3 hours ago
5
Key events Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature
23 min: Nice move from City, though at slow-motion. Wells is played into a crossing position. Cooper again the calmest Blade out there. The rest look to be feeling the efforts of last Thursday.
21 min: Blades are constantly looking to Kieffer Moore’s height. Were they to go up, could he be next season’s Chris Wood? The big striker is back as an entity.
19 min: Some loose passing; it’s easy to forget the tension among this players. Nakhi Wells, back in Yorkshire as a former Bradford and Huddersfield man, gets space to shoot. Cooper is again calm under fire.
17 min: Harry Maguire looks nervous, though perhaps what he’s reading on his phone is making him so.
15 min: Moore loses the ball and Blades can’t keep it. All City. They hem back Blades. Pring, though, loses the ball.
14 min: City engaging the high press/pushing up, dependent on your preference for terminology.
12 min: Jason Knight, up from midfield, shoots. Cooper saves but this is the point City need to score. Their fans are urging on their team with actual belief. One goal and….well.
11 min: Another glimmer for City, as an overlap lays up Twine but he chooses to pass rather than shoot. The wing-backs are getting the better of the full-backs.
9 min: Kieren McKintosh gets in touch: “This game proves, if nothing else, the power of marketing.
“One take: A battle between two sides to either lose to Sunderland at Wembley, or go up to an overrated league and be moored in 20th all season, going straight back down with pundits and journalists alike making a killing off talking about how awful you are.
“Another take: A battle between one manager wanting to prove his worth in the most famous league in the world, and another staging a glorious comeback from losing his son to take his team to unprecedented heights. Winner gets to (very possibly) be seen across the world and take 2 points off the likes of Man City!
“Both are the same match. Power of marketing for you. Well lads, whatever the case, make it interesting for us neutrals.”
8 min: Hello, McCrory bursts on to a header, and the City wing-back is unlucky the ball comes off Burrows. That was dozy play from the Blade.
7 min: The City fans trying to make themselves heard on their team’s mission impossible. Who can be their Tom Cruise?
6 min: A near-tangle with Blades keeper Michael Cooper and Burrows, his defender. But all is calm, and smiles as the keeper claims.
5 min: City are going for this. They have no other option. But that opens space, and Hamer plays in Moore, the ball dropping to Cannon, who fires wide. That was a nerve settler.
3 min: Early snap shot from Twine, the ball falling loose after Ahmedhodzic’s touch. This time the forward can’t get enough purchase but a moment to get people wondering.
We are underway....
1 min: It’s a slow start. Tommy Cannon is the straight man to Kieffer Moore, rather than Bobby Ball.
Liam Manning’s theme tune for the night, as sung by another Sheffield lad in Paul Carrack, though he’s a Wednesday fan. The Blades fans sing their usual version of Annie’s Song. Was John Denver aware of Sheffield United, a fan of Trevor Hockey and Keith Edwards?
The players are out and the noise is loud, as it often is at Bramall Lane, even back in the days it had three sides. Chris Wilder has his game face on, and that’s a fearsome sight for anyone.
Spotted in the crowd: Harry Maguire, who came through Blades’ much-admired youth set-up. Played in the 2011 Youth Cup final v Paul Pogba, Jesse Lingard and Ravel Morrison. A proud Sheffield lad.
Killer stat here:
-
In the history of the EFL play-offs, just 10 of 60 teams have progressed from the semi-final stage after losing their first leg on home soil, though no side has ever come back from a three-goal margin of defeat at home in the first leg to reach the final.
For Blades, Rhian Brewster and Tyrese Campbell are benched with Tom Cannon and Andre Brooks coming on. Callum O’Hare, who also got on the scoresheet at Ashton Gate and was influential in taking control of the tie, is back on the bench.
For City, Liam Manning’s made four changes as he launches his Heeley Hail Mary at Bramall Lane. Scott Twine, Haydon Roberts, George Earthy and Cam Pring are starting, risks taken with Twine’s fitness. Rob Dickie is, of course, suspended.
Here’s where we are after the first legs.
The teams
Sheff Utd: Cooper, Peck, Ahmedhodzic, Robinson, Burrows, Hamer, Vinicius Souza, Brooks, Choudhury, Cannon, Moore. Subs: Adam Davies, Gilchrist, McCallum, Holding, Brewster, O’Hare,
Rak-Sakyi, Tom Davies, Campbell.
Bristol City: O’Leary, Tanner, Vyner, McCrorie, Roberts, Knight, Bird, Pring, Twine, Earthy, Wells. Subs: Bajic, Morrison, McGuane, Hirakawa, Bell, Cornick, Mehmeti, Armstrong.
Referee: Peter Bankes (Merseyside)
Preamble
They couldn’t, could they? They probably won’t but at least Bristol City cannot have a worse night than they did in the first leg. Down to ten men and 3-0 down, and against a Blades team who can mix it. Urgh. Now for the miracle. It can be done. Sheffield Wednesday overturned 4-0 just two years ago. Otherwise, Blades, third-best all season, will claim the Wembley place they’d say was rightfully theirs.
Kick-off at 8pm UK time. Join me.
