MD15: Sheffield United 0-2 Portsmouth

A disastrous result for United who allow Portsmouth to close the gap to just a point at the bottom of the league following a first-half red card

“Made a note in my diary on the way here. Simply says, ‘bugger’.”

That was a disaster – one that resurfaces so many of the frustrations about how United have managed their women’s team over the last year or more, as John Slingsby wrote about in some depth after the game. To that end, last season’s United captain Sophie Barker getting the vital opening goal for Portsmouth was quite on-the-nose.

I’m fighting my emotions a bit here, trying to stay semi-objective about the defeat and take a slightly longer view. Yes, relegation for United Women would be disastrous for the women’s side of the club on so many levels. I’ve almost not allowed myself to think about the ramifications of what that would look like. This article from Guardian writer Tom Garry suggests that centralised funding would drop from around £400,000 to almost zero if United depart for the National League. Seems bad.

I do still think United will finish above the sole relegation spot, but regardless we all now have to stew for a few more weeks and months. As a curious by-product of the uneven number of teams in this season’s Championship, Portsmouth will finish their season one week before United, on April 27th, when they host Blackburn in a winnable game (Rovers being the only team that United themselves have beaten this campaign).

United are away at Sunderland a week later and I’m praying they’re already safe by that point as it would require a shock result on the road to overhaul Pompey if not.

Glorious day; awful result.

I think it’s still realistic that Portsmouth lose their next four games heading into that last fixture (Sunderland and Bristol City at home; Southampton and Durham away). It’s just that United will probably chalk up a few losses themselves along the way – there’s an inexplicable three-week gap now followed by London City and Bristol City away, both of whom have promotion aspirations (admittedly slim for Bristol City at this stage).

The Blades absolutely have to get at least two points out of Blackburn and Southampton at home in late April, otherwise I’ll be in full panic mode. For what it’s worth, Blackburn are only a point ahead of United themselves, but with three games in hand I’m not really including them in any relegation scrap. Rovers will also fancy themselves to win at least one of their games against the bottom two, although a double loss could change the picture slightly.

The fact I’m even having to look at the two teams’ respective fixture lists is a pretty sorry indictment of the mishandling of the women’s team since the end of last season. The club effed about over the summer; we’re now very far advanced into the finding-out stage. I refer you back to John’s article while I sigh melodramatically to myself.

All this would have been avoided with a positive result on Sunday, in front of a crowd of over 3,700 ready and waiting to cheer on the Blades. United welcomed Jade Bailey and Abbie Lafayette back into the starting lineup, with Lafayette playing centreback. Ella Kinzett and Eva Butler missed out with illness and Maddy Earl had picked up an ankle problem in training, ruling them out:

That also meant a first start for Alyssa Aherne after her deadline day signing from Manchester United waaaay back in the autumn. Aherne flashed some good skills, particularly in the first half, but faded in the second as United couldn’t regain control of the game.

After a good first half an hour it all unravelled as Issy Hobson was shown a (correct) red card. Even then United looked fairly comfortable until gifting an opening goal to Sophie Barker, of all people, who had a fabulously commanding game on her return to Bramall Lane.

Portsmouth probably couldn’t believe their luck. Not to take anything away from them, as they played the situation perfectly, but we did everything we could to hand them the game and their first-ever win at this level in the process. Seeing the celebrations starting for the visitors while the game will still underway certainly rankles when my season ticket has brought me zero wins so far this season, with the potential for that duck to remain unbroken by the end.

Look how happy they are! I want this!

I won’t be too hard on Hobson for the red, even though there’s no point sugar-coating the fact that it almost certainly cost us the game. She’s 17 years old and made a mistake, it happens. But if there’s a lesson to be learned it’s that going 1-0 down after 30 minutes is preferable to keeping the score at 0-0 but having to play 60 minutes with ten players.

It should also be said that there’s no guarantee that Portsmouth would have scored anyway. They probably would, but who knows? Sian Rogers might have saved it or the worst attack in the Championship might have botched it by themselves. But no, Hobson – who coughed up possession initially to allow the chance to arrive – pulled back Erin McLaughlin for an obvious red card. Sophie Quirk fired the freekick over the bar but the damage was done.

United had, at this point, carried most of the momentum in the game, although all their shots were from long range with a Maria Farrugia freekick probably the best of them. The red card extinguished much attacking intent and the Blades finished the match with just one shot inside the box in 90 minutes – a late header from defender Satara Murray.

Barker began to run the game after the red card, infuriatingly so given that she was a United player last season. She was everywhere, even playing much further forward than she did for us in 2023/24. Needless to say she celebrated her opening goal with some glee and was practically bouncing with joy when she was subbed off late on.

Sophie Barker’s heatmap via SofaScore.

As well as Barker, I was really impressed with Quirk – an old school hug-the-touchline-and-go-at–’em left-winger. Anyway, I was not remotely shocked to see that the 13 successful dribbles completed by Quirk in this game was the highest that any player has completed in any game in this season’s Championship. 13 out of 15 attempts! Quirk, incidentally, is also at number 3 and 5 on the list of most single-game dribbles this season. She’s good at it, basically, and Leanne Cowan struggled against her.

Cowan it was who made United’s second killer mistake, with a shocking backpass straight to Megan Hornby in the area. Hornby drew Rogers off her line and pulled it back for Barker to slide into the open net after 54 minutes.

United stayed pretty solid other than that moment, although the lack of subs was highly conspicuous especially given that players like Bailey and Jacqui Hand had only returned from international duty (in Peru and New Zealand, so not exactly down the road) late in the week. No subs were made at all until the 77th minute, by which point it was 2-0 from a well-worked corner that Riva Casley powered into the net.

Monique Robinson, Grace Foy and Fallon Connolly-Jackson immediately injected a bit of thrust into the game – Foy forcing a couple of desperate yellow-card fouls with driving runs through the middle – but the closest United came was a mishit Cowan cross that ended up bouncing twice – bizarrely – along the crossbar.

A huge win for Portsmouth, a shocking afternoon for United. After the club had done so much to pull in a big crowd for this one – turnstile queues stretching halfway down Cherry Street leading up to kick-off – it was doubly frustrating to see our players sink to the grass again while the opposition celebrated.

The club are trying, in that regard, and hopefully they can drum up a similarly-sized support for those two home games in late April. I have a feeling we’re going to need it.