John Egan's volley claims a point as Sheffield United centre-back shows all-round value

Even with the Blades forced into a change of approach as they chased the game in the second half, the attacking instincts of their centre-backs eventually paid dividends to cancel out a goal from the Clarets' own centre-half.

Having taken his eye off a first-half chance a centre-forward might have taken, John Egan snatched a draw with a volley any attacking player would have been proud of. It was his first Premier League goal.

Until his 80th-minute goal, it had looked as if the Blades' good attacking football of the first half in particular might go unrewarded. For the first 45 minutes, their football was back to its best, only let down by poor finishing.

Burnley are not the sort of team to let you off the hook when that happens.

It had been a good few days for the Blades with an encouraging performance against Arsenal in the FA Cup, then the substance of a win against Tottenham Hotspur in midweek. As a result, they hit the ground running at windswept Turf Moor, Oli McBurnie forcing Nick Pope to make a good save with his feet inside two minutes.

If Burnley's football can sometimes be a bit predictable but extremely difficult to deal with, Sheffield United come at you from all angles. Even during a difficult restart to the season they have added a new angle of attack in Jack Robinson's long throw-ins.

Sander Berge had the ball in the net in the fifth minutes after Nick Pope failed to deal with Robinson's latest exocet. Whether the goal would have been disallowed anyway under the unofficial “If the goalkeeper drops the ball, it is an automatic foul” rule, we will never know. Robinson had overstepped the touchline and a foul throw was given.

Both sides' play is based on their central defenders, Burnley founded on a solid partnership of Ben Mee and James Tarkowski, whereas the Blades' back three are all important attacking weapons as Egan would show.

Burnley were without Mee because of an ankle injury, meaning Kevin Long was making his first start since 2018. The Irishman has played the majority of his games on loan for a variety of clubs including Barnsley, yet at 29 he is no youngster learning the game.

The Clarets did not look their usual assured self defensively and were fortunate not to have a penalty given against them when the ball accidentally struck Eirik Pieters in the penalty area. This season's handball rule is an ass, but video assistant referee Stuart Attwell scrutinised the pictures a long time before not applying it.

Injured days before the restart, Jack O'Connell made his return on the bench in the second half for the Blades and although his stand-in Robinson has adapted well to Chris Wilder's unusual style of play, his team was nearly punished when he gave the ball away in the 10th minute Dwight McNeill picked out Jay Rodriguez, who switched the play to Pieters, only for Matej Vydra to miss the target with Dean Henderson rushing out to him.

When Ben Osborn, a lively midfield presence throughout, put an excellent ball in after 18 minutes, a striker might not have been put off by Pope running across their eyeline but Egan was, and failed to have made contact. To have been up there in open play was tribute to the confidence his side was playing with.

Berge head over after an excellent move which saw David McGoldrick sweep the ball out to George Baldock, and Egan headed off target at a corner. McBurnie put a Robinson cross over.

Then, at the end of the half, the killer blow.

Apart from a long-range Phil Bardsley shot, swirling even more in the windy conditions, Henderson's biggest challenge was keeping warm on an unseasonal day in Lancashire, but when Rodriguez flicked on a McNeill free-kick near the left touchline, McBurnie lost concentration and James Tarkowski just long enough for the central defender to find the net.

It made the second half a tactical conundrum for Wilder, initially switching to 3-4-1-2 with McGoldrick in the hole, then bringing on Jack Rodwell in midfield as the Blades went to the diamond they had chased FA Cup victory with seven days earlier.

Inevitably gaps open, and McNeill had a terrible miss in the 71st minute when Henderson could only parry a fierce shot from Rodriguez. It was a crucial moment in the game.

Crossing was how the Blades tried to open the Clarets up throughout but they were cute about their 80th-minute corner, working it well so that Osborn's delivery was pretty much a straight ball, flicked up by harp for Egan to despatch.

There were no away fans to shout “Attack, attack attack!” so Wilder screamed “Forward, forward!” from the dugout but there was to be no third goal.

Henderson made a good added-time save from Pieters, although the ball was probably going wide, but a share of the spoils in inhospitable conditions felt fair enough, for all the good Sheffield United football that went unrewarded in the first half.

Burnley: Pope; Bardsley, Tarkowski, Long, Taylor; McNeil, Westwood, Brownhill, Pieters (Gudmundsson 90), Rodriguez, Vydra (Wood 69).

Not used: Brady, Peacock-Farrell, Thompson, Dunne, Thomas, Benson, Goodridge.

Sheffield United: Henderson; Basham (Rodwell 75), Egan, J Robinson (O'Connell 54); Baldock, Berge, Norwood (Sharp 54), Osborn, Stevens; McGoldrick, McBurnie (Mousset 71).

Not used: Jagielka, Moore, K Freeman, Zivkovic.

Referee: P Bankes (Merseyside).

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