Sheffield United got back to winning ways at Bramall Lane securing a hard fought 1-0 victory over Watford.
An own goal inside the opening minute of the match, with huge credit to Callum O’Hare, was enough to secure all three points for the Blades.
United handed a full Championship debut to Jesurun Rak-Sakyi who replaced Andre Brooks down the right; Brooks was left out due to a concussion. Michael Cooper made his Bramall Lane debut while Harry Souttar and Anel Ahmedhodzic were the centre-back pairing in front of him. Jamie Shackleton was named on the bench for the first time this season after recovering from a knee injury.
Lineups
Blades: Cooper, Gilchrist (Shackleton 59), Arblaster, Souttar, Hamer, Moore (Brewster 87), O’Hare (Peck 87), Rak-Sakyi (McCallum 65), Burrows, Ahmedhodzic, Souza.
Unused: A. Davies, Norrington-Davies, Campbell, One, Sachdev.
Watford: Bachmann, Sierralta, Pollock, Chakvetadze (Ince 77), Sissoko, Bayo (Jebbison 69), Morris (Baah 69), Dele-Bashiru, Larouci (Sema 53), Kayembe, Andrews.
Unused: Bond, Porteous, Rajovic, Vata, Ebosele.
First half
Sheffield United flew out of the gates on Sunday afternoon at Bramall Lane when O’Hare drove to the byline and managed to wriggle his way past Sierralta before the ball ended up in the back of the net, eventually going down as a Daniel Bachmann own goal.
Watford had a chance to equalise soon after when Bayo sprung clear of the United defensive line, with Cooper slightly off his line, and somehow fluffed his chipped effort way wide.
After some excellent play down the left from Moore, he fed the ball through a gap to the edge of the box for Arblaster to run onto, but a poor challenge from former Blade Yasser Larouci earned United a penalty. With 16 minutes on the clock, Moore stepped up from 12 yards and powered a side footed effort towards the bottom right corner, but it was saved by Bachmann.
After making amends for his earlier error by saving the penalty, Bachmann almost made another costly error when he rolled the ball out to Hamer outside of the penalty area but he did well to save the following long shot from the Blades midfielder.
At the other end of the pitch Ahmedhodzic had to be quick and alert to cut out the dangerous run from Bayo as he burst in behind the wide open defence down the left.
Second half
Much like the first half, Sheffield United made a quick start to the second half as Rak-Sakyi dribbled past a couple of Watford players only to see his left-footed effort blocked.
Chris Wilder delved into his bench options around the 60 minutes mark as he replaced Alfie Gilchrist for Jamie Shackleton.
The visitors almost got back on level terms when they struck the post from a long distance effort from Andrews. Shortly after the Blades had Vinicius Souza to thank for excellently tracking back and using his strength to halt the dangerous run from Chakvetadze.
With the game now completely stretched, more gaps opened up and United should have wrapped up the game on 81 minutes as Moore latched onto a through ball from Burrows. The Welshman cut inside onto his right foot to evade a defender but Bachmann made a great save, but Moore had the opportunity to square the ball to a United player in the box for a tap-in.
In stoppage time the tension increased after Hamer made a physical challenge down the right flank which earned him a yellow, meanwhile ex Blade Daniel Jebbison and Harry Souttar were grappling with each other on the halfway line. As the referee blew for full time there were yet more pushing and shoving between both sets of players before the situation calmed down.
