Sheffield United take an important first step to pile the pressure on West Bromwich Albion

A 2-1 win at home to West Bromwich Albion equalled 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.

Far more importantly, this was a fifth win in seven matches, a third in the league. They are at last on a roll and West Brom can at last feel the Blades' breath on their neck, their cushion to the bottom-placed side whittled down to a point.

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 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 them old selves at soggy Bramall Lane before some defending that was pure 2020-21 let West Brom into the contest.

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 run, 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. It could have done with a touch more pace, but theirs was a good performance.

They could not make it count, though.

Oliver Norwood blasted a free-kick over when Bogle was fouled centrally in the D, 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. Billy Sharp headed Lundstram's dinked cross wide.

And then it happened.

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 full debutant Mbaye Diagne's shot but nobody got in the face of Matt Phillips, who made it third time lucky when he found the net.

There were 42 minutes gone, and to compound the Blades' misery, Baldock went off with a muscle injury before the half was over.

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

It was Basham who led the charge, galloping forward with abandon, and when Sharp headed a cross to him 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 shot, 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, presumably for Sharp, but manager Chris Wilder held off when the Blades won a corner. They kept the ball alive and when Fleck played the ball to Basham, West Brom could not keep the cross away from Sharp, the poacher, who scored a vital goal.

His team stayed positive, Oliver Burke replacing Sharp when he eventually made way a little over 10 minutes level and were not really troubled in the final stages.

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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