An inept display from the Lads saw a slightly better than average but organised and determined home side waltz to a straightforward victory that, a couple of strange reffing decisions that had absolutely no bearing on the result apart, we couldn't complain about. The manager afterwards stated that there nothing brave about our game, and, Vaughan apart, he was right. Having said that, there's bravery in terms of putting your head in amongst the flying boots, and there's bravery in terms of decision-making. Plenty of the former, precious little of the latter.
Having done a tour of the A1M thanks to forgetting to pick someone up, we then followed the signs around Rotherham a couple of times before getting parked up. Most of us avoided the decidedly unwelcoming County, and even more unwelcoming Angel, and breakfasted at Spoons before fetching up at the Cutlers Arms. Cracking pub, with a view over Rotherham's new ground from the back. Even after our bus's lengthy briefing by one of the chuckle brothers on arrival at Brammal Lane, there was still time to pay nearly a fiver a pint in the Copthorne next to the ground, as everywhere else was strictly Blades only.
In our downstairs section, we watched as we lined up in our pale blue kit:
Ruiter
Matthews O'Shea Wilson Browning Oviedo
Gooch Gibson Honeyman
Vaughan McGeady
...and kicked away from the 2000+ in our end. It was nice to see Oviedo back, and a relief that Gibson's injury had cleared up, as Grabban had developed a calf strain that will probably see him safely into the transfer window and thus end his Sunderland career. No sign of Ndong in rhe squad either, and reports of a large order of cotton wool being delivered to SR5......call me cynical if you like.
The early play hinted at a repeat of the Wolves performance, as the home side dominated but we held firm thanks to a couple of misses, one of them a real howler (ruled offside, but still terrible), and the other down to Ruiter getting out quickly to deny Donaldson the space to get the shot on target. When we did manage to push through their midfield, and get halfway or beyond, we produced some awful final balls, or balls that were final balls but shouldn't have been. At least three went straight out of play on our right, including one from Ruiter, as it became apparent that, even if we did get the ball up front, our crosses were loopy and to the back stick, and that their centre halfs were strong enough to let the ever-combative Vaughan bounce off them, and clever enough to force McGeady into safe areas. Ruiter was down sharply to his right to tip a bobbling shot away for a corner.
With about ten minutes of the half remaining, Duffy, who'd been their main man in the middle as he swithced the direction of play at will, found Lundstram, and he scored with a low shot across from their left. Such was its inevitability that a large number of our fans who were already getting the half-time beers in saw it as a signal to stay at the bar through half-time and deep into the second half, singing about someone who stopped playing for the mags a decade ago, while chucking.most of their drink in the air. You've paid for your ticket, and it's up to you what you do with it, I suppose, but.....
Half-time duly arrived after McGeady got in our first shot, which hit a body in the box, a header wide by the Blades, and a single added minute, and we discussed how soon, and what, changes would be made. None for the restart, and it was more of the same. Their crosses, unlike ours, were pacey and precise, and caused us problems as we still struggled to build any moves despite hard work from Gooch in particular to get it to Gibson, who looked up but nearly always found the front two either well-marked or pushed out of position.
Coleman had obviously had a word about our tactics at the break, and we tried to push more bodies into midfield. Wilson moved a few yards up, and looked better for it, and Matthews came forward more, but on 58 we gave away a free kick and it was no surprise when it was whipped in and met with a firm header, in off the post, for their second. Any hope of a comeback was virtually extinguished with that, but it got worse within a few minutes as another cross zipped in and met with another thumping header. We brought on Asoro for Gooch five minutes later. This meant that McGeady dropped deeper and vanished from the game for a while, and we created precious little. Vaughan and Honeyman were replaced by Maja and McManaman. The latter showed a couple of runs down the right, McGeady became visible again, and Maja and Asoro neat interchanges were...not quite neat enough to open up the home defence.
Oviedo got in a couple of crosses to the near post but which went straight yo the keeper, and flashed a shot over he top, then there were four added minutes, during which Maja and Asoro bounced off the home defence and we didn't really look like getting through. Which we didn't, as the result clearly shows, and we'd scarcely have deserved if we had.
If Saturday's draw failed to end the Coleman honeymoon, this loss surely did. We might have held our "new" shape again, and changed it to try and get back into the game, but we didn't compete cleverly enough in any area of the field, and allowed Sheffield to pin us back for long periods. Add to that sloppy passing, and 0-3 was the least we deserved. Our gaffer has a lot of hard thinking to do in the immediate future, and some clever moving of players, in and out, beyond that.
Man of the Match? I don't think anyone stood out in the second half, and Gooch probably gave it away the least in the first, but I'll give it to Oviedo as he tried to attack and none of their goals came from his side, so he can have it.
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