The sky cameras watched in expectancy as second in the table United traveled to second in the form-table Preston North End, it promised to be a cracking encounter; however it was nothing of the sort!
Straight away the blades took he game to the lilywhites but to no avail, and after a few scrappy shots at goal the team took there foot off the peddle and the match descended in to bog of missed placed passes and crunching tackles. Montgomery battled in the middle of the field while Short neutralized Everton target David Nugent. Still united couldn?t find the break they needed.
In fact, the best chance or the match fell to Preston in the first 45 when Kozluk?s wild pass fell to the feet of McKenna who promptly fount the feet of Nugent, but fortunately for the blades Paddy Kenny was more than equal to the shot. United came reasonably close around the half-hour mark after his deflected, long range effort fizzed past the upright.
The first half ground to a much-welcomed halt, despite good defensive performances from both teams there was little threat up front for the blades and PNE, Danny Webber was being out-muscled up front and Shipperly had very little impact on the game. The second half didn?t show much of an improvement.
Straight away the half continued in the fashion of which the first had ended, balls sprayed out of play and monotonous sequences of hard, yet ineffective tackles and long punts. However, with little over an hour passed, Jagielka should have put the blades in front. After the lilywhite?s defense struggled to scramble away Unsworth?s pass the goal laid at his mercy, however his panicked shot flashed inches over the woodwork.
Again the match dwindled, and the only notable shot in around 20 minutes of play was a David Nugent snap-shot which wildly spun in to the crowd. The last incident of the game, however, was somewhat of a contrivercal one. Jagielka chased down the ball in the Preston area, but was oafishly cut short by a blatant lunge from Jones; however in a slightly spineless decision the referee waved away the united crimes.
Despite feeling a little disappointed at not snatching a win the Blades can be happy with the result, especially so from a defensive perspective, and with other score lines going the right way for them the next day still stand in good stead to continue in their Championship surge.
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