Cardiff City vs Sheffield United; Sky Bet Championship
Cardiff City vs Sheffield United. Sky Bet Championship.
Cardiff City Stadium.
Cardiff City 2
- J Moylan (2nd minute)
- C Ashford (38th minute)
Sheffield United 2
- T Cannon (4th minute pen)
- C O'Hare (7th minute)
Cardiff City 2-2 Sheffield United: Spoils shared at the Cardiff City Stadium
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Cardiff City and Sheffield United at the Cardiff City Stadium on Saturday; Spoils shared in South Wales with all the goals in the first half between Bluebirds and the Blades.
Saturday 29 August 2026 19:08, UK
Cardiff and Sheffield United both remain winless in the Championship after playing out their third successive draws as they shared the points in a 2-2 scoreline at Cardiff City Stadium.
There were three goals in seven minutes at the start of the game as the Blades finally notched their first league goal of the season after 183 minutes of trying.
Cardiff were first on the scoresheet when Jack Moylan cut inside from the left edge of the box as he made the most of the space created by a lengthy breakout from the United half by Cian Ashford.
The Republic of Ireland international then fired low and hard into the bottom left corner to leave Michael Cooper helpless in the Blades goal. Moylan struck after 80 seconds and the reply from United came less than a minute later.
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Some hesitancy in the home defence let United win the ball on the left edge of the area and Tom Cannon drove into the box. Alex Robertson brought him down with a clumsy challenge and Cannon picked himself up to score from the spot.
There was no let up in the action as Moylan forced Cooper into a full-length save before Robertson lost the ball on the edge of the area and Patrick Bamford played in Callum O'Hare to enable him to sweep the ball past Nathan Trott in the home goal.
That made it 2-1 after seven minutes and it could easily have been 3-1 a few minutes later had Nathan Trott not made a stunning double save from Cannon and Joe Rothwell.
At that stage the visitors were very much in charge and pressing forward strongly, but then came the Cardiff resurgence that led to them forcing Cooper into a string of impressive saves.
The pressure finally told and in the 38th minute Ashford hit the back of the net after Ollie Tanner and weaved his way past three defenders in the United box before getting off a shot that came back off the legs of Cooper to give Ashford an empty net to aim at.
Cardiff started the second half as they ended the first - they had 12 shots, seven of which were on target to United's four in the opening 45 minutes - with Yousef Salech heading over the bar from a corner and then Tanner shooting inches wide.
United's best chance in the second half fell to Sydie Peck, while Perry Ng hit the cross bar six minutes from time as the Bluebirds pressed for the winner. That was the home side's 29th shot of the game, compared to six from United, who were under the cosh throughout possession and territory-wise.
The managers
Cardiff's Brian Barry-Murphy:
"The players are disappointed not to win, but they gave absolutely everything. It's a game we could have, and should have won
"I think it's fair to say we've shown we are capable of coping with the step up to the Championship. We know the level of challenge and we're relishing it.
"It wasn't a very comfortable start to the derby game against Wrexham and we went behind early. We conceded twice in this game, so we've had tests, yet we just have to keep pushing back and keep pushing forward.
"We created good chances, although I would have liked to see us create more clear-cut chances. We were a little bit rushed in the final bit of the box in the second half, but we can improve that."
Sheffield United's Chris Wilder:
"I've been in the Championship long enough not to get embarrassed by picking up a result like that. I think we were fortunate at times today and they were the better team.
"I've been in that situation as well, a promoted team coming up and playing an established Championship team, and they were the better team.
"It's as simple as that but we've been the better team on loads of occasions and not got what we deserve. That's just how it is and we have to quickly move on.
"Brian (Barry-Murphy) will be disappointed he's not got a win and we'll be delighted that we're taking something back up the road.
"I'm delighted that we've remained unbeaten, although I'm not kidding myself that it was a performance that we can look back at and smile about. We can't look back and think we were good.
"We've got work to do and we are trying to find that consistency. The players stayed in the game, and while I know that's not a huge positive, it is a positive that we'll take home with us."
