O’Hare is gone. Hamer is gone. Brooks is gone. With deadline day bringing a close to a challenging window for the Blades, Bolton came to town as we searched for our first win of the new campaign. Going behind before the conclusion of GCB was hardly an ideal start, but it was a spirited display as we twice came from behind to eventually nick all three points with a last-gasp Romelle Donovan goal.
Michael Cooper - 8
It’s never the best sign when your GK is MOTM vs a newly-promoted side at home, but Cooper made some excellent stops, and keeping it at 2-2 eventually proved vital.
Hamza Choudhury - 3
Not an ideal return for Hamza, as Bolton’s Gale gave him a torrid time. Both of Bolton’s goals and many more of their chances came down that side.
Japhet Tanganga - 5
Had some good moments and some bad. Scorer of our first home goal this season.
Mark McGuinness - 5
Another who had some suspect moments, including for Bolton’s second goal, but he was there to deny a certain goal when blocking McAtee’s goal-bound effort with Cooper beaten.
Sam McCallum - 5
He was also part of the miscommunication that allowed what was basically a free header for Bolton’s second, but he immediately sprung back to life as he squared it to Bamford for a tap-in at the other end.
Jairo Riedewald - 4
Didn’t convince me with his performance. Seemed slow to react to loose balls, and I thought Phillips looked more assured when he came on.
Sydie Peck - 5
I thought Peck was fine. His corners regularly hit the first man, but it was his free-kick which found Tanganga to equalise the first time, and he kept play ticking in the middle of the park.
Romelle Donovan - 7
It didn’t always come off for him, but the desire to make stuff happen was brilliant to see. And, of course, topping off his performance with a late winner was about as good an ending as you can get.
Ben Brereton-Diaz - 5
Looked quite sharp early on, but his impact in the final third was minimal.
Tyrese Campbell - 5
Impressed me with his runs in behind in the first half, one of which should have absolutely led to a goal when he put it on a plate for Bamford, whose finish was lacking.
Patrick Bamford - 6
Again, probably didn’t have his best day in terms of back-to-goal/hold-up play, but I felt he was unfortunate not to win a few fouls, and he picked up his goal by being in the right place at the right time.
Average rating - 5.27
Ratings system:
0 – Reserved for anyone who has a wayward effort at goal smash me in the face, unlikely to ever happen.
1 – Worst of the worst. Saved for disastrous performances, with result-altering mistakes.
2 – A terrible performance. Performances where a player offers very little and has many unsuccessful actions, ultimately proving to be a major detriment to the team’s overall performance.
3 – A bad performance. Negative contribution. Like a 2, just a bit less rubbish.
4 – A below-average performance. Not necessarily having a negative impact on the game; it could just be a player who struggled to impact the game at all.
5 – The baseline rating. All players go into a game starting on a 5 — it’s bang average, given out for an unremarkable yet solid performance, for a postman delivering the post.
6 – A decent performance. A player who gets a 6 has positively contributed to the game, and at the very least has had some impressive moments while being generally solid outside of them.
7 – A good performance. Awarded for players who had a noticeable positive impact on the game.
8 – A very good performance. A player who made significant contributions to the outcome of the game with their performance and consistently displayed a high level throughout.
9 – An outstanding performance. To score as high as a 9, a player needs to be dominant throughout the match, performing at a level well above the standard and/or making multiple game-changing contributions.
10 – A perfect 10, unlikely to ever see the light of day as nobody has a flawless game. For me to even think about giving out a 10 it would probably have to be a player doing something historic or unheard of.