Sheffield United 2 v Brentford 0 - EFL Championship

Tuesday 12th March 2018

SkyBet EFL Championship

at Bramall Lane

Sheffield United (1) 2

Ollie Norwood 26

David McGoldrick 84

Brentford (0) 0

Attendance: 24,463

Sheffield United:
Henderson, Baldock (Baldock 60), Stevens, Fleck, O'Connell, Basham, Dowell (Cranie 45), Hogan (McGoldrick 45), Egan, Madine, Norwood.
Unused subs - Coutts, Stearman, Duffy, Moore.
Brentford:
Daniels, Odubajo (Emiliano 62), Maupay, Watkins, Mokotjo, Sawyers, Benrahma, Dalsgaard (Forss 90), Jeanvier, Konsa (Canos 62), Barbet.
Unusedsubs - McEachran, Gunnarsson, Dasilva, Forss, Sorensen.

Brentford must be wondering what else they could have done to claim some kind of result, as the Blades withstood a wave of attacks tonight, as the Bees had the best part of thirty attempts on the impregnable Dean Henderson's goal.
Chris Wilder's side took the lead, somewhat against the run of play, when Yoann Barbet tripped George Baldock, just inside inside the Brentford area, and Oliver Norwood netted from the resulting penalty in the twenty sixth minute, to give the hosts the lead, shortly after Neil Maupay had been denied by Henderson at the other end.
United were reduced to ten men, with a hour still left to play, when Gary Madine was red carded for a bad challenge from behind on Ezri Konsa.
The visitors made good of their numerical advantage and swarmed all over United at times... as you would expect that from Bees, I suppose.

But the Blades toughed it out with a back to the wall performance, as they forged a win out of sheer grit and determination. They rode their luck once or twice too, not least when Kamohelo Mokotjo had a great chance to equalise but he hit the post, while United's defence continued to put their bodies in the way of sustained pressure from the west London side.
With six minutes remaining, Jack O'Connell headed John Fleck's right wing corner back across the face of the Bees goal towards David McGoldrick, who met the ball with his head and found the back of the net.
Subsequently the tangible outpouring of joyous relief among the Blades faithful, was perhaps matched by the deflation that the away fans dotted around the lower level of the Bramall Lane end must've been feeling.
FT: Sheffield United 2 v Brentford 0

This hard fought win, kept the Blades in touch with the top two teams in the Championship: Leeds United and Norwich City as they head into Saturday's 12.30PM kick off at Elland Road.
They've also opened up a ten point gap over manager-less West Bromwich Albion, who face Swansea City at the Hawthorns tomorrow night.
I had originally intended to go to Rainworth Tonight, to watch Radford play Newark Flowserve, but didn't think that game would be on because of the deluge of rain in the area... it was! And in the event, Flowserve won their EMCL League Cup Semi-Final 3-1.
But as a back up plan I'd ordered a ticket for this Championship fixture online, recycled a couple of ground pictures from a previous visit to the Lane and decided that a truncated version of events would have to suffice for once. 'Twas painless, non time consuming and I got to bed at a reasonable time for a change too.