Following the Steel City derby draw with Sheffield Wednesday, Sheffield United were looking to keep the pressure on Leeds United and Norwich City as we welcomed Rotherham United to Bramall Lane earlier today.
Having dropped points, it was key that manager Chris Wilder’s side got back to winning ways and quickly with automatic promotion hopes more than alive in the campaign of 2018/19.
The Blades did just that as Jack O’Connell rewarded our bright start with the opening goal five minutes into the game. With Rotherham reduced to ten men just ahead of the half hour mark, the advantage was clearly ours but it took us until the 74th to tie the game up as Mark Duffy grabbed our second on the day to secure all three points – a seventh successive home win – in a 2-0 victory.
5️⃣th clean sheet in a row 👐🏻
7️⃣th home win in a row 💥
0️⃣ league goals conceded at home in 2019 👀The Bladesmen are on fire 🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/X8u2MHX1YT
— Sheffield United (@SheffieldUnited) March 9, 2019
Rotherham failed to get a shot on target and we utterly dominated the game so if there’s any disappointment it comes from not improving our goal difference, but that would be picky after a showing like that.
We remain four points behind Norwich in top spot and with us temporarily back in second place, it’s all eyes to Leeds’ result now.
Speaking to the BBC following the final whistle to give his instant reaction to the game, Wilder explained.
“They’re stubborn opposition so we prepared just as much as any other game this year. It was two different styles today, it’s back to front for them and it’s effective. They ask questions so I am delighted that we answered those questions defensively. We started the game in a tremendous fashion and obviously we got an early lead after a couple of good chances before then. It was difficult because they sat in and at times maybe we tried to be too precise but we were always looking to get a second goal.”