Sheffield United 2 West Ham United 2: Oli McBurnie keeps his nerve for Blades' just desserts

Beyond the minimum eight added minuites initially signalled, it looked as if the story of the game against West Ham United would be how the Premier League's bottom side were harshly punished for a couple of defensive lapses.

Then James McAtee put a ball over and Alphonse Areola went to punch it and caught Oli McBurnie in the process.

It was a soft penalty but not one the video assistant referee could overturn... could he?

We waited on that, we waited to see if Areola would be fit to continue and if James McAtee would take the penalty as he threatened to do, holding the ball pensively in the four-minute delay.

Areola went off injured to be replaced by Lukasz Fabianski, a goalkeeper with a pretty handy penalty record, and McAtee handed McBurnie the ball to score in the 13th added minute and secure a 2-2 draw.

It was the second time this season a stoppage-time penalty had turned a result the Blades' way. They lack a lot, but nothing in spirit having twice come back from conceding poor goals.

If it spared the team a result they would not have deserved, it also saved Ben Brereton Diaz from some embarrassment his performance was not worthy of either.

Premier League games – even between a side whose fans laughably sing about them being "champions of Europe" (Conference League) and the one bottom of the table – are usually decided by small margins, but this took it to extremes.

The Blades switched off to grant Maxwel Cornet time and space to open the scoring and after getting themselves back into the contest, Gustavo Hamer tackled from the wrong side to concede the 79th-minute penalty James Ward-Prowse looked to have won the game from.

When Rhian Brewster compounded it by launching himself into a dangerous tackle in stoppage time to be sent off, it looked like being a miserable return to Bramall Lane after nearly a month away but the story was far from written.

When Brereton Diaz became the eight player to score on his maiden Premier League appearance for Sheffield United it was fair reward for their play and his.

The Stoke-born Chilean is very much a modern forward - built like a centre-forward, able to hold the ball up like on and with an eye for goal but stationed out on the left.

Along with their two more attacking central midfielders, Gustavo Hamer and Andre Brooks, he had been at heart of much that was good about the Blades.

It was he who created the chance which warmed the crowd up, albeit it was also he was well offside when the mood started, making Areola's save an irrelevance,

It was also Brereton Diaz who forced a save midway through the first half when a Brooks nutmeg by the touchline sparked a spell of pressure which disappointingly ended in Cornet, rather than anyone in red-and-white stripes, opening the scoring, and it was he who very nearly got on the end of one of Hamer's clever threaded passes in the 34th minute.

So it felt fitting that he scored the equaliser.

It all started with a moment of super-cool composure when right-back Jayden Bogle found himself under pressure in the centre of the field - all four defenders were in odd places at the time - spreading the ball wide to McAtee. when it was played forward, left-back Auston Trusty, high and infield in the modern way played a very good header to tee up one from Will Osula which the goalkeeper saved well. Having drifted into a No 9 postion, Brereton Diaz showed his striker's instincts.

It made him the eighth player to score on his first Premier League game for the club and there was no less than the Blades deserved having gone behind to a moment of sloppiness.

The game had started evenly but the hosts were having a spell on top starting with Brooks' fancy footwork and ending with a headed chance Trusty put at the goalkeeper at a corner won when Hamer combined with McAtee.

But Hamer missed a tackle in midfield and when a Danny Ings shot deflected, it fell to Cornet in far too much space at the back post as defenders were attracted to the ball, and he finished well.

Just before the half-hour mark it hd the feel of one of those days but Ward-Prowse failed to cash in when Wes Foderingham's poor pass gave him a chance and those further forward continued to push for an equaliser.

As they often have done this season, the Blades grew after the half-time break with McAtee more prominent.

it was his pass which released Brereton Diaz for what ought to have been the decisive moment, a minute after half-time substitute Oli had two attempts from a tight angle.

Sent through one-on-one with plenty of thinking time, Brereton Diaz disappointingly dragged his shot wide and we waited to see just how significant it would be.

For a while it was hard to tell, Brooks and Cameron Archer having shots blocked and McAtee shooting off target when off balance, but Anel Ahmedhodzic needed to make a brilliant saving tackle and Foderingham a good low save to deny Cornet and Ings respectively.

But in the 84th minute a penalty was presented to one of the people you least want to offer one to - Ward-Prowse.

Ings burst through a Jack Robinson tackle and Hamer's from behind, reeked of desperation. Michael Salisbury pointed straight to the spot and the set-piece master did what he does.

Brewster's tackle on Emerson met with a yellow card on the field but when Salisbury was called to the monitor, he upgraded it to red. That Brewster kept his boot low could have worked in his favour, but the speed he came at the defender was probably the decisive factor.

But Tomas Soucek's foul on McAtee made it ten-v-ten in the seventh added minute, and Areola's on McBurnie turned things upside down.

Even after that there could have been another twist, Jarrod Bowen and Robinson going to ground in a penalty-area wrestling match which had David Moyes on the pitch angry his side did not get a penalty in the 14th added minute.

In the end, it felt like justice was somehow done.

Sheffield United: Foderingham; Bogle, Ahmedhodzic, Robinson, Trusty (Norrington-Davies 80); Hamer, Souza (Norwood 88), Brooks (Brewster 80); McAtee, Osula (McBurnie HT), Brereton Diaz (Archer 67).

Unused substitutes: Osborn, Amissah, Seriki, Buyabu.

West Ham United: Areola; Coufal, Mavropanos, Zouma, Emerson; Soucek, Ward-Prowse; Cornet (Johnson 70), Ings (Mubama 90+6), Fornals; Bowen.

Unused substitutes: Fabianski, Cresswell, Ogbonna, Casey, Marshall, Scarles, Orford.

Referee: M Salisbury (Lancashire).