Cardiff City 1 Sheffield United 1: Blackwell is content as Blades head home with point

With Blades leading 10 minutes from the interval, full-back Matthew Lowton was shown a straight red card for a high challenge on Kevin McNaughton, a decision which Blackwell had no complaints about.

He said: "Considering we played for so long with 10 men, I have to be satisfied with the result.

"We started off well and are very pleased with the point because Cardiff needed the extra man to get back into the game.

"I cannot argue with the sending off, but it wasn't malicious, and maybe a yellow card would have been enough as Matthew Lowton is only a young lad with very little experience.

"We coped well with 10 men and were fairly comfortable even though Steve Simonsen had to make several good saves.

"We took the lead with a good striker's goal by Ched Evans, who has everything in his locker and scored so many goals pre-season that I couldn't leave him out.

"We couldn't fill the bench, but I had to bring on some experienced players during the second half to see us through.

"Cardiff showed good spirit and to leave here with a point is really pleasing."

Jay Bothroyd salvaged a point for last season's beaten play-off finalists, who dragged themselves level when Michael Chopra rounded United goalkeeper Simonsen and teed up Bothroyd for the equaliser.

The hosts were simply glad to get back to playing football after a turbulent summer off the pitch – they were hit with a transfer embargo which was only lifted on Friday.

They made the better start and had the ball in the net after 13 minutes when Chopra burst through, but the striker was penalised for a foul on Johnny Ertl.

Ten minutes later, against the run of play, United took the lead.

Evans could have been awarded a penalty when he was hauled down by Gabor Gypes, but the Wales international quickly got back to his feet when the ball broke to Leon Britton.

The summer signing from Swansea pinged the ball back across goal and Evans was on hand to turn it past Cardiff goalkeeper David Marshall.

However, United were dealt a blow when Lowton, making only his third league appearance, was sent off by referee Peter Walton for a reckless high challenge on McNaughton.

The visitors made it to half-time without too much drama, and were relieved to see Mark Hudson's header from Peter Whittingham's corner fly wide after the break.

But Cardiff finally prised open the Blades' rearguard on the hour mark when Simonsen came charging out of his goal to meet Chopra on the right of the penalty area.

Chopra's superb control of the high ball allowed him to jink around the diving goalkeeper and feed Bothroyd, who was able to slot the ball into the net despite two defenders standing on the goal-line.

Simonsen made a better fist of saving at the feet of substitute Ross McCormack five minutes later after he was put through by Chopra.

The goalkeeper also held on to a dangerous cross-shot from Darcy Blake, tipped another effort from McCormack around a post and blocked Chris Burke's drive as Cardiff pressed.

He pulled off an even better save to deny Chopra from the edge of the area, diving at full length to palm away the striker's fierce shot, as the tiring 10 men held out for a point.

Cardiff manager Dave Jones expects a flurry of transfer activity in the coming days after his threadbare squad were held to this draw.

With the transfer embargo at the club only lifted on Friday, Jones was able to name just four substitutes against the Blades.

Jones said: "Now the transfer embargo has been lifted I have spoken to the Malaysian owners who assure me that they are in for the long haul and recognise that players need to come into the club.

"I took a gamble by letting players go and waited for the club to be out of the embargo and I will be disappointed if another two players are not here in the next few days.

"I think we deserved more than a point as we dominated the second half but couldn't break them down.

"Two or three games into the season we would have been a bit sharper and perhaps opened them up, but I said the players were up for it, and they were.

"We only had four players fit for the bench and Jason Koumas is about 10 to 15 days off full fitness at the moment."

Cardiff City: Marshall, McNaughton, Hudson, Gyepes, Blake, Whittingham, Rae (McCormack 54), Drinkwater, Burke, Chopra, Bothroyd. Unused substitutes: Heaton, Gerrard, Matthews.

Sheffield United: Simonsen, Taylor, Morgan, Ertl, Lowton, Ward (Yeates 87), Montgomery, Britton (Kozluk 68), Quinn, Evans (Bogdanovic 68), Cresswell. Unused substitutes: Aksalu, James, Chapell.

Referee: Peter Walton (Northamptonshire).

Man of the match: Ched Evans.