Key events
Andy Flintoff, on the actual football: “Even with VAR I don’t think it would have been disallowed, given the amount of pushing, shoving and holding ‘standing your ground’ that happens at corners and free-kicks nowadays that doesn’t get punished.”
Yes, the air has rather gone out of this tie, and we are reduced to discussing AOR radio classics. Though, frankly, I’d do that most days if I could.
Matt Burtz gets in touch “I have very little to say about the match itself. I just wanted to thank you for educating me about Paul Carrack. I grew up riding around in my mother’s car listening to Mike and the Mechanics songs on the radio but didn’t know that “Mike” wasn’t the singer of All I Need is a Miracle. (BTW Mike Rutherford is from Chertsey, whose local football team narrowly avoided relegation from the Southern League Premier Division South this season.).”
In fact, that song is sung by Manchester’s Paul Young, of Sad Cafe. Mike had two singers. Paul, sadly now gone, also sang this classic.
Actual Carrack classics, and you might know both of them.
Half-time: Sheffield United 1-0 Bristol City (4-0 agg)
Such a long way back for Bristol City. Blades, as is their way, have been solid and stolid, the opposite of spectacular. City fans will dispute that goal but eventually, Kieffer Moore proved too strong.
45+2 min: Three minutes were added on. Liam Manning inwardly rehearses the speech of his lifetime at half-time.
45 min: Stephen Holliday gets in touch: “To be fair to O’Leary, he was ‘all at sea’ because a united player had a fistful of his shirt, giving him no chance to get to the cross…”
No VAR, see.
43 min: Now, this would be a miracle if a comeback came now. Blades slowly gained control of midfield and the skies and have all but booked their place at Wembley. Did Cannon get the final touch. He was sat on the line, but so were City’s defenders.
Goal! Sheffield United 1-0 Bristol City (Moore, 42)
Corner boomed in, keeper O’Leary all at sea, and the inevitable happens as Moore heads home.
40 min: United look much the more dangerous now. A comeback seems unlikely….
39 min: Now Hamer breaks from a wasted City corner, but his ball to Brooks is shanked. The quality is not Premier class, it has to be said.
38 min: City can’t get it clear, Burrows’ shot begins a spell of pressure and as the ball came in, O’Leary claws the ball away. When he claims a corner he releases Wells. He wins a corner.
36 min: More nerves from City, as the ball falls loose to Tom Cannon who shoots on sight but the ball is blocked. Blades edge forward…
35 min: Close….that would have killed it. Hamer scampers along and aims the ball at the back post. None of them could reach it.
33 min: This is a long delay. Moore limps off. Terse discussion between Chris Wilder and assistant Alan Knill.
31 min: Kieffer Moore has a problem. He’s rubbing his knee and looks in pain. He landed badly as he made a typical huge leap.
29 min: Reaching the half hour is a checkpoint Wilder is likely to have earmarked. Now to see out the rest. City’s closing down has abated.
27 min: Rob Dickie pictured in the stands. He’s suspended for both this and any final City may reach. That was his second red against Blades this season. They appealed but no dice.
25 min: Blades seeking to gain a control of midfield they have lacked all game. City’s energy levels have been disruptive. Blades always looking to stay in shape.
23 min: Nice move from City, though at slow-motion. Wells is played into a crossing position. Cooper again the calmest Blade out there. The rest look to be feeling the efforts of last Thursday.
21 min: Blades are constantly looking to Kieffer Moore’s height. Were they to go up, could he be next season’s Chris Wood? The big striker is back as an entity.
19 min: Some loose passing; it’s easy to forget the tension among this players. Nakhi Wells, back in Yorkshire as a former Bradford and Huddersfield man, gets space to shoot. Cooper is again calm under fire.
17 min: Harry Maguire looks nervous, though perhaps what he’s reading on his phone is making him so.
15 min: Moore loses the ball and Blades can’t keep it. All City. They hem back Blades. Pring, though, loses the ball.
14 min: City engaging the high press/pushing up, dependent on your preference for terminology.
12 min: Jason Knight, up from midfield, shoots. Cooper saves but this is the point City need to score. Their fans are urging on their team with actual belief. One goal and….well.
11 min: Another glimmer for City, as an overlap lays up Twine but he chooses to pass rather than shoot. The wing-backs are getting the better of the full-backs.
9 min: Kieren McKintosh gets in touch: “This game proves, if nothing else, the power of marketing.
“One take: A battle between two sides to either lose to Sunderland at Wembley, or go up to an overrated league and be moored in 20th all season, going straight back down with pundits and journalists alike making a killing off talking about how awful you are.
“Another take: A battle between one manager wanting to prove his worth in the most famous league in the world, and another staging a glorious comeback from losing his son to take his team to unprecedented heights. Winner gets to (very possibly) be seen across the world and take 2 points off the likes of Man City!
“Both are the same match. Power of marketing for you. Well lads, whatever the case, make it interesting for us neutrals.”
8 min: Hello, McCrory bursts on to a header, and the City wing-back is unlucky the ball comes off Burrows. That was dozy play from the Blade.
7 min: The City fans trying to make themselves heard on their team’s mission impossible. Who can be their Tom Cruise?
6 min: A near-tangle with Blades keeper Michael Cooper and Burrows, his defender. But all is calm, and smiles as the keeper claims.
5 min: City are going for this. They have no other option. But that opens space, and Hamer plays in Moore, the ball dropping to Cannon, who fires wide. That was a nerve settler.
3 min: Early snap shot from Twine, the ball falling loose after Ahmedhodzic’s touch. This time the forward can’t get enough purchase but a moment to get people wondering.
We are underway….
1 min: It’s a slow start. Tommy Cannon is the straight man to Kieffer Moore, rather than Bobby Ball.
Liam Manning’s theme tune for the night, as sung by another Sheffield lad in Paul Carrack, though he’s a Wednesday fan. The Blades fans sing their usual version of Annie’s Song. Was John Denver aware of Sheffield United, a fan of Trevor Hockey and Keith Edwards?
The players are out and the noise is loud, as it often is at Bramall Lane, even back in the days it had three sides. Chris Wilder has his game face on, and that’s a fearsome sight for anyone.
Spotted in the crowd: Harry Maguire, who came through Blades’ much-admired youth set-up. Played in the 2011 Youth Cup final v Paul Pogba, Jesse Lingard and Ravel Morrison. A proud Sheffield lad.
Killer stat here:
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In the history of the EFL play-offs, just 10 of 60 teams have progressed from the semi-final stage after losing their first leg on home soil, though no side has ever come back from a three-goal margin of defeat at home in the first leg to reach the final.
For Blades, Rhian Brewster and Tyrese Campbell are benched with Tom Cannon and Andre Brooks coming on. Callum O’Hare, who also got on the scoresheet at Ashton Gate and was influential in taking control of the tie, is back on the bench.
For City, Liam Manning’s made four changes as he launches his Heeley Hail Mary at Bramall Lane. Scott Twine, Haydon Roberts, George Earthy and Cam Pring are starting, risks taken with Twine’s fitness. Rob Dickie is, of course, suspended.
Here’s where we are after the first legs.
The teams
Sheff Utd: Cooper, Peck, Ahmedhodzic, Robinson, Burrows, Hamer, Vinicius Souza, Brooks, Choudhury, Cannon, Moore. Subs: Adam Davies, Gilchrist, McCallum, Holding, Brewster, O’Hare,
Rak-Sakyi, Tom Davies, Campbell.
Bristol City: O’Leary, Tanner, Vyner, McCrorie, Roberts, Knight, Bird, Pring, Twine, Earthy, Wells. Subs: Bajic, Morrison, McGuane, Hirakawa, Bell, Cornick, Mehmeti, Armstrong.
Referee: Peter Bankes (Merseyside)
Preamble
They couldn’t, could they? They probably won’t but at least Bristol City cannot have a worse night than they did in the first leg. Down to ten men and 3-0 down, and against a Blades team who can mix it. Urgh. Now for the miracle. It can be done. Sheffield Wednesday overturned 4-0 just two years ago. Otherwise, Blades, third-best all season, will claim the Wembley place they’d say was rightfully theirs.
Kick-off at 8pm UK time. Join me.
