SHARP BLADE SEALS POINT
GETTING Sheffield United out of League One has proven a puzzler for a string of Chris Wilder’s recent predecessors, but the Blades boss believes he can find the solution.
The Yorkshire outfit are now in their sixth successive season of League One football and Wilder hopes to succeed were men like Danny Wilson, David Weir, Nigel Clough and Nigel Adkins have fallen short.
But the former Northampton manager will need better performances than this: United badly struggled for the first 65 minutes, and were relieved when Billy Sharp rescued their first point ten minutes from time.
Wilder said: “We got a result, we feel we could have possibly nicked a tight game, but we didn’t and we have to move on quickly.
“One of the things that’s tough at the moment is the way the games are coming round. We’re sticking a jigsaw together; there’s loads of pieces chucked up in the air, and we’ve got to stick them in as quickly as possible.
“Time on the training ground is very limited and we need that time to get us right.
“Keith Hill’s been at his job for five years and you’ve seen they’re not as big a club as us and they deal in a different market, but they play more together as a team and that’s what my target has to be.
“It’s a start.We got ourselves off the canvas, we had a desire to try and get something from the game. It’s not the result that we wanted but it’s a start and we have to go from there.
“When we scored we saw what the players were about and the crowd gave us a massive lift. I’m sure there’s a lot more to come from the players.”
Rochdale were on top throughout the first half and Blades goalkeeper George Long was lucky not to be punished for dropping a cross into a packed box.
The stopper seemed to make amends for that 30 seconds later as he came off his line well to stop Ian Henderson going clear through, but spilled again just before the break when the midfielder shot from outside the box, with Andy Cannon tucking away the rebound.
United came awake on 65 minutes, when Leon Clarke met Mark Duffy’s cross with a good diving header than went just wide of the post.
Sharp finally broke free to convert Chris Hussey’s 80thminute free-kick and frustrate Dale boss Hill.
He said: “We’re disappointed. I don’t subscribe to all the politics of football, the ‘who should be winning this, who should be doing that, they’re a great team’. We are a good team.
“I’m relatively pleased with a lot of the performance. I think we could have a good season but we have to put it all together.
“We’d nullified the massive threat they have in their front line. The last two games they created massive chances but hadn’t converted, I can’t remember themhaving many clear-cut opportunities.”
SHEFFIELD U: (4-4-2): Long 4, Brayford 6, Wilson 6, O’Connell 6, Hussey 7, Duffy 5 (Scougall 68 6), Basham 7, Fleck 5, Done 5 (Chapman 59 6), Clarke 5, Sharp 8. Subs not used: Ramsdale, Wright, Freeman, Coutts, McNulty.
ROCHDALE: (4-1-4-1): Lillis 6, Rafferty 6, McGahey 7, Canavan 6, McNulty 6, Allen 7, McDermott 7, Cannon 8 (Camps 78 5), Henderson 7, Mendez-Laing 4 (Odelusi 68 5) Andrew 5. Subs not used: Logan, Tanser, Thompson, Morley, Bunney.