Falling Apart Again?

It’s funny how the result completely contextualises the game of football. Of course it does. Portsmouth away was a classic of the genre, as were Sunderland and Sheffield United before that. Had Rob Jones pointed to the spot, had Joel Piroe or Junior Firpo taken their chances, had Illan Meslier come off his line, then things would, obviously, have been different.

Had Pascal Struijk not found himself on the end of Joe Rothwell’s crosses, or Firpo not turned into prime John Charles in the air at Bramall Lane, then the little errors become, as they did at Fratton Park, the focus. Suddenly, Ao Tanaka getting mugged twice becomes a focus, rather than just one of those things that will almost certainly happen at some point in the season.

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