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FULL TIME: SHEFFIELD UNITED 0 BIRMINGHAM CITY 4
Kevin McDonald in possession for Sheffield United
SHEFFIELD UNITED crashed out of the FA Cup this aftrernoon.
Hopeless romantics or simply a pair of sentimental footballing dinosaurs?
Danny Wilson and Chris Hughton both made no secret of the fact that the FA Cup still whetted their appetites on the eve of this eagerly- anticipated fourth round tie at Bramall Lane.
While many of their counterparts across all four divisions treat the world’s greatest domestic knockout competition with nothing but contempt, the managers of Sheffield United and Birmingham City had both spoken in passionate terms about the prominence it still enjoys on their respective calendars.
Their players showed plenty of bite, too.
Evans and Quinn both attempted to burrow their way through the City rearguard during the early exchanges with Burke also harassing Collins when the ball found its way to the other end of the pitch.
The two United players combined expertly in the fourth minute and nearly fashioned what would have been a delightful goal.
Lowton, making one of his trademark surges along the right flank, dispatched a low centre into Doyle’s penalty area and Evans, displaying excellent awareness, shaped to shoot only to deliberately step over the ball.
Quinn came within a whisker of connecting but City half-cleared and quickly closed down McDonald as he attempted to engineer enough space to try a drive of his own.
Three minutes later, Evans’ persistence saw him win a free-kick 25 yards from goal.
The angle was acute and Williamson’s delivery did not reach Doyle who had escaped his marker behind the City wall.
But United, who passed the ball confidently during the opening spell of an intriguing if not explosive half, displayed the intention to take the game to their Championship opponents.
The tournament had clearly captured the imagination of the blue and white half of Birmingham too, given the hugely impressive level of travelling support Hughton’s charges enjoyed.
In the 18th minute the visitors broke the deadlock.
Burke forced Jean-Francois to concede a corner which was whipped low towards the spot by Mutch and REDMOND applied the finishing touch to a training ground routine by powering home beyond Simonsen.
As the decibels in the away end were raised a notch further, so was the level of City’s performance.
Redmond flashed wide and Murphy charged forward before being halted by Maguire.
In the 38th minute, ROONEY doubled City’s advantage by firing the ball into the roof of Simonsen’s net after Elliott had sent Burke dashing down the wing.
United made a bright start to the first-half but City’s speed of movement and incisiveness on the counter-attack had proved decisive.
Half-time: Sheffield United 0 Birmingham 2
Wilson’s men began the second in exactly the same vein with Quinn and Evans both harassing defenders and McDonald again cutting a composed presence in the hurly burly of a congested midfield.
In the 52nd minute, a flurry of efforts from United saw the home fans find their voice. Williamson forced an excellent save from Doyle and in the ensuing melee, Lowton sliced onto a post.
A corner, taken by Quinn, soon after saw Cresswell steer the ball inches wide.
However, just as United looked set the force themselves back into the reckoning, a fine curling shot from ELLIOTT stopped them dead in their tracks and sealed City’s place in the fifth round draw.
Wilson will have found his players persistence encouraging - they had tried to puncture City’s resistance throughout - but when ROONEY snatched his second of the afternoon and the visitors’ fourth in the 79th minute after combining with Murphy, many home fans simply headed for the exit before McDonald blazed over.
Sheffield United: Simonsen; Lowton, Maguire, Collins, Jean-Francois; Williamson, Doyle, McDonald, Quinn; Cresswell, Evans.
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Comments
There are 61 comments to this article
Page 1 of 5
UTO
Monday, January 30, 2012 at 10:51 PMManc you idiot, no they didn't go read up on it!!!!!! The reason all the usual suspects aren't on is 'cos you lost...... Simples.
UTO
Monday, January 30, 2012 at 10:50 PMBubble and Banter....... and I suppose Silver :-) ....... top guys. Manc and Manor and all the other Muppet's, you can learn a lot from these guys. UTO
(0v0)
Monday, January 30, 2012 at 06:56 PMM b lots of Wednesday fans don't post because of all the crap grunters put. All the abuse the pigs dish out. But don't like when they get it back. How many pigs imitate Wednesday fans on here. In contrast, pigs imitate owls fans all the time.
Mancblade
Monday, January 30, 2012 at 04:54 PMYou can count on one hand the number of good posts for this article, talk about tripe. The reason why not many Blades are posting on this is cos the pigs keep bouncing tripe between each other. UTO: You got under 18k v west spam and they brought more to Swillsbro than Brum did.
(0v0)
Monday, January 30, 2012 at 12:25 PMAccording to brum fans, they should have had 10. Manor is to wimpy work the doors. He'd better stick to hanging around toilets
Blade 1889
Monday, January 30, 2012 at 10:39 AM@40 I know you won't have ever seen what women keep in their bras but I can tell you that they are not walking around with cups stuffed in them! cups go in the trophy cabinet, not that either Sheffield team would know much about that. 1991 was a very long time ago now and both Sheffield teams have only won 4 major finals each. so get off your high horse. Although blades lost 4-0 it was a rare stuffing and we all know that Wendy are the real experts of capitulation. I think 3-1 would have been a fairer reflection of the game but these things happen and full credit to Brum, they are a good team who only won the league cup last year, not 20 years ago!!
manorblade
Monday, January 30, 2012 at 09:24 AMwent fishing got a wopper and he is actually admitting to being a bouncer and a pig some people have no shame get on jeremy kyle
(0v0)
Monday, January 30, 2012 at 08:46 AMBig fart you need a life. If I'm boring you don't comment. Sad pig. Dont need to sign on, I run my own business. When I came out of the forces and worked on the doors , I meet more mouthy pigs than you can imagine. Who would turn up in their gang. But not by them self.
manorblade
Monday, January 30, 2012 at 07:25 AMWhat he needs is a job i'm sick of people like him going into the dole office and actually looking for work had to wait 2 hours to blob on the other day because of knobs like him any way i'm off to find some scrap to weigh in need to get some funds for Colchester .
BigMart
Monday, January 30, 2012 at 01:54 AM(0v0) you spend your life on here boring the t1ts off everybody, why not do us all a favour and do one? Better still, try to get an adult to take you to the derby match and do some gobbing at a Blade face to face. Can't see it happening as we all know you're just an ignorant, illiterate coward who really is the ultimate keyboard tough guy. You're a joke son, a real life nonce.
Banter Blade
Sunday, January 29, 2012 at 08:22 PMNot a great day. I'm only posting so that I don't get called names for not coming on after a defeat. You guys mean that much to me. I hope you appreciate it. Xxx
manorblade
Sunday, January 29, 2012 at 07:33 PMThe blades where undone yesterday by good old fashioned wing play ,Burke their no 7 was outstanding made JFL look like he had diving boots on its a good job there's no one of his quality in the pub league PS who's left their window open i am a bit skint drowning my sorrows last night
waddle_1867
Sunday, January 29, 2012 at 06:33 PMBlackpool have never had or never will have, a tangerine 'army' if I did see said 'army' it would be because I was off my heed on acid. Would be quite cool though, seeing an 'army' of tangerines, but there you go. Blades.....don't embarrass yourselves, the FA rules were drawn up in Sheffield so you should well know that 0-4 is a beating with no excuses.
PaulSheffield
Sunday, January 29, 2012 at 01:41 PM@36 The only windows he's interested in are the ones that aren't bolted at night :-)
(0v0)
Sunday, January 29, 2012 at 01:36 PMSilver we always have fun laughing at the mardy bragging grunters. But we are not saying we are going to walk the pub league or win the FA Cup. Remeber you said we would get hammered and you would win. I know we will not walk the pub league. How many are pool gong to bring. I hope they bring a lot, better atmosphere and more money for our clubs. But you are a pig imitating a pool fan
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