Levi’s in mood for a turn up
...BUT JOKA ADMITS BLADES ARE COMING UP SHORT
SLAVISA JOKANOVIC insisted there is no panic after Huddersfield’s late smash-and-grab left his blunt Blades in the bottom three.
The Sheffield United boss saw Billy Sharp appear to have salvaged a point with a stoppage-time leveller.
But Town’s on-loan Chelsea defender Levi Colwill grabbed a dramatic winner in the 94th minute to take the honours.
United have scored just once in more than six hours of Championship football.
They already trail Fulham and West Brom – who came down with them from the Premier League back in May – by nine points.
New Blades manager
Jokanovic admitted: “It’s not the start to the season we or our fans wanted and it’s a really hard result to take.
“After we scored I thought there was still time to win it so it was a hard moment for us to lose.
“If I said this was the best performance in my time here when it still ended in a defeat it sounds a bit like a joke.
“It’s a strange game and I must try to find positives.
“We have to stay calm, work hard and try to turn it round.”
After a turbulent last two years, the Terriers are the perfect warning to the Blades of the huge perils of being unable to halt a spiral of decline after crashing out of the Premier League.
They came to South Yorkshire to grind out a point – but went home with all three thanks to another Blades no-show.
United’s £40million strikeforce of Rhian Brewster and Oli Mcburnie were again forced to feed on scraps.
Mcburnie’s spectacular 15yard overhead kick, which the visiting keeper Lee Nicholls had to scramble round the post low to his right, was the stand-out moment of a turgid first half.
It took 40 minutes for the Blades to muster even that modest effort, with Town’s back five stifling most of the few serious attacks.
Huddersfield came more into it in the second half, with Josh Koroma and sub Fraizer Campbell both wasting chances before Koroma broke the deadlock.
With 15 minutes left he followed up to score from 10 yards after Wes Foderingham saved his initial effort from a Sorba Thomas cross.
Sharp came off the bench to fire home David Mcgoldrick’s knock-down on 92 minutes, but there was still time for more drama.
Colwill grabbed his first career goal in the fourth minute of stoppage-time from sub Harry Toffolo’s cross when the Blades failed to clear a corner.
Terriers chief Carlos
Corberan, who revealed that striker Jordan Rhodes faces months out with a back injury, said: “They made us suffer and made us defend a lot of the time. But as the game wore on we felt we could exploit things on the counter-attack.
“To win it the way that we did after conceding so late shows the character there is in the side.”
SHEFF UTD: Foderingham 5; Basham 5, Egan 5, Davies 5; Baldock 5, Berge 4, Norwood 3, Fleck 3 (Mcgoldrick 78, 5), Norrington-davies 6 (Osborn 77, 6); Brewster 4 (Sharp 65, 7), Mcburnie 3. Unused Subs: Freeman, Robinson, Bogle, Verrips.
HUDDERSFIELD: Nicholls 7; Pearson 7, Sarr 6, Colwill 8; Turton 6, High 6 (Toffolo 60, 7), Hogg 7, O’brien 7, Thomas 7; Koroma 8 (Vallejo 81, 7), Ward 3 (Campbell 60, 6)
Subs Not Used: Holmes, Sinani, Schofield, Lees.
MAN OF THE MATCH: Levi Colwill. Solid at the back and popped up with the dramatic winner.
REFEREE: Michael Salisbury 6.