Sheffield United 0 Leeds United 1 - Patrick Bamford adds to Blades’ troubles as Jack O’Connell out for season

Until Bamford’s 88th-minute intervention, guiding his header from Jack Harrison’s deep cross inside the far post, it had looked like being a day where for all the entertaining football played, two goalkeepers on top of their game were going to hold sway.

Instead, Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds have won back-to-back top-flight games, whilst Chris Wilder’s Sheffield United are looking for their first goal and win in the league this season.

With their losing streak stretching back six league matches either side of the short summer break, the Blades’ lack of cutting edge was made more serious by the news that one of their defensive pillars, Jack O’Connell, may not play again until next season due to knee surgery.

Relaxed enough to leave their most recent signing Diego Llorente out of their 18-man squad, Leeds have no such worries at the moment. Bamford has responded to the very obvious threat to his job security posed by club record £27m signing Rodrigo by scoring in every match he has played this term – not bad for a striker not supposed to be able to cut it in the top division.

Bamford missed the target with two good first-half headers but a man Bielsa does not judge on goals alone stands up very well at the moment in the eyes of those who do.

Rodrigo had to make do with a 45-minute cameo as an attacking midfielder and judging by the quality of his performance, Pablo Hernandez’s ongoing fitness struggles since lockdown and Bamford’s goals, Spain’s No 9 might have to get used to the job.

How the Blades must wish they had someone in Bamford’s goalscoring vein, although even a player that sharp might have struggled to beat Illan Meslier in such terrific form.

The hosts should have scored in the 29th minute when Luke Ayling, moved to the right of a back three, beat Ben Osborn but then lost the ball, allowing the latter – preferred to John Fleck – in behind him. The cross found John Lundstram who seemed certain to score until Meslier, criticised in some quarters after conceding seven goals in his first two Premier League games, pulled off an incredible low save. The 20-year-old made another very good stop from George Baldock after the wing-back’s excellent turn onto Osborn’s pass.

Lundstram had no such excuses earlier when a good advantage for Kalvin Phillips’s foul on David McGoldrick allowed Oliver Burke to provide a great chance he hit off target.

Even without derby-day supporters, the first half was too frantic until some patient passing and concerted pressure from Sheffield United midway through marked the start of both sides settling down.

Leeds’s eagerness to get going was evident from the off, Mateusz Klich and Tyler Roberts dashing into Sheffield United’s half at the first whistle before remembering they were supposed to take a knee.

Ayling required just five minutes to force a low save from Aaron Ramsdale, twisting Osborn before firing in a shot. The home goalkeeper ensured Meslier did not have the highlights package to himself, forced into a flying save by Stuart Dallas’s outside-of-the-boot shot after a one-two with Harrison.

With the Blades defending deep, the game became more stretched in the second half and it suited Leeds, who Bielsa felt had “extra energy”.

Most of it was powered by Dallas, who took full advantage of the additional space to become the outstanding outfield player from the left of a midfield three.

Oliver Norwood came off the Blades bench so Sander Berge could move right to try to deal with him, but generally the substitutions by both sides were positive and effective – at least until Rodrigo was himself brought off for the more defensive Ezgjan Alioski to see out stoppage time.

Meslier started the second half with another good save from Helder Costa’s volley and also denied Enda Stevens, whilst 
Ramsdale kept out less spectacular efforts from Klich and Bamford.

Despite being highly entertaining, the game was starting to have 0-0 written all over it, particularly when a slip by O’Connell’s deputy Jack Robinson just after the hour let in Dallas, who finally beat Ramsdale.

Chris Basham calmly got back to clear off the line.

Rodrigo thumped a header wide from a Dallas cross and when Bamford and substitute Ian Poveda broke from a corner, Ramsdale thwarted the latter.

As he often does, Wilder changed his strikers and Oli McBurnie and Billy Sharp made their team more threatening, but McBurnie had his head in his hands after failing to score with a diving header at a corner and when Sharp beautifully plucked a pass out of the sky, beating Meslier was just too difficult.

Bamford, though, cannot stop scoring at the moment so like the two previous meetings between Bielsa and Wilder, this one also ended in a 1-0 away win.

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James Mitchinson