blades blog Derby day: “All in the game yo, all in the game . . . “

Posted: September 18th 2009
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Already we’ve reached that part of the season where there’s not enough football to satisfy my cravings. Adredaline’s coursing through my blood stream in the search for the merest hint, a snaffle, a scent, a genuine indicator of what’s to come, how the season might pan out, how miserable I might be, how carefully I might have to fan the flames to ignite the fire in my belly on the terrace once more.

Into the crucible now is added the white hot temperature of a Steel City Derby but the premature nature of the fixture at the wrong end of the season, plus preceding midweek fixtures and defeats for both clubs, has led to a somewhat muted build up to this most excitable of fixtures.

Both the halves of Sheffield find themselves in a similar position bar three points and one extra win for us so the 124th Sheffield Derby is all set. Funny how we count derby games – you never hear commentators label the latest Northampton versus Torquay game as being the 73rd meeting of those two historic clubs? Anyway, the Wendies are on a high after last season’s historic double and therefore there is an obvious point to prove for we Blades. No matter what is to come, this is still the most exciting fixture of the season and everything about it will surpass all other fixtures in 09-10 and thankfully, I shall be there, again.

We’re relatively happy bunnies down at BDTBL with business over the summer and to the transfer window’s end appearing to put us in a strong position on the field. But the window is intriguing. It’s never clear but smeared in a camouflage cream which means that there’s so much more to the deals than meets the eye.

Players released before supplementary payments become liable, players with high wage bills driven out, players out-of-favour with supporters nevertheless kept and played because the manager’s taking an appearance cut – it’s a testing time for supporters, many of whom fail to see the wood for the trees. I don’t have insider information so I don’t know any more or less than you but followers of trends and history can often put the pieces together to make the view a little clearer.

The offloading of allegedly expensive wages earners Lee Hendrie and David Carney was almost certainly the final jettison of anything to do with Bryan Robson and comes on the back of the disposal of similar acquisitions in the shape of players like Sun Jihai. The additional departures of Billy Sharpe and Danny Webber leaves room for healthy investments in the shape of one Chedwyn Evans, Keith Treacy, Ryan France, Kyle Reid, Lee Williamson, Andy Taylor, Glen Little and more recently James Harper from Reading and Jordan Stewart from Derby.

I was though sad to see the departure of the Kyles who earned their spurs and moved to Tottenham. The return of Kyle Walker on loan was a lovely stroke of sensible business but I’d seen Naughton as the linchpin of my newly-promoted Premier League Blades. Posted May 29 on this very fine website I said, and I quote:

“ . . . . .  I shall continue wearing my “Sheffield’s finest” t-shirt featuring Kyle Naughton because he and Walker and the Academy are our future. Let’s hope we can continue to enjoy their skills rather than count the pennies from their sale.”

Even as the words appeared staccato-like on the computer screen I knew it was a vain plea, a naïve hope that the Kyles would slip under the pre-season transfer radar, both  talented, but one as yet unproven and the other with just a season under his belt. It was feasible that we could have hung on to both for at least another year. But football folk are cannier than that. Everyone’s watching everyone else and it was only a matter of time. Long, long after the final whistle of the Championship play-off final was blown, this was our punishment. Beaten but unbowed on the day, our best will simply be creamed off before the old season was dead.

Still, we have all the makings of another fine season ahead – three draws, three wins and a single defeat from what was also a tricky opening to the season (Middlesborough, West Brom, Leicester, Reading and Derby) leave me anticipating only positives.

On the playing front we appear finely balanced on a knife edge between a beautiful passing game and hoofball – the former when things gel and the latter when the backs press the panic button. The signings so far suggest there’s a genuine desire to play attractive football in Sheffield 2 – long may it continue. But first we must dispose of the Pigs.

Talking of oinkers, the banning of facemasks or facial coverings at Bramall Lane for the derby fixture is a new one on me. In recent years both sides’ supporters have donned pig masks and opposition colours to make their point and although the facial wear lacks the style and panache of 16th Century Italian renaissance balls, there’s something quite historically and ritualistically fascinating about the wearing of an animal mask to demean an opposing supporter. I, for one, support the wearing of masks and hope that Shoreham Street and the Kop is packed out with a variety of masked supporters depicting not only European renaissance frivolity, but also ceremonial Cherokee masks from North America, be-masked Shamans dancing a fine line between the human and spirit worlds, Aztec human skulls and a host of Greek and Roman masks.

C’mon Blades, on the 30th anniversary of the Boxing Day Massacre, let us avenge that 4-0 drubbing and lay the ghosts of ’79. Free my generation of that guilt, that burden that we carry with us. Let us wipe the floor with them and celebrate the victory in song for the next 30 years. Suddenly I feel The Quickening. I sense the rush. There can be only one Sheffield side. Who wants to live forever? And across the highland moors I can hear the bagpipes droning the opening bars of Annie’s Song . . . . . “You fill up my senses . . .

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