If you are not going out on a Saturday evening there's not a lot to view on television so, flicking through the channels, as you do, I found Nationwide League football on Sky. Sheffield United versus West Ham, mmm, I thought, worth a scan. Give it 20 minutes and then reassess! But I was transfixed by a football match that did the First Division proud, although the defending was, at times, out of The Keystone Cops (younger readers see footnote if you have no idea what this means).
If you blinked you would have missed Paul Peschisolido scoring after five minutes with a well-crafted goal that pierced the heart of the Hammers' defence but it was something that I saw before Sheffield United took the lead, indeed before either side imposed itself on the game, and what I saw reinforced my feeling, at the start of the season, that the Blades would win promotion.
It wasn't a flowing move or an inspired piece of play, it was something, dare I say, more normal. Wayne Allison noticed something, out of camera-shot, and lit up the dark Sheffield skies with that trademark smile of his. I don't know what he saw, indeed I don't think it matters because what that smile said to me was the relaxed enjoyment of a veteran professional footballer, he'll be 36 this year, going about his job and enjoying it.
Shortly afterwards there was another smile, this time from Paul Peschisolido, and it wasn't after he had put Sheffield United ahead, it was after he had squandered a great chance to kill the game with a second goal. Of course, he was disappointed but, he didn't make an attempt on the world spitting record, nor did he plumb the depths of the Anglo-Saxon Book of Expletives, he just smiled.
I mentioned to the Blades' assistant manager David Kelly that you don't see too many smiles in football these days, and he didn't disagree. But he also said that is how Sheffield try to approach their football and their training. If that is so then it is something that obviously works as United energetically applied the work ethic to getting back into the game after their 1-0 lead became a 3-1 deficit.
We do see it, every so often, when a team, has the resolve to fight-back from adversity and claim its reward but there are few teams that can point to doing so with such regularity as Sheffield United have, note their achievements last season when they reached both domestic cup semi-finals and the First Division play-off final.
In an age where people question the importance of the work ethic isn't it nice to see a team, that obviously reflects its management, apply its abilities with physical effort AND gain appropriate reward.
The game at Bramall Lane also threw up, for me anyway, the pass of the season. I think it was Phil Jagielka who made a swift break down the left flank, West Ham's right, and Stuart McCall, who celebrates his 40th BIRTHDAY in just five months, hit a volleyed pass over the retreating right-back. Not only did the former Scottish international have the vision to see the run and execute the pass but he hit the ball so well that the instant it cleared the defender it dipped to fall perfectly into the path of the marauding Jagielka.
Wonderful, and an illustration, if it were ever needed, that there is so much talent outside the Premier League. And, right on cue, just this week, Spurs' caretaker-manager David Pleat said exactly that and encouraged top flight clubs to look in the Nationwide League when they are looking to add to their squads.
If Sheffield United continue in the manner of their attitude to that game against West Ham then it is likely that they will be able to test themselves in the Premier League not long after Stuart McCall celebrates the Big 4O.
* Footnote. The Keystone Cops were stars of the silent era in films and the thread running through their antics, as they chased various offenders, was their incompetence and comedic approach to their job.
