Sheffield United had to come from behind to overcome Leyton Orient in their FA Cup third round clash.
Second-half blitz sees visitors progress
Sheffield United had to come from behind to overcome brave Leyton Orient in their FA Cup third round clash.
Orient, who are struggling in League One, took a deserved lead before the break with JJ Melligan firing home from the penalty spot.
But three goals in 11 second-half minutes turned the game on its head with Greg Halford, Billy Sharp and Kyle Naughton all on target.
Halford added a fourth 12 minutes from time to set up a home meeting with Charlton in round four.
The struggling Os went into the game without a win since their second round success at Bradford six games ago, while their rivals were unbeaten in six and had a warning from boss Kevin Blackwell "not to become victims" ringing in their ears.
Blackwell made four changes to his starting line-up, teenage defender Kyle Walker making his senior debut, and Ian Bennett coming in for Paddy Kenny in goal.
Sun Jihai and Halford were also handed starts, Gary Naysmith, Stephen Quinn and Danny Webber dropping to the bench.
The hosts, sporting three changes to the side beaten 3-0 at Leicester at the weekend, negotiated the early stages well, although top scorer Adam Boyd did not really convince anyone after going down easily in the box.
United striker Darius Henderson, who hit the winner against Norwich on Saturday, was looking to convince Blackwell he could fill the boots of departed top scorer James Beattie and forced a good stop out of Orient keeper Glenn Morris.
Advantage
At the other end Sam Parkin had a real shout for a spot kick after 26 minutes when he got in behind Chris Morgan from Andrew Cave-Brown's centre - the defender bundling him over as the pair fell in a heap but referee Iain Williamson waved play on.
Henderson headed over the top from Halford's free-kick but the hosts gave as good as they got, even if the fans were directing their vitriol at Williamson as another decision went against their team.
Their wrath did not last long as, after Sean Thornton's shot struck Matthew Kilgallon on the arm, Melligan stepped up to convert to Bennett's left for the deserved advantage at the halfway mark.
United looked more focused after the break as they began to force the pace a little, but the hosts were resolute at the back and defended in numbers when needed.
But disaster struck just before the hour mark when Morris came for but failed to deal with David Cotterill's corner. The ball dropped kindly for Halford and the former Colchester man looped the ball into the net.
The tie was turned on its head four minutes later when Henderson and Sharp linked up well and the ex-Scunthorpe striker swept the ball home with his left foot for his first goal in 15 games.
It got worse in the 69th minute when United broke from an over-elaborate Orient corner which ended in Cotterill forcing the parry from Morris and Naughton was on hand to sweep the ball home from close range.
Halford netted the fourth after finding space at the far post to head in Walker's cross, after more good work from the lively Cotterill.
Halford almost capped his night by netting a hat-trick late on but his effort went narrowly wide.
| Leyton Orient |
Team Statistics |
Sheffield United |
| 1 |
Goals |
4 |
| 1 |
1st Half Goals |
0 |
| 3 |
Shots on Target |
5 |
| 3 |
Shots off Target |
6 |
| 2 |
Blocked Shots |
1 |
| 1 |
Corners |
10 |
| 15 |
Fouls |
18 |
| 1 |
Offsides |
4 |
| 2 |
Yellow Cards |
2 |
| 0 |
Red Cards |
0 |
|
