HAVE YOUR SAY: Exeter 2 Sheffield United 2: Fans do their best to lift Blades as promotion bid is put on hold

Scot Bennett had just rescued a point for Exeter City with an equaliser so late that referee James Linington only had sufficient time to re-start the game before blowing the final whistle.

Bennett’s dramatic intervention meant the victory that the efforts of 10-man United deserved had been snatched away at the death – but it mattered little.

The prize the Blades really craved had disappeared around 40 minutes earlier, courtesy of Nile Ranger putting Wednesday 2-0 up at home to relegated Wycombe Wanderers to ensure the promotion party would take place at Hillsborough and not 250 miles away in Devon.

Missing out on what, for so long, had seemed their destiny was a bitter blow for the near-2,000 fans who had made the long trip south fearing just such an anti-climax.

But, in a message of defiance designed to lift their equally crest-fallen players, the visiting supporters were determined to look on the bright side and the prospect of winning promotion in the play-off final at Wembley on May 26.

It was clearly a show of support the United team appreciated as they thanked those who had made the trip to Exeter not once but twice after the final whistle.

Kevin McDonald is someone who knows all about winning promotion at Wembley due to being on the Burnley bench in the 2009 Championship decider that, ironically, saw the Lancashire side go up at the expense of the Blades.

He said: “It is incredible we have not been promoted with 90 points but credit to Charlton and Sheffield Wednesday for unbelievable seasons.

“To be in the position we were with three games to go, then it is not ideal. But that is football.

“Any other year, we get promoted but, hopefully, the play-offs will do it for us. As far as we are concerned, the regular season is done and dusted.

“I wouldn’t say going up at Wembley is the best way. I’d rather be up now. But we still have a chance due to finishing third in the league.

“We could have been 10th and that would be our season done. We have three games left to win promotion.

“We have come up short but now we have a second chance through the play-offs. We just have to do what we have been doing.

“There was a time earlier in the season when we lost a couple but we came back to win six or seven on the bounce. We need to respond like that.”

Asked about the prospect of a return to Wembley, McDonald added: “First of all, the hard bit is we have two tough games against Stevenage.

“But if we can get to Wembley then, hopefully, I can repay the club. A play-off final is a huge occasion. Playing in front of 80,000 is a massive day out and, hopefully, we can get there.

“We have the quality to do it (win promotion).”

As disappointed as those of a Blades persuasion were at how the fight for Steel City supremacy ended, there was a feeling of inevitability, even ahead of kick-off, among the 1,577 fans who bought tickets through official channels and the 500 or so that had infiltrated the home sections.

Regardless of how United fared at St James’ Park, the belief was that Wednesday would not slip up at home to Wycombe.

And so it proved with the news that Michail Antonio had put the Owls in front filtering through moments after Exeter had taken the lead in a fashion that left the visiting supporters fuming.

The reason was Alan Gow, the scorer with an admittedly delightful left-footed shot, being stood two to three yards offside when initially collecting possession from David Noble.

Andy Davies’s flag remaining by his side meant the official would be berated for the rest of the game.

He would soon be joined by referee James Linington, whose crime in the eyes of the visitors was to send James Beattie off for the type of robust challenge on James Dunne that has led to a flurry of red cards this season.

A man down and a goal down, United responded in impressive fashion and were level just a minute before the break courtesy of a slick move that ended with Matt Lowton crossing for Lee Williamson to sweep into the net.

The first half then ended with Blades fans celebrating after mistakenly being told by one of their own number that Wycombe had equalised at Hillsborough.

Within two minutes of the restart, the visitors had justified cause for cheer when a deflected shot from McDonald found the corner of the net.

Soon, though, news arrived of Wednesday’s second goal to ensure a flat final half hour that ended with Bennett equalising right at the death.

It meant United finished the season with 90 points, the same number Sunderland collected in the 1997-98 Division One campaign when also finishing third.

The challenge now for Danny Wilson and his men is to avoid joining the Black Cats, who went on to lose to Charlton in the play-off final, in being the only clubs in Football League history to collect 90 points and still fail to win promotion.

[email protected]

Exeter City: Krysiak; Tully, Baldwin (Duffy 65), Archibald-Henville, Jones; Sercombe, Dunne (Bennett 48), Noble; Nardiello, Gow; O’Flynn (Bauza 67). Unused substitutes: Fortune, Pidgeley.

Sheffield United: Simonsen; Lowton, Maguire, Collins, Taylor; Williamson (Hill 84), McDonald, Doyle, Flynn (Flynn 60); Cresswell (Porter 67), Beattie. Unused substitutes: Howard, O’Halloran.