just back from Bramall Lane

[Filo]

Superb defensive display, Jones and McCoombe were outstanding, especially 2nd half when we were under the cosh, I thought we defended too deeply though and Brown was isolated up top, Bennett was a waste of space and it beggars belief that he lasted 88 minutes before being subbed!

[mushRTID]

Id be fuming if I was a blade tonight. Jones and McCombe must be pissing themselves at those tactics 2nd half.

Agree on Bennett. Thought Brown was immense, some ridiculous decisions given against him and a blatent elbow but nothing given? Martin Woods frustrates me more every game and Gary Woods was excellent.

Think Sheff Utd will not be far off at the end of the season.

[Alan_Rovers]

Awful game. Awful tactics from both teams, but at least we got a point.

Thank god we don't have to watch Sheff Utd each week.

[Red wizard]

Awful game. Awful tactics from both teams, but at least we got a point.

Thank god we don't have to watch Sheff Utd each week.

I though Deano got it spot on tonight.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Eeh I reight enjoyed that.

We've been spoiled over the last few years and a few of us have forgotten that success isn't only built on silky smooth skills. It's also built on digging in and working like bloody hell as a defensive unit when you are under the cosh.

That point tonight is the sort of point that makes the difference between getting to the play offs or not.

And Rob Jones has the potential to become a Rovers Legend.  f**king immense tonight. Like the big mester that you want to look after you when the world is caving in.

[Lesonthewest]

Jones, McCombe & Brown were outstanding, keeper played well, Bennett was poor.  We just sat deep second half, showed hardly any inclination to win even a second ball or try & hit them on the break, just let them come on to us. Cannot understand why Dean keeps playing M. Woods, we have better on the bench. Big plusses tonight, clean sheet away to one of the fancied sides, 4 points from 2 away games, & a defence that gives us a great foundation to work on. We were awful to watch though, but I can take that away from home if we pick up points & then play with a little more positivity & win our home games. Cannot fault the workrate though.

[RedArmy]

good defensive display but please if every game is like that ill be wanting my money for my tickets back! boring.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Special mention for Paul Keegan. Two match-saving blocks on the edge of our area as Blades players looked to have opened us up. He's limited, but if you're going to be limited, at least put your bollicks on the line every week and give 100% to stop the other side playing.

[dickos1]

good defensive display but please if every game is like that ill be wanting my money for my tickets back! boring.

I'd take an away performance every week like that if it gives us clean sheets

[RedArmy]

good defensive display but please if every game is like that ill be wanting my money for my tickets back! boring.

I'd take an away performance every week like that if it gives us clean sheets

i go to football to be entertained, that wasn't entertaining

[RobTheRover]

Agree with that,  Billy. Keegan had the knack of being in the right place at the right time tonight,  the kind of happy knack you only get from working hard and tracking runs.

McCombe was awesome tonight though. He and Jones gobbled everything up the toothless Blades threw at them. I just wished we had played the ball out of defence with a bit more composure at times,  as the big boot was just coming straight back.  Harry McGuire is a lumbering oaf and I'd have liked Bennett to have actually broken into a sweat and run at him a bit.

[pubteam]

We were woeful with the ball and offered absolutely nothing in attack. That aspect of our performance disappointed me.

But, when you're not playing particularly well and struggling to get the ball forward, it's handy to have a solid defence and goalkeeper to fall back on, and on the evidence of tonight that's exactly what we've got. In years previous, we'd have crumbled and conceded tonight, because we didn't have that sort of solidity to rely on when we weren't playing well. Jones was the pick of the bunch at the back tonight, but the whole back four and goalkeeper played well, and Keegan yet again did a good job as the screen in front of the defence.

Not a lot of positives to take out of how we played with the ball, but at least we looked solid, and for all their posession restricted them to very few chances.

[dickos1]

good defensive display but please if every game is like that ill be wanting my money for my tickets back! boring.

I'd take an away performance every week like that if it gives us clean sheets

i go to football to be entertained, that wasn't entertaining

I go to football to see us get results and at the minute were getting very good results.

[pubteam]

I think if you expect to be entertained at every football match you attend, especially tough ones like this against good opposition, then you are going to have to do a lot of searching to find a team to watch.

Sometimes you have to dig in and get a result. We did it on Saturday and we did it today. I'm not particularly happy with how we've played when we've had the ball in the past two games, but we've come out the other side with 4 points from 6, so what do I know?

[MachoMadness]

Not an enjoyable game, but a good result. To be honest both teams looked a bit jaded, like they'd do each other a favour and settle for a point if it meant they didn't have to run very much. All the Blades fans I know are frustrated with their performance, and I can see why. I said at half time it'd be 0-0, just no inspiration from either team really. Typical bore draw, which I'll take away from home.

Going forward we had very little, we knew before the season started we had 2 very hot and cold wingers in Cotterill and Bennett - tonight was sub zero for both of them. Our attack relies very heavily on getting the best out of them. However, our last line of defence (minus Woods, still don't rate him at all though he didn't do anything wrong tonight) is superb - if there's a better one in this league I've yet to see it.

I was a bit worried when Dave 'Kitson' Kitson came on, but he largely kept his hands to himself tonight. Prick.

[Filo]

We had a bit of a dilemma defending tonight, we defended deep to try and prevent them getting in behind us, it worked a treat, the downside to that was that we ended up hoofing it out of defence up to Brown who chased everything, if Bennett could have put in half the effort of Brown then maybe we could have broken away a few times. After a bright start to the season from Bennett he now seems to have reverted to the lazy half hearted Bennett of last season!

[MachoMadness]

Yep, I've got a feeling we'll be seeing a lot of that from Bennett this season, but I do think he's worth persevering with because when we get him on a good day (he's due one now, surely?) he'll rip apart any team in this division.

Very frustrating player, but then we all knew that's what it would be like with him. If he can iron out his (many) inconsistencies he'll be a Premiership player before long.

On a side note, another late comeback from Forest tonight. Funny how things change, when SO'D was here we couldn't organise a comeback for love nor money.

[Filo]

Yep, I've got a feeling we'll be seeing a lot of that from Bennett this season, but I do think he's worth persevering with because when we get him on a good day (he's due one now, surely?) he'll rip apart any team in this division.

Very frustrating player, but then we all knew that's what it would be like with him. If he can iron out his (many) inconsistencies he'll be a Premiership player before long.

On a side note, another late comeback from Forest tonight. Funny how things change, when SO'D was here we couldn't organise a comeback for love nor money.

And Copps an unused sub again!

[MachoMadness]

Does make you wonder why they took him. Maybe SO'D thought he was doing us a favour? I still wish we'd kept him mind, we could have definitely used him tonight!

[Akinfenwa]

So far we've relied on our wingers a lot to create chances. Tonight they were receiving the ball way too deep to have a realistic chance of producing anything. They can't really be expected to pick up the ball in our half and somehow supply a target man. I really didn't see us scoring from open play tonight because we couldn't get close to their goal without.

Maybe the pace of Bennett and Cotterill could have been used to better effect if they'd have come more central and ran beyond Brown more often. Brown worked hard but he was never going to get in behind and stretch their defence which resulted in them pushing right up and penning us in. Bringing on Hume at some point could maybe have been the answer, I don't know.

[jmt]

It didn't make for very good listening on the radio,
Really happy to get the point, but really shocked with the anti football in the second half, not what I expected from a Saunders team.

[vaya]

Not an enjoyable game, but a good result. To be honest both teams looked a bit jaded, like they'd do each other a favour and settle for a point if it meant they didn't have to run very much. All the Blades fans I know are frustrated with their performance, and I can see why. I said at half time it'd be 0-0, just no inspiration from either team really. Typical bore draw, which I'll take away from home.

Going forward we had very little, we knew before the season started we had 2 very hot and cold wingers in Cotterill and Bennett - tonight was sub zero for both of them. Our attack relies very heavily on getting the best out of them. However, our last line of defence (minus Woods, still don't rate him at all though he didn't do anything wrong tonight) is superb - if there's a better one in this league I've yet to see it.

I was a bit worried when Dave 'c***' Kitson came on, but he largely kept his hands to himself tonight. Prick.

Kitson might have kept his hands to himself, but whoever it was who made repeated attempts to perform cranial surgery with an elbow on the back of Brown's head didn't.

[ctay]

It wasnt great, I would have been happy with a point before the game but I thought we should have shown more. If the Blades had nicked a scrappy last minute winner it would have been deserved.

Jones and McCombe played well, as did Gary Woods. Not sure about Quinn yet. Watching Brownie last night was like watching Afro goal machine a few year back, worked very hard.

[drfcsteve]

I'm not convinced by this "we don't need to entertain as long as we get results" argument, surely we're trying to convince people to come to the Keepmoat and part with their hard earned cash, people won't come to watch boring hoofball. Prime example was last night when you could have watched Real Madrid play some stunning football for a grand total of £0. We need to entertain or the floating fans will just do something else.

[Filo]

I'm not convinced by this "we don't need to entertain as long as we get results" argument, surely we're trying to convince people to come to the Keepmoat and part with their hard earned cash, people won't come to watch boring hoofball. Prime example was last night when you could have watched Real Madrid play some stunning football for a grand total of £0. We need to entertain or the floating fans will just do something else.

We were at Bramall Lane, who cares if we grind out results away from home, we would have approached it differently had we been at the KM, of that I`m sure

[donnievic]

 Great result went for the draw and got it and well deserved.All the posession Sheff Utd had they never really looked like scoring although the way the 2nd half was going you would of thought it was only a matter of time.Superb from all the back 4 with McCombe shading it over Jones for MOM.Woods with another great game although only had 2 saves to make of note and Keeagn got sum good tackles in at the right times.

 As bad as Bennett was he didnt really get any of the ball and we know he cant tackle or defend but he didnt really even brake sweat,would have defo brounght Husband on for him earlier even though he is only 18 like Saunders said,he if he good enough get him on.

[wing commander]

 I'm very very dissapointed with Bennett....Whilst the way we set up last night meant he wasn't going to get much of the ball,there is not one single exscuse in my book for not working hard..He was happy to watch the game drift along and could have put his shirt straight back on the peg when he came off..

 I said this season could define his carear,wether he makes it to the top or spends it playing div1 or 2 football....We need to see a awful lot better in general play from him for it to be the first option,than we are getting at the moment....

I know he's young,still learning etc but you dont learn hard work....

[mattco]

Why Bennett can't see that he should be playing off Brown, who was superb in holding the ball (when he wasn't being fouled) and nodding it on.  Bennett should get in the box more often, he's the kind of player who could be earning us penalties.

[neil grainger]

It was a bit of the proverbial 'game of two halves' last night.

I thought we started the better team going forward and could have been one-nil up in the first couple of minutes but for two good blocks from their keeper.
I felt we edged the first half overall but the second half was a different story with the Blunts dominating possession and we couldn't get or keep the ball.

Normally in similar circumstances over the past couple of  seasons I would have spent the whole half hiding my eyes, chewing my fingers and generally bricking it, but thanks to The Twin Towers it was a different story last night.

Jones and McCombe were awesome. Surely these two must be the stand-out signings of the Summer?
I've got used to dreading every corner we concede but last night, even during a torrid spell when we seemed to give the Blunts corner after corner, our CB's just headed everything away.

In the end I was close to having a Hamlet moment and thinking "Corner? So what? Bring 'em on".
What a transformation.

So I agree with BST and other posters; enjoying a game doesn't have to be about admiring pretty passing football.
Last night we dug in when needed and dealt with everything United could throw at us, until they basically ran out of ideas.
More to the point, they came up sadly lacking in terms of the ability to find a way through or around us.

Also I have to add my two-penn'orth about Browny.
 
What a ruddy hero he was. He chased everything, despite being woefully lacking in support.
There was a little passage of play well into the second half when the Blunts defence had the ball and were passing it from one flank to the other and Brownie chased it from side to side like a man possessed. I sat there in awe wondering how the hell he still had the energy to do that.

Top, top man, and a shining example to one or two others when it comes to effort and work-rate and battling for the cause.

[Filo]

Jones and McCombe were awesome. Surely these two must be the stand-out signings of the Summer?
I've got used to dreading every corner we concede but last night, even during a torrid spell when we seemed to give the Blunts corner after corner, our CB's just headed everything away.

In the end I was close to having a Hamlet moment and thinking "Corner? So what? Bring 'em on".
What a transformation.

That made me chuckle, but it was so true