NINE-MAN SHREWS ARE TAMED
Sheffield United moved up to second in the table after a hardfought victory over a Shrewsbury Town side who found themselves down to nine men before half-time – Jim O’Brien and Abu Ogogo receiving straight red cards.
Goals in the opening half an hour from the clinical Billy Sharp and early substitute Stefan Scougall were enough to ensure Louis Dodds’ strike late in the game was just a consolation.
And despite the hosts stretching their unbeaten league run to 13, manager Chris Wilder was disappointed with his side’s inability to go through the gears against nine men.
“We’re a little bit frustrated in the changing room that we didn’t extend our lead,” said the boss. “It was a strange old game; they’ve had two men sent off and the disappointing aspect for me is their goal.
“It’s only a tiny frustration because we’ve had terrific backing from the club and the fans and that’s six wins on the bounce for us now at home.”
But it was a win that came at a cost for Wilder, who had to substitute Paul Coutts, Mark Duffy and Kieron Freeman through injury.
“It’s a poor tackle on Paul, he could have broke his leg out there and it’s just luck that he didn’t.
“We’ve lost players early on, we’re just hoping they’re OK and we’ll see how they are over the weekend.”
Before injuries took their hold over the home side, Sharp scored his 12th goal of the season after running onto a delightful ball from John Fleck to slam past the excellent Mark Halstead.
Before the half-hour mark the lead was doubled, Jake Wright headed a corner back into the danger area for sub Scougall to flick home, and send United on their way to what looked like a simple victory.
Shrewsbury manager Paul Hurst withdrew both his starting forwards at halftime, a move which helped the away side get back into the game, and he admitted he was proud of his players’ response.
“It’s a strange one because I am proud of them but it’s hard to be happy when you’ve lost the game,” said Hurst. “One or two of them need to understand game situations; we went down to ten men and at half-time there were a few things I had to tell people about, I had a pop at one or two at half-time.” Hurst’s words obviously worked. Dodds’ calmly taken goal from Gary Deegan’s cross gave Shrewsbury hope, but Halstead kept his team in the game at the other end and the manager was very pleased with his display. “It was a really good performance, it was a tough decision to replace Jayson Leutwiler but it would have been detrimental to Mark to leave him out he,” Hurst added.
“At times we could have done with both keepers but I’m glad we gave our fans something to cheer, it’s a long way to come to watch their team.”