Posted by Alf Uckem
on 7/8/2004, 10:52 pm
1-1 against strongly fancied promotion candidates, i'd have taken that before the off, definately.
a new broom sweeps clean they say and the new regime was obvious today, in many ways.
we now look like we know what we're doing from throw-ins, that's a relief!
also, much older ball boys are on hand, complete with balls, to get the ball back into play much quicker, although it was noticeable towards the end of the game, when steve cotterill had obviously settled for a draw, that the ball wasn't being returned quite so fast!
the benefits of this were nearly seen in the first half when paddy kenny came racing out of his goal to put the ball into touch and the ball was returned onto the pitch before he'd had chance to get back into his goals.
the team huddle before the off, only a little thing, but one more detail that will go a long way to help galvanize team spirit.
we did well to get a draw from today, because as the game matured, sheff utd were looking more menacing and maybe even could have won it.
our main problem was, for me, highlighted on the backpage of the match programme today, when the squads were listed side by side. sheff utd's list was a good deal longer than ours, enabling warlock to make quality substitutions in key areas to try and win the game.
but, credit to the lads, they battled well and although the game wasn't pretty as a spectacle, they showed a resilience and commitment that although not entirely lacking recently, was good to see.
i thought the game was particularly dire and couldn't work out if it was the tatics of the two managers cancelling each other out, or that it was steve cotterill's game plan, that made the game devoid of width and totally condensed for most of the time.
if that's the way steve cotterill lines his teams up, then i will be struggling to watch that all season long, maybe, given the resources at his disposal, it's the only way he thinks he can line up and things won't change until we get more bodies in, we shall see.
for now though, not a bad start against a very good team.
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