Flint leaves it late to cut the Blades
ADEN FLINT settled a fiery meeting between two of the Championship’s promotion contenders when he finished with an accomplished strike from Bobby Reid’s 90th-minute cross.
Leon Clarke had taken his amazing goalscoring form to 10 in his past six games with an emphatic right-foot finish after 48 minutes to cancel out Jamie Paterson’s opener.
But an often illtempered game threatened to explode just before the hour when United midfielder John Fleck was shown a straight red card for a two-footed lunge at Korey Smith.
City took a shock lead, against the run of play, two minutes before the interval after United had struck the woodwork three times. Smith pushed the ball down the right wing for Josh Brownhill, who found Paterson 20 yards from goal. The City winger unleashed a phenomenal curling effort that took a wicked path into the Blades’ net past keeper Simon Moore.
The home side had made a bright start that suggested they were in the mood to declare themselves back in the hunt for automatic promotion.
And by the 10-minute mark, Flint was required to make a goalline clearance from a Fleck corner that deceived the defence.
In the 20th minute Mark Duffy went close with a magnificent curing free-kick which evaded the City wall, SHARP FLINT: City grab the
SHEFFIELD UTD
only to hit the righthand post.
But City showed they would be a threat on the counter-attack and Nathan Baker went close when he rose to meet Paterson’s centre and headed inches off target.
United were soon back on the front foot and Billy Sharp almost scored with a powerful effort which clipped the bar.
Incredibly, Sharp hit the bar again two minutes later, stopping to meet Fleck’s corner with a header.
And the tension appeared to be getting too much for the two benches with managers Chris Wilder and Lee Johnson having to be separated by the fourth official.
Incredibly, after equalising, Duffy and United would be denied by the woodwork for a fourth time.
On 54 minutes Duffy’s shot struck the left-hand post and Sharp’s effort from the rebound was blocked by Flint. FLECK: Straight red
SHEFFIELD UNITED (3-4-1-2):