This week the club's youtube channel showed all of our goals from 2024. Well made and creative, team goals. It also reminded me of Pritchard's unfortunate exit and that Ekwah's loan period has lead to him making just nine appearances. Sad, after the worldies he scored last season. It also showed the growth of our squad and just how far we've come. At our halfway point of the season let's just hope we don't go back over. The transfer window is open. Ideally, we need someone who's less of a winger playing behind our forward... and a proper forward.
After a disappointing end to a progressive year, we began this year on home turf against a side one place and a handful of points above us in the table. A preposterous 8pm kick on New Year's Day would determine who was the best red and white team. New year, new Sunlun? Lets see...
The year began with an ominous yellow weather warning. Ignore your fearful 'Local news in your area' Facebook posts. Yellow just means - it's going to be 'minging' (see the Mackem dictionary?)
In a slightly more encouraging fashion, we caused more problems in the opening moments than of late. Clearly wise to our vulnerabilities the Blades still peppered us with early high balls including a few Rory Delap specials. We looked shakey, but we stood our ground. Issy was put through on goal to no avail. Mayenda broke and shot from a narrow angle, but the keeper had it covered. Our counters looked encouraging. As much as we've struggled with an out and out striker, one thing is certain, Issy is problematic for defences.
It was going well, until an awkward passage of play led to free kick in which LO9 got a handful of their number 9's shirt just outside the six yard box. Despite being built like the wicker man their number 9 fell over - penalty. Bugger.
PATTO TO THE RESCUE! A very soft penner from their number 9. Patto left his legs dangling and stopped the poor penalty from reaching the back of the net. Anthony's had some difficult moments in the last few months, but ultimately he's dealt well with the weight that's been on his 24 year old shoulders... and daft haircut.
Roberts forced a corner. It’s hard to argue Paddy's not been our most consistently threatening player this season. Amongst all the injuries that is. The short corner we took led to a long corner which led to another fruitless back post effort. However, we were starting to knock on their door. We were pressing them all the way up to their six yard box. After Eli's recent performances, I think It'd be unfair to see him lose his place in the starting line up. Lately I've been thinking I'd rather see him return to his position up front from earlier this season as an out and out striker.
The Blades tried to press but Eli (what was I just saying?) intercepted a miss kick from one of their CBs and waltzed his way through to shoot, score and take the lead. Against the run of play, but I'll take it. During this period of counters we did great at tracking back, although we do seem to be overloading our own box. Literally a pile of players on the centre penalty spot. Perhaps zonal marking is being chosen over man marking.
Another corner to The Blades and we had eight players around the six yard box. This is the kind of thing that has led to us conceding in recent weeks and then, oh wait, LO9s first own goal of the year. A diving header. Again. The Blades celebrated like they'd scored from 40 yards out. A replay showed that a deflection after the initial cross had slightly altered the ball's trajectory after Luke committed to the header. Trajectory or otherwise it was still 1-1. Luke has been great at his distribution with his head last year, choosing to keep the ball moving before it hits the ground (yes, I know that's how headers work) to keep momentum. However he's now scored a quarter of the goals we've conceded at home this season. Don't ever change though LO9.
Before I'd finished swearing at our set piece defending, Wacky Wilson Isidor decided to run up the other end and score. His strength and pace outfoxed the opposition, again. A well deserved goal. That's better.
A pass from Roberts to Hume on the overlap and Hume blazed his cross all the way to the swimming baths. Again Eli (I like him now) pressed forward and went on against their backline. He beat the keeper, but he also beat the post. It was now end to end like ping pong.
Ping - Patto made another save. Pong - Back to the other end
We Were getting better acquainted with the second ball. Roberts gave Ahmedhodzic (Bless you) lots of problems. Some great link up play from Hume, Roberts and Eli was cut out but showed some promising creativity. To the point we even had their number 9 playing in front of their back four. Geback.
Half time.
We'd scored three goals. The only problem being one of those goals was at the wrong end. At times it seemed Issy and Eli were taking turns being our front man. Which seemed to be working. However there also seemed to be too much reliance on counter attacks. Even though we'd done well at it...
As the second half began we attacked the North End. Wilson stretched and twanged something before ending up in the back of the net. Another great run of play from Aouchiche showed us he could be a consistent starter, where needed. However let's not forget the club we signed him from was none other than Lorient, RLB's last club.
The Blades came out sharp, putting us on the back foot. Our pressing approach from earlier in the season seemed to have dwindled. Less rotation. Dan Neil took a Gandalf approach and decided 'none shall pass', picking up a card on the way. Sheff seemed to be trying to play even higher wingbacks than us. Aouchiche caused more problems in his classic Wideman position, clearly hungry for a goal. That's a good appetite to have.
60 mins. Usually I'd be crying out for subs but due to our diminishing roster it’s fair to say our options are dwindling. Cirkin looked like our strongest option for reinforcements. Sheffield broke and we ended up with nine outfield players in our box. That's too many. Maths. Nevertheless we prevailed.
66 mins in we had a mild call for a penner but it was an excellent tackle. Into the final quarter, our game plan seemed clear - catch them on the break.
Still no subs though...
We pressed forward but Jobe couldn't hit the mark. 'SUNDERLAND TILL I DIE' rang out across the ground. For the record, that's my favourite chant. Many derbys ago I single handedly used it to out sing a group of Mags in a local spoons. Easy.
On 75 mins we were 250 passes to their 500, but we still looked slightly better. The wrong red n whites prepared to make another double sub. Still none from us. They pressed harder. A break from us led to a three on two counter attack. Hume inexplicably decided to cut inside against no one. So much wide space could've been used. He decided to play far too narrow. Aouchiche played it to no one and we lost momentum. We were still winning though. Just.
Hjelde came on for Adil Aouchiche, who left the field to rapturous applause. Another decent shift by the Frenchman. Mayenda ended up through on goal again. He's defo better as a striker. Mepham had his token shot on goal, straight into the keeper's hands. No surprises there. Mayenda broke from a counter and drew a foul. A striker is definitely his best role. Have I already said that? Naz came on for Issy.
A difficult but deserved win. All in all this was some great experience for our fringe players while we have some players out injured. Just imagine giving 60-70 mins to the likes of Mundle or Watson just to give Aouchiche or Mayenda a run out up front to kill things off. Or Vice versa. That sounds good in practice. Doesn't it? Let’s see what January’s transfer window brings.
"Unicorns fart rainbows - Sky Sports understands" 100% win record for 2025 - MATHS.
Keep the faith
GPD
