Martin Smith column: He's 22, he's made a mistake, let's move on

A Manchester United loanee in front of 8,000 Liverpool fans on an early-90s -style Scouse supremacy roll with sixteen league wins in a row and another European Cup in the cabinet?

Ouch.

Your Sheffield United team is giving them an intermittent seeing-to when you make the kind of mistake an under-15’s goalkeeper would have nightmares over.

Straight-talking boss Chris Wilder gave him the ‘tough love’ treatment after the game saying he needs to do better.

Best thing he could have done.

Not because Dean Henderson should be made to feel contrite - there won’t be anyone more miserable than he over the error that gave Liverpool a 1-0 win at Bramall Lane on Saturday.

But because Wilder knows it was an uncharacteristic loss of concentration. The fans will back both of them because they believe they’re special talents.

If it’s more than a blip he won’t become the goalkeeper he, his manager and his parent club think he will.

He’s 22, he made a mistake, lets move on.

NO ONE IS ABOVE THE RULES

There aren’t many better ways to kick-on your managerial career than a 4-1 away win against one of your former employers.

With Boro manager Jonathan Woodgate taking his ‘innocent bystander’ position and talking about his players like he’s never met them, it only made Wednesday’s win more impressive for new boss Garry Monk.

But it looks like one of the mainstays of the Owls support in recent years won’t be going on many away-day romps in the near future.

Over the years you couldn’t help but grudgingly admire Tango - Paul Gregory - he of the shirtless, amply upholstered and tattooed torso - for his defiance of the elements, convention and dietary advice.

And he is obviously Wednesday mad and has been for 40-plus years.

But if, as has been suggested by the club, he has abused female stewards and made himself a genuine nuisance then he can’t be welcomed any more and his two-year ban looks ominous.

A beer belly, tattoos and ‘legendary’ status among fans might get a person known around the grounds but behaving as though the rules that guide mere mortals don’t apply to YOU is doomed to end badly.

Or could there be other reasons for wanting him banned?