DAN THE FAN: Blades blunt the entertainment factor (From Swindon Advertiser)

DAN THE FAN: Blades blunt the entertainment factor

6:00am Friday 9th November 2012 in Blogs By Dan Johnson

FOOTBALL is an entertaining game, it mesmerizes people, it can have you experiencing every emotion possible over 90 minutes, but sometimes the ugly side of the game can make an unwanted appearance.

And most recently it was spotted at the County Ground on Tuesday night.

Normally when you go to a game, both sides go out to win, but unfortunately Sheffield United didn’t have that intention a few days ago.

Danny Wilson’s team knew they would have big trouble competing with Town if they got the ball on the deck and passed it around, even with us having six first team players injured.

The Blades approach led to a tedious 94 minutes, but if you had to look at the bigger picture, we were missing several key players, had lost our two previous games and were playing top of the league.

A point in those circumstances isn’t a bad result, but lets hope we don’t have to experience a team like Sheffield Utd at the County Ground to many more times this season.

The biggest news of the day came before the game, where Chairman Sir William Patey revealed the club’s transfer embargo had been lifted.

Finally after weeks this issue has been sorted out, and Paolo Di Canio can go and sign some players on loan that are desperately needed to fill the gaps left by injured players.

17-year old Louis Thompson came into the first team and did a good job alongside captain Simon Ferry, but it was painfully obvious that we were missing an experienced ball winning midfielder to partner Ferry.

Someone who can regain possession spread play out to the wings or gives the ball to Simon Ferry, who brings the ball forward and dictates the play.

Hopefully that player can be found by this Saturday; also another full-back could be on Di Canio’s shopping list as well as another winger, or possibly Sheffield Wednesday striker Gary Madine, who would be an excellent signing for Town.

Since his arrival at SN1 Gary Roberts has struggled to make an impact on the Town first team.

Apart from a couple of games at the start of his time in Wiltshire he hasn’t impressed the Town faithful, he arrived with a big reputation from his time at Huddersfield.

His talent with the ball at his feet and delivery into the box is undeniable, but we have ended up waiting longer that we thought to witness it.

Hopefully as he gets more game time and his confidence grows, we will get to see Roberts’ talent fully on show.

This Saturday Town makes the trip up to Birmingham to face 16th placed Walsall at the Banks Stadium.

The Saddlers come into the game after a heavy 4-1 defeat to Scunthorpe, which now sees the club nine games without a win in all competitions.

With Town only tasting defeat once in their last six away games, and the possibility of some new faces in the first team, I’m backing Di Canio’s side to get back to winning ways on Saturday.

Don't forget you can follow me on Twitter @danjohnson_stfc

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