'The Way It Is'

TWENTY years ago, John Sheridan was playing in the Sheffield Wednesday team that famously became victims of what has since become enshrined in football folklore as Fergie Time.

Wednesday led Manchester United at Old Trafford by John’s goal at the conclusion of the 90 minutes. By the end of injury-time, they had lost to two Steve Bruce goals.

Two decades later, John experienced similar feelings when his Plymouth Argyle side saw a valuable point snatched from their grasp in the fourth minute of stoppage-time at Burton Albion as Matt Paterson took the Bruce role to give Albion a 1-0 victory

“It’s a real downer – it’s hard to speak sometimes when it happens like that,” he understated afterwards. “It would have been a massive point.

“It’s a shame for the lads because I thought we deserved something out of the game. We had a right go in the second half. We had good opportunities and I thought we were the better team.”

The goal came from a corner won by Burton on the counter-attack after Argyle had lost control from  a flag-kick of their own.

“We took a corner and they’ve ended up nearly scoring a goal from our corner,” said John.

“Maybe we should have taken a point, been clever and kept it in there. We should be organised on the edge of the box. When the ball comes back out, we should be picking up and putting the ball back in their box, not defending and conceding a goal.

“It’s the problem with us at the moment. We do the little things poorly. Good teams make the little things look really easy. We don’t.  This is what I’m trying to get into them. But I think we’re improving.

“I’m not looking for excuses; I just thought we were a little naïve. It’s cruel. We didn’t deserve to concede a goal.

“But it’s the way it is.”