Troubled Times
After an up and down September, being a Sheffield United fan has really not been fun in the past month and a half as a winless run stretches by the game and players continue to limp away, not to be seen again for a while, the fans are discontented, the manager under pressure, and the team sliding down the league.
In such times you cannot help but cling onto the last good memory, the win over our city rivals, and what a night it was! After sailing into a three goal lead by half time I witnessed grown men hugging each other in the concourse, while wearing a smile that felt about a mile wide. Of course the second half then took about five years off my life but the end of the game signalled similarly euphoric scenes and I was still punching the air several hours later.
That night feels like a distant memory now of course as poor performances, injuries and bad luck have sent the team into freefall. The end of September was bad enough, watching the team shipping comical goals against bottom of the table Ipswich and being lucky to escape with a point, then drawing again with Doncaster in a performance that generated complete apathy from most of the Blades faithful, a marked contrast to the derby win.
October began in strange fashion, after the black hole of an international break and a weekend with no football. The following Saturday was little better, an early kickoff and a heavy night meant that I arose from bed to find reports of a shocking performance and bad defeat against Scunthorpe filtering in that didn’t register like it should. Similarly an equally poor night at Blackpool passed me by somewhat as I was otherwise engaged, the sight of the league table the next day and our patched up team sheet bringing home the dire straits we were in.
Back to Bramall Lane then and the problems facing the club are impossible to avoid, a spirited display against high flying Cardiff ruined by comic defending, more injuries and the depressing sight of fifty or so pathetic chavs calling for Kevin Blackwell’s head in the car park afterwards. It was a similar story against Newcastle a week later although this time it only took a poor refereeing decision and a fluke goal to send the team to another defeat, you would have to be completely cold hearted not to clap the team off for their efforts, and all but a few did, once outside the ground though the debate about the merits of our manager raged on. Come the next game at local rivals Barnsley the injury crisis had reached ridiculous proportions with bodies on the pitch who shouldn’t have been near it and by half time two more enforced changes had been made. After witnessing a truly dreadful game on the big screens of a Walkabout it really said something that I was relieved and relatively happy with a 2-2 draw.
Two weeks on and it really is crunch time, with players returning and the bottom team coming to Bramall Lane it’s time to perform. If this doesn’t happen it could be an afternoon to forget as the predictable response will be sheer poison from the terraces towards the manager and a horrible atmosphere, win and with two away games coming up everything dies down for a while. It’s a point that you hit every now and again in football and once the ninety minutes are up things may be a little clearer.
Now everything in the garden is rosey again after two wins on the bounce and the announcement of the appointment of Trevor Birch as CE, just happening to coincide with the news that SUFC made £5 million profit last year. Fancy a takeover anyone??