Sheffield United 1 v Leicester City 4 - Carabao Football League Cup R2

Tuesday 22nd August 2017

Carabao Football League Cup First Round

Sheffield United (0) 1
Caolan Lavery 83

Leicester City (0) 4
Demarai Gray 52, Islam Slimani 63, 67,  Ahmed Musa 90+3

Admission £15. Programme £3. Attendance 11,280

Sheffield United:
Eastwood, O'Connell, Wright (Basham 68), Lafferty, Freeman, Baldock (Coutts 68), Lundstram, Carruthers, Brooks, Lavery, Evans (Sharp 61).
Unused subs - Stevens, Thomas, Duffy, Blackman.
Leicester City:
Hamer, Chilwell, Gray, King, Musa, Maguire (Knight 80), Amartey, Slimani, Ulloa, Ndidi (Mendy 76), Fuchs.
Unused subs - Vardy, Albrighton, Jakupovic, Okazaki, Mahrez.

"Like a night out in Sheffield,
Like a greasy chip butty!"

In fairness to both mangers, they had made it abundantly clear, well in advance of this Carabao League Cup second round tie, that they would be utilising numerous 'fringe' players and indulging in the ancient art of 'squad rotation', to the nth degree.

The Blades and the Foxes made exactly the same amount of personnel changes as each other from their respective starting line ups on Saturday, for this 'low priority' fixture, namely: eight apiece! 

So if 11,279 people (plus myself) chose to fork out fifteen quid apiece to watch what was effectively a reserve team fixture, then yours is not to reason why. 

We all knew exactly what kind of fare was going to be on offer the moment that the two sides were paired together.

Half and half scarves for a game like this!?
That Market Research CSE was wasted on you pal. 

But if anybody is waiting up until 4.30am on Thursday morning, to watch the draw for the third round, broadcast live from Beijing, then you are more than entitled to question their sanity.

Both of Sheffield's Championship sides crashed out of the League Cup tonight and though Wednesday eventually only lost to the odd goal in five at Bolton, while United were being put to the sword with a fourth goal in stoppage time at Bramall Lane, after clawing their way back into this game with a complete fluke of a goal inside the last ten minutes, they had both, simultaneously been 3-0 down at one point.

Evidently the steel city clubs reckon that they have got bigger fish to fry and masticate with their greasy chip butties.

But, tin hat on, I ask you in all seriousness... have they really?

One would've thought that the League Cup offers a better chance of silverware this season than any other competition, since the 'bigger clubs' have started taking the FA Cup seriously again.

And I reckon that analogy applies to tonight's visitors from the East Midlands too, unless lightning is going to strike again in the Premier League and the Foxes are planning on stunning the entire population of planet football, including themselves, again.

When Maltby Main's versatile defender, midfielder and striker, Lee Hill
isn't terrorising opposition players, he likes to take his lads to Bramall
Lane and have a perv at the attractive Chinese students sat nearby.

The Blades are aiming to consolidate their place in the second tier of English football this season.

And with Chris Wilder at the helm, I'm sure that aim will be fulfilled, with tread to spare. He'll know what is best for his Blades side and he's done a bloody good job thus far, but I wouldn't imagine that United's loyal fans would mind a decent cup run to spice up their understandably transitional year back at this level. Just saying.

When Sheffield United had seen off Walsall in the previous round, in a game that was subtitled: THE CHED EVANS SHOW, the Welsh striker had given the home crowd a glimpse of what he will bring to their game when he reaches his peak of fitness and a few flashes how how good a player he was at Bramall Lane before his career was put on hold, because of the way that the flawed legal system works in this country. But tonight, in all honesty, Evans found himself marked out of the game and demonstrated that he isn't yet close to the aforementioned peak fitness level.

The biggest cheer of the night from the home support, was for their popular former youth player Harry McQuire, who turned out for the Foxes tonight as his career sky rockets and there is even talk of of Gareth Southgate calling him up the forthcoming England, World Cup qualifying games.

South Yorkshire is turning out to be a fertile breeding ground for Leicester City/England players.

Unless you are that (very hairy) Japanese warrior, holed up in a remote woodland stockade, armed up to the teeth and ready for immediate combat at a moments noticee, who only discovered two weeks ago that World War 2 is actually over; you will of course know that I am referring to Jamie Vardy, who was an unused (and unneeded) bench warmer tonight. 

There wasn't really very much to write about of note in the first half, so let's fast forward to the second, after putting it on record, that tonight's game was going to be won and lost in midfield, where the Blades weren't shy about being physical, but weren't getting much change out of the basketball player sized Foxes brutes in the middle of the pitch, who could take a knock and evidently dish it out in return with interest too, while the match referee had very little sympathy for anybody who wasn't in the mood for a battle.

McQuire had been welcomed home with a hefty whack during the opening exchanges, but in response Leicester had seemingly adopted a: "Oh well, if you want to play rough, we're happy to oblige" policy.

After the break, Leicester cranked up the heat and twenty minutes or so later, were effectively through to the next round.

Demarai Gray, who is subject to a massive transfer bid from Premier League 'giants' AFC Bournemouth (that Birmingham City will get a healthy percentage of in the shape od a sell on fee, if the eal goes through), scored his last goal for Leicester back in February v Derby County in a FA Cup game, but opened the scoring tonight in the 52nd minute, when he cut in from the left, saw of three challenges and knocked the ball through the rookie Blades goalkeeper, Jake Eastwood's legs.

Wilder changed things upfront for United, with Billy Sharp replacing Evans just after the hour in a bid to freshen his attacking options up. Alas, his efforts were all in vain, because Islam Slimani, the visitors Algerian front man scored twice in the space of four minutes, with Gray setting up the second of his strikes.

With seven minutes to go, the Blades were thrown a lifetime when Caolan Lavery made a complete hash of delivering a cross towards Sharp, only to see his miscued cross beat Ben Hamer at the near post. And moment's later Sharp's shot was blocked by Josh Knight, a teenage debutant who Craig Shakespeare had thrown on for the last ten minutes to get a run out.

The Blades searching desperately for their League Cup mojo

Deep into stoppage time, with approximately half of the crowd now listening to the remainder of the game on their car radios, Ahmed Musa surged through the home side's defence and put the icing on Leicester's second half dominance with a neat finish.

FT: Sheffield United 1 v Leicester City 4

Footnote: Added Thursday 24th August at 4pm. Leicester got Liverpool away in the third round draw.