I listened to this on 5Live until Bournemouth scored, when I had to leave to go to see the Rocky Horror Picture Show in the Newcastle Royal Theatre. Duncan James out of Blue was playing Dr. Frank-N-Furter, which was surreal to say the least, but less so than my ongoing superstition that so long as I’m not watching the Blades in important matches we do well. I stop listening, Wilder makes his changes and we’re walking away with our first premiership point in 12 years. Let’s do the Time Warp, indeed.

But to the game. The lineup caused a few groans initially – a flat three with Lundstrum on the right next to Fleck and Norwood. It probably reminded fans of the last two seasons where we tried to do exactly the same and got off to inauspicious starts at best. In Wilder we trust though, and I do. I back Lundstrum to shut the doubters up this year, I really think he’s a talented player and he’ll provide a necessary bit of bite in the midfield when we’re playing teams like Manchester City and Liverpool. He occupied the spaces that some of Bournemouth’s most creative players take up, which meant that Basham and Baldock were free to roam. Ryan Fraser, for example, was largely peripheral thanks to Lundstrum and Baldock’s work on the right. Added to this, Lundstrum created two of United’s three big chances yesterday, one apiece for Robinson and McGoldrick, which could well have seen us go ahead.

However, I am going to caveat the Lundstrum praise. When Lundstrum was substituted for Freeman, it seems that we ended up with a lot more fluidity in linking play together in the final third which was crucial to our success last season. Look at those chances Lundstrum created again. They’re two long, hopeful balls over the top for one of our strikers to break the lines and hit from outside the box. These are undoubtedly the chances that Robinson was brought in to finish, but we can’t rely on them. Our best chances last year came from carefully worked overloads that created what were essentially tap ins. That’s where the goal against Bournemouth came from, albeit starting from a free kick. I’m not sure that we can necessarily rely on the more direct play, even though I’ve seen the logic in buying Robinson, Mousset and McBurnie as they give us the option to do so, as does McGoldrick who will have been used to playing in this way for Ipswich. To me, it seems slightly jarring to have us pinging it forward and lashing shots away from outside the box, but I’m not going to have a meltdown just yet.

It goes without saying that yesterday was all about Billy Sharp, and I’m chuffed to bits for him. Wilder substituting him on for Basham is reminiscent of the Brentford game last year, when subbing a striker on for a defender when down to ten men led to us nicking a second and seeing out the game. Attack is the best form of defence! And while Sharp is rightly getting the plaudits in the wider footballing world, special praise should be reserved for Oli Norwood who has picked up where he left off, and for Dean Henderson, who made a couple of great saves to keep us in the game.

Either way, what a great start to the season. A point away to what is now an established Premiership side is brilliant, and the Blades have me excited to see what’s coming. I’m shivering in antici…