Sheffield United 3 Portsmouth 0: Firsts and thirst as Blades finally threaten to get up and running
It was a night of firsts at Bramall Lane with Sydie Peck and Patrick Bamford getting their maiden Sheffield United goals, Gustavo Hamer scoring his first Championship goal of the season and his team recording a third consecutive clean sheet for the first time in 2025.
A second comfortable 3-0 win in a matter of days, this time at home to Portsmouth, could – just could – be the start of their season finally getting up and running. They look thirsty for more.
They are out of the Championship relegation zone at last and Saturday takes them to Leicester City, another side relegated from the Premier League in the summer who have failed to get out of the blocks. Get another three points there and others might start to take notice.
Peck’s first senior goal rescued an otherwise very forgettable first half but actually spoilt the contest too. With the Blades having controlled the game up to that point and Terry Devlin sent off, the hosts were cruising to victory as easily as they had at Sheffield Wednesday on Sunday.
Andre Brooks had a shot into the turf and over when a Sam McCallum long throw-in dropped to him in the fourth minute.
Tom Cannon – part of a new-look front two – had a shot deflected for a corner after 17 minutes and the other half of the double act, full debutant Bamford, fizzed a shot wide after Ben Mee chested a Femi Seriki long ball to him on the half hour.
But other than that there was little to report as the Blades controlled the game without getting anywhere near battering the door down.
Their first effort on target was a brilliant Japhet Tanganga header after an even better leap at a corner, but Terry Devlin stopped it going into the net and was sent off.
Willed on by the Kop and with Harrison Burrows on the bench, 21-year-old Peck stepped up and placed his penalty beyond the stretch of Nicolas Scmhid to finally get off the mark for the club on his 66th appearance.
The second also came from a Tanganga header poked over the line by Bamford. The last time the former Leeds United and Middlesbrough striker scored a goal – Easter Monday 2024 – Peck was still to make his first Blades start.
If it was not already, the game became routine for the home side.
Cannon was denied the goal he wanted when a 61st-minute shot hit a defender but Hamer came off the bench and got his, shifting the ball out of his feet and curling a beauty from 25 yards.
In his first proper outing since injury – he came on after Cannon's stoppage-time goal at Hillsborough on Sunday – he also hammered a free-kick into the wall.
He was all smiles after he fluffed his shot when Brooks forced a save from an impossible angle and it dropped to him.
Despite the landmarks – and in Sunday's case, the opposition – they have been two unremarkable wins but in the bigger picture they have the potential to turn into something more significant.
Sheffield United: Cooper; Seriki (McGuinness 82), Tanganga, Mee, McCallum (Burrows 62); Brooks, Peck, Riedewald (Soumare 82); O'Hare; Cannon (Ings 74), Bamford (Hamer 62).
Unused substitutes: A Davies, Campbell, One, Matos.
Portsmouth: Schmid; Devlin, Knight, Poole, Swanson; Dozzell, Kosznovszky (Pack 74); Bianchini (Yang 74), Segecic (Williams HT), Murphy (Chaplin 69); Bishop (Kirk 61).
Unused substitutes: Swift, Matthews, Bursik, Lang.
Referee: L Doughty (Lancashire).