Bottom before the season kicks off Game 4

 PNE 0 Sheffield United 2 Arblaster, Hamer

PNE line-up: Woodman; Whatmough, Lindsay, Hughes; Potts, Whiteman, Thórdarson (Frøkjær, 72), Brady (Best, 87); Greenwood (Kesler-Hayden, 65), Keane (Osmajić, 65); Riis. Subs not used: Cornell, Storey, Ledson, Holmes, T.Mawene.

Sheffield United line-up: Davies; Gilchrist (Seriki, 72), Ahmedhodžić, Robinson, Burrows; Souza, Arblaster; Brooks (Brewster, 79), O’Hare (Peck, 90), Hamer (Slimane, 73); Moore. Subs not used: Grbić, Trusty, Souttar, Coulibaly, Marsh.

Attendance: 17,948 (4,029 Sheffield United fans).

Referee: Mr B Madley.

New start same result, 6 straight defeats, no goals in 540 minutes, eight of the last nine games we have failed to score. Two avoidable goals, the first unlucky, the second an error of epic magnitude. Two players almost replicating the Doyle/Beckford fracas at Hillsborough nine years ago. At least the new light worked unfortunately though they were pointing towards pitch.
Thordarson looks an asset wants the ball and runs with looks for team mates who have moved into good positions,(still at experimental testing that part)
Must be wondering what he has let himself into.
United resplendent in a shirt of a seemingly new invented colour, lots of new signings looking to bounce back to the top division straight away.
Fast start to the game both sides zipping the ball about, thefirst when it arrived not saying it had a certain amount of luck on it but can best be described as scabby. Great tackle by Thordarson, ball cannons into a home player beofre ending up at the feet of Brooks, he bided his time, found Arblaster who shot and saw his effort boing off a home player completely wrong footing Woodman.
This gave United confidence dominated for most of the half although apart from O'Hare who nearly wriggled his way through before losing the ball close to go.
A Thordarson shot from distance went over and in a brief period of pressure saw Riis fire in a tame effort.
Second period similar start to the first with us dominating, then came the second, firstly it's a classy finish by Hamer but...
United quick beral, superb advantage by Madley(had a pretty decent game to be fair to him) United attacked in numbers however moved fizzled out, Woodman quick through straight to Hamer who chipped it back over the keeper from 30 yards, the collective sight of despair from the home support probably could have been heard 30 miles away. No coming back from this.
United threatened to run riot after a rapid break down the right which was eventually cleared for a corner, Hughes and Brady nearly but not quite came to blows.
With substitutions Potts into midfield brought the only save from either keeper, pushed behind by Davies for a corner.
At the other end Moore fired in a powerful strike hitting the side netting.
United will only get better as for us we will improve by changing the tool in the manager's seat.

THE FANTASTIC VIEW


Ryan Lowe was left frustrated by the manner of the goals his side conceded in the 2-0 defeat to Sheffield United on the opening night of the 2024/25 season.

Ollie Arblaster gave the visitors an early first-half lead, courtesy of a huge deflection which left Freddie Woodman with no chance.

The goalkeeper inadvertently threw the ball to Gustavo Hamer in the 55th minute, though, and the midfielder lobbed North End’s No.1 to double his side’s advantage.

Speaking after the game, Ryan said: “I thought we started well. I thought there were some good moments in the game and we were well in the game before it ricochets and gets a deflection and bounces in.

“Obviously we’re disappointed by that and in the build-up to it we gave the ball away with a stray pass and we get caught. Before that, I thought we were well in the game. We started brightly and after that we got a foothold again and had a little bit more. We were getting balls down the sides and supporting the play.

“Second half, we started like a house on fire and came out of the blocks really fast. I thought we did well with that and then to concede a goal the way we did [was disappointing].

“Fred’s made a judgement to throw it. I thought his contribution before that was excellent, his kicking was top drawer, his decision-making was excellent. I think he got a little bit hurried because we came out the blocks in the second half and the place sort of erupted and wanted us to do things quickly.

“He’s made a judgement to throw it so he’s disappointed in that but there’s no criticism from us.”

North End had chances on the night themselves, with Emil Riis and Brad Potts among those to test Adam Davies in the Blades’ goal.


The manager was overall pleased with aspects of PNE’s play, having seen results of some of the things they’ve been working on throughout pre-season.

Asked what specifically he was happy with, Ryan said: “They passed their way out from the back, they worked their way up the pitch, we had a lot more possession.

“I want the boys getting up the pitch higher. We passed the ball forwards a lot more but could have been a bit more.

“We need to play forward more. We’ve got to have options, we’ve got to have runs. Late on we put two strikers on and they’ve got to make runs down the side, and when we’ve got two eights you can see Pottsy [Brad Potts] driving inside and Kaine [Kesler-Hayden] coming on, I thought he was excellent when he came on the pitch.

“We’ve obviously got to do more to win games of football, we know that. But we’re up against an outfit who have just come down from the Premier League and most of them lads have played in that division.

“We’re disappointed overall. I thought there were some good moments in the game which we’ll have a look at and analyse, and we can just keep getting better. That’s going to be our message.”

Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder:

"We showed we can play a different way. We controlled the tempo and pace of the game. I thought the two in midfield were incredible and dominated that area of the pitch.

“I keep saying it’s a fresh beginning. Not being disrespectful, that includes my period (last season) as well. This is a new team with the biggest amount of changes of any club in the Championship this season.

“We still have work to do and there is a hell of a long way to go and a hell of a lot of work to do.

“We will have difficult days but we have to enjoy days like this as well because of the incredible nature of the Premier League and what that was all about last year.”

The unique experience of being bottom before the season kicks off GLORIOUS