Morecambe Football Club (A) Tuesday 11th August 2015

A win as they say is most certainly, a win.

United as many, including myself, predicted lined up with many changes on Tuesday night.  The back five received wholesale changes apart from the captain.  A fresh midfield apart from Mr Woolford.  Whilst McNulty and Sammon played together for the first time up front.

The game started in suitably scrappy fashion.  Morecambe tried to play in spells as did the Blades but it was not one for the neutrals.  Most of United's positive play came from a combination of Wallace, Scougall and Freeman.  Despite Scougall having a complete lack of ability to control a ball with his first touch, "he has been so bad for so long" quipped Lew, his energy alone was a major positive.  As for most weeks it goes without saying Basham was his assured self in the midfield, however, this energy and effort did not stop Morecambe hitting the post in the opening period.  His box to box style isn't suited to a 442 in my opinion.

United broke on occasion but it was never particularly decisive.  The best move ended in Freeman firing one past the post.  After great endeavour and work from Socugall.  McNulty always creates himself half a chance and on one occasion really should have found the back of the net.  My good mate Josh stated that his movement just isn't good enough when you compare it to someone like Sharp; even against Gillingham this was evident.

So as the teams headed in at half time I was left thinking.  Is this better?  Yes.  Is it good enough?  No.  Sammon worked his socks off without ever looking dangerous and in the back four defensively McEveley actually looked the most assured.  Howard spilled one easy ball but luckily it wasn't destined for the back of the net, take notes George.

The second half continued in a similar fashion and like many grounds at this level it is hard to judge incidents at the other end as it is next to impossible to see what is happening.  Adams was introduced for Woolford and showed signs he can offer us an option from wide positions.  David Edgar, who had a quiet game and one very hard to comment upon, was later withdrawn for Neil Collins.

United seemed to have wave after wave of attack without really testing the goalkeeper.  People screaming "shooooooooooot" and singing, what in my opinion is the worse chant in football, "attack, attack, attack" surely didn't help the cause.  The only thing worse than playing in tin pot stadiums watching sub standard football is the moronic nature of many of the fellow Unitedites.  I believed throughout we would win the other night and the performance needed to be better but the important thing was getting into the hat.  Which in a strange manner we did.


So as extra time loomed United managed to grab a winner through many peoples nemesis Neil Collins.  His celebration spoke volumes about his frustrations over the last year.  Collins cares about the club, he is by no means a perfect player but defensively it is not his fault for some of the issues, defending starts from the front and is a team ethic.  The experts in the twitterverse banging on about 'he will cost us in't league' and 'don't be fooled by what he has said he is shit' need to seriously look at themselves.  What fan doesn't love a bit of passion?

So United had won and we are in the next round with lots of exciting potential ties in front of us.  Happy days as a late legend would say.  We got the business done.

So who else is worth a mention?  Basham was his assured self, Scougall was energetic as was Freeman, K. Wallace had a solid outing and I hate to say it but McEveley defended very well.  But the stand out performer was J. Wallace with responsibility in abundance he is often 5 or 6 steps ahead of his teammates in his thinking.  With Jose unfortunately injured this could, touch wood, be his chance.

On Saturday lets hope the momentum continues.

RQQS91 MOM - James Wallace

MORECAMBE: Roche , Beeley , Edwards , Devitt, Molyneux (Miller 79), Mullin, Goodall, Wildig (Kenyon 57), Fleming (Ellison 70), Wilson, Parrish. Not used: Thompson, McGowan, Ryan, Doyle.

SHEFFIELD UNITED: Howard, Freeman, McEveley, Edgar (Collins 83) K Wallace, Scougall, J Wallace (Reed 90), Basham , Woolford (Adams 46) , McNulty, Sammon. Not used: Long, McFadzean, Higdon, Sharp.

Images credit to sufc.co.uk and the Sheffield Star.