FA Cup: Sheffield United vs Torquay United

[AustrianAndyGull]

Cheers Jeff, i'll get round to putting my view of the game later on when i've got time. As for Brucie, who? Whos Brucie? Basically i just ignore every one of his posts as i 'd waste valuable time reading them when i could be doing something worthwhile like taking a dump. Anyway today we were absolutley immense and i'm very proud of them tonight, with the exception of Stevens (yes he scored too little too late). I'll enlighten you all later, yes i am known not to rate Stevens and i give him credit for working hard but thats it. He should have scored twice with two glaring first half chances cleverly set up by Howe. Oh how i wished Howe was on the end of those. I feel deep down Rene must have thought why the **** do i bother fashioning these chances for Stevens when he is abysmal in front of goal. He must be frustrated. You can't afford to be passing up chances like that at crucial times of the game. He was my bugbear again today and i don't think i'm being unreasonable. The rest of the lads were unbelievable and i'll post my full views later on. Thanks. Oh and the ref was atrocious and denied us a blatant second half penalty foer handball in the box at 2-1.

[brucie]

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[gullintwoplaces]

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

More troll-like postings Brucie, quite pathetic and sad really for an alleged "fan".

[stevegull]

Interesting choice to try and inform us of your opinion through the use of one letter in a post....

[gullno4]

Am I right in saying Rene picked up his fifth booking today?

[SuperNickyWroe]

just got in.
gutted with the result.

[HRG]

Disappointed that we gave it away, but we certainly did not disgrace ourselves based on what I have read here. Also one Sheffield United fan had good things to say about the club in general:
http://www.s24su.com/forum/showthread.p ... their-club" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[brucie]

Positive - we did not get hammered like I forecast so amen to that. We rode our luck a bit at times but after 65 minutes we were winning BUT we gave away some atrocious goals.
With a shed load of money riding on it we could have even got a replay but for the farcical third goal we gave away.
Unfortunately losing 3-2 was not some sort of moral victory.
Of course noone really expected us to get a result but we shot ourselves in the foot big time really.

[Rjc70]

That's better brucie. Don't worry, we all know how hard it must have been for you in particular watching your current love interest drop a boll*** for their equaliser. Maybe you should go see him again some time soon, eh. I share your pain.

[AustrianAndyGull]

It was a cold, wet and windy day in South Yorkshire and i'm well used to them as i used to work in Sheffield. I'd forgot how depressing and grim the place really is despite an avenue of cascading waterfalls and fountains outside the train station and the university building with its pristine facade and messages of promise written down the side in big bold signage. Scratch the surface though and a few streets away you suddenly arrive in the 'real' Sheffield. I'd never visited the red half of the city, mainly due to having lots of family and friends betrothed to the blue half and i wasn't impressed at all with the stadium or overall environs of the place. The stadium, although large looked ramshackle and looked like it had seen better days ( which it obviously has ). It was nice to see the Blades tribute to Gary Speed outside the front of the stadium where fans came and went to pay their respects. There were shirts and flags and all sorts of memorabilia with messages of condolence penned on some. A moving experience and accompanied by a beautiful rainbow which had formed over the stadium.

The game began in blustery conditions and light rain after a minutes round of applause from both sets of fans and players in tribute to Gary Speed. 2 minutes in we were ahead and the yellow army went delirious. A neat flick from Mansell played in Howe who belted the ball past Simonsen in the Blades net. After that we played the ball around really well and really battled hard for every ball. It was testament to that hard work that we only limited them to 3 chances all half, their first coming from a Harry Maguire header inches wide of Bobbys right stick. United were proving difficult to play against with balls in the air they were a very strong and big unit and were launching balls into the box regularly.

On 26 minutes we should have doubled our advantage, Stevens found himself well inside the Blades area and only had to steer his shot at goal but somehow contrived to scuff the ball well wide, a carbon copy of his first bad miss v Chesterfield. Not acceptable. Their fans were silent all through the first half and their players just couldn't get anything going. I thinkit was Stevens again who missed an even better chance soon after when firing into the keepers arms from about 6 yards out. Not acceptable.They could have levelled minutes before the break however when Mansell 'took one for the team' and was booked for hauling down David Macallister who was just about in on goal. From the resultant free kick Bobby made an amazing save to get across goal and tip over the shot from Evans. At half time it was a job well done and we had restricted them to a handful of chances through ball retention, pressuring them when they had the ball and sheer hard work. I think most Torquay fans expected the onslaught to come after the break.

We started the half playing deeper and they were beginning to get some momentum, crosses coming in left right and centre but they just couldn't find a man on the end of them. We were defending manfully and the back four dealt with everything they had to. Ched Evans saw a shot come back of the post and they began to test Bobby with more regularity. Morris was booked for a late challenge and they made a double sub - MacAllister and Williams off for Lecsinel Jean-Francois and Kevin McDonald. 7 minutes later in the 67th minute the game was to turn on its head and the hearts of all the travelling Gulls were cruelly broken. From an unchallenged cross from their right Ellis swiped at it and it skimmed off his leg, past Bobby and it was 1-1. Yes it was a mistake but i felt really sorry for Ellis and the rest of the lads as we had deserved much more than to concede like that. Seconds after the restart and they were ahead. Evans ran with the ball completely unchallenged into the box and bang 2-1 goodnight Vienna. I don't know if we were shellshocked by the own goal but we were just caught cold and offered no challenge. Disappointing goal to concede. The spirit of the lads, and the fans were visibly draining rapidly. After being a goal up and playing with such determination and endeavour to be behind in the blink of an eye due to an og and a free shot at goal was soul destroying. To add insult to injury, Bobby gifted them a third by kicking straight to Evans inside the box who made no mistake. 3-1. Thats where i leave the report as i left after the third went in. I was so angry and upset that i just had to get the hell out of there. I genuinely believed we were going to hold on at 1-0 as we were just so dogged. Really p****d off! It was obvious that we tired visibly second half after putting so much work in and it was possibly only a matter of time before it told.

Their fans were poor in terms of generating an atmosphere as they only sang when they scored and only sang Gary Speeds name when the goals went in. What about the previous 67 goalless minutes Blades fans if you loved him so much?. A bit pathetic really. They only opened the side stands and the stand we were in so the kop end was empty and facing a massive empty stand was a bit depressing. The matchday programme was thin and only £2 and is another indication that bigger clubs don't really give a toss about the FA Cup until it gets interesting. Chesterfields programme was the same.

All in all i enjoyed my day at Bramall Lane if only for the 67 minutes of butterflies that come with holding on to a tenuos lead against a 'bigger' club. In terms of the history, size and previous premier league pedigree i thought the stadium was awful and there is no comparison to Hillsborough. A crowd of over 10,000 will ensure we get a few more pennies in the pot.

The referee was disgaceful today. Like at Vale Park he gave them everything and more, the linesmen also making consistently blatant errors. One player gave Stevens a 'Nigel De Jong' kung fu kick right in the stomach and didn't even get booked. We should have had a penalty when one of their defenders blatantly handballed a cross and he was a tit generally.

Ratings:

OLEJNIK 9 - Made a costly blunder but keepers are gonna do that from time to time. I prefer to commend him on an otherwise exemplary performance once again producing a string of top drawer saves. Is championship level surely?

OASTLER 7 - Solid once again, obvious lack of pace leaves him exposed sometimes but can't fault his effort and committment.

NICO 7 - Again solid, chased everything. Not much chance to get forward although i believe he played in the free kick that led to our first goal.

ELLIS 8 - Unfortunate OG but otherwise absolutely rock solid. Never shirking a headed challenge and making blocks. Dogged and determined.

ROBBO 8 - Same sentiments apply. 100% committed.

MANSELL 8 - Played in the hole left by Lathropes suspension. Never let us down, industrious and energetic, restricted as an attacking threat but never gave up. A true leader.

MORRIS 7 - Worked hard and got stuck in, not much more than that really.

BODIN 6 - Not the same threat in this game as we know he can be. Disappointed really that he didn't have much of an impact on the game.

O'KANE 7 - Back in the side and played ok. Not vintage Eunan but not bad either.

STEVENS 6 - First things first, he worked hard and showed total committment - i'm not disputing that and credit to him. Secondly he missed two gimmes, consistently jockeys players but never attempts to make a challenge ( said this many times before ), spent periods of the game on the periphery and had ( before he scored ) a couple of decent opportunities to strike from distance but chose not to. Choosing to cut back and lay off. Danny has shown me this season that maybe i was being a bit harsh on his ability but my opinion hasn't changed, he makes far too many incorrect choices during games, is a poor finisher overall and is largely ineffective.

HOWE 8 - Born finisher and now is showing the workrate and effort i criticised him for lacking a few months ago. He seems to be getting fitter, more mobile and if we had a few more quality attackers helping him out he would be serious stuff.

ATIENO 6 - Did ok and put himself about without threatening.

I don't know how many Gulls were there today probably looked about 500 or so. Well done to those who made it. There wasn't too much in the way of lots and lots of singing but i got involved even though i was sat away from the main bunch at the back. We did ok. On a final note, getting off the train at Chesterfield i encountered and exchanged words with a bunch of hammered Leeds fans. No wonder everyone hates Leeds - fans with Quiche for brains!! 'd have taken 4 of them on with my Torquay play-off scarf blowing in the wind like some west country super hero. SuperGull!!! Seriously though i did want to spit in their faces but i didn't want to be embroiled in an unsavoury altercation on platform 2 resulting in me missing TV Burp! COYY!!!!!!

[CP Gull]

Disappointed .... but PROUD!

Just a shame that some of our so called fans don't feel the same way! At the end of the day the only difference (in my opinon) was the fact that Sheffield United (a top end Championship club in all but name) had a £3million player in their ranks that was quite simply too good for us. No disgrace in that fact - we haven't spent £3million in our WHOLE HISTORY for goodness sake!!!! Yet for the best part of 70 minutes we were ahead and so great credit to our players who earn a fraction of what their opponents today do!

No disgrace at all in losing to a team like SUFC - just a shame that others don't see it like that. :whip:

[ferrarilover]

Disregarding Mr Troll entirely, we were properly unlucky today. Sheffield were nice enough in possession, but aside from coming up against a team defending well, they couldn't have pointed to anything in their favour had they lost the match.

For all their possession, the best 4 or 5 chances came our way and we really should have done better with a couple of them. Just a shame that two of them were Rene through to Danny. Had they been the other way round, I'm confident that at least one and probably both would have been put away.

Could have done without a few of our more stupid supporters in attendance today, some of the songs we came out with today were nothin short of embarrassing, and as for wanting a 12 year old boy thrown out because he was waiving, well, words fail me.

Long way to go to see Lady Luck prefer another man with an expensive suit and a posh car, but overall, we acquitted ourselves reasonably well.

Matt.

[Kernowgull]

Agree Matt, that was my first away game of the season, and I sat in front of the "Yellow Army" as I enjoy getting involved in some of the chants, and whilst there were a few good Yellow Armies and We Love You chants flying around, the first half particually, they seemed more interested in singing about Ched Evans, and I found it embarrasing. If we'd put that much effort into singing Torquay songs, more people may have joined in, and it would have been a better atmosphere.

Towards the end of the game they sang the standard, and bizarre "Loyal Supporters" and all i could think was that whilst I enjoy the odd foray to away matches every now and then, and it didn't particually take away from what I thought an excellent performance, I can't see myself commiting to more games because I don't want to be associated with that kind of behaviour.

Anyhow, I don't post on here often, but if any of you are reading (if you can read), grow up.

[Southampton Gull]

A few of us older heads were missing today, myself due to feeling like crap with manflu, and we can usually put a stop to that kind of crap fairly quickly by starting alternative songs. easier when you have Paul (Awayday) with the drum. Don't let it put you off, it isn't always like that.

[ferrarilover]

Quite right Kernow, I commented half way through the second half that there were more of our lot willin to join in chants about Ched Evans than there were willing to sing Yellow Army.

Anyway, I don't want to make a big thing of it, but I'll ask, nicely, that those who are too stupid to know any better without adult supervision, please don't behave that way again, there really is no need what-so-ever.

Matt.