Nice legbreak attempt by nick montgomery on

saturday . - also james beattie went down like a sack of spuds - morgan did a nice foul and blackwell was moaning - all in a days work

 

I watched really carefully for signs of trouble and ....

Montgomery should have walked for that challenge on Fonte - could have broken his leg. Not sure how McCarthy damaged his nose - was it broken? In all honesty the key incidents were no more than you might see at any game, so you could not say that Blades bullied Palace with unreasonable force at any stage. However, there was a bit of an undercurrent going on - at the end of the game, Clint Hill repeatedly shouted "f... off" in the direction of the United bench - couldn't see at whom he was directing his tirade - might have been Morgan, or one of the staff. When the players thought the cameras were off them at the end, there was the potential for a "coming together" involving Montgomery and some Palace players. Warnock tried to separate his players from the potential melee by directing them towards the Palace fans. Warnock was holding his finger to his lips to tell his players to keep quiet while there were cameras around. There was an under-current, but I reckon that the Blades were on orders to behave in front of the cameras this time. On this basis, they ought to make our match in February either the live Sky match, or the featured match on ITV. That would help keep emotions under control a bit.

I was left thinking what a waste are Beattie and Howard in a team which has not a clue about playing a passing game. I thought both Beattie and Howard looked uncomfortable and out of place in the 'over your heads' style of play. Palace, buy contrast, looked a technically good passing team a lot of the time.