The Opponent: Sheffield United
We move on from Tuesday night for the 2nd home game on the bounce, and arguably the more difficult of the 2. There were still some positives to take from the game, the goals from Jonathon Obika have been a pleasant surprise, hopefully he, Smith and Williams (another plus) can form some decent partnerships over the coming weeks.
The area that is now the City of Sheffield has been occupied since at least the last ice age, about 12,800 years ago. On the theme of Ice, Sheffield Ski Village is the largest artificial ski resort in Europe. Knowing what her great great great great great Grandson, Alex Salmond had planned for the future, Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned in Sheffield Castle and Sheffield Manor for 14 years. Sheffield is the greenest city in England, 61% of the city is greenspace, and the city has more trees per person than any other city in Europe. Roughly a third of Sheffield lies in The Peak District National Park. In a recent study, the Sheffield district of Hallam was the highest ranking area outside London for overall wealth.
Some famous Sheffield folk include Peter Stringfellow, Michael Palin, Marty Caine, Anna Walker, Sean Beanflicker, Prince Naseem Hamed, Brendan Ingle, Michael Vaughan, Judge Pickles, Jarvis Cocker, Sebastian Coe and a whole host of musical talent including Tony Christie, Def Leppard, The Dylans, Heaven 17, Arctic Monkeys, The Longpigs, Moloko and The Future Loop Foundation.
Last Time Out – Tuesday 16th September – Colchester 2 Sheffield United 3 - Sheffield United came from 2-0 down with seven minutes to play to record a dramatic victory over Colchester. Colchester's Alex Gilbey hit a post early on and his side went ahead when George Moncur headed in at the second attempt after 31 minutes. The next Gazza, Freddie Sears, made it 2-0 when Mark Howard spilled the ball, but Ben Davies sparked the comeback with a low finish. Substitute Ryan Flynn prodded in the equaliser and Davies' penalty won the game after Stefan Scougall was fouled, to complete a quite remarkable comeback. The Blades find themselves 1 point and 1 place above us in League 1.
Starting XI – Howard, Collins, McGahey, McEveley (Reed), Alcock, Doyle, Davies, Harris, Wallace (Scougall), Higdon, McNulty
They have served us both – Carl Tiler, Danny Wilson, Mark Yeates, Paul Thirlwell, Frank Talia, Grant Smith, Tom Philipson, Brian Richardson, Paul Richardson, Lilian Nalis, Ray McHale, Brian Marwood, David Lloyd, Lescinel Jean Francois, Chris Kamara, Pat Keating, Brian Howard, Darius Henderson, Paul Heald, Bernard Harris, Fred Hawley, John Harris, Harry Hampson, Chris Guthrie, Sam Furniss, Wayne Allison, Graham Anthony, Billy Batty, Darren Bullock, Alfred Brown, Frank Becton, Herbert Chapman, Trevor Churchill, Glenn Cockerill, Jay McEvely, Paul Crichton, Mark Dempsey, Peter Dornan, Jan Fjortoft, Steve Foley
One From The Past – January 8 1921 – FA Cup 1st Round – Att: - 18’685. Although Reg can probably give us a pass by pass memory of the game, the only goal was scored by the legendary Harold Fleming. You have to wonder what the value of such a player would be in modern day football. His goalscoring record with us speaks for itself, 9 goals for England from just 11 appearances suggests he was the real deal.
The Odds – Swindon 5/4 Draw 12/5 Sheffield United 9/4 – Following Jon Obika’s great start to his Town career you can currently get 6/1 for him to score first with Skybet, he is as short as 9/2 elsewhere.
The Son Says – Another home win on the cards as far as he is concerned, after some thought and a brief change of mind, he has gone for a 3-1 victory.
The Prediction – We seem to be playing well enough although the defence can be a bit worrying at times. I think this will be a 2-1 win, goals from Obika and Luongo, 7’450 in attendance with 987 from South Yorkshire.
And Finally – Two roads in Sheffield have been named after twinned sister cities; a section of the A6102 in Norton is named Bochum Parkway, and a road in Hackenthorpe is named Donetsk Way. Likewise in Bochum, Germany there is a major road called the Sheffield-Ring.