Sheffield Utd 0-1 Bolton

wanderlust wrote:It looks ominous. 
No Ameobi.
ALF hasn't scored in his last 16 games.
We haven't had a clean sheet at Bramall Lane since 1970 when Sir Nat was manager.
We last won there in 1999.
The SAM analysis gives us a 14% chance of a win.

It all points to Madine scoring the winner. Yeah.

BoltonTillIDie wrote:A great result!  looking forward to Nat's Behind enemy lines to commemorate this victory

NickFazer wrote:Brilliant win.

Natasha Whittam wrote:

wessy wrote:Great win but really interesting to win without Vela And Sammy.

Vela has done jack shit since he came back. Ameobi is a luxury we can't afford. Plays well every 5 or 6 games. He's Mark Davies with a better haircut.

Glad that Parky finally tried something different, this shape suits us better if Pratley and Henry are on form.

observer wrote:

NickFazer wrote:Brilliant win.

ALF playing... new formation... new players given a chance... could have been disastrous... but we now have 6 points from 3 games to end the year.  New Year's Day win against Hull would be the icing on the cake.  Maybe Parky will learn something from being forced to shake things up and have competition for the starting eleven.

T.R.O.Y wrote:I didn’t see any pre match build up, what forced him? Are Vela and Ameobi injured?

Natasha Whittam wrote:

T.R.O.Y wrote:I didn’t see any pre match build up, what forced him? Are Vela and Ameobi injured?

You owe me an apology.

T.R.O.Y wrote:That’s unlikely, do tell though.

Natasha Whittam wrote:

T.R.O.Y wrote:That’s unlikely, do tell though.

Not 48 hours ago you were saying Parky should stick to the tried and tested 10-0-0 formation he'd employed in most away games.

Bolton – Perfect away performance. They have been awful away with results and performances and so had to win ugly in a sense but it was not all like that and I will give them credit for a decent first half performance. They then defended well, made blocks, odd save and got a bit of luck with the sitter at the death. However, they were not outplayed at any point of the game and it was not really back to the walls stuff. They were in the game all afternoon and started much better than us.


The first 30 minutes they played some decent stuff, won all the battles and scored a good goal. They had a lot more of the ball and I felt did not just lump it. They won a fair few free kicks but that was from being quicker to the ball. Wilder did not give them much credit and came across a bit petty about their style. Why he felt need to bang on and one about their style was odd. So, what? You have to beat teams like that but we could not and are one of the few teams that have failed to break them down all season. That is on us. They gave themselves a base to then be a bit more cynical, slow things down and break things up. Yes, they did time waste but they were no worse than Norwich as an example. That is up to the referee to be a bit more with it and at times he let them do it but you can see why; they are at the bottom and desperate for points.


They are direct and are ugly to watch but today for the first part of the game they were not really like that. They played some decent stuff and scored a really good goal. They showed some quality build up, cross and finish. Three things we struggled with all game. It was not great defending but that was the only good cross all game from either side. They get it forward and feed off scraps but they did play some decent stuff and defended well.


I felt after they scored, they did become cynical and a little bit ugly but you could say we did the same for us at Bolton and we slowed the game down too. All away teams do it and they will say it was a perfect performance. We had chances but not loads. Wilder said they were really good chances but outside of the Clarke miss and the Baldock chance; not sure we had any golden chances really. They will be happy as an away team 2nd from bottom to limit our chances. We were not absolutely piling on the pressure and even late on they were defending fairly comfortably till that late flurry.


Opposition Man of the Match: The keeper played well with two good saves and is a major improvement on the hapless Howard who I note is not even on the bench (is he injured?) The two centre backs got their bodies in the way and the full backs stopped too many crosses coming in. Henry stopped Duffy being too influential and the lad Robinson was very good first half until Baldock got him going the other way. Morais put some decent balls in too. Overall, it was a workmanlike team performance and a surprisingly good one. United probably felt it was going to be a lot easier than it was and got a rude awakening first half. However, sadly the best player maybe on the pitch was the match winner. Madine was excellent for all his pantomime theatrics. He caused us all sorts of problems and bullied us. He gave a few fouls away and got booked but he ran his socks off, scored and won lots of the 50/50 balls often against two men. He gave the opposite performance of Sharp did for us.


Opposition Weak link: Not sure anyone was that bad really. Le Fondre did not really get in the game and the full back Robinson struggled with Baldock second half but nobody was really poor and their work rate was exceptional as they plugged gaps and restricted us to few chances.