Sheaf Saint

Apparently the Cagliari fans' monkey chants aimed at Romelu Lukaku on Sunday were a 'sign of respect', and not in any way racist https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/49576840

The Sheaf View in Heeley (hence the username) - about 10-15 mins walk from the ground.

Indeed. I have no idea why the mods continue to allow this tedious nonsense to infest thread after thread. It really is no surprise that most of the decent posters have long since abandoned this place.

Or functioning education system.

You're the second person I've seen now make a similar comment. I didn't get to watch that game, so how bad was he?

Slightly tenuous, seeing as it's getting on for 30 years since he left, but Neil Ruddock is on Celebrity Masterchef. Pretty obvious he likes his food too. Hard to believe he used to be a professional sportsman.

I thought he was banned from SMS.

I just hope we manage to put in a better performance than we did last time we played there in the EFL cup in 2014. We were atrocious that night. Blades so far remind me of Hudds two years ago. They've got a good fighting spirit and they've kept their momentum going from the end of their promotion season. But they are a limited side in terms of quality. Very much looking forward to seeing my local pub full of Saints fans again though

Yes, he was left in a situation where whichever option he chose, we would have been in trouble. But he still has to make a decision, not back off and do nothing. If James had played it to Mata then IMO we would have had a much better chance of defending the threat than just allowing someone who is known to have a good long range shot on him the freedom to have a go unchallenged.

If he'd got close enough to James he could have prevented either a shot or a pass to Mata. Instead he backed off into nomansland and could do neither. Yes he was left exposed, but he needs to make a decision in that situation. If he had closed James down then yes he could have played it outside to Mata, but there would still be work for him to do to get a shooting chance, and Bednarek would not have had to charge out to attempt the block that Cedric should have made himself. Therefore he would have been in a decent position to defend against Mata.

Yep. We were looking the team most likely to score again up until the red card. Given how much pressure they put us under after that, I'll gladly take that point. Not a chance we would have held on to that last season, so the signs of improvement are there.

That's a great save from Gunn. Kept us in it!

Fantastic through ball to a Utd player there from Shane Long. FFS!

Commentator reckons Utd have been much better since they made their tactical switch with the substitutions. Nothing to do with us having a player sent off then.

Yoshida on for Ings

Correct.

Yep, very silly. The first yellow was harsh, but regardless of that he should have been much more careful.

Armstrong on for Boufal.

YES! It's about time JV scored a header (or any goal, come to that).

Poor from Adams. Has to do better there, because opportunities like that will be few and far between today.

That was a decent cross for once from Cedric.

Time and space, yet a pathetic attempt at a cross from cedric.

Well I hate to tempt fate here, but it looks like we have ridden the storm a little. That 15-min period after they scored was horrific, so to have come through it still only 0-1 down is probably the best we can hope for at this stage. I'm (perhaps foolishly)clinging on to the fact that we seem to have been so much better in the second half of games so far this season. If we're going to get anything out of this, you sense that it's going to come from Boufal. By far our best attacking player so far.

https://www.eplsite.uk/stream1.html

I'm usually as optimistic as they come, but I really worry we are going to get roasted here if we don't buck our ideas up. Defensively we just can't seem to get anywhere near their players when they get forward. It's too easy for them to waltz into our box and it's only a matter of time before we concede more.