Sheffield United 1 Derby County 1

[RomaBlade]

It's not often, these days, that I get to go to games so after carefully engineering a meeting with a potential client in Sheffield on a Friday before a Blades' game, I was excited and looking forward to my first home game of the season. I wish I hadn't bothered.

First surprise came in the car en route to BDTBL when the team was announced on Radio Sheffield. Henderson and Evans up front (two target men!), Monty at Right Back and Ward on the bench. Harper not even in the matchday squad... My initial angst subsided and after a bit of contemplation I'd convinced myself and my matchday companion that Monty would actually make a decent full back as he's pretty fit and has an ability to tackle. We remained a little concerned about his ability to run the line and support the forwards, but thought overall it wasn't the end of the world. We were also pleased to see Yeates starting at last and Nosworthy slotting into the back four to cover the big hole Morgan was leaving due to his rub muscle injury picked up at Watford.

In the stadium, after a quick pint under the John Street Stand, we were concerned that stands were very empty with less than ten minutes to go (see photo on Facebook). However, they did fill up before the players ran out and my first observation of Nosworthy was that he was a mean looking, barrel chested dynamo, if a little short for a centre-back. A nice bit of skill to get out of a tight spot early in the game and his consistent running was refreshing as he settled into the line up. I can see him working well alongside Morgan when he's back from injury, and to be fair, though a little short he still won a lot of headers.

The first half in general was dire apart form a reasonably bright spell in the first 5 minutes. Derby seemed to turn Kallio at will, and Monty was found diving in or out of position a few times, allowing County's wingers to get behind the back four. Evans couldn't control the ball in their penalty area, and a shot on goal would have been the result but the ball went wide and he was closed down. Mistakes in midfield and in the full back positions slowly gave Derby the initiative and they started to create chances. As it happened the opening goal was a bit out of the blue though. A poor but not disasterous clearance fell to Robbie Savage 30 yards out. I shouted "Shoot" expecting him to fluff it and clear the Kop roof but the ball flew straight into the net giving Bunn no chance... This, apart from moaning, falling over allot and doing aimless over head kicks was all the gypo contributed to the game...

After the goal we had one promising attack but then surrended the game to Derby. Hoof after aimless hoof was booed by the kop and chants of "we're D'Urso and we know we are", "Balckwell sort it out" and, my favourite "are we Wednesday in disguise" were common place until halfway through the second half. That said, the crowd did also try to get behind the team too. Derby could have had three more in the first half, all from defensive mistakes out wide on our left, but Bunn saved well. He picked up an injury early on and I was surprised he stayed on with the capable deputy in Bennett being on the bench. I hope he didn't damage the leg too much in this period...

Second half started much the same with the exception that Derby had obviously decided to win this 1-0. They were no threat second half. Eventually Blackwell (or Speed?) saw sense and took Henderson off. We improved after this with less long balls and more passing. Ironic cheers from three sides of the ground accompanied a passage of play were we strung together a whole 12 passes... Evans was then substituted which surprised us, but this seemed to trigger a determination to get something fromt he game and we were unlucky on two occassions not to have scored. During this time, Derby relied on breaking, but didn't really threat at all. Chris Commons (I think) gave us all a great laugh when he was about to let fly from the edge of the box only for a defender to nick the ball. Commons carried through his kick, did a spectacular air kick cartoon style and landed on his arse, then faked an injury to hide his embarassment.

In the end we managed to snatch the equaliser, but to be fair I think we deserved a point from this game. That said, we were dire for 75 minutes and were lucky Clough doesn't have an ounce of his father's tactical nous otherwise they could have slaughtered us yesterday...

Nosworthy did well, Kallio got into the game eventually and the mistakes stopped. Monty did pretty well at Right back, but we missed him in midfield. I like Williamson and actually think he did better when he ended up out wide. Quinn was D'Urso for most of the game but had a good 10 minutes at the end including a fantastic cross that almost ended in a goal (why can't he do that more of the time)?

Anyway, overall we were D'Urso, hoofing it and Blackwell doesn't have a clue... But you already knew that.