Sheffield United made it a fifth clean sheet in a row on Wednesday evening against Swansea City, and in doing so they claimed all three points for the third time at Bramall Lane this season.
It was a tight game and one that struggled to get going in the first half, but a dangerous arching cross from the left foot of Harrison Burrows meant that Josh Tymon had to cut it out. Instead, he inadvertently gave the Blades the lead just moments before the half-time whistle. And that mistake proved to be the deciding factor.
Chris Wilder made a few changes for the game under the lights at Bramall Lane. Jamie Shackleton came in for Alfie Gilchrist, Andre Brooks started instead of Jesurun Rak-Sakyi down the left, and Tyrese Campbell got his first start as a Blade replacing Kieffer Moore.
Lineups
Blades: Cooper, Souttar, Hamer (Brewster 72), O’Hare (Norrington-Davies 84), Burrows, Ahmedhodzic, Shackleton (Gilchrist 58), Souza, Campbell (Moore 58), Brooks (Rak-Sakyi 58), Peck.
Unused: A. Davies, McCallum, Seriki, Blacker.
Swansea: Vigouroux, Key, Fulton (Allen 72), Cabango, Darling, Grimes, Ji-Sung (Abdulai 72), Tymon (Naughton 77), Peart-Harris, Cooper (Vipotnik 64), Ronald (Bianchini 64).
Unused: McLaughlin, Franco, Tjoe-A-On, Abbey.
First half
The full debutant, Tyrese Campbell had the games first opportunity, but it was always a difficult chance. The pacey forward found a pocket of space centrally 25 yards out, and a decoy run from O’Hare helped fashion a window to shoot, but his low powerful effort was well-held by the Swansea City man between the sticks.
The only other notable chance for United came several minutes later when Gustavo Hamer picked out the head of Ahmedhodzic with a pinpoint corner, only for the defender to head the ball wide of the post.
Swansea should’ve broken the deadlock after 40 minutes when Myles Peart-Harris somehow had the freedom of Bramall Lane to turn in a cross, but the striker completely fluffed his lines.
In what was quite a dull first period of football, Sheffield United, rather fortuitously, got their noses in front before the referee blew for half-time. A superb delivery from the left flank from Harrison Burrows ended up being turned into his own net by Josh Tymon on 44 minutes.
Second half
Sometimes goals change games, and it’s fair to say the late first-half goal did seem to energise the home side and they came flying out of the traps in the second half.
The first of many great chances to score fell to Andre Brooks, who pressed and won the ball from the Swansea defender, but his side-foot shot was parried out by the goalkeeper to Campbell, and his volleyed follow-up attempt crashed against the woodwork.
Just two minutes later Brooks had yet another chance to score his first Championship goal for the club. After superbly dropping the shoulder to bypass his defender in the box, he stabbed his right-footed shot goalwards but the visiting shot-stopper stood firm once more.
The Blades made a few changes to freshen up the team, and one of those was Kieffer Moore, on for Campbell. And Moore almost turned super sub after an exquisite long ball from Harrison Burrows was served on a plate for Moore, who timed his run in behind the defence. He did everything right as he closed in on the goalkeeper only to see his bottom corner strike be denied by a lick of paint.
Things got cagey in the dying moments of the game when Michael Cooper was called up on to parry a fizzing Matt Grimes free-kick. But United stood firm and registered their third 1-0 win of the season, moving them up to third in the league table.