Stoke City vs Sheffield United. Sky Bet Championship.
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Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash between Stoke City and Sheffield United at the bet365 Stadium as the Blades suffered a setback in their play-off hopes after defeat.
Saturday 2 April 2022 19:54, UK
A John Egan own goal secured a 1-0 victory for Stoke as they dealt Sheffield United's play-off hopes a blow.
The Potters, who have now won two consecutive league games for the first time since November, missed a sequence of glorious opportunities before eventually breaking the deadlock with a slice of fortune.
Now without a win in five games on their travels, the promotion-hopeful Blades struggled to assert themselves as they slipped out of the play-off fray.
The home side, who ended a nine-match winless run before the international break, started brightly with veteran ex-Blades defender Phil Jagielka first to test Wes Foderingham.
United also flexed their attacking muscle in a fast-paced opening to the tie, with Morgan Gibbs-White a constant outlet for the visitors.
After a goal and two assists whilst on international duty with England Under-21s, the on-loan Wolves youngster looked to continue his good form but Jordan Thompson did well to deny him with a block early on.
The lively Jacob Brown then tried to add to his tally of 11 goals for the season but blazed an effort harmlessly over from a promising position.
The aforementioned Gibbs-White was thwarted by international colleague Taylor Harwood-Bellis in the biggest chance of an uneventful first period before the half-hour mark. The Blades' bright spark advanced into the penalty area and nearly prodded home the opener, but Harwood-Bellis did enough to preserve the deadlock.
Stoke marksman Brown again struggled to find his finishing touch, firing wildly over from an acute angle as the fixture reached a lull before the interval.
After the restart, the home side returned firmly in the ascendency and had three golden opportunities to take the lead in a frenetic three-minute period.
First, Josh Maja fired an enticing delivery across the face of goal with D'Margio Wright-Phillips lying in wait to convert, only for a heroic Ben Davies intervention to deny the latter.
Maja then squandered two gilt-edged chances from point-blank range, both almost in identical scenarios after two inch-perfect deliveries from Josh Tymon. The on-loan Bordeaux striker failed to redirect the first cross on target and then failed to connect completely despite entering the six-yard box unchallenged.
However, the Potters' second-half dominance in pursuit of a winner did not prove to be in vain as they opened the scoring in fortunate circumstances in the 77th minute.
A Tymon delivery flicked off the hand of a helpless Egan, wrong-footing Foderingam and nestling in the Blades' net for what proved to be the winner.
Ben Osborn nearly salvaged a point with a late volleyed effort, but his strike whistled past the post as Stoke held on for victory.
Stoke's Michael O'Neill: "We've come out of too many narrow games on the wrong side of a result. I felt it was always going to be a game decided by one goal. I thought we were the better team in the second half, and we deserved to win the game. There was very little in it, but it was a very good performance against a very good team.
"We knew we could get Josh (Tymon) out given their system and he put two or three really good deliveries into the box and in this situation, the deflection takes it past the keeper and it's one that we'll happily take. We haven't had enough of that this season, so we'll definitely take it. We went back to basics and the back four as a whole, we worked hard on not being too aggressive or leaving space in behind. I thought we limited the space, so I'm really pleased."
Sheffield United's Paul Heckingbottom: "It was a disappointing result and the performance wasn't what we were after either. If ever a game's looking like a 0-0, it's that one. Both teams didn't have any efforts at goal, not enough from our point of view, so very disappointing.
"We showed a lack of quality in the final third, which didn't allow us to create enough chances or get a foothold in the game. We weren't good enough today, so we need to improve."
