Jack Robinson silences Sheffield United boo-boys once again with true captain’s display in “unbelievable” win
Jack Robinson silences Sheffield United boo-boys once again with true captain’s display in “unbelievable” win
When the clock ticked over to seven o’clock and the team news dropped an hour before Sheffield United’s play-off first leg clash with Bristol City, one man’s name seemed to dominate the social media response. Jack Robinson came back into the Blades side after watching last weekend’s clash with Blackburn Rovers from the bench, replacing Rob Holding.
The internet is not always the best barometer of the mood across an entire fanbase but it’s fair to say the decision was not a popular one, the response more like boss Chris Wilder had plucked a random bloke to play centre-half rather than his captain who’s played the majority of the campaign up to this point. Out of respect for Robinson they won’t be repeated here, but many of them are still visible in reply to United’s team news tweet.
It may not be popular but it’s worth saying, I think, that some of the disgraceful vitriol directed Robinson’s way is completely out of order. You may believe that Holding is a better option at centre-half, which is a reasonable opinion to hold. Some of the things chucked at Robinson on his return to the team went way past the line.
Fortunately that narrative didn’t seem to be represented in the away end at Ashton Gate, with a chant of “Jack Robinson, olé, olé” emenating into the Bristol sky as the skipper made way at 3-0 up towards the end of a night to remember. All the noise and nonsense, as boss Wilder likes to say, about his place, Robinson’s faultless display was made all the more impressive for my money.
“It’s more than we could have asked for,” said the 31-year-old of a 3-0 win at Ashton Gate that puts the Blades on the brink of a place in the play-off final later this month. “It’s an unbelievable result. You don’t get many games like that, especially in the play-offs, where you can take a comfortable lead into the second game.
“You never want to go in to the second game at 1-0, because it’s hit or miss then, one goal swings it again, but I think with a 3-0 lead, it’s more comfortable. But we still have to perform. We cannot drop off now in the second game. We want to go on to win it more than comfortably and we’ll try and keep another clean sheet.
“Anything can happen in the play-offs. You’ve seen it over the years. It’s on us at the end of the day, we will recover and we’re going to that game with heads held high. We knew it was going to be a tough game, this is a tough place to come in the league and we knew the atmosphere would be rocking and it was. But I think we just produced our best tonight and that was more than good enough.”
City’s fans created a real raucous atmosphere early in the game which United did well to quieten, but the hope now is that Unitedites can replicate that in the second leg at Bramall Lane on Monday night to help their heroes over the line to Wembley. “We need that,” Robinson said. “We need Bramall Lane rocking. It’s going to be a big benefit to us if they can get behind us, keep that confidence nice and high and help us see the game out.”