Brewdog n Brooklyn

Fleetwood Town U23 3 v Sheffield United U23 2

Central League Cup, Northern, Semi Final

Played at Poolfoot Farm

Tuesday 28 February 2017

Twitter @ball_sup

What a superb set up. If you're not going to have cask beer on. And, it's not sensible to have obscure Craft cans & bottles blocking the fridge. Then, realistically, you can't do better than

Brewdog, Dead Pony Club
Brewdog, Punk IPA
Brooklyn Lager
as bottlejobs.

Rewind. This is Fleetwood Town. They weren't even in the League when I was first at it. They've got an immaculate Clubhouse. Serving meals and BREWDOG & BROOKLYN. And, this is at their training ground. The Carrier Bag Firm Salute them. I've suggested we jack in all in & move over there. Sharpish.

I've counted 2 all weather pitches. 2 grass pitches. It looked to me like another grass pitch being seeded. Space for at least one more. And, a bevy of 5-a-side cages. With that space & investment, you can play kids football, walking football, pub teams, office teams, 5-s-sides. Morning. Noon. Night. Which in turn means you can have a social Clubhouse. Open to the public, name of Joe. Within which to sup bottles of Brewdog & Brooklyn.

Many other proprietary drinks were available for the shovelling it in Drinker. I had the Dead Pony Club at a delightful 3.8%.

My 191st ground watching a Sheffield United XI. Beerwise, one of the best.

Ah. Drat. Two nil up at one stage. Dicked 3-2 at the death. Seconds before it would have gone to penalties. Partly, this young team ran out of gas. To be critical, this young team stopped working hard enough. Make no mistake. With the fixture pile up. This was not an U23 side. As far as I can tell Brad Smith is still a full on Futures player. Crofts & Ferguson have graduated from the Futures. And, there were names out there I didn't recognise.

Despite an early goal from Kimarni Smith, the very inexperienced CB pairing of Keenan Ferguson & Cameron Hawked were getting run ragged early on. Balls over 'em. And around 'em causing all sorts. Travis switched it. Moving (midfielder) Gilmour into a back three with Ferguson & Alex Brown (who is a full back). Brad Smith started right back in a conventional back four. But, very quickly, found himself as left wingback in front of a back three. Cameron Hawkes was pushed into midfield from CB.

Basically, Binnion was using his resources. Struggling at the back, he's moved his most experienced player (Harvey Gilmour) to shore it up. Once the United goals went in, David Parkhouse was effectively a lone striker.

Fleetwood were getting their right midfielder/wingback free in the box time after time. And, from set pieces, they were great at getting the final man free at the back stick. At 2-0 to The Blades, the main difference had been the clinical finishing of Kimarni Smith. United looked more threatening & less isolated when Kimarni was up top with Parkhouse.

Two nil flattered United. But, at 2-1 with 10 to go, I felt they'd hang on to win it. For whatever reason, tempo & workrate dropped off. Fleetwood were just about worth it.

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