The Blades earned another 3pts at Bramall Lane last night with a 2-1- win over recently promoted Sunderland. Sheffield United now have 7pts on the board after overcoming the challenge of breaking down 10 men.
There were two changes to the starting XI last night as Brewster replaced the injured Sharp, whilst McAtee was handed his league debut, as Fleck dropped to the bench.
Sunderland were yet to taste defeat since being promoted to the Championship, so they still carried that promotion confidence and fearlessness. In doing so, they started very fast, almost catching United cold as they swarmed over the Blades in the first 10 minutes but didn’t create anything.
It was United who started carving out chances with Brewster as he fired over after Ndiaye seized on a loose touch by Pritchard. A short while later Brewster had another effort that he smacked down the middle of goal.
The game swung in United’s favour undoubtedly when just after 30 minutes Neil was shown a red card after an error forced by McAtee’s pressing. The Blades had a freekick from the foul and it was whipped in with pace by the City loanee but deflected out for a corner.
United opened the scoring from the resulting corner with a first goal for the club from the Bosnian Ahmedhodzic, as he towered above everyone to meet Norwoods corner.
Shortly after half time, United doubled their lead with an excellently worked goal as Norwood threaded the ball through a gap in the defence, Berge let it run behind him to Ahmedhodzic who squared it across for Max Lowe to tap home under no pressure.
The Blades looked to be in total control until Matete intercepted Egan’s pass forward and Stewart produced a deft touch to free Gooch who chipped the advancing Foderingham.
Sunderland got a big lift in energy and confidence however it was United that come close to scoring again as Berge, drove towards the Sunderland box took aim and a big deflection looked to have looped the ball into the far corner however the post denied him his 3rd goal of the season.
United were able to hold on and see out the 2-1 win, learning from the mistakes they made against Boro when they let a 2-1 lead slip late on.
Blades: Foderingham, Baldock, Brewster (Khadra 66), Berge, Egan, Lowe, Ahmedhodžić, Norwood, McAtee (Fleck 66), Ndiaye (McBurnie 73), Norrington-Davies.
Unused: Amissah, Basham, Doyle, Jebbison.
Sunderland: Patterson, Cirkin, Batth (Alese 86), Embleton (Hume 54), Simms (Matete 54), Gooch, O’Nien, Stewart, Clarke (Diamond 86), Pritchard (Wright 54), Neil.
Unused: Bass, Roberts.