actually do anything strenuous (yes, you guessed it, doctor’s orders). And the stress level, well that’s always a bit of an outlier on the days that I watch United play.

Although…

Wow. Amazing.

We’ve been waiting to spank someone for about 18 months now, so this was long overdue. And yes, it was “only” Peterborough, but we’ve been drawing to “only” Luton and losing to “only Huddersfield” recently, so this was really great to watch (if a little stressful for at least the first 51 minutes) (see above).

But aside from the result – even better than the result perhaps – this was a cohesive, skillful, positive, enthusiastic, even occasionally awe-inspiring Blades’ performance. Just look at the quality of those goals. JUST LOOK AT THEM!

I’m almost – almost – daring to hope that we’ve turned a corner.

Day 427, part 2 – Welcome, Slaviša

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Sheffield United’s new manager is Slaviša Jokanovic. (The c has an accent, but WordPress can’t cope with that. Bit racist.)

The 53 year old was born in Novi Sad in (then Yugoslavia, now) Serbia and… actually, the club have provided a handy infographic, so let’s let that do the talking.

Image

Both Watford and Fulham fans seem to think he’s the business, so it looks like promotion next season is basically a given*.

This guy was our number one target and, given the situation, I think the right man for the job. It’s a real positive step forward and great news that we’ve managed to get him in, and get him in early. Hashtag A New Beginning.

* i’m joking, obviously.

Day 423 – End of the season

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Yep. The end of another weird, horrible, broken football season. And we all know that it didn’t go well.
More defeats than in any other campaign in our illustrious 132 year history, relegated long before today’s well-deserved victory over lowly, lucky Burnley. It’s interesting (and promising) to note that we put in a great performance and a decent win today in front of an actual crowd. That lockdown restriction has hurt us more than most.

But, with such a terrible start to the season, there was some weird degree of acceptance early on (this post was a huge hit with United fans), and suddenly, even the small positives became highlights and moments to remember. Like that first win over Newcastle, the hard-fought victory over Aston Villa, and – of course – the absolutely incredible, near unbelievable 2-1 away at Old Trafford.

I was quite emotional that evening. And it was a big win: the first ever Premier League win by a Yorkshire club at Old Trafford. At the 36th attempt, nogal. And ManU went on to put 9 past Southampton there the following week.

Oh yes, and the little fact that we weren’t the only Sheffield team to get relegated this season. Shame.

Much of the time, we didn’t play badly. Stuff just didn’t click: we lost just by a single goal on an incredible 17 occasions. But the Premier League is an unforgiving place, and so the Blades drop to the Championship, which means that I won’t get to watch them anywhere near as much next season. And that’s sad. But hopefully, the fans will be back at Beautiful Downtown Bramall Lane, and that will be the catalyst to get us straight back up.

Come fill me again…