Wake Up Call

Birmingham City U23 3 v Sheffield United U23 0

Professional Development League, North

Played at St Andrews

Wednesday 4 October 2017

SUFC 2017/18 Game 32

Big, big wake up call for the Young Blades that one. Two defeats & two poor performances on the bounce now. Following last week's one nil loss at Bramall Lane to Ipswich in the Cup. Overrun at times in midfield. No big man up top. And neither twin striker could get anything going up front. Frail in defence as the BlueNoses poured through midfield. Poor.

We were the only game tonight. Despite missing the chance to go top. We stay second for the time being. We need to regroup & push back from here. International week. So, no David Parkhouse (Norn’ Irn’ U21). No Rhys Norrington-Davies (Wales U19). No Jordan Doherty (Ireland U19). Simon Moore getting some minutes. Nathan Thomas likewise. Ben Heneghan remaining at the middle of the back three. And, Regan Slater back from suspension.

But, I'm restating. Overrun in midfield. Not tenacious enough. Not much ball off the back three. Midfield backing off when Brum run at them. Players getting in behind the midfield & running across the back line. At will. We had the Birmingham wide players in two minds. Shall I beat them out wide? Or shall I leave 'em for dead & cut in? Destroyed us.

Jordan Hallam & Tyler Smith were isolated up front. And never, ever, got it going.

I'll call it as I see it. I can be proved wrong by Video Evidence. In the build up to the Birmingham goal on 5 minutes. I swear the fella beat Harvey Gilmour TWICE in the same move. Ghosted past him. TWICE. It got dinked inside. Worked all the way across to an overlapper on our right. Good low ball in. And their guy has finished well.

More difficult to call the second goal. It just looks like it must be poor marking & organisation. A good deep cross from our left. Basically, matey is unmarked around the penalty spot. That's Heneghan’s zone. That's Heneghan's man. The cross has come from deep. Not wide. The rest is a Pearler. Love a bit of Hang Time me. He's up. Still up. Yep, still up there. Great header past Moore. Fucking still up there for all I know.

I know little about organising a back three. But, at times, Heneghan looked too deep. The three wasn't a line. Maybe Sam Graham looks a little lost “playing full back”. He's better in the middle of the three. Graham, Heneghan & Ferguson all made “last ditch tackles” according to my notes. It was that sort of a game.

Because of the way the U Two Threes play, you're always gonna notice the wingbacks. I did feel Jake Bennett did OK. Often, he was the main/only attacking threat. After 30, he broke down our right. The keeper rushed out & Jake prodded it over him. But, a Birmingham defender hooked it off the line, when it looked for all the world like it'd put us back in it.

Birmingham had it all going on. Pace. Very fluent. Proper Wake Up Call. Heaven knows how they didn't score immediately after the break. Great flick header. Maybe Moore kept it out. Someone did.

I dug myself out of the hole in The Post Office Vaults.
XT Animal, Black Swan (Black IPA on cask at 4.6%)

547/1142