Sheffield United 3 Stoke City 1: Blades make heavy weather of it but the bandwagon rolls on

Adrift at the top, Burnley and Sheffield United are already looking uncatchable in the race for the Premier League, even at this stage of the season.

Given the opportunity to extend the gap to the Championship play-off places to 11 points, the Blades were soon into their stride against Stoke City at Bramall Lane.

But if anything things were a bit too easy for them.

From 2-0 up and coasting, they ended up making very heavy weather of a 3-1 win that ought to have been routine.

Only when Jayden Bogle scored his second goal of the game in the 90th minute was the job finally done.

Paul Heckingbottom freshened up his side, changing both his wing-backs due to injury and Max Lowe and Bogle both made a big impact. James McAtee was brilliant in central midfield and Iliman Ndiaye just continued the form he has shown since the World Cup.

Lowe, Bogle and Ndiaye combined for the first goal, Bogle scored the second.

There were only nine minutes on the clock when McAtee played the ball out to Lowe in space, he put it in first time and Ndiaye finished classily for his first goal since the early-November win over Burnley.

Despite plenty of possession and shots on goal, it took until the 33rd minute to double the lead but when Bogle drove forward and found the net via a deflection off Phil Jagielka, there was a sigh of relief.

But the Championship is rarely straight-forward, and as the first half ticked into stoppage time, Nick Powell looked for Jacob Brown with a cross but as he wrestled with John Egan, it found the net instead.

The game changed.

It was not that it all suddenly became one-way traffic the other way but Stoke were out for the second half much earlier and the Blades looked blunt after the restart. McAtee, as usual, faded and was replaced with the hour approaching.

When Bogle and John Eagan were booked for fouls a few minutes apart the away fans they were attacking began to believe, the rest of the ground to get edgy.

Ndiaye went off injured with 20 minutes remaining after a heavy knock.

Even though the Senegalese had been one of the better players in the second half, the battles with the centre-backs and picking up free-kicks, Daniel Jebbison's introduction in his place sparked the Blades.

His first act was to hound down a defender, and his team-mates kept Stoke penned in to win a corner. Shortly after a Jack Robinson long throw had the white shirts scrambling. Sander Berge disappointingly blazed a good chance over after good work by Bogle.

But the effect seemed to fizzle out, Brown forcing Foderingham to save his header.

Bogle, though, kept fighting, his 90th-minute run breaking down but Jagielka’s tackle fell to Tommy Doyle, who crossed. Had Bogle left it, Jebbison would surely have converted but the wing-back deserved to be the man who sent the home fans home if not with Cheshire-cat grins on their faces, then certainly sighs of relief.

Sheffield United: Foderingham; Ahmedhodzic, Egan, Robinson; Bogle, Berge, Norwood, McAtee (Doyle 59), Lowe; Ndiaye (Jebbison 71), Sharp (Osborn 77).

Unused substitutes: Davies, Basham, Coulibaly, Brooks.

Stoke City: Bonham; Souttar, Jagielka, Fox; Wilmot (Clarke 78), Thompson, Laurent, Tymon; Baker; Powell (Campbell 78); Brown.

Unused substitutes: Gayle, Kilkenny, Fosu-Henry, Taylor, Fielding.

Referee: M Salisbury (Lancashire).