Oldham Athletic 0 Sheffield United 2: Veteran Cresswell sets example for the young Blades to emulate

If, and it is a big if considering the relegated club’s financial plight, Wilson can keep this bunch together and add a couple of back-up players then an immediate return to the Championship could be on the cards.

Anyone expecting a gung-ho approach and a team full of youngsters in the Blades’ first visit to dilapidated Boundary Park in 25 years was in for a rude awakening.

Wilson offered no apologies for his side’s approach and nor should he as he explained: “There was nothing else in our mind this week but to make sure we were solid in our first game.

“The last thing we wanted to do was be nice and pretty, open ourselves up and concede goals. We needed to get off to a good start and we picked a really solid team, we picked physical lads who knew what was expected of them.

“We had to compete first and foremost because if we did not, we knew we would have been demolished.

“It was a real template on how to defend. Away from home you make sure you are solid and difficult to break down.”

Having reached the FA Youth Cup final last season, all the talk had been about the youngsters forcing their way through but the manager said: “It’s about the balance. The young lads will be drip fed into the side and they will offer us a great deal. If this had been a home game you might have seen a couple nore of them but this was one game where we realy needed to be solid.”

That balance was epitomised in the shape of the Blades’ goalscorers.

The first came from strapping 18-year-old central defender Harry Maguire – “a boy in a man’s body at the moment,” said Wilson – the second from man-of-the match Richard Cresswell, the old head in the camp at 33.

Delighted to be restored into a striking role, Cresswell spoke of the determination in the squad to lead the Blades straight back up.

“Last season was obviously a bit of a sorry state and there was a lot of turmoil in the club and it was a bad place to be around but we are trying to stick together with our small squad. It showed out there because whenever anyone was in trouble we tried to help each other out.

“It’s a fantastic team performance and that’s what winning promotion is all about. If you have a squad of 16-18 players all playing in the same way, sticking together as a unit, getting that backing off the fans – I have not heard them like that since I have been at the club – and showing the commitment then you will be a force in this league.

“Hopefully, we will get things right and prove that we are good players and get this great club to a better level than where it is now.”

On a personal level, Cresswell says he has rarely felt fitter.

“I know people go on about age and people are ageist in this football community we have but I am one of the fittest in the club over pre-season so I look after myself and get on with my job quietly.

“I have not felt as good as this physically for a long time and my knee feels great. It’s just a great result and we thoroughly deserved it.

“Playing at a good level for a long time, you have to look after your body physically and I do that and, hopefully, I will reap the rewards.

“Getting older makes you more hungry even though I have had quite a successful career including a few seasons in the Premier League and there is no better feeling than winning games.

“I love playing up front but I have played 80 per cent of my games here on the left. If I get a run of games up front I will get the goals. I know that.”

Cresswell’s match-sealing goal came in the 54th-minute when he showed strength and no little pace as he burst through the middle between two defenders to slide home a low cross from Stephen Quinn in front of the Blades’ 3,597-strong following.

He would have been proud to have scored the first six minutes earlier, Maguire opening his Blades account with a thumping header into the top corner from a corner again forced by Cresswell and sent over by Quinn.

“It was a great header from young Harry. The way he put it in was fantastic. We had been working on that all week but he has also got great defensive ability. He’s a big boy and what an attribute to have in the opposing box,” said Cresswell of the former Barnsley youth, being coached by the sidelined former Oakwell stopper Chris Morgan.

“Harry has got potential, he is a young lad and will have his ups and downs but it is all about how he copes with his mistakes when they come. All the senior lads are behind him. You never know how far he can go but he has great potential.”

While Wilson was most impressed by his side’s defensive display, credit must also go to captain Nick Montgomery and Michael Doyle, who, while not the most inventive players, patrolled central midfield like a pair of guard dogs in a scrapyard.

Oldham Athletic: Cisak, Lee, Diamond, M’Voto, Black; Winchester (Millar 66), Furman, Lund, Taylor; Reid (Parker 60), Smith. Unused substitutes: Gerrard, Brooke, Mellor.

Sheffield United: Simonsen, Lowton, Maguire, Collins, Jean-Francois; Flynn (Williamson 73), Montgomery, Doyle, Quinn; Cresswell, Porter (Bogdanovic 78). Unused substitutes: Slew,Mendez-Laing, Long.

Referee: D Drysdale (Lincs).