Blades rolling back the years
KING DAVID PUTS BOLTON TO SWORD
THE Queen wasn’t on the throne the last time Sheffield United beat Bolton home and away in a season.
But David Mcgoldrick’s sixth goal in his last nine games on 56 minutes paved the way for the Blades to bridge a 71-year gap as they notched up their fourth straight win on home soil.
Skipper Billy Sharp crowned his 500th league appearance with the clincher 17 minutes later to keep the promotion chariot rolling on.
They may have secured their first “double” over Bolton since 1947-48 but this was no royal command performance from Chris Wilder’s side, who had to work hard to break down their opponents.
And the United boss was not happy with his side’s sluggish start.
“It was a gentle reminder that we cannot coast in games,” he said. “We have to go full tilt and try and blow the opposition away early on.”
Bolton’s heads dropped after going behind and the evergreen Sharp made it 223 career goals and 19 this term in the 73rd minute, meeting Oliver Norwood’s free-kick with a bullet header. It’s now just one win in 20 and none in the last 13 on the road for crisis-torn Bolton, who look destined for the drop. “Everybody wrote us off last year and we proved them wrong and we’ve got to do it again,” said Steve Parkin, assistant manager for Phil Parkinson (above). “We were pretty comfortable in the first half but goals change games. I don’t like moaning about officials but Billy Sharp was offside for their first, while there was no excuse for our defending for the second.”
Mcgoldrick recently signed a new contract and celebrated by finding the net at Bramall Lane for the fifth game in a row.
Sharp was the architect, shrugging off Jack Hobbs with a forceful run before finding Mcgoldrick who swept home from close range to reach double figures for the campaign. For a side who are averaging less goals per game than anyone else in all four divisions, it was perhaps not surprising Bolton failed to offer much of a goal threat.
What was less predictable was that early on, the Blades were as blunt in the final third.
Enda Stevens saw a 20-yard piledriver blocked in front of his own line by David Wheater on 25 minutes and just before halftime, John Fleck saw his effort ricochet narrowly wide.