Sheffield United 0 Millwall 1: Blades fall flat in second consecutive Championship defeat

After Leeds United drew at the weekend and whilst Burnley were being held to a 0-0 at relegated-threatened Derby County, Sheffield United lost for the second game running.

With everything geared up to show a reaction to what their manager had called a "ponderous" performance at Oxford United, the Blades were strangely flat in the first half, livelier but still blunt.

With Millwall looking far sharper in their rare attacks, the result was a 1-0 for the Londoners which sees the Blades take their turn in the play-off position no one in their right mind wants to be in in five matches' time, two points behind the front two.

There were boos at full-time – partly for the referee, partly you suspect the players – and not many waited around to applaud the players as they did their usual post-match lap of three sides of the ground to thanks the fans. The strains of Annie's Song always sound a bit melancholy against the backdrop of a thinned-out Bramall Lane.

The Blades had enough chances to win it and should have been awarded a first-half penalty but this was hardly a performance to get their subdued supporters excited about next season's Premier League.

Considering what was at stake, there was a surprising flatness about Bramall Lane in the first half, dictated to by the unchanged Blades' patient but not very penetrative football. It picked up after the break, but not enough.

Rhian Brewster dragged a shot wide when he run in front of the near-post at a well-worked seventh-minute corner, then unwittingly smashed an effort into the face of Jake Cooper.

The fate the hosts were tempting came to pass in the 21st minute.

Billy Mitchell played the ball into right-back Casper de Norre, who turned on it and found former Middlesbrough striker Josh Coburn for a snap-shot into the net.

The fans were searching for something to get behind.

Ben Brereton Diaz's fierce header form a Harrison Burrows free-kick, but Lukas Jensen reacted well to save.

Femi Seriki was positive from right-back and won a corner for the third time. Sam Allison warned Cooper not to pull shirts from it, but he did anyway, hauling Anel Ahmedhodzic down in the penalty area only for the referee to turn a bewilderingly blind eye.

Strike partnerships are rare these days but Coburn and Mihailo Ivanovic were showing a good understanding and Ahmedhodzic had to produce an excellent block to deny the former when found by the latter.

Brereton Diaz did not fully get hold of a shot when Jack Robinson's long throw-in picked him out, but Jensen did. Brewster put a shot wide slightly on the stretch, then had another deflected over.

But it was all rather uninspiring. There were howls from the stands when an interchange of passes between Michael Cooper and the players in front of him ended with the goalkeeper hitting the ball out for a throw-in. That was nothing compared to an attempted pass to Ahmedhodzic 10 minutes after the break which alomst went inside his own near post.

The introduction of Jesurun Rak-Sakyi at the break gave his side a bot more oomph, but not enough.

The winger miskicked badly when Gustavo Hamer's excellent pass to Burrows and his first-time ball in presented a chance the Crystal Palace loanee should have gobbled. Ten minutes later he shot at the goalkeeper after another well-worked move.

In between time Sydie Peck shot wide.

But then came two big let-offs.

First was Cooper's near-own goal, then former Hull City midfielder George Honeyman played in Coburn for a pass which found Ivanovic in an embarrassing amount of space.

It prompted a triple Blades substitution to try to lift things but when Vinicius Souza had to throw himself in front of Aidomo Emakhu in a similar amount of space also in Millwall's inside-left channel, Wilder had to turn to his bench again to plug the gap with Rob Holding.

All the time Millwall shrewdly dfid their best to eat up the time – anyone would in that situation, particularly with a referee as overly-lenient as Allison – as their hosts hard for a late equaliser.

But Tom Cannon's snapshot went wide, and Tristan Crama put himself in the way of a Rak-Sakyi shot, then forced Jensen to save when a Callum O'Hare ball got stuck under his feet.

O'Hare's shot over in the third of a minimum of six added minutes was met with the rumble of seats flipping up as disgruntled fans headed for the exits.

Sheffield United: Cooper; Seriki (Holding 73), Ahmedhodzic, Robinson, Burrows; Choudhury (Souza 65), Peck; Brereton Diaz (Rak-Sakyi HT), Brewster (O'Hare 65), Hamer; Campbell (Cannon 65).

Unused substitutes: McCallum, Moore, A Davies, Brooks.

Millwall: Jensen; Leonard, Crama, Cooper, Bryan; Honeyman (Harding 78), De Norre (Saville 73), Mitchell (Wintle 78), Cundle (Emakhu 66); Ivanovic (Langstaff 73), Coburn.

Unused substitutes: Roberts, Drake, Kendall, Matthews.

Referee: S Allison (Chippenham).