Sheffield United Away Won 1 – 2
By winning at Oxford, Sheffield United escaped from the (literally) pointless experience of a period of Rubén Sellés in charge of first team affairs. New manager Wilder said getting their first win would be the most difficult, but Saints fans would have been pleased that they weren’t to be the fall guys when The Blades broke their duck. We had an unchanged starting XI and, by and large, it went OK, although without much impact on the mysterious ‘Expected Goal’ stat – the nearest we came to an early lead was courtesy of home stopper Cooper who was extremely lucky to get away with poor ball control that almost created a goal for Stewart: more of him later. Instead we went behind after 28 minutes when Campbell avoided Quarshie’s penalty averse challenge on the right and opened up the angle to curl a left foot shot that did for McCarthy. Stewart was at the centre of things again just on break time when he turned nicely in the box and took the ball away from Cooper before tumbling over the ‘keeper’s dive – a clear penalty to me, even if Radio Solent commentator Adam Blackmore had his doubts. Armstrong’s penalty style has hitherto been what is known as ‘goalkeeper-independent,’ i.e. ‘just whack it;’ this time he seemed to be affected by Cooper’s obliging early dive and sent his shot over the bar, rather than into the unguarded area of the target. The let off did nothing for Wilder’s mood and he was sent from the bench for a peculiar incident that brought an over-reaction from the referee. Robinson and Fraser came on for Azaz and Fellows at the interval although it’s unclear whether that led to a change in fortunes. An equaliser came six minutes into the second period: Saints always looked dangerous from near-post corners and Armstrong headed Manning’s kick onto the bar for Stewart, again to be involved in key events, to follow up from a difficult angle while home defenders reacted slowly. Campbell proved less effective with his right foot by not testing McCarthy with a presentable chance, but down the other end Stewart wasn’t finished as he turned the game round with a terrific shot from outside the box. It would have been nice to have seen Saints press on in the last third of the match but they rather sat back, albeit with some solid defensive performances. Things could have turned sour in the 91st minute when Peck headed home a corner, however a welcoming whistle was heard before the ball hit the net. Peck reacted by kicking the corner flag to kingdom come, so there was a delay before we could restart with a replacement and eventually celebrate on 90+9.
Three LSSC Man of the Match candidates to choose from:
11. Ross Stewart. Obviously he had to be in the frame.
15. Nathan Wood-Gordon. Did little wrong himself and frequently baled out colleagues after errors.
20. Caspar Jander. Seemed to have more licence to go forward in this game.
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