For the money a great game of football.The brewers did not shame them selfs in any way at all and at times had sheffield on the ropes,I came away from the game with great hopes for the new season.I found myself wanting albion to score to make it 2-2 but was torn with the fact that we must put all our efforts in the game on saturday in the league football.Good effort Brewers.

I thought we played really well tonight and were unlicky to lose. The Blades were a class act with good touch and movement yet we matched them for over an hour and had more and better chances - until we scored!.
Of the guys that came in tonight, Blanchett and Phillips did themselves no harm and Jack Dyer was steady. Big Dave looked less assured, maybe the constant carping has got to him a bit.
Top draw strike from Justin Richards for 1-0 but fair play to the Blades - they stepped up a gear and we never really looked like making a fight of it once they were level.
The flowing football that had got us into a strong position seemed to ebb away - or maybe we just got bullied out of it.
No complaints really. Another case of giving a good showing without having the killer instinct to close the game out.
Sure we need another defender now that Parksey and Stanno are out, but Rhino was solid enough and the full backs did ok (though it was another mis-cued Corbett 'pass' that led to the equaliser.
Thought we were a bit hard done to with the decision making (again!). Definitely a handball in the build up to their first goal. Dreadful injustice with Richards booking with Maguire taking a 5.9 tumble with twist. And a total mystery why the free kick went Sheffield's way at the death after Macca was pulled down in the corner.Aside from one dubious fall by Mags with the ball running away from him I can't recall another borderline decision going in our favour.
Maybe we have to be a better at 'playing' the ref. I think Clive Woodward called it 'critical non essentials'. It seems that the opposition (and not just tonight) are better at getting into the officials faces and appealing for decisions and in these 1-0, 2-1 games, these marginal issues can make the difference between winning and losing.
Hope that doesn't come across as sour grapes, because on their response to going a goal behind alone, the Blades deserved to go through. Just think we did to wise up a bit if we are going to be genuinely competitive.

The higher football teams are up in league football the better they are at diving, falling over for no reason at all and playing up to the ref.Maybe the brewers need to go for some Hollywood acting classes on how to fall at the right time and make a meal of it .But then again it just makes for rubbish football.

Thanks for the updates guys, seems I missed a good game then. Unfortunately there was no text commentary on the BBC website last night (a lifeline when you are sat in the middle of Russia!), but I look forward to being home in time for the Plymouth match on Saturday.

Any news on Cleveland and his ankle yet?

We showed that we could outplay a good League 1 side for 75 minutes, the match was full of positives, Blanchett was very much assured for most of it, Richards a real handful with his overall persistence and guile, McGrath dominated in a congested midfield and Maghoma had the beating of their full back on repeated occasions.

The only minus was the poor standard of refereeing, again we seem to get the lowest of the low at the Pirelli!

We must now look forward to the Plymouth game, if we show the same determination, show a little more composure in the final 3rd sure I'm we will get a result.

But as a safety measure can we not stop the clock at 70 minutes please???