Feeble Sheffield United's luck is out but they do not do enough to earn it at Fulham

The Blades got fortunate with injuries last season, but Lady Luck has certainly cashed her chips in this. Chris Basham became the third member of last season's back three to fall prey to injury as his side suffered a 1-0 defeat at Fulham which means they now have fewer matches to play than points to make up to the Premier League safety mark.

In the 90th minute, Fulham goalkeeper Alphonse Areola cleaned out Blades substitute Jayden Bogle. In-game communication from Stockley Park is not one of the Premier League's strengths but it seemed as if the Cottagers were given a free-kick and video assistant referee Peter Bankes did not even check the incident.

The way the night went, you would not have bet even someone else's last tenner on Billy Sharp putting the penalty away, but it summed up the Blades' luck. They could hardly argue they had earnt any, though.

It was distressing how feebly they succumbed.

If Ademola Lookman ran through Ethan Ampadu and shot through Aaron Ramsdale far too easily to lash the only goal of a forgettable game, then Enda Stevens attempt at an equaliser was just as badly lacking in conviction.

There are few things more dispiriting than when sportsmen accept their limitations, and Sheffield United might just have reached that point.

Not since Southport, bottom of the Football League in 1975-76, has an English team lost 20 of its first 25 league games. It had never happened in the top division until the Blades' game in west London.

The first 45 minutes were abysmal, the lack of urgency from two teams needed to do something dramatic – exceptional, in the Blades' case – to avoid relegation alarming. If you did not know better you would have thought it was 12th versus 13th in mid-April.

Knowing a win would allow them to move off the bottom of the table in the match which, according to the table, was the easiest they had left, the visitors allowed Fulham to have 73 per cent of the ball in the first half, perhaps because they could trust them to do nothing with it. They had four corners inside the first eight minutes without troubling goalkeeper Ramsdale.

They started with a slightly surprising configuration, Basham on the right of midfield, Ampadu behind in his normal midfield berth. Bogle had lost his place to George Baldock.

By the 20th minute Basham was pack in a more familiar position, Ampadu splitting John Lundstram and Fleck – the latter recovered from illness against the pre-match expectations – presumably in an attempt to stop the Cottagers seeing so much of the ball in midfield. If that was the aim, it did not work.

For all that, the hardest thing Ramsdale had to do before the interval was touch a couple of wayward crosses over his crossbar.

Ademola Lookman had a shot deflected, Andre-Frank Anguissa shot wide when an Antonee Robinson cross was allowed to travel way too far, Lookman shot at Ramsdale and Ruben Loftus-Cheek wasted the effort of twisting and turning his way into space after robbing Lundstram by shooting over, as Ivan Cavalerio would when played into the corner. Harrison Reed had an effort comfortably saved and Loftus-Cheek headed over at a corner.

Unfortunately for the Blades, yet to keep a Premier League clean sheet this season, Fulham injected a bit more oomph after the interval – not much, mind.

George Baldock diligently cleared off the line when Ramsdale took the sting out of a Loftus-Cheek shot in the 53rd minute. Basham had gone off by then, looking like he had pulled his left hamstring. John Egan and Jack O'Connell are already out injured.

The offside flag was up when Sharp, with Oli McBurnie in his way, put substitute Oliver Norwood's cross over. Had he found the net, the VAR may have given a goal, assuming Bankes had not just pulled a sickie.

As it was, Lookman scored the only goal seven minutes later in the face of minimal resistance from Ampadu and Ramsdale.

When Sharp played Stevens in, he made it too easy for Areola to save with his legs.

Ramsdale made good saves to tip over from Ola Aina, and to deny Mario Lemina with his legs either side of the slightly bewildering Bogle foul on Areola, who seemed to get credit for getting a touch on the ball before his follow-through.

Fulham: Areola; Aina, Andersen, Tosin, Robinson; Reed, Anguissa; Cavaleiro (Tete 77), Loftus-Cheek, Lookman (De Cordova-Reid 90); Maja (Lemina 87).

Unused substitutes: Hector, Odoi, Rodak, Ream, Bryan, Onomah.

Sheffield United: Ramsdale; Baldock, Ampadu, Jagielka (Bogle 80), Bryan, Stevens; Basham (Norwood 51), Fleck, Lundstram (McGoldrick 74); McBurnie, Sharp.

Unused substitutes: Lowe, Burke, Foderingham, Osborn, Brewster, Brunt.

Referee: M Atkinson (West Yorkshire).

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