Sheffield United 2 Shrewsbury Town 1: Victory comes at heavy price as frustrated Blades leapfrog City

The Scottish midfielder helped the Blades beat nine-man Shrewsbury Town, setting up the early opening goal for Billy Sharp, before substitute Stefan Scougall added a second in the 24th minute.

But despite one-way traffic, United, in a rich vein of form with 26 goals in their last seven outings before Saturday, discovered they had lost their golden touch in front of goal.

Red cards for Jim O’Brien – which resulted in a penalty miss by Sharp – and Abu Ogogo before half-time, meant most of the 20,000 inside Bramall Lane expected an avalanche of goals in the second half.

But a man-of-the-match display from goalkeeper Mark Halstead, who saved Sharp’s early penalty, and some wayward finishing, meant when Louis Dodds fired home it created a nervous final 17 minutes.

It was a lesson United, who moved up to second spot, leapfrogging Bradford City, will need to learn. Their free-flowing, attacking football will not always deliver a glut of goals.

“It was a poor performance, but it was three points and that’s the main thing,” said Fleck.

“We had a few chances but just couldn’t get that final touch. To be fair, they had to give it a real go in the second half as they had nothing to lose.

“We have to give them a lot of credit, but we are disappointed in our own performance.

“We kept our run going – six (successive) home wins, 13 unbeaten – and we just need to keep going. I am pretty sure everyone thought it was going to be high scoring, but it wasn’t to be.

“You can’t play well every week, and the boys will have off-days.

“There was some sloppy passing out there today. We just couldn’t get the final touch on the ball.

“We have got some experienced boys, who know sometimes you just have to dig in.

“I am pretty sure there will be more performances like that, frustrating, and it’s just about grinding out results. When we are playing well, we are hard to stop.”

United took the lead thanks to the clinical finishing of Sharp. He was left space and drilled the ball beyond Halstead after Fleck’s peach of a delivery.

“I think Sharp was in quite a bit of space, so I just had to lift the ball over,” continued a modest Fleck.

“Sharpy does what he does, and puts the ball in the net. It was a great finish from a very good striker at this level.

“I was disappointed he missed the penalty, but he will get over it pretty quickly.”

That penalty call saw O’Brien shown a straight red card for a foul on Daniel Lafferty, who along with Kieron Freeman as wingbacks are crucial in this Blades 3-5-2 formation.

The sending-off by Darren Deadman seemed harsh, but there could be no defence for Ogogo’s challenge which saw midfielder Paul Coutts forced off with a leg injury.

Victory came at a cost, with Coutts, Freeman and Mark Duffy all limping off injured and doubts for tomorrow’s visit of Bury.

“To lose them wasn’t good,” said Blades chief Chris Wilder.

“We’re hoping they’ll be okay over the weekend because they’ve been big players for us.

“Duffy has a really tight calf, Kieron Freeman has got a really big impact on his back and Couttsy was the tackle. For him to walk off the pitch today is a bonus for us.

“Look at the state of the boy’s leg, that comes from a dangerous tackle. It’s sliced through his shin pad and he’s taken a big impact on his shin.

“It was a definite red. If Bash (Chris Basham) got sent off at Scunthorpe by the same referee, well that one was twice the tackle he did.”

United had 30 shots, 10 on target, plus 20 corners to Shrewsbury’s one, statistics which illustrate the gulf between the teams.

In the second half, the game became almost like a training ground routine of defence versus attack. But somehow United could not get the ball in the net, leaving the visiting support to chant “1-0 to the nine men” after Dodds had fired in, against the run of play, with 17 minutes remaining.

Late on, Halstead twice thwarted United, first tipping wide a shot from Matt Done, before flicking over Sharp’s header.

Victory leaves them in the automatic promotion spots, six points behind leaders Scunthorpe United with a game in hand.

“By the time Monday comes, the performance will be forgotten about, and it’s another three points,” said Fleck. “We have a big game on Tuesday and we need another three points.

“We want to climb as high as we can, as quickly as possible, and hopefully stay there.”

Sheffield Unted: Moore, Basham, Ebanks-Landell, Wright, Freeman (Chapman 60), Coutts (O’Connell 45), Duffy (Scougall 11), Fleck, Lafferty, Sharp, Done. Unused substitutes: Ramsdale, Lavery, Clarke, Brown.

Shrewsbury Town: Halstead, Grimmer, Lancashire, El-Abd, Brown Deegan, Ogogo, O’Brien, Dodds, Toney (Black 45), Leitch-Smith (Ebanks-Blake 45). Unused substitutes: Leutwiler, Sadler, Smith, Sarcevic, Waring.

Referee: D Deadman (Cambs).