Sheffield United 2 Sunderland 1: Evolving Blades deliver at Bramall Lane

Neil Warnock was at his favourite football ground, the latest stop on his relentless post-retirement PR drive, but it was memories of another former manager Chris Wilder which were stirred by the football the Blades play once Sunderland kindly gave them a leg up.

The latest Sheffield United manager, Paul Heckingbottom, remains reliant on roughly the same core of players Wilder was and whilst Oliver Norwood was excellent in midfield, the truth is they cannot run ahead of Father Time forever.

Billy Sharp and Chris Basham’s seasons have been disrupted by injury so to see others come in and carry the baton as Basham’s successor Anel Ahmedhodzic did so brilliantly was great to see.

In the end the margin of victory was only 2-1, but the scoreline downplayed how exhilarating some of the football played either side of half-time was.

For 32 minutes, the hosts had been below their best, the Black Cats looking sharper and hungrier in the tackle.

Then Dan Neil miscontrolled and, hounded by full debutant James McAtee, pulled him down. It was a clear goalscoring opportunity for the Manchester City loanee, so a clear red card.

The free kick was ushered behind and from Norwood’s corner Ahmedhodzic put in a towering header.

As soon as the ball hit the back of the net, it was if the bottle had been opened on the real Sheffield United that grabbed English football by storm under Wilder.

As the Bosnian bombed down the right, hitting a shot into the side netting after a good one-two, and George Baldock popped up in the inside-left channel to have a shot deflected, it started to look a lot like the football which took the Blades up to ninth in the Premier League.

The second goal would exemplify it, Ahmedhodzic laying the ball off then getting on his bike to collect Norwood’s pass aft

The right-sided centre-back pulled the ball back from the byline for the left wing-back, Max Lowe, to tap in. As with Ahmedhodzic, it was Lowe’s first goal for the club.

The pre-match excitement was around McAtee, playing his first football at Bramall Lane in the hole behind the front two but it was Ahmedhodzic who stole the show.

He nearly scored a second from a mishit cross, Anthony Patterson having to touch it behind. Baldock’s shot at the corner was wild, but the match had shifted 180 degrees.

The Black Cats had looked very good from the moment Lynden Gooch cut inside on his left foot and shot at Wes Foderingham in the second minute. The former Doncaster Rovers loanee put in a curling cross which a sliding Ross Stewart nearly beat Foderingham to.

Before that, Sander Berge had been caught in his deeper midfield role to accommodate McAtee, only for Ellis Simms to overhit his pass to Stewart. A minute later when the visitors won the ball back again, Norwood had to cut out the cross.

The Blades had belatedly found their stride around the 20th minute, Norwood thundering a shot into Luke O’Nien after patient build-up down the right.

Baldock popped up at centre-forward to collect an Ahmedhodzic pass and went down but it looked as if Danny Batth had just about avoided fouling him from behind. Neil would make no such attempt.

An incisive straight ball from Berge picked out Iliman Ndiaye and McAtee helped it into Rhian Brewster’s path.

The shot was at Patterson but the opening goal was only minutes away.

Maybe when Lowe doubled the lead three minutes into the second half it all got a bit too easy because the normally ultra-reliable John Egan’s pass to McAtee was lax, allowing Stewart to find Gooch bursting through the middle ready to loft a delicious chip over Foderingham.

This Sunderland intervention was not a game-changer, just a game-dampener.

The red card had allowed Berge to leave minding the midfield shop to Norwood and he strode forward onto the latter’s lovely 70th-minute pass and hit a shot which deflected onto Patterson’s post.

Substitute Oli McBurnie shot at the goalkeeper and Patterson made two excellent stoppage-time saves to deny the striker, then Egan from the corner.

But the performance of Ahmedhodzic and the nostalgic memories it awakened were the real story of the night.

Sheffield United: Foderingham; Ahmedhodzic; Egan, Norrington-Davies; Baldock, Norwood, Berge, Lowe; McAtee (Fleck 65); Ndiaye (McBurnie 73), Brewster (Khadra 65). Unused substitutes: Basham, Doyle, Jebbison, Amissah.

Sunderland: Patterson; O’Nien, Batth (Alese 86), Cirkin; Gooch, Neil, Pritchard (Wright 54), Embleton (Hume 54), Clarke (Diamond 86); Simms (Matete 54), Stewart. Unused substitutes: Roberts, Bass.

Referee: J Linnington (Isle of Wight).