Brighton's Danny Welbeck denies 10-man Sheffield United precious win
The positive for Sheffield United was that they doubled their points haul for the season. The negative was that it is nowhere near enough and they will soon run out of lives, the fine margins failing them at every turn.
They were around eight minutes from a first win that would have felt transformative given they spent more than half of this game with 10 men after John Lundstram’s dismissal. Then Danny Welbeck chested down the ball and smashed in Brighton’s equaliser after Aaron Webster challenged for a deep free-kick. It would have been worse if Alireza Jahanbakhsh had not nodded against the woodwork at the death although, given the task that faces Chris Wilder and his players now, the degree of difference that might have made is debatable.
If United do come to rue the absence of a lift-off win then Oliver Burke’s glaring miss, three minutes before the lead was lost, will gnaw away agonisingly. Brighton had managed little more than huff and puff in response to a goal from the top-flight debutant Jayden Bogle, who set up a smash and grab shortly after coming off the bench, and were caught on the break when Ben Osborn sent Burke through. He blazed over with the match there to be decided and it was the kind of moment by which struggling sides live or die. “When there’s a little opportunity you need that to go for you,” Wilder said. “It’s a small step for us. When you get that close it’s disappointing not to see the game out. The team showed some real qualities.”
Wilder might have known his luck was out when, shortly after he had made a first-half tactical change in bringing on the forward Burke for John
Fleck, his best-laid plans were wrecked. United seemed to have livened up, David McGoldrick drawing a brilliant save from Robert Sánchez from a freekick, when Lundstram steamed into Joël Veltman with a tackle whose force could be heard high in the stand.
He appeared to have got away with a booking until VAR intervened with another of those ominous waits that tend to confirm the outcome; the referee was eventually summoned to his pitchside monitor by the video official, Michael Oliver, and quickly upgraded the punishment. He was correct to do so: Lundstram had reached the ball first but with excessive force, following through and leaving Veltman requiring treatment.
“I don’t think there was any malice in the challenge at all,” said Wilder, who does not intend to appeal against the red card but hardly disguised his distaste for the decision. “We’ve got to be careful that this doesn’t become a noncontact sport because I believe supporters in this country want to see contact.”
His side had not laid much of a glove on Brighton before that, although their opponents looked insubstantial around the United box. Aaron Ramsdale saved from Aaron Connolly and prevented an own goal from Chris Basham, while Ethan Ampadu made one heroic block, but the scarcity of real openings would be a theme until Welbeck bailed out the home side.
Leandro Trossard had just missed the best one, straight after half-time, when Bogle arrived in place of the luckless Rhian Brewster and turned things on their head. He is a right wing-back but within nine minutes he appeared on the left corner of the six-yard box to tame McGoldrick’s cutback and blast in via a deflection off Webster.
Brighton threw men forward but, to the frustration of their latest tranche of returning fans, were largely huff and puff until Osborn conceded a cheap set piece and Welbeck stayed calm amid the melee. Only the Blades have a worse home record and their winless run here stretches to 11 games.
“I’m pleased the players got a reward for their constant pressure,” Graham Potter said, but a point keeps them uncomfortably close to the mire.
United are deep in it, and then some, but their commitment levels gave Wilder hope. “If we don’t show that attitude we’re toast, they understand that,” he said. They are not frazzled quite yet, but in reality only crumbs of hope remain.