Sheffield United are gaining respect while Lee Bullen needs to be left to get on with it at Wednesday: Martin Smith column

Four games in and Sheffield United are level on points with Manchester United, Spurs and Chelsea.
Chris WilderChris Wilder
Chris Wilder

Blades fans will be saving copies of that league table in case they need it during the long winter months.

But this is not a Sheffield United side hanging on for life or points.

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This is a positive team with organised and talented players, led by a dynamic and intelligent manager.

There will undoubtedly be rough patches before April comes around and it may turn into a slog for survival in the end.

But Wilder and his players have belief in their way of playing and in each other and they are getting results and respect.

On a similar theme, are you great if you win three games?

Are you crap if you lose three?

Well, no and no.

No-one will be more frustrated with the Owls last three defeats than Lee Bullen.

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It’s his team and his reputation currently being examined and that won’t be easy to take.

Three bad results and he’s getting a kicking from the usual quarter.

The answer is that if he was good enough to be given the job - and he obviously was - and good enough to have the fans drooling after three games then he’s good enough to be given time and support to get things right.

We are six games in to the Championship season, 40 to go.

No-one wants to see the club drift into mid-table, least of all Lee Bullen.

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He’s a man who has put his heart and soul into Sheffield Wednesday as a player, coach and manager, and he’s a decent bloke.

Let him do his job.

A POWER THAT NEVER WANES

The power of sport no.10,760

The memories of that last Ashes test just won’t go away. The more you watch it the better it becomes.

Comedian, a third of ‘Three Lions’ and sport lover Frank Skinner summed up the force of emotion when he described listening to the Test Match Special podcast of Ben Stokes’ Ashes innings at Headingley.

Even though he knew the final, unbelievable, score he listened to that last session as live.

Surely the emotion and tension had gone second time round?

Not so.

The suspense and ultimate relief of those final overs still worked their magic and had the 62-year-old in floods of tears as he walked down the street.

We know how he felt

Cricket eh? Bloody hell.

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