What a night

After having spent much of the evenings this week watching late night footy or being out and about with the Molton Brown boys, I was actually quite knackered and I wasn’t really looking forward to last night’s match at Beautiful Downtown Bramall Lane.

By the way, I do recognise that despite being about football – the number one sport globally – this is still a bit of niche post for most readers, but MMIRIM, so I’m putting it here anyway.

But I watched, and thank [Deity] I did.

Grit, courage, effort, attitude, belief, damn hard work.

What a night.

There’s a thing that I have seen from watching almost several hours of football over the last n years, and that’s that the best teams somehow manage to grind a positive result out of games that they really shouldn’t be able to. And when you don’t play at your best, but you still manage to get a win: that’s the sign of a team that’s going places.

Me though, not so much. The adrenaline coursing through my veins meant that I didn’t get to sleep until about1:30, and amazingly – if anything – I’m more broken this morning than I was going into last night.

EDIT: Look, not everyone enjoyed it.
Here’s an excerpt from a Sunderland fans internet comment about the game:

“Shellshocked doesn’t go far enough to describe how I feel.
I feel utterly numb and inconsolable right now.
I feel like I ought to flog the cheap tat that is Sheffield hallmarked silver that’s in my collection to make a point. That place has always made vastly inferior crap anyway. I hate that village in Yorkshire. I hate everything about it.”

Mate. It was a 1-0 defeat.
Calm your tits, hold onto your silver collection, take a deep breath and try to enjoy your weekend.
Good luck with real life.

THIS CITY IS OURS

Actually, the Caps Lock was accidental, but I’m not about to remove it now.

The first Steel City Derby in almost 5 years ended in a United win and some wendy tears.

1-0, 3-0, 5-0… The scoreline doesn’t matter. All that anyone cares about is the result.

The result that went our way, because we were the better team. Because we are the better team.

This has been a good day. This will be a good evening. Tomorrow morning might not be quite so much fun, but that’s a risk I’m willing to take.

Yes, another Black Label, please.

UPDATE: Now with added highlights for easy reference in the future.

90+8 art

Not every result last night was great. But this one was.

Those 98th minute scenes at Ashton Gate last night…

Hang it in the Louvre. (But maybe do a bit of cropping and editing first).

I do get it. Sometimes you just need to get the image out there and let someone else worry about the details later. And don’t panic, anonymous press photographer: I’m here to help.

There we go. Now hang it in the Louvre.

What a night.

Horrible news

An early night last night meant that I woke up to the news of George Baldock’s death.

Former Sheffield United defender George Baldock has died at the age of 31.
The England-born Greece international was found dead in the swimming pool of his house in Glyfada, southern Athens.
Police attempted to resuscitate Baldock at the scene but he could not be revived and medical emergency units confirmed his death, Reuters news agency reported, citing a police official.

George spent seven years at Beautiful Downtown Bramall Lane, and was one of the team that secured three promotions in those seven seasons. One of those players that epitomised the club: determined and focused, he always gave 100% out on the pitch, but was by all accounts a really down-to-earth, genuinely nice guy.

He didn’t score many, but when he did

Despite his move to Panathinaikos at the end of last season, he was still, and will always be, a member of the Sheffield United family. And you think of him as a bit of a veteran, because he’d been at United for several seasons.

He was just 31.

UPDATE: This video…

Here we go again. Again.

After the disappointment of last time out, and the exhilaration of the previous campaign, it’s the start of another football season, kicking off (for us at least) at Deepdale in Preston, this evening.

And usually about now, I’d offer some sort of salient comment or knowledgeable opinion on how things are going to go for my beloved Blades this time around.

But I actually have no idea.

We’ve got rid of some great players, we’ve got some promising new players in, we’ve had a decent pre-season, but we haven’t really been tested, we have all sorts of boardroom issues hanging over us, we’re starting on -2 points, and this is the Championship: a notoriously difficult league.

In fact, I’m not even sure what a successful season looks like. Promotion? Play-offs? Avoiding relegation?
But then, if you don’t have a goal, you can never be disappointed when you don’t hit the target you never set, right?

And, with the club’s video package at an eye-watering £180, I’m not sure how many of the matches I’m going to be watching anyway.

Ah, here we go again. Again.