Sheffield United 2 West Brom 1 - Improbable fightback is on after Blades’ victory

“It was more us,” was Chris Wilder’s verdict of a crucial 2-1 win over West Bromwich Albion.

By equalling Derby County’s 11-point Premier League tally of 2007-08, the ignominy of recording the division’s lowest points total should at least be avoided but far more importantly, this was a fifth win in seven matches, a third in the league. The Blades are at last on a roll and West Brom can at last feel breath on their neck, their cushion to the bottom-placed side whittled down to a point.

The gap to safety is still dauntingly wide at 10 points.

This was a win inspired by the old guard, the outstanding Chris Basham making both goals and Billy Sharp scoring the winner, but it was another goal for summer signing Jayden Bogle which set the ball rolling, and as both managers agreed, an incredible Aaron Ramsdale save was crucial to it.

Helped by the presence of eight of last season’s regulars, the Blades were starting to look like their old selves at soggy Bramall Lane before some defending that was pure 2020-21 let West Brom into the contest.

To get over that and claim the win, though, United needed more of the intensity that was such a feature of their unexpected assault on this team’s debut Premier League season, and Matt Phillips’s corner forced them into finding it. They had some good fortune too, which has been rare this season. United earnt it.

“Second half we were front-foot football and looked like we wanted to go and win the game and show big ambition,” said Wilder proudly.

Having let the Baggies get off to a quicker start – Basham having to come across and tackle Matheus Pereira well in the eighth minutes to stop them getting any reward – the Blades quickly asserted their dominance, enjoying 70 per cent of the ball in the opening 45 minutes.

Basham got forward on the overlap, John Lundstram made a couple of piercing runs, David McGoldrick dropped off the front and a couple of times right wing-back George Baldock popped up on the left, showing the fluidity and confidence of the bottom-of-the-table side. The Blades trusted their passing over a sodden surface that had been covered with snow the morning and deluged with sleet in the evening as the Championship game at nearby Rotherham United was postponed. They could not make it count, though.

Oliver Norwood blasted a free-kick over when Bogle was fouled, Sam Johnstone got down well to McGoldrick’s turn, run and shot, and flung himself across to keep out a Bogle shot threatening to curl inside his far post. Sharp headed Lundstram’s cross wide.

Back at Bramall Lane on his 26th birthday, there was always a danger Callum Robinson might spoil the party but when he came inside and shot, Ramsdale saved. He could, though, only help the ball into the middle. Ethan Ampadu got in front of Mbaye Diagne’s shot but nobody got in the face of Phillips, who made it third time lucky to find the net.

There were 42 minutes gone, and to compound the Blades’ misery, Baldock went off with a muscle injury.

“It didn’t look that bad,” said Wilder of the injury. “There always seems to be a downside any time we get some good news.”

The goal made things more straight-forward. The hosts had no choice but to attack, bringing Oli McBurnie on for Norwood – too tentative when the chance came to strangle West Brom’s goal at birth – and switching to 3-4-1-2.

Basham led the charge, galloping forward with abandon but when he was found in the 56th minute he had defenders in his eyeline and the ball under his feet, so laid it back for Bogle to score his third goal as a Blade.

The visitors ought to have restored their lead in the 64th minute, Robinson getting on the end of a Phillips cross, only for Ramsdale to make an outstanding point-blank save.

With the final 15 minutes approaching, Rhian Brewster was stripped and ready to come on for Sharp, but Wilder held off when the Blades won a corner. When Fleck played the ball to Basham, West Brom could not keep the cross away from Sharp, who scored the vital goal.

His team stayed positive, Oliver Burke replacing Sharp when he eventually made way and were not really troubled in the final stages, even when Johnstone came up for the final set piece.

It was a win as deserved as it was crucial. The improbable fightback is on.

Sheffield United: Ramsdale; Basham, Egan, Ampadu; Baldock (Lowe 44), Lundstram, Norwood (McBurnie 46), Fleck, Bogle; McGoldrick, Sharp (Burke 86). Unused substitutes: Jagielka, Foderingham, Brewster, Bryan, Brunt, Ndiaye.

West Bromwich Albion: Johnstone; O’Shea, Ajayi, Bartley, Townsend; Phillips (Gallagher 74), Livermore, Snodgrass, Robinson (Grant 68); Pereira; Diagne (Robson-Kanu 68). Unused substitutes: Furlong, Gibbs, Sawyers, Ivanovic, Peltier, Button.

Referee: P Tierney (Wigan).

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