Fortune Favours The Blades Not City

City: Burge (GK), Willis (C), (Stevenson 46), Clarke, Turnbull, Stokes, Bigirimana, Foley, Haynes (Thomas 78), Jones, Lameiras, Tudgay.  Subs: Charles-Cook (GK), Di. Kelly-Evans, Rawson, .Beavon, Folivi.

 

Sheffield United. Moore, Fleck, O’Connoll, Basham, Wright (Leon Clarke 46), Courts, Hanson, Freeman, Duffy (Carruthers 51), Sharp, (O’Shea 78) Lafferty, Subs: Long, Done, Wilson,  Chapman.

 

HT SUFC 0-0 CCFC    FT SUFC 2-0 CCFC ATT 24,334

 

Goals Leon Clarke 69, John Fleck 75

 

Coventry City gave it a good go but went down to a 2-0 defeat in their final midweek game away to Sheffield United.

 

With the City support still coming down after the massive high that was the EFL Trophy Final win at Wembley which will stay with all the 43 269 of us who were there for the rest of our lives, it was off to Sheffield United for the first of what Mark Robins described as ‘six cup finals’.

 

City travelled to Bramall Lane to take on a Blades side which needed to win and Fleetwood to lose at Oxford in order to win the League One title.

 

The bookies had written off City’s chances by offering odds of 11/1 and this along with the game being made all ticket and then not, plus  Sheffield not being the easiest to get back from after a night match, meant that only 230 tickets were sold beforehand.

There was plenty of traffic which meant a mad dash but shortly after getting into the ground to join three hundred from Leiden in the Netherlands, Kent, Hampshire and the Midlands in the away end, the game was put back to an 8pm kick , which was not a surprise with the amount outside queueing to get in.

City, not surprisingly changed their line up with Kevin Foley coming in at right midfield against a Blades side which included John but had Leon Clarke on the bench.

City’s first shot of the game came in the eighth minute thanks to a neat run and shot from Gael Bigirimana, my man of the match, whose effort was not too far wide of the Kop goal.

United looked nervous whilst City played with the same lack of fear as they did at . They did allow the home sides two shots in the opening 17 minutes but Burge saved the first and watched the other go wide of his right hand post.

 

In the 22nd minute, James Hanson skied over from six yards in a move which should never have happened if Nathan Clarke had not given the ball away exceedingly cheaply.

Jodi Jones won City a 28th minute corner before Leon Clarke came out to warm up and got a ton of abuse from the City support who called for a penalty in the 34th minute for a handball.

Ben Stevenson replaced Jordan Willis at the break for a City side which Jodi Jones fire wide three minutes in.

Leon Clarke came on in the 51st minute and had the ball in the net but was well offside, something it took the home fans longer than the City support to work out. 

Lameiras, who was better than Kevin Foley but not by much, then got round the Blades defence, could only direct a team shot at Simon Moore.

With news that Fleetwood were winning at Oxford, Jones won City a 63rd minute corner and then went down far too easily in a bid to try and win a penalty.

In the 69th minute,  the ball came across and there was Leon Clarke who else to bundle home past Burge.

There was the now expected ‘Sisu In chants’ from some of more moronic minority of home fans who were celebrating when John Fleck was allowed to run through and smash home a second before celebrating far more than when he played for City.

Lameiras had the ball in the net but the flag had long been up withy seven minutes left.

Fleck got booked as the United fans started to leave well before the end of a game which petered out to another defeat for the Sky Blues and United’s promotion party put on hold as Fleetwood won 3-1 at Oxford.