The Lads headed to South Yorkshire and ended our run of draws - but not in the manner we wanted. We somehow failed to get anything from a game which we dominated large spells of, and looked like we adapted better to playing the ten a side half of the match.
Despite battling right to the death, and having twice as many touches in the opposition box, a saved penalty and a bit of lax defending in the last ten meant a narrow defeat that sent the hosts away at the top. Entirely frustrating to have gone so close, but on the plus side, we'll still be fourth on Monday morning...
Millwall Saturday, WBA on Tuesday, York for a couple of days snooker on Wednesday, back today just in time to hop on the bus to Sheffield. A quick hour in Wakefield gave us a chance to pick the team, which we did quite accurately, and we squeezed our way into the away end.
Patterson
Hume Mepham Ballard O'Nien
Neil (c) Bellingham
Roberts Rigg Watson
Isidor
..and a bench of Moore, Alese, Aouchiche, Mayenda, Connolly, Hjelde, Rusyn, Aleksic, and Johnson.
We defended "our" end in the blue third kit and the Blades started things. We saw an early run by Issy but their defence crowded him down before he got into a shooting position, then we won a free towards the right and a clever routine saw Watson's curler inches away from being touched in with 25 minutes gone. Close, but we needed some great tackling by Mepham and Hume to keep Patto out of the action.
Back down the other end again, we had an effort hacked away from near the line before Watson shot over. Young Tom was seeing lots of the ball and running at defenders, but a clear cut chance evaded us.
Two minutes later and we should have wrapped things up when a series of flicks and backheels saw us break down the left. Watson drove into the box and was crudely brought down - clear penalty. Roberts fired it low and just inside the post, but the keeper guessed correctly and dived to his left and tipped it round the post. Bugger. I've seen far worse ones go in, but still, we should have been ahead.
Issy was flattened on halfway a few minutes later and the ref allowed advantage before he booked the culprit - after we'd fired into the side netting.
We lost the ball in midfield and allowed Utd to break and just as a shot from the edge looked likely, Mepham fouled right on edge. Straight red card with five minutes to the break, but was it really a red card? His studs weren't up and you could argue that he wasn't the last man - I don't think he was any more the last man than Robinson, who gave away the penalty. Perhaps the ref had been instructed that we'd had so many poor officials in our games that he had to favour the Red and White stripes - just my theory.
After the ref had spoken to their Souttar for basically threatening Patto, the deflected free was headed away by the end head in the wall. We breathed a sigh of relief and watched as we adjusted by going three at the back. Three added minutes were announced and we'd had one of those when Souttar hauled down Issy in virtually the same spot that he'd earned his first yellow, so the ref gave him another. Ten aside - interesting...
We ended the half well worth being level but we should have been ahead. You can't be missing penalty kicks if you want to win games - well, even Salah did the other day, and Liverpool still won, but you get my drift.
The second half started with one change for them, and none for us. As usual, but we won a corner almost immediately to set the tone for the half, although the first close calls came at the far end when a low free went just wide of Patto's right hand post and another shot flew across and wide of the other post.
We steadied ourselves and won a couple of corners on each side as we looked the team more likely to break the deadlock, but with around twenty to go Patto pulled off a couple of good stops before taking an easier one to calm thing down.
Two chances fell Issy's way, with the first being saved at the foot of the post and the second being slashed wide, both the result of him getting into the box in the inside right channel.
We had more corners before a very late foul on Rigg in our own half brought another yellow, followed by two changes for each side. On came Alese and Mayenda for Roberts and Watson as we introduced fresh legs and allowed O'Nien to push forward more.
There was a bit of a scare soon after when Patto picked up what looked very much like a back pass, bringing howls of protest from the home fans, but a very obvious corner won by Rigg immediately afterwards was given as a goal kick. Levelling up? Probably.
It got a bit hairy at both ends with scrambled shots behind blocked before they fired well over, but we didn't keep the ball up near their goal and we were on the back foot again. Somehow they wriggled and chipped their way into a bit of space in the box and it was fired under Patto for 0-1 with eight to go. Damn and blastedness.
Off went Rigg and Issy, on came Aouchiche (complete with a disguise of beard and go-faster haircut) but despite having shots blocked and us winning more corners we couldn't break through. The fractiousness on the field obviously spread to the dugout and the ref jogged the width of the field to book Wilder. Living up to his name, perhaps?
Four added minutes were announced, we tricked our way into the box and a couple of mad scrambled ended with a shot that flew over the angle.
That was about it, unfortunately. A performance that was largely decent but, despite looking more comfortable that the home side for much of the evening, we didn't exactly pepper the home goal with shots. Too keen on walking it in, perhaps? We had a lot of half-chances to wallop one from distance but chose the floated curler towards the back post, or laid it even deeper. You don't shoot, you don't score, Lads. The amount of the ball we had made the eventual outcome even more frustrating.
Man of the Match? Hume was the pick of the defenders, but passed up a couple of opportunities to shoooot, while Watson caused problems for the home defence. I think I'll give it to Bellingham as he carried the ball well and looked the one most likely to create something.
