Sheffield United's Ben Osborn left 'gutted' and relieved by see-saw draw with Fulham

Such was the crazy nature of the second half of Saturday's 3-3 Premier League draw with Fulham.

On the back of four hammerings at home, the Blades made it to half-time without conceding there since their last Bramall Lane win, over Brentford on December 9.

The second half exploded into life with the Blades thinking they had gone 4-1 up after 82 minutes, only for Oli McBurnie's goal to be ruled out by video assistant referee Andy Madley for offside in the build-up.

From there, Fulham scored twice and ought to have got a winner when Tom Cairney hit his shot straight at Ivo Grbic in the 16th minute of second-half stoppage time. Osborn said his side's inability to keep the ball as Fulham pushed to get back into the game was a factor.

"Recent results at home haven’t been great, so the plan was to keep it tight in the first half because we’ve been conceding early goals and shooting ourselves in the foot," said Osborn, who helped create the first of two Ben Brereton Diaz goals.

"In the second half, it opened up a bit and we managed to get ahead and then make it 3-1. It’s just so disappointing to not come away with the three points.

"Once Fulham scored to make it 3-2, they had all the momentum and scored an unbelievable (Rodrigo Muniz) goal to equalise.

"We were hanging on at the end, so it’s a real tough one to take.

"Everyone is gutted that we didn’t come away with the three points but also relieved that Fulham didn’t score a fourth because it was just backs to the wall at the end."

The turning point was when McBurnie, who had already scored, had a second goal disallowed. Three minutes later substitute Bobby De Cordova-Reid scored with his second touch.

"We thought it was 4-1 and they made three substitutions before getting a second goal," said Osborn.

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"We knew there was going to be loads of time added on because the ref was telling us.

"It said 80 minutes on the scoreboard but we knew there was at least 20 minutes left, so that’s another mental thing to deal with.

"I didn’t see there were 14 minutes of added time, but the ref told me after we made it 3-1 that there were at least 11 (more) minutes to be added.

"I was trying to tell the lads ‘We need to keep the ball a little bit, we can’t just hang on’ because there was too long left.

"But I didn’t see an extra two minutes of top of that as well and I think we even went past that."

A late defeat for Luton Town meant the Blades closed the gap to safety to seven points with nine games left. Two come this week, at Liverpool and at home to Chelsea.

"Everyone is fighting and doing their best you can see everyone is running themselves into the ground," said Osborn, whose Bramall Lane is future is in doubt with any possible talks over extending a contract which expires in June delayed until after the relegation picture is resolved.

"People were on their knees in the dressing room and it’s just disappointing not to get the three points."