Free tickets available for Blackburn game

An encouraging gesture from United's new owners as the club strives to pull a big crowd for a crunch fixture

A quick newsletter for you this week, as United slipped to an expected defeat at Bristol City. The Blades did throw quite a few proverbial punches in this one – just look at the momentum chart from Sofascore below – but of course that came after the home side had taken a 3-0 lead with a burst of goals either side of half-time.

Rather than dwell on that defeat as we hit another international break, I’m going to focus on a couple of bright spots from outside of the Blades’ on-field woes this season – starting with an excellent gesture of free tickets to all supporters for the Blackburn home game on April 20th.

This week I was very pleased to have Anna Kent, vice chair of Rainbow Blades, joining me once again on BladesPod to catch up on both the men’s and women’s teams – you can listen to that here or wherever you get your podcasts. One of the things Anna and I discussed was our hope to see a statement of intent from the Blades new owners with regards to how the women’s team will be funded beyond this summer, even (or indeed, especially) if they slip out of the Championship. To that end, this free ticket offer is a very good start and hopefully will see a similar or larger crowd than attended the Portsmouth match.

Financially it’s probably not a huge impingement on SUFC to give out free tickets for this game, but it’s still a welcome gesture (I note with increasing frustration that the men’s team’s latest fine for avoidable contretemps is over £100,000, and do everything in my power not to think about how far that could’ve gone in the women’s team).

I’ve been desperate for anything to cling to this season, and although the new ownership group haven’t made any kind of statement about the women’s team (or the men’s, to be clear), this at least is an encouraging sign that they are paying attention to a situation that is, in fairness, not of their making. Get your tickets if you can make it and come and support the team – with Portsmouth’s goal difference taking another whack last weekend, one win really could be enough for the Blades.

I imagine our international Blades were quite happy to head off to represent their countries this week and it’s raised a smile seeing how some of them have got on already. Maria Farrugia scored twice for Malta earlier this evening in their Nations League win over Georgia, while Fallon Connolly-Jackson scored not once but twice for Scotland U19s, including an Olimpico.

Get her on corner duties, Blades.

As I write, Esther Morgan is on the bench for Wales in their own NL game, while Connie Scofield played half an hour for Northern Ireland in their 1-1 draw in Romania. Jacqui Hand and Jade Bailey also got further callups for New Zealand and Jamaica, although from what I can tell Hand is unlikely to repeat the late return from international duty that was the case before the Portsmouth game – from what I can tell the Ferns will play their second of two friendlies with Chinese Taipei on April 8th, giving a 12-day gap until the Blackburn match.

Safe travels to our international Blades, and once again do grab yourself a free ticket to the Blackburn game if you can make it and cheer on the team.

Finally, a quick thank you to everyone who subs to WOMEN OF STEEL. This newsletter recently passed 200 subscribers, and it’s great to know there’s an audience for content on the women’s team. Really appreciate you reading.