Blades secure rare win thanks to Mcgoldrick
GRAHAM POTTER has learnt this week how painful slip-ups can be.
The Brighton boss was left with a nasty gash under his left eye after losing his footing at the beachfront and bashing his face on a railing.
At Bramall Lane, it was his team that came a cropper.
After all the hard work that was expended in taking a precious point back to the south coast following a disciplined showing at Chelsea, they fluffed their lines in South Yorkshire.
This trip – to a club that had its return to the Championship confirmed following a narrow defeat at Wolves last week
– was an obvious opportunity to escape the spectre of relegation that has been shadowing them practically all season.
With a seven-point buffer on 18th-placed Fulham going into this fixture, the stage was set for Potter’s men to take a massive step towards cementing their top-flight status for another season.
There were three changes for the Seagulls following the point they ground out at Chelsea. One was enforced with Ben White missing through suspension while two other alterations saw the familiar faces of Adam Lallana and Neal Maupay back in the starting line-up.
Maupay was asked to patrol the right flank and, in the early exchanges, it took a solid block by keeper Aaron Ramsdale to prevent the former Brentford striker from opening the scoring.
Yves Bissouma had, for once, deserted his defensive duties and strode forward at pace.
His ball allowed his team-mate to take aim but Ramsdale stood firm – and the value of that stop was seen just minutes later.
Ben Osborn made good ground down the left, his ball into the area caused problems with Joel Veltman only half-clearing to the edge of the area.
Pascal Gross had raced back to help his defence and reached the loose ball marginally before Rhian Brewster. But the ex-liverpool striker blocked the clearance and it dropped back to Mcgoldrick who finished with his left foot.
But the Blades had a real let-off in the 57th minute.
A right-wing corner was nodded on and Jakub Moder took advantage of Osborn dallying to poke home.
But Potter must have feared the worst when VAR decided to take a look. The Poland midfielder had strayed offside after the flick-on and the strike was chalked off.