THREE TYKES AND YOU’RE OUT

Blades stumble again with clock ticking on play-off bid

SHEFFIELD UNITED’S promotion hopes hang by thread and their lack of a killer instinct will be to blame if they miss out on the play-offs.

They led 2-1 midway through the second half at Barnsley, but again let three points slip through their fingers.

Their previous outing, against Cardiff on Easter Monday, saw the blades concede a stoppage-time equaliser.

The reverse at Oakwell means just one win in seven matches and United must bridge a four-point gap to the top six with five matches to go.

Boss Chris Wilder (right) is scratching his head over how his men have left themselves with work still to do after an excellent season.

“We’ve put ourselves in a position where the games mean something, but we have heaped pressure on ourselves,” he said. “I’m not saying every opportunity we get should be a goal, but we should be comfortably in the play-offs. “We’re not and we’re chasing. That is quite baffling given how we’ve attacked the division. “The teams that will get out of this division will take the game away from the opposition. We’ve still five games to go and I’d love us to show that ability. “I shouldn’t have to pick the players up. I might say a few words that don’t pick them up, ‘Get your finger out, get what you deserve, play well and win and be involved at the end of the season’.”

It could have been so different for the Blades despite Gary Gardner giving the relegation-threatened Tykes a half-time lead with his first goal for the club.

The introduction of Billy Sharp and a change in system gave United with added thrust, allowing John Fleck and Leon Clarke to turn the game on its head in the space of eight second-half minutes.

That was as good as it got for the visitors, with Oli McBurnie tapping in an equaliser before Bradshaw’s 88th-minute intervention. The win ended Barnsley’s clubrecord run of 12 home matches without a win.

They now control their destiny. They stay two points from safety but have a game in hand over relegation rivals.

BARNSLEY: Davies 5, Yiadom 7, Jackson 6, Lindsay 6, Fryers 5, Moncur 7 (Bradshaw 69, 7), Gardner 7, Potts 6, Isgrove 7 (Hammill 59, 6), Moore 8, McBurnie 7 (Cavare 90)

SHEFFIELD UNITED: Moore 5, Basham 6, Wright 6 (Wilson 90), O’Connell 6, Baldock 7, Evans 5 (Sharp 38, 6), Fleck 8, Lundstram 6, Stevens 5, Brooks 5 (Duffy 49, 7), Clarke 6