SHEFFIELD UNITED 0 A HELPING HEND... Keeper Dean’s gifts a lucky vic Klopp’s below-p
LIVERPOOL 1
NEIL WARNOCK claimed he was disappointed with Cardiff’s last-gasp leveller.
Danny Ward came off the bench to salvage a point with the forward’s first goal for more than a year.
But Bluebirds boss Warnock said: “If I’m honest, I’ve never been so disappointed to score an injury-time equaliser.
“We should have been well ahead at that stage and I’m totally disappointed because we’re giving points away – but we’ll stay positive as we’re on a nice little run.”
Ward latched on to Aden Flint’s flick to find the bottom corner in the third minute of stoppage-time to extend Cardiff’s unbeaten run to six.
Hull had posed little attacking threat until Kamil Grosicki curled home a 25-yard free-kick into the bottom corner a minute before the break.
Warnock’s side levelled 10 minutes into the second-half, thanks to an incisive move launched by Marlon Pack.
The midfielder’s lofted pass allowed Leandro Bacuna to send an inviting centre across the face of goal for Robert Glatzel to slide in from close range. Hull thought they’d won it when in the final minute Jordy de Wijs sent a glancing header from Jarrod Bowen’s free-kick past keeper Alex Smithies.
But Ward was on hand with almost the last kick of the game to ensure the Welshmen returned home with a deserved share of the spoils.
Tigers boss Grant McCann said: “The positive to take for us is that we’ve matched a team which came down from the Premier League.” HULLCITY CARDIFFCITY 3 ........ Shots on Target .........3 3 ........Shots off Target .........3 5 ................Corners .................8 11 ..................Fouls................... 11 0 ...............Offsides .................2 69.8 ..Passing Success % ... 62.4 334....... Total Passes ........ 346 49.1 ......Possession % ..... 50.9 36.8 .Territorial Adv % .. 63.2 WINNING ugly. Grinding out results. Or, as Jurgen Klopp put it, “winning on the cloudy days”.
Whichever way it was framed, in the Liverpool manager’s own words, this was “not a beauty”.
The Premier League leaders escaped Bramall Lane with a narrow, lucky win, courtesy of a
goalkeeping blunder by Dean Henderson. But, when the dust settles on the season, the three points gained here will be
no less precious for his
Sheffield United have lost three title- chasing side than any number of the flashier performances that will no doubt be in their portfolio come May.
Sheffield United deserved great credit for their non-stop effort.
But manager Chris Wilder knows his side will have to take their chances, especially when the big clubs have an off-day.
“When Liverpool are a little bit off, as they were today, we have to jump all over them. We have had enough here to get something from this game,” he said.
“If we had shown a bit more quality, we could have beaten the European Champions.”
Liverpool had the better chances, Sadio Mane missing two great openings, first lifting a shot 2 ... 6 ... 4 ... 6 ... 8 ... 0 ... 1 .... 0 ... 65.7 41 .. over Henderson’s bar in the firs half and hitting his post after sweeping counter-attack in th second.
But, ultimately, the game wa decided on that howler from Henderson, who spilled a routin volley from Gini Wijnaldum from the edge of his area on 70 minutes
Klopp admitted his strikers did not find the spaces as they usually do, but graciously praised United for their ferocious defence.
Wilder’s side showed som early nerves, but the longer the managed to keep Liverpool a arm’s length, the more they settled into their natural style.
Oli McBurnie and Callum Robinson both had chances in th first 20 minutes, the forme