Alan Pickard
This fixture wet the whistle when it was announced—a new bloody ground tick. While I'm certainly not going to get deep into the rules of ground ticking, leave that to the Carrier Bag Firm (CBF), I am going to set two general principles:
Sheffield United’s first team must be playing, OR;
England must be playing. (If I weren’t a follower of the national team the rules would become THE rule).
So, tonight was 65/92 for me. I’ve got two more to look forward to this season at Oxford and Plymouth. Ground number 112 in total. Some of those don't even exist anymore (Highbury, for example). Some do, but are derelict (Millmoor?) And some others, well I'd prefer not to talk about the bloody national hockey stadium.
A steady hour-and-a-half drive up the road, chauffeured by Nick, accompanied by our two lads offered a little bit of time to discuss the squad. In summary, we decided that we still need 5 or 6 quality players. I won’t bore you with who and why, we'll all have an opinion on that.
A quick pint in the Woodlands Pub was followed by a ten-minute walk up to the latest tick: The Excercise Stadium. It's a decent little ground. From my vantage point next to the corner flag, I counted 9 stands to pick from. The Blades fans occupied one of the two behind the net and two of the three on the sideline.
I tell ya what, they don't half have some decent snap on offer in the ground. A couple of pie options (Steak/Chicken) that looked way better than your run-of-the-mill crap usually served up, a couple of burger options, with cheese and fresh tomato, and a footlong hotdog that I wish I'd opted for in hindsight. They even do meal deals for kids for a fiver. Fair play to em, most clubs stopped trying on this front many years ago.
Another youthful team took to the pitch, and quickly established dominance. Lovely movement with quick passing was leaving our hosts a little bit bewildered as players kept popping up all over the place in possession, while quickly reverting to shape upon a loss of possession. Andre Brooks fired the Blades ahead much to the delight of his mum sitting in front of me.
Harrogate then struck back, a nothing ball flicked on, Sachdev getting caught the wrong side of his man, the Croatian Raffle Winner nowhere near it. Luckily, Callum O'Hare went down the other end, did a bit of dancing, played a neat one-two with McCallum and tackled the ball, upon its return, into the top corner. Half time.
The second half saw plenty of changes, as expected, and another two goals for the wizards coming from Hampson and Marsh. However, rather than talk about that, I want to take a moment to consider what the celebrations are going to be like when Rhian (or Ryan as the Harrogate stadium announcer kept calling him) finally notches. He was unlucky you know at Harrogate. A free kick over the wall and just over the bar, then he hits the post in the second half just moments after one had gone a yard the wrong side of the same upright. The kid just needs something to go in off his, well, owt really. Keep going kiddo, we're all wanting you to do well!
Thanks, Alan - glad you all enjoyed your day out and the food.
Watching from my armchair I was also looking at the separated stands which seemed a slightly unusual design; and I was particularly amused by the "Hospitality Suite" which looked like a Portakabin!
It was a lovely, slick game from the Blades (apart from Grbic's howler) but I felt for the Harrogate players and fans - who must've been left feeling much as we did most weeks last season . . .
Sue.