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THE AWAY END - BRAMALL LANE 18-2-08
John Powls
The Build Up To The Game
My mate Ian hoped Robbo had managed to buy some nice chocs in Brussels before he jetted back. He should have been concerned when his ticket out was with BA from East Midlands and his return with Ryanair to Manchester.
I admired the dignified tribute Gate paid him for his contribution at Boro.
The Blades chairman also managed to introduce a new footie 'manager sacking' euphemism to the lexicon to add to 'mutual consent' etc. This time it was 'offered Director of Football'. Maybe Wise shouldn't get too used to the big leather chair in his London office!
At Hurworth, Keith Lamb asked Neil Bausor whether there was a market for surplus lard as Mido - or Midriff as Ian called him - strove for 'match fitness'! Since it seemed that was going to take four weeks, it might be easier to render him down now and use the lard sales to offset the £17m hole in our budget!
Meanwhile, on the websites this week, some of Teesside had suffered from an apparent low-level chemical discharge hazard. Experts detected a whiff of foam hand fumes after the Fulham result. Some posters to the sites and blogs were affected.
Quiet confidence and some satisfaction in the camp is one thing - it has been earned, it should be enjoyed and used. The operative word is 'quiet'.
All we can realistically aim for is to stay where we are now - safely at the top end of the Bottom Half League - and to extend our FA Cup run. Even that was a lot more than many of us feared a few short weeks ago.
It was good to see Luke Young strike the right common sense note in midweek and at least we can approach the challenges to come in good form and good heart.
It was equally good to see one of The Street Of Shame's finest football hacks, Martin Samuel of The Times, responding to Woody's "proper manager" jibe against Gate.
"Given what he was expected to take on, he's doing just fine" he said in comparing Gate favourably with Ramos at the same stage of his career.
Arca and Shawky then weighed in with more support as did Udayan Mukherjee on this site following the fans' forum.
On the downside, Keith Lamb also announced that he supported the 'thirty-ninth game' lunacy but at least had the decency to admit it was all about money and that there were problems for the sport in the proposal, both of which Scudamore denied.
But, hang on, Septic Bladder stepped in to oppose what the Premier League wants to do. I may need to change my stance on the principle that everything the FIFA chief says is plain wrong or barmy!
But the biggest and best news of all this week came on Friday as Stewie signed his new contract with a positive message about his feelings for the club and that ambition has been confirmed with the signing of Alves.
Well done to Lamb, Gibbo, Gate and Stewie for getting this done. Now, on to Wheats! Taxi for Elliot!
In contrast to the man "you wouldn't otherwise waste ten minutes of your life on" it was pleasant to hear Gate say that the talks they have had with Wheats, his family and advisors "have restored his faith". Let's hope the signing is announced soon.
The best thing to do to keep the faith with players and fans is to keep the FA Cup run going, to secure our Premier League position as soon as we can and begin to plan for a better campaign next season.
As ever this season, the FA Cup weekend was welcome.
And there were more reasons to be cheerful! We had already seen off two lower league teams on their own grounds in the previous rounds, including one at the top of The Championship. The Away End was growing apace as we sold tickets like hot cakes.
The Blades were struggling in the bottom half of their division, hadn't scored, were in off the field turmoil and the crowd could easily be turned.
So we could go there and win at the first time of asking. And if we then got a favourable draw in the quarters with the Scousers and Gunners out. (stop sniffing that foam hand! Ed).
But this is the FA Cup. Their ground can be intimidating for the opposition and we let them beat us at their place in their brief stay in the Premier League. They may have a dead cat bounce from sacking Robbo - although Blackwell has pulled up few trees in his managerial career.
Like us, they had a good recent cup pedigree and would look to turn the match into a high tempo battle on a pitch in poor condition. That was why the Beeb selected us for one of the live matches again.
Lawro had also backed us to lose - again. Phew, that was a relief!
On a bright day it was a surprise that the Sheffield sides of the ground were far from full.
The Away End started dominant, matching their John Denver with "There's only one Bryan Robson".
Boro started with Mido in, Alves on the bench and Huth not in the sixteen at all. We hoped that was a precaution for a slight ankle injury rather than any recurrence of his long term injury.
Unsurprisingly, Pogo tucked in alongside Wheats and young Grounds came in at left back again.
The Game
Well, it could be summed up as 'honours even' in a game where both teams put in a shift.
The Blades shaded the first half but after the interval, Boro, who failed to hit the heights of their recent Premiership run, never gave them a look at their goal and had enough chances to have taken the game.
Predictably, Sheffield came at Boro early on but equally predictably it was thud and blunder stuff. Kilgallon drew a fine save from Schwarz with a shot that was heading for the top corner and Sharp failed to get to a raking low cross that Pogo looked as though he had a shout at reaching.
It took us fifteen minutes to have our first attempt - a drive by Stewie that was a straightforward save for Kenny.
Despite the lard, Mido was winning everything in the air but so little have they played together that Aliadiere wasn't reading his clever flicks. In fact, although the Frenchman ran his socks off again, he looked jaded and leggy throughout this game. And he wasn't alone as Gary O'Neil had his poorest game since he joined too.
On twenty-five we broke away with Super Size MeDough and a two on one but the ball bobbled as he was about to pass and he shinned it miles from the target of his intended pass.
The Blades broke and forced Grounds to defend well on our six yard line. From the resulting corner, Stead got across the front of our defence and put a strong header wide when he should have hit the target. Wheats then got booked for a pull back. Strictly speaking, it could never have counted as denying a goal scoring chance and Mr. Foy was strong enough to ignore the baying Blades fans.
As the first half ebbed and flowed - but mostly ebbed - to a close, we were largely untroubled in defence. What trouble we did get into was of our own making, particularly when Arca - also off his game - and Rocky got into their old tippy-tappy tricks in central midfield and gave the ball away too often.
This almost undid us in the third minute of the one minute of added time. Arca gave away a free kick on the edge of the area and they played one of the oldest free kick routines in the book - the 'oops we've collided with each other' - but we fell for it and were lucky to see a Beattie shot hit the post and go behind.
Beattie looked like he had been at the same branch of Greggs as Mido in his own injury lay off.
As if we hadn't learned our lesson, we gave away another free kick and also received a booking. This one was blocked and Mr. Foy finally blew for the break. If the game was deadlocked, The Away End had the battle of the terrace noise won hands down.
For the first few minutes of the second half Sheffield huffed and puffed and kept Boro penned in our half without really threatening our goal. But as the hour approached, Boro showed their Premiership pedigree with a period of ten minutes where we threatened.
This was ignited by our best move of the game that had the ball pinging around their area. It looped up and Mido - back to goal - tried an audacious overhead kick which Kenny could only tip over. From the corner, the Boro Beckenbauer stole up and thundered a header goalwards only for Kenny to save again.
Then, in open play, Mido proved that the first half shank was the fault of the pitch by cleverly shaping a left footed arcing pass that perfectly intercepted Stewie's run-in from the left of the box. With another piece of perfect geometry, Stewie met the ball with a near perfect left foot volley that beat Kenny all ends up but whistled wide.
Mido linked play beautifully again a few minutes later to give Rocky a chance that he put wide and we then had a breakaway on seventy that we failed to make the most of.
This seemed to signal Boro having petered out and another sloppy Arca pass on the edge of our box lead to Quinn trying to find a way through (and it was literally by trying to go straight through) Pogo on the opposite side of the box. Pogo blocked him and Quinn bounced off the Austrian as though he'd hit a brick wall. He had!
Mr. Foy saw this as a free kick and booked the brick wall! The Blades tried another of their little routines but could only shoot well wide and Schwarz remained untroubled as he did for the entire half.
Gate had seen enough of Arca for the afternoon and brought him off in favour of The Boat. Mido was subbed for Alves just afterwards and got a very good reception from The Away End. You could see what he will offer us when he doesn't need the Michael Ricketts surplus shorts and his colleagues up front can read his game again.
Sadly, Alves was just as anonymous as Mido had been bright. He touched the ball only twice in the time he was on and continued to look non-plussed. It's going to take time - but hopefully not too long.
The Blades made subs too. A few substitutions coming together in a game can have very different outcomes. Sometimes it provides the spark that was needed - then there are times like this when it kills the little flow that there was.
There was one minor comedy moment when The Boat tried a flamboyant overhead kick clearance from our six yard line and succeeded in hitting his own hand. Cue appeals for a pen. These were rightly turned down. Perhaps if it had been given, The Boat would have had to have taken it too!
As the ninety approached it seemed that no-one was looking beyond the draw. But on the turn of full time we got a corner and Stewie put over a peach - one of those undefendable in-swingers - that Pogo's run met on five yards.
Anywhere else in the goal it would have been unstoppable but he picked the only spot where he could hit Naysmith, just in front of the line. As it showed on later replays, the defender also had a firm grasp of a fistful of Aliadiere's shirt and it should have been a pen for Boro. But it wasn't to be and the two sides have to do it all over again at The Riverside.
Overall, Gate had more to be pleased about than Blackwell. Another clean sheet and we never gave them a look at our goal in the second half. Grounds showed again that he does a job at left back when we need him to. We created the best chances and could have won without being anything like at our best.
We have their measure and without taking anything for granted we should win in the replay but it's guaranteed to be another scrap.
Mido got seventy minutes more game time and Alves twenty. If Arca and Rocky are going to get this sloppy, it is better that it was in this game rather than in the Premier League. Unfortunately, we picked up another four bookings but it didn't look like any more injuries.
Later.
Gate confirmed later that he had given a couple the hard word at half time - and we knew which two - for trying to play football in the wrong parts of the pitch.
He accepted that it was a game of two halves with Boro dominating the second, after he had got our style better suited to the conditions. He also said that a draw was fair enough. Wisely, he stressed that nothing could be taken for granted in the replay.
Strangely, the Preston v Pompey game later followed exactly the same pattern as our game had but Pompey nailed their injury time chance leaving us as the only replay. Gate made the point that it was more revenue for the club and another game to enjoy but we must hope that it doesn't disrupt our flow in the Premiership and that Monday's draw gives us the incentive to win.
"Yerjokin'aren'ya" Quotes of the Week
"What was that hogwash about our goal against The Skunks - that Simba was offside, interfering with play. He hasn't done so for the past twelve months so he couldn't have been doing it then!"
"Mido? He's is a bit like the sphinx - Egyptian, large, enigmatic smile, unmoving and no one quite knows what it is for."
From recent e-mail exchanges with my mate, Ian.
The Away End will be back after the Liverpool Game on 23 February.
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John Powls is a published poet with five books of his work in print. He is a regular performer of his work at major literary festivals and exhibitions in the UK and America, often working with musicians, painters with photographer Carol Ballenger.
Check out Red Shoes 250 for more of John Powls, right here.
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