Blunted Blades Beaten by Donny

Doncaster Rovers 2 Sheffield United 0

You would not have believed Sheffield United were a Premier League club three seasons ago based on tonight’s performance. To the casual observer Sean O’Driscoll’s side looked more the part, despite having only been back in the Football League for just seven years. Doncaster’s 2-0 win at the Keapmoat was their first over the Blades in the league since 1983. Two first half goals from James Coppinger and Billy Sharp secured the points for the home side which takes them into the top half of the Championship table.

Full marks should go to the home side for sticking to their passing philosophy and just after the half hour came the breakthrough. Coppinger played a one-two with former Sheffield United striker Sharp and then finished with aplomb on a diagonal run into the box from the right flank. There was virtually no response from Gary Speed’s team and they found themselves two goals down at the break when outstanding work down the left by young full back Joseph Mills, on loan at the Keepmoat from Southampton, gave him time to cut the ball back to James Hayter. His shot was parried right into the path of Sharp to tap home by Blades keeper Steve Simonsen who ought to be disappointed his palm didn’t clear the United penalty area.

The real story for me though is the concern that the Bramall Lane faithful should have. Tonight was one of the worst performances on television seen by the steel city club in recent times. It was Gary Speed’s tenth game as a manager and that showed, especially since his counterpart has more than a decade’s experience in the dugout. Daniel Bogdanovic was so poor the Maltese international couldn’t even flick a throw in on from one of his team mates. Much like when his fellow countryman Michael Mifsud played for Coventry City, he has had one good season at Barnsley before earning a move to United. To all intents and purposes last season’s tally at Oakwell which reached double figures looks very much like a fluke. You hardly noticed the six foot two striker whose inclusion forced the thirty-three year old Richard Cresswell bafflingly onto the left wing. Bogdanovic was absent from the game and when the ball came anywhere near him he didn’t put a foot right. Someone of his height should be far better in the air than he looked this evening.

Tactically Speed has not got things right. Cresswell does not have the pace to play wide at his age and when he did move into the centre after Bogdanovic was rightly subbed early in the second half he looked more effective. Substitute Jamie Ward was a much better bet in a wide berth than the former Preston and Leeds striker. The centre of the Blades midfield offered no support to the forwards. Leon Britton was not on song with his passing. Two things, however, are most worrying of all; firstly United are missing Darius Henderson terribly, but they couldn’t even get their long ball game right. What concerns me most though is the lack of any strength or depth to Speed’s squad. It is a shadow of the team that played in the Premier League and even the season after their relegation back to the Championship. So average and thin are the Blades’ ranks that two youngsters from the academy Matthew Lowton and Jordan Slew came off the bench to feature in the second half.

Doncaster were good value for the three points but Sheffield United put up nothing in response. Both full backs caught the eye, Mills with his assist and Mustapha Dumbuya for his tireless effort to run up and down the right. This was the second match I have seen Donny play this season and he really has made the right back spot his own. Coppinger and Oster also looked a threat cutting in from wide areas and Sharp profited from the uneasiness and lack of pace in Blades centre halves Chris Morgan and Nyron Nosworthy. O’Driscoll could not have hoped for a better response to the midweek home defeat to resurgent Derby.