Kevin Gage's Sheffield United Column: Trips to Manchester City and Liverpool left me asking 'what might have been' . . . but for vastly different reasons

The first was probably a sense of apprehension combined with a touch of dread, and then maybe followed by a degree of excitement and anticipation at playing at such iconic stadiums and against undoubtedly two of the best sides, not only in the Premier League, but also in Europe, and in Liverpool’s case, the world!

It’s a testament to just how far we’ve come as a club and a team that I travelled across to Manchester genuinely thinking there was every chance we could extend our unbeaten run and grab a point.

It wasn’t to be of course, but after both these games, the overriding feeling I have is one of “what might have been” . . . albeit for vastly different reasons!

Our performance at Man City was simply stunning.

To go to the current champions and leave feeling very hard done by not getting at least a point is amazing.

We had the better chances, and certainly at half-time I believed we should/could have been 2-0 up.

The dreaded VAR punished us (again!) and the Moose in full flight was causing havoc.

Along with every other Blade in the ground, I was buzzing at the interval and marvelling at what I’d just witnessed.

Could we possibly play that well again in the second half? Surely City would come at us? Could we hang on? The answers to those questions as we now know were yes, yes, and unfortunately, no.

The first few minutes of the second half were to prove crucial.

City changed their shape at half-time, pushing their full-backs wider and more upfield.

In a team of superstars, their brightest star Kevin De Bruyne needed to be more involved and start influencing play and he began to.

But the most telling contribution came from a most unlikely source.

A brilliant step-over and body-check from the referee took possession from John Fleck and seconds later Sergio Aguero swept the ball home.

In this new VAR era of confusion and chaos, how ironic that we had been completely undone not by a virtual ref miles away in London, but by an actual physical one on the pitch in real time.

Cue howls of protests from players, management, staff, and about 3,000 Blades!

I always think players’ immediate reactions are the best gauge of any contentious decisions, as they instinctively know when something just isn’t right. They WERE right. The ref got it badly, terribly wrong.

But we rallied again, still kept coming forward, still creating opportunities.

Chris Basham turned into Lionel Messi for one memorable run and Fleck looked like a £100m midfielder, thereby given his original cost, increasing his net worth to us by £100m!

Billy Sharp was about two inches from creating a grandstand finish, but it seemed that fortune was not to be on our side . . . along with VAR and the referee of course. “What might have been” indeed . . .

If the performance at the Etihad would have taken a big toll on the players, both physically and mentally, then the very last place you want to visit is Anfield.

I’ve been on the receiving end a few times in my days when the likes of John Barnes, Steve McMahon, Ian Rush, Ronnie Whelan and Peter Beardsley zipped the ball about at a furious pace.

It’s a daunting prospect in a regular season but, in this one, against the current World Club champions it takes on a whole new level of difficulty as they are simply unstoppable at the moment.

Of course it doesn’t help the Blades’ cause that the game-plan was torn-up after four minutes - and this is where my “what might have been” takes on a whole new direction.

Going 1-0 down so early in the game gave it a completely new perspective.

I can 100 per cent tell you that every Blade player will have privately thought something along the lines of ‘damage limitation’.

Possibly the only person who wouldn’t have thought that MIGHT have been Chris Wilder, but he’ll never admit to it anyway!

We had no real option but to sit back and make sure Liverpool didn’t go in at half-time three or four goals up.

We had to re-group and try to hold out for as long as possible, and spring forward if and when we got a chance.

Let’s be honest, despite a couple of real opportunities where a final pass or cross wasn’t quite good enough, we were hanging on for dear life.

Liverpool were superb in every aspect of their play but even so, we STILL managed to get our passing together at times and create our own golden chance.

Only Oli McBurnie will know how he didn’t score from our best move of the match and our over-lapping centre-half’s cross.

It would have made the last five minutes very interesting to say the least! Another “what might have been” moment for us maybe but to be honest, given the way the game unfolded after four minutes it also might have been a 5 or 6-0 defeat on another day.

So two games against the league’s two best teams, and only conceded two goals to each.

Not too bad to be honest!

Eighth in the Premier League is a richly deserved position and now we can concentrate on a full-scale assault on the FA Cup.

Don’t rule out winning it either. With this club, and given the past three seasons, anything is possible!