Sheffield United capped off their pre-season campaign with a 1-1 draw at League One side Huddersfield Town.
The home side opened the scoring early in the first half through Ben Wiles, the Blades got their equaliser early in the second half via Anel Ahmedhodzic.
Harrison Burrows played his first game for United taking the place of Sam McCallum who is recovering from a knock. Kieffer Moore also missed out because of a minor head injury. Jamie Shackleton was another player missing.
Lineups
Chris Wilder deployed a 4-2-3-1 system for the final pre-season test.
Blades: A. Davies, Arblaster, Brewster (Slimane 63), Hamer (Marsh 70), O’Hare, Burrows, Ahmedhodzic, Robinson, Souza, Brooks (Trusty 77), Seriki.
Unused: Faxon, Blacker, Boyes, Sasnauskas, Sachdev, One, Peck, Hampson.
First half
It was a lively start to the night in West Yorkshire with both sides pushing forward, and it was the Terriers who reaped the rewards on just five minutes. Ben Wiles hammered the ball past Davies after a dangerous cross from Sorensen down the right flank.
Sheffield United almost made an instant reply when Brewster fired a stretched shot at the Huddersfield shot-stopper. Subsequently Ahmedhodzic fired a long ball over the defence for Brewster to latch onto but the ball just evaded him.
With the Blades throwing bodies forward creating several openings this gave the home side the opportunity to exploit those gaps, and they very almost did. Koroma would swivel on the ball inside the penalty area but the combination of Seriki and Ahmedhodzic thwarted the threat posed to Davies’ goal.
Just after the half hour mark United increased the tempo of their passing, and some lovely one and two touch play between Brooks and O’Hare created an angle to release the ball to Hamer down the left who’s left-footed strike was dealt with by Lee Nicholls.
As the half came to an end Brewster once again stung the palms of Nicholls before O’Hare’s goalbound shot was blocked, which looked very much like a hand. Arblaster took on a few players on the left side of the penalty area as he somehow jinxed his way to the byline but his toe poke pass was cleared for a corner at the near post.
Second half
The second started pretty much how the first period did – both sides chucked men forward and it once again created a goal inside five minutes of the half.
O’Hare carried the ball from the left flank infield towards the centre of the penalty area before being brought down roughly 25 yards away from goal. Hamer and Burrows stood over the ball and it was the latter who struck the ball sweetly, the ball seemed to have been saved or hit the inside of the post where Ahmedhodzic arrived to sweep the ball into a gaping goal to level the score.
Minutes later the goalscoring centre-back was needed at the opposite end when Koroma was set to pull the trigger inside the Blades box but Ahmedhodzic somehow managed to stretch his leg to expertly steal the ball from the Huddersfield players grasp.
United’s new signing almost got on the scoresheet when he lasered a low driven long shot towards the bottom right corner, it had the keeper scrambling but it skimmed inches wide.
The Blades almost snatched another late win when Seriki burst past everybody to latch onto a through ball at the right byline, and his stabbed cross found Slimane at the far post but his header clipped his marker’s head and it bounced down in the box only to be cleared by the defence.
That concludes United’s pre-season and they will now prepare for their first Championship fixture next Friday against Preston North End.