Well its all looking rather peachy isn't it. Three wins out of three, two of them against so called promotion favourites. Although personally I don't think any team managed by Bryan Robson can be given that tag.
Its all feeling very '2000'. Especially when you throw into the mix an early in the month Tuesday night fixture against a poor Sheff Wed team. Admittedly we met them in November last time rather than October and I'm probably too superstitious. However if we get Man Utd home in the 3rd round of the League Cup I'll be worried!
Yesterday was good old traditional 'Division Two' fare. We certainly didn't look like the two teams who had just been relegated from the Prem. It was a slog and probably fairly dire for the neutral (but if you're a neutral you can't expect anything else from Sheff Utd) but if you had a vested interest it was great stuff.
The whole thing started well as the teams emerged from the tunnel to Z Cars. It was played at the quietest I think I've ever heard it but more of that later. Thank God we appear to be sticking with it this season although I won't hold my breathe. Funny to note that in this weeks Watford Observer's 'On this day in history...' type feature the piece from 1987 was about Elton deciding the club should ditch Z Cars and run out to Superman.
Old habits die hard and by this I mean the habit of the club trying to get rid of something the supporters hold so dear. I couldn't image it happening at Anfield with 'You'll Never Walk Alone' neither at Goodison which I suppose it a better example! Tradition is an important part of football so please lets stop tampering. It still makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up as we run out to it and its one of the most played songs on my ipod.
One thing I'd never thought I'd say was that at least we've got Richard Short as main mc. I used to hate him and I can still look back and cringe at some of his classics from the past ('we've got an exciting result from the Premiership for all you Man Utd fans...' during a football league game for example).
However he has improved a lot over the years and he and Tim (the other bloke who seems to stay very much in the background but is very good at what he does) have become a good team.
Yesterday however Tim was off. Doesn't happen often. Can't remember last time it did. But I don't know who the bloke was they got to do it instead but he was TERRIBLE. Now okay, I'll admit I speak as someone who works in radio so I have a vested, possibly verging on anoraky, interest in such things but he was bad.
Unfortunately if you are Richard Short's Ernie Wise equivalent it means you not only have to read the away team, birthdays and half times but also you get to be in charge of the mixing desk which means you control the level of the microphone and the music, hence the difficult to hear Z Cars.
I couldn't honestly tell you who was playing for Sheff Utd as I couldn't hear him at all. Obviously Kenny was in goal and Danny Webber and James Beattie were up front but other than that I've no idea. Incidentally I'm sure I can remember Kenny being in goal when I saw us play them back in the late 80's. How old is he??
If it was your birthday yesterday and you'd ask to have it mentioned over the tannoy you'd have been disappointed and it was only half way through the half times that Ernie (or whoever he was) finally worked out how to use the volume control on the mic.
Finally he quite hilariously played the music the team runs out to for the second half far far too early so that we got the whole thing rather than just the rousing bit at the beginning.
Another man having a bad day was Alvin Martin. He was reporting on the game for Sky and really could have picked a better spot to stand than directly above the Sheff Utd fans. 'Stand up if you hate West Ham' and 'Cheap suit from Matalan' were among the chants during his broadcasts. We responded with 'there's only one Carlos Tevez'.
Full marks earlier on though for the Sheff Utd fans who pretty much to a man all appaluded Don Fraser getting his throughly deserved Barclays Supporter of the Year award.
To the game itself and worryingly for us Mart Poom and his back four look as much a group as Hear'say were in their latter days. He certainly seems to spend a lot of time getting cross with them although he and Jay DeMerit seemed to have reached an understand that if one cocks up the other doesn't have a go. Maybe they figured this out before they got into Dyer-Bowyer territory. I don't feel nearly as comfortable with Poom in goal as I thought I would. However he is still better than early era Ben Foster!
Lee Williamson was very good again. His goal was another of this seasons speciality, the deflected shot. I'd really like to see a midfield paring of him and Will Hoskins. Sorry Gav. I do like you. I just wouldn't have you in my current starting XI.
Tommy Smith was superb and earned us the win by clearing off the line when it looked 95% certain that Sheff Utd had equalised. Funny how we used to boo him when he came back to the Vic. I do think the Danny Webber boo boys should bear this sort of thing in mind. Its one thing to do a Lee Cook but another just to happen to move on. I certainly won't be booing Clarke Carlisle when he returns with Burnley later in the season.
Bryan Robson made the mistake of subbing Webber for Luton Sheldon who did deserve to be booed for obvious reasons.
The game was one of those that I couldn't tell you who was going to win whilst it was 0-0 but once we were in front I never really imagined us losing (although the clearing off the line was heart stopping in the extreme).
So we were top for two and a half hours and only drop one place on alphabetical order. Its certainly peachy at the moment. Even more so if we can beat 'promotion favourites' Leicester next weekend.
