Sheffield United: Flynn injury compounds Clough frustration

On a night when League One promotion chasers Swindon Town and MK Dons both lost and Preston dropped points at home to Doncaster Rovers, the Blades spurned a golden chance to put pressure on those pushing for a top two place.

The Blades, who produced a scrappy and jaded looking performance, looked like getting away with a bad day at the office, with a poor mistake by visiting defender Ricardo Santos enabling big-money signing Matt Done to net his fifth goal since joining the club in early February - and 19th of the campaign.

But persistent Posh had other ideas, with captain Jack Payne, who came close to a leveller when his low shot hit the post on 74 minutes, faring better with a similar effort on 88 minutes.

Two minutes later, Aaron Mclean’s header found its way to substitute Conor Washington after Bob Harris failed to clear and the Posh striker fired the ball home to clinch a first-ever win for the East Anglian’s at Bramall Lane.

It ended the six-match unbeaten streak of the Blades, whose manager Clough and winger Murphy have been shortlisted for the SkyBet League One Manager and Player of the Month awards respectively.

On Flynn’s injury, Clough added: “It’s his hamstring. We are looking at a few weeks I would say at least.

“He’s just come back in the last few weeks as well, so it’s disappointing for him.”

On a bitterly-disappointing night, Clough added: “We have benefited from so many late goals this season and were on the other end of it tonight.

“We had to see the game out better than we did in the 88th-minute tonight. We were 1-0 up at home and to lose the game even though we were effectively playing with ten men (Flynn was injured with the hosts having used all three substitutes) shouldn’t happen.

“It makes it worse. We said before they were going to be under pressure to get results and we have to take advantage. And we missed a chance.

“The order of the night was to grind a one-nil out. It was not spectacular, but we scored a good goal and then you see it through..

“We have generally closed games out well this season. Even with ten men the odd time such as at Doncaster. Ryan Flynn getting his hamstring just after making our third substitution didn’t help, but there’s not much we can do.

“It was two poor goals from our point of view, especially the winning goal. Three defenders had the chance to clear the ball but don’t. It was very poor from that angle.”

Done’s strike midway through the second half at least augmented his impressive start to life at the Lane and Clough felt he took his goal adeptly.

On the strike from Done, taken off nine minutes from time due to fatigue, he added: “He chased a lost cause and robbed a defender and hits the target and then heads in the rebound. It was a brilliant header as well; to control it when it came back off the goalkeeper.

“Ideally, we wanted to keep him on as well. But with ten minutes to go and he on his knees, we had no choice.”