Free Kick Magnet

Sheffield United U23 0 v Sheffield Wednesday U23 2

U23 Professional Development League, North

Monday 5 February 2018

SUFC 2017/18 Game 56

Good beers today. ‘A’ Game stuff. The Kernel, have you ever had a bad 'un? And a seven percent kegger.

The Kernel, Pale Ale, Citra on keg at 5%.
Golden, but opaque in the glass. Beaming white gloss head. Beautiful. Is the best way of describing how that looks. Smells zesty. Pineapple into grapefruit. A lot of lovely bitterness up front. Yes. Happy with that. All about the bitter growing & dominating. Superb.

The Brew Foundation, Laughing Water, Hoppy Pale from a tin at 4.3%. Unfiltered & unfined. Comes up opaque if you pour the whole tin out. Fairly neutral smell. Hint of peach in there. Nice up front bitterness. Not too harsh & stays a long way into the finish. Maybe off some peach sweetness. Excellent.

Burning Sky, Pretty Mess, IPA on keg at 7%. Comes up fairly sweet. Nowt wrong with that for a seven percenter. The bittering is a touch subdued. But, what is there is rich. Coming off mango & other tropical capers. Nice beer.

It ended up being more about The Reserves than the U23s. Evans C did the full 90 minutes on his comeback trail. Brooks came on in his comeback trail for the last 20 minutes. Samir Carruthers was out there on his Where To Now trail. Carruthers is a creative player. He's not particularly flash. But, he's got good vision. He knows where he is, where the others are. And the ball. He showed glimmers of that today. But, he didn't stand out. He didn't stand up. He needs to be involved in the game more. He gave the ball away a lot. People tell me he's a long way from the first team. He looked it on this showing. A lot to do.

There's an expectation. Both for Carruthers & Evans. If fully fit, if up for it, they should be standing out in this company. I'll cut Evans some slack. He got the minutes in. He was bustling & lively in patches. And, he kept at it. At times, he was out pushed, out jumped, dominated, occasionally bullied by the SWFC Centre Backs. They got tight on him & let him know.

David Brooks came on & did a Brooks Lite Cameo. A few runs. The ball at his feet. Weaving & Drifting. Shook the Wednesday players a bit. Lunges. Chops. Scythes. A Free Kick Magnet. But, nothing to hurt them. Nothing to punish. He's got to start somewhere though. (In the First Team) he gives us something different. He creates difficulties. And, there was some of that here.

Moore suspended. Blackman pending. Long Wombling Free. Dewhurst in Portugal with England U17. Emergency goalie loan rules being scrutinised. The Maths says that Hugo Warhurst is just a Jake Eastwood hearbeat away from a First Team shirt. Today, he's a “Reserve”. Maybe that will play on his mind. Unfortunately, he did look nervous & unsure at times. Dropped the odd cross. Looked to me like he “went to ground” a bit too early a couple of times. (Including maybe the first goal).

Another unfortunate mention for Sam Graham. The Young Fella needs to dig in, regroup & come again. He's in danger of going backwards. In recent games, he's been crucially involved in missing tackles & giving the ball away, resulting in GOALS. That is going to be noticed. On 65, he lost the ball in the middle of the pitch. That ended with a clear header for the SWFC striker. Two Nil. Some Graham defensive headers were poor - as was some of his distribution. I'll say - he's better than that.

Tonight, Graham set up as centre of three. With Callum Semple on his left. To allow the Reserves in, there was mucho juggling. When the music stopped, link man, dead ball specialist & all round poacher Jordan Hallam ended up as makeshift right wing back.

Once all the dust has settled from the midweek fixtures, we've gone from having a shot at second place, to dropping to fifth. (Wednesday have gone top btw).

607/1266