Sheffield United striker Oli McBurnie broke a long goalscoring drought, Bristol City’s whizkids came good against Blackburn Rovers and Huddersfield were robbed against Blackpool. All this and more from the latest round of the Championship…
TEAM OF THE WEEK
Bristol City
To be completely frank with you Bristol City has been a bit of a depressing club to cover in recent times. The team hasn’t been great on the pitch, the manager has looked like he didn’t want to be there and the fanbase has come across, well a little grumpy lets just say! I’m obviously only comfortable in saying all that as it does feel like Bristol City are fun once again and their young, exciting, attacking team are flying high after winning four of their last five games.
The victory at Blackburn at the weekend almost perfectly exemplified the reasons why Bristol City are becoming highly likeable once again. Another three goals flew in for the Robins at Ewood Park and nobody has scored more than them in the division this season. The fine youngsters Tommy Conway and Alex Scott continue to bring energy and quality, with the equally highly rated Antoine Semenyo coming off the bench. Nigel Pearson has boldly moved the main man Andi Weimann into the number ten spot behind a front two and ball playing centre-back Kal Naismith will hope to bring the quality he did at Luton last season.
This is not me sitting here forecasting promotion of even a top six finish for Bristol City but the tone and feel of the team is far exceeding where I suspected it would be and I for one am thoroughly enjoying it!
PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Oli McBurnie (Sheffield United)
If this all feels a little similar, that’s because it is. Cast your mind back a week or two and we were discussing Josh Sargent of Norwich City in a very similar manner to that we’re about to use on Sheffield United’s Oli McBurnie. The two players in question are both strikers, both signed for big money with their clubs up in the Premier League and both with goal scoring records that fans of their clubs were none too impressed with.
Oli McBurnie’s scoring drought at Sheffield United was becoming the stuff of legend and not in a good way. The striker hadn’t scored since December 2020 and the Blades faithful had taken to gallows humour with their chant ‘McBurnie scores, we’re on the pitch’. I was present at Kenilworth Road where McBurnie finally broke the streak and volleyed home a lovely goal, which he followed up with a bullet header against Reading the very next game. It’s amazing how quickly things turn in football and when my phone notified me that United had taken the lead at Hull on Sunday I wasn’t surprised that McBurnie had scored for the third game running.
I try to be positive as a person, football fan and writer, so when I see a player who had previously been prolific at Championship level struggling so badly I had always assumed things would turn back in the right direction. Over at Norwich Sargent has now scored five in five, so if the comparisons are going to hold up into the future, expect another couple of goals from McBurnie over the coming games.
TALKING POINT
Goal line tech
We still don’t have VAR in the Championship, but we do have referees and we do have goal line technology. I’m always reluctant to discuss refereeing decisions as the level of moaning I’m subjected to each week tends to make me think the bigger problem is fans accepting decisions given against their teams rather than them being incorrect. When there is a big issue though I will raise my head above the parapet and Huddersfield’s ghost goal against Blackpool seems to be a case in point.
The situation revolves around a failure of goal line technology, Yuta Nakayama prodded the ball over the line but no buzzing of the referees watch occurred and therefore no goal was given. The EFL issued an apology, it should’ve been a goal, but it’s what we do with that information that’s important. One of the most powerful human emotions is a feeling of injustice, even toddlers can pick up on something that seems unfair and it’s a maddening experience. The toddler will scream and cry and a quick look on twitter in reference to this incorrect decision has seen plenty of that type of response.
Of course Huddersfield have been wronged but what I feel is unhelpful is to now extrapolate and exaggerate the gravity of that one moment. I consider goal line technology a great success, yes it failed on this occasion but the expectation for any technology to never fail is clearly unrealistic. I believe the EFL did the right thing in acknowledging, apologising and moving on, it’s an error and players, managers and fans will make many of those throughout the season. Fans will be fans, some of my fellow Ipswich Town supporters still mention decisions that went against the team in an FA Cup semi-final in the mid seventies. Injustice doesn’t feel good when it happens to you but holding onto it really helps nobody in the end.
LOANEE OF THE WEEK
Krystian Bielik (Birmingham City on loan from Derby County)
Anyone who regularly follows this column will know my affection for Krystian Bielik. A brilliant hybrid defender or midfielder with similarly diverse amounts of physicality and skill. The Pole arrived at Derby for a sizeable fee but was out of action through two horrible long injury absences that have badly delayed his progress as a player. At Derby he’s almost the last big signing of the now infamous Mel Morris era and subsequently the best deal the Rams could do given the high ticket price and money invested into the player, was a loan.
Bielik chose Birmingham, where he’d been on loan previously as an Arsenal youngster and finally made his first start of the season this past weekend. Championship lovers all probably nodded in approval when they realised Bielik was partnering the returning Tahith Chong in central midfield. Chong is a similarly highly rated player who excelled on loan in the early part of last season at Blues before succumbing to injury. Whether or not we’re in the realms of coincidence here or not you can decide, but Bielik’s first start resulted in a win for Birmingham. It wasn’t any old win either as they became the first side to score past, let alone defeat, Preston North End.
At 24, Bielik still potentially has his best years ahead of him and will hope this loan move opens a clearer path to future success. Some will fairly reasonably argue that the instability of injuries and the crazy situation at Derby has been traded for a somewhat similarly chaotic club in Birmingham City, but should Bielik attain any level of stability he will no doubt thrive, as I’ve been expecting for the past few seasons.
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