Rival boss makes Sheffield United 'tension' admission as Blades quieten noise with welcome win
The 3-0 win eased some of the pressure on Sheffield United, but Lincoln City boss Chris Cohen believes the tension surrounding the Blades was there to be exploited before Chris Wilder's side turned the game around.
Lincoln City aimed to prey on the "tension" surrounding Sheffield United at the minute this afternoon, boss Chris Cohen admitted, as the Blades banished a bit of it with a much-needed 3-0 win. United went into the game 18th in the table.
And a lot of noise surrounded the Blades after four defeats in their previous five games, after a difficult summer off the pitch.
But United worked hard during the international break and a dominant second-half display helped them see off Lincoln at Bramall Lane, despite them arriving in South Yorkshire with a solid away record and still riding high on the back of last season's title-winning campaign.
Patrick Bamford's opener just before half-time knocked the stuffing out of the Imps and after Tahith Chong doubled United's lead, Cohen's former teammate at Nottingham Forest put the gloss on victory later on with a lovely right-footed volley, taking him to five for the season from his 10 games so far.
"For half an hour I thought we were fair game for being level," Cohen said. "We wanted to come and try and create some nervousness. We understood there was a bit of tension around the position that Sheffield United are in and where they want to be.
"I played with Pat Bamford a long, long time ago when I was at Nottingham Forest and he was coming through and he's got real quality.
"He's played in the Premier League for a number of years and he showed that to moments. "Chong's played in the Premier League, and showed it in the moment that he got. But we can't just accept that because every team that we come up against is going to have good quality.
"So it's not like this is a one-off type of game. This is every away game this season. So we've got to make sure that we keep stressing to the lads that we have to be at our levels, that's staff, players included, all the time throughout the course of a 100-minute football match.
"And when you're not, as has been shown over the first eight, nine games, you do get punished."
Just as Rome took some time to build, all Unitedites' frustrations were not evaporated on the day. A flat atmosphere followed a sluggish start on the pitch and when Joe Rothwell hammered wide from long range, some Blades on the Kop chanted ironically about having a shot.
They have not had an awful lot to cheer about of late but this is hopefully a step in the right direction, a line in the sand as they look to turn their season around.
"I was 11 years in the Championship with Forest, and they [United] shouldn't be a Championship football club," Cohen added.
"I think Sheffield United fans would expect them to be up and around the top end of the Championship and competing to be a Premier League football team like they've been for a number of years, over the last 25, 30 years.
"So yeah, when you see them 18th in the table or whatever they were before the start of play, you do understand that there's going to be a little bit of tension. And can we play on that? Can we create some nervousness, some more nervousness?
"And I thought it started a little bit. And then, as I said, the timing of the goals were really important for Chris and his team. Then the goal after half-time was a sucker punch and the atmosphere changes.
"You feel what I used to feel as a player here, and as a coach at Luton, when they're up and at it. They're a really difficult team to play against, with a really good manager."