Sheffield

Last updated : 19 March 2003 By Mark R
We ventured up to Sheffield on Tuesday afternoon, I was feeling slightly worse for wear after being out on Monday night seeing Shane MacGowan and the Popes at Shepherds Bush Empire, followed by late beers in the Irish pub next door. Luckily we had a hotel booked in London so no early start needed.

MacGowan was about as coherent as the Fatty Taxman after a day on White Lightening Cider, so it was interesting!

Tuesday morning we went to the View the World from the air photography free exhibition at the Natural History Museum, it's brilliant and well worth a couple of hours of anyone's time.

We left London just after 1.30 and arrived in Sheffield by 4pm. We booked into our Hotel and then met up with a few others in the Rutland Arms about 15 minutes walk from the ground. It was a great pub, full of loyal Utd fans, their kids, grandparents, just how a real friendly traditional football pub should be.

We left at 7.20 and were soon in the ground, passing quite a few riot police on the way!

The away turnout was probably the lowest for a league game this season, 450? 500 perhaps but as somebody already said we started noisily and finished on a whimper, a bit like the match. The ground was reasonably full, but the 19,000 Sheffield fans were in Library reading mode, and when we didn't sing the silence was unreal.

The main stand was a strange sight, one end cordoned off and stewards separating two sets of United fans. According to the steward Season Tickets holders were sick to death of non season ticket holders moving into empty seats during games, so they have put a stop to it and isolate those that pay on the day!

As for the match, gutted. We battled well but the two goals were dire. Sadly we had 3 good chances second half but no BZ meant no goal.

Beasant made 2 or 3 great saves, but you have to wonder about the free kick he let in. Either he can't line up a wall or the wall jumped over the ball! In between us equalising and them scoring we played well and looked the better team.

Zamora set up the goal brilliantly, dragging the ball away from the keeper and setting up Chippy. He was unlucky just before half time as well.

In the second half we struggled to string two passes together, but as we lost our midfield not surprising!

After the game it was back to the Rutland, on to a great Chinese (only ruined by 3 Grimsby fans turning up from the Rotherham match). It was back to the Hotel about 1am then up reasonably early to be back at work for 2pm.

We finally worked out why the riot police had been on duty. 2,000 Sheffield Wednesday fans were due back into Sheffield from Bradford. We didn't see anything happen so guess it was all quiet.

Then again the station was deserted when we walked passed just before 1am.

Off home for sleep now!

Mark R

Oh yeah ratings

Beseant - 5 great saves but the free kick let in was bad
Watson - 4 get him out the team
Mayo - 4 so different to Saturday and badly caught for the first goal
Cullip - 7 MOTM for me
Blackwell - 4 struggled against a very very quick attack
Ingimarsson - 7 played well in different positions
Carpenter - 7 great goal, was missed when injured
Rodgers - 6 a bit of a dip in this match
Brooker - 4 pretty anonymous most of the game
Zamora - 8 great play for the goal, sadly off just after half time
Hart - 4 never got hold of the ball

Subs

Jones - 3 awful, greedy and how many times did he pass to a play wearing red and white
Oatway - 6 for the classic tackle that got him booked
Barrett - 1 for his shot on target, I would rather play one of the reserve forwards