Sheffield Wednesday Home, Won 1-0

Disgraceful Yorkshire bastards.

And that is putting it mildly. They were a disgrace to their club and football in general. A number of incidents brought me to this conclusion and I will stand by it. I didn’t hate Wednesday before, but I sure as hell do now. At the start of the match they were all singing and I thought ‘great, it’s nice to have a bit of atmosphere’. They seemed to be bouncing as well:P! Then we scored (see further on for a better description). This is when the trouble started. They started trying to climb into the CE. The policing was terrible. They ambled round like they didn’t have a care in the world. Meanwhile the Wednesday fans were ripping up the advertising boards, and the sheets that cover the pitch. Cue chants of “You sad bastards, you sad bastards!” from the CE. Perfect way to describe them IMO! After the game there seemed to be a fracas in the small shopping centre in/near Edgeley, but I distanced myself from the knob jockeys as much as possible.

Anyway, there was a game played today believe it or not!! And County won! I make that...oooh….10 points out of the last 12!! If we carry on at this rate, we WILL stay up. I haven’t checked, but I think we are 1 point away from the next place. Definitely reachable. Today wasn’t a pretty performance; the match was dominated by the wind. There were few chances for both teams, and it seemed, especially in the second half, that we were hanging on to the lead.

County kicked off attacking the Railway end. For this half the wind was on our side, and was making it difficult for Wednesday to have many clear cut chances. However there were some. Definitely there best chance came from some terrible marking. A throw in right in the corner of our half easily found its way to a Wednesday player who was being marked by my good friend the invisible man. Unchallenged he swung a good cross into the edge of the area. A good looping header from their forward beat Williams, but again we were saved by our personal favourite the crossbar. However the danger wasn’t cleared yet. The rebound fell perfectly into the path of an incoming yellow shirt. Jon Daly (who was excellent today) threw himself into the path of the ball. The shot was blocked but it fell to another Wednesday player. Yet again brace defending from a County shirt saved us.

At this point Wednesday were probably winning on possession, but they weren’t really making any progress when they got into the final third of the pitch. However, neither were County really. Then Super Ricky Lambert struck, and by god when he strikes does he strike hard! Good work from Alby allowed a County cross from right in the corner. Unfortunately it was too low and it evaded everyone and was half cleared. It bounced to Lambert about 10 yards from the box, who chested it down and struck it as sweet as a nut. It flew into the top corner, despite a full stretch dive from Pressman, who doesn’t half get up for a fat bugger! Lillis ran to the CE celebrating like Marino (the Porto manager). Wednesday were stunned, and rightly so. By all means they should have been ahead.

I can’t remember whether it was before or after the goal, but a disgraceful two footed challenge on Alby only got a yellow card from a ref who was actually very good. A slip up by Danny Adams allowed a Wednesday winger in behind the defence, but he cocked up and Clare regained possession. A good hard shot from Daly went a couple of yards above the crossbar, and a well struck free kick from Lambert was aimed straight at Pressman. The rest of the half passed without any real incidence.

To be truthful, at the end of the first half Wednesday would have been disappointed to be behind. They had a spell of ten minutes where they completely dominated and should have scored. It took a touch of class from Lambert to set the teams apart.

Like against Bristol, I was expecting an onslaught in the second half. Again it never came. Wednesday looked poor to say the least, and really we weren’t that much better. Perhaps I am biased, but im sure the bloody wind was doing them favours in the second half. Whenever County cleared the ball it blew straight back into our area. This meant that Sheffield were getting second bites of the cherry all the time. However we weathered the storm, and defended well. I was on tenterhooks for the full 45 minutes, although I didn’t need to be.

Sometime in the second half:P came our best chance of the game. A long hoof up field found its way to Daly who, out of no where, smacked it on the half volley. Pressman was at full stretch and managed to stop the goal. However he spilled it to the onrushing Alby. The whole of the stadium stood up. ‘Surely this must be a goal’ I though. Sadly not. A combination of brave defending and good keeping kept it out. I was gutted. Here we go I thought, it’s not our day.

Another chance came to Cartwright. Good skill enabled him to skip past a defender on the wing, but he over hit the cross and left Alby playing chase. Now for the criticism. We are giving players far too much time in the middle of the pitch. I know it leaves us in the shit if a player runs to the ball and loses it out, but some of the space and time we give the opposition is ridiculous. My second criticism is dilly-dallying. On occasions when we have the ball, we wait to long and allow their players to get a tackle in.

In my head, they never really looked like scoring in the second half. Granted they were getting a lot of corners, throw ins and possession, but their shooting and final ball was terrible. It was rare that Williams was called into action. However, you could also put this down to our defending. It was gritty and spirited. There was never a shortage of players willing to jump in front of the ball or a striker. That doesn’t mean they dived in unnecessary though. Tackles were also timed well when they were needed to be. It is also strange that we can defend from corners now as well!! Williams seemed to claim them when we needed to, and we actually winning headers. This extremely pleased me. Let us not forget that that was also our 3^rd clean sheet in 4 games!

It was a bit frantic in the last five minutes, but Sammy made a couple of good substitutions (Barlow came on and held the ball well, Mclachlan came on and made sure we continued to win the ball) and we hung on for a deserved victory. I am extremely happy with that result, and long may our turn in form continue!:):):):):)

The fans today. A large amount of noise was being generated from the CE; this was obviously nice to see. However I doubt I am ever going to sit in the Main Stand again. The treatment of Daly from a selection of fans was nothing short of disgraceful. Could they not see the chances the created?? That lad tried his heart today, and was downright knackered when he came off. He thoroughly deserved the standing ovation he received. The same can be said of the treatment of Alby, who also tried his heart out. However it seems every club has their boo boys, which is plain pathetic.

Williams – 7.5 – Did everything that was expected of him today. There were only a couple of times where he missed it in the air, and the majority of the time he claimed well. It scares me when he runs off the line though:P However, I don’t think it is a coincidence he has kept three clean sheets in the last three games he has played. A better option than Spencer at the minute IMO.

T’other Williams – 6.5 – Tough one this. He was excellent at clearing the danger, good in the air, but his distribution was abysmal! Still, the best option we have at the minute.

Griffin 7.5 – Very good today, solid and worked his arse off.

Clare – 7 – Didn’t really stick out today, but he made very few, if any, errors.

Adams - 7 – Same as Clare really, apart from a bad error in the first half.

Jackman - 7– Good defensively, but offers sod all going forward really. He had an excellent chance to shoot in the second half, but he fannied around too much.

Cartwright - 7 – The same as Jackman really. Had a great opportunity to put in a pin point cross in the second half, but he screwed it up.

Lambert – 7.5 – A touch of class for the goal. Did his defensive duties today as well.

Goodwin – 8 – Very good today, never ducked out of a tackle, and did some good passing as well, which is usually the weaker side of his game. Just missed out on the MOM (from me anyway;))

Alby – 8 MOM – Good on the lad:). He tried his heart out today, created chances and linked well with Daly. Did everything but get a goal.

Daly – 7.9:P – Bless. He was absolutely shagged by the time he was subbed. He also had a good few rasping shots, one that should have led to an Alby goal. If he carries on to be as committed as that I cant fault him.

Conclusion – It wasn’t a pretty game, and in truth the wind won. However we just edged it IMO, and deserved the 3 points. We are slowly getting closer to safety, and we CAN DO IT! We defended well, but didn’t attack as well.

Thanks for reading, sorry about the mistakes, now go forth and get drunk!!!

Kenneth Brown.