Gestede wins it, but Blades denied a late equaliser
MIDDLESBROUGH 1 Gestede (20) SHEFFIELD UNITED 0
RUDY GESTEDE headed Middlesbrough to their first win of the season as Sheffield United were denied a late leveller in their narrow defeat on Teesside.
Gestede, who managed just one Premier League goal along Boro’s road to relegation following his arrival from Aston Villa in January, proved he should be a valuable asset at this level, from which new Riverside boss Garry Monk has been charged with escaping at the first attempt.
League One champions United showed flashes of inspiration – rolling the dice late on with the substitute deployment of Ched Evans – and they even thought Jack O’Connell had salvaged a point at the death.
A controversial offside call decided otherwise, however, and now the Blades are left devising new ways to break through stubborn defences following their campaign of plunder in the third tier
onk made four changes, introducing Gestede, Patrick Bamford, Dael Fry and Adam Forshaw for a clutch of the players who lost at Wolves last week.
Summer signing Martin Braithwaite, having experienced a niggle in training,
was among those to drop out entirely.
It was the same United side that beat Brentford on the opening day and the promoted Blades appeared keen to shock again, with Kieron Freeman slipping in Leon Clarke for an early chance that was. dutifully blocked.
John FleckM also got through to test Darren Randolph, but Boro absorbed the scares.
Bamford was embarrassed when his free- kick sailed into the south stand, but the former Chelsea striker kept his head up and set about craftily dragging the United back-line out of shape.
His work paid dividends in the 21st minute as, with the Blades scrambling to clear, Bamford’s lofted assist met Gestede for a header that looped over Jamal Blackman and into the net.
George Friend might have done better when attacking a corner yet the Boro pressure kept mounting and Bamford and £ 15m addition Britt Assombalonga were soon found falling over each other in clumsy bids to smash home from the byline.
Gestede used his height to good effect again as half-time drew near. The Benin international did not have to jump far to meet Cyrus Christie’s cross and head the ball against a post.
A speculative Boro siege ushered in the second half, but United survived and indeed launched their own raid, which was skilfully defused by the likes of England defender Ben Gibson.
The Welsh striker is back on United’s books five years after his prolific first spell was cut short by a rape conviction. Evans served two- and- a- half years in prison, but was found not guilty of the offence at a retrial last October.
The man who set up two goals from the bench in Wednesday’s Carabao Cup win over Walsall was not effective, though, and it was instead defender O’Connell who looked to have grabbed a last-gasp equaliser.
Two minutes into stoppage time, he rolled the ball into the Boro goal off his shoulders from a free-kick, but the wild celebrations were confusingly cut short by the linesman’s flag.