If it has to be ugly, so be it!
12/31/2024 10:00 AM
Tika-taka style football isn't the only way to win games.
Our New Year's Day opponents occupy second place, as of now.
The game is a 'six-pointer' and a win changes the landscape at the top, again. Sheffield United are second in the form league away from home, so we have to make sure our fortress remains impregnable. No losses to date at the Stadium of Light this season and on behalf of all Lads fans, it has to stay that way come ten to ten on Wednesday night.
We didn't perform anywhere near our capable best on Sunday away to Stoke, but the loss will have hopefully woken the Lads up from their Festive period slumber and will now have them dialled in for a tough game tomorrow night.
In recent weeks, we have found a way of turning losses into wins and draws. It wasn't always the prettiest or eye-catching of performances and certainly not a 'Joga Bonito' style of football, but to win a game you do sometimes have to make it ugly.
I feel that that's exactly how we'll make it for Sheffield United. Watching their highlights in recent weeks, they do not like it when teams get at them and with the loss of their towering centre back, Soutter, we have a real chance to go direct with them. Wilson won a few flick-ons against Stoke but with nobody anticipating the knockdowns or touches, they fell to an opposition player and our isolated frontman looking perplexed.
Stoke went route one for much of the game and Cannon gave our Mr Versatile the runaround, out-jumping him on several occasions and just generally being a nuisance to deal with - even Mepham struggled in fairness.
At times this season we have been guilty of trying to walk the ball into the net with too many passes in or around the box. If you look at the goals we conceded away at both Blackburn and Stoke, they were awful ways to concede with the balls ending up at their feet following deflections from our players or hopeful balls into space.
A 1-0 win, with a scrappy finish from 3 yards out could be how we get it done and I for one, will not care one single iota. We are capable of beating The Blades and on a different day would've come away from their place with a point, minimum. But now they're coming to our place, a place that has yielded four points for the opposition all season. We will have to be at it from the first whistle and this will have no doubt already been echoed in training.
Let's start 2025 with a bang.
HAWAY THE LADS!
