Sheffield United 1 - West Bromwich Albion 1

Submit your ratings for this game by clicking here:

Ratings submitted so far: 11

Brendan Clegg:

I thought that was a well deserved point. It was a low quality game - a painful reminder of how poor the league is quality-wise and how disgraceful our league position is - but we ran, battled, scrapped and never gave in.

The lineup was one of those rare occasions where the manager went with exactly what I’d have done -

Campbell in the centre with Bielik, Imray right back, Price over Wallace on the right for his running, Bostock left, Diakite and Molumby to spoil everything and 2 up top.

It was a slow start with immediate stoppages for both teams - ours looked worrying is Bielik took a bang to the shoulder he previously dislocated. Having done that myself I know how much that hurts, how you can’t use your arm to run or hold people off and mine then kept dislocating regularly- firstly in games and then generally before I got it operated on which takes months of recovery. That he stayed on even after taking a couple more whacks on it showed tremendous courage but he’s another massive risk for the rest of the season.

As the game settled we spoiled it. There was not a lot to cheer but we were organised, solid and direct. Our aggression was there for all to see.

I don’t recall O’Leary having much to do and we probably had the better half chances… a couple of flashed crosses and set piece situations where the ball bounced for us but we lashed high and wide. It was gritty and we clapped them off.

Second half we started better and through moving the ball up the pitch quickly created the best chance in open play of the game… Dike rolling his man and Price being played in. He was wide and put his effort across goal resulting in a decent save… and we kept the pressure on with corners.

Against the run of play and out of nowhere really we went behind - our left channel breached (Taylor on for Bielik) and from the cross Campbell put into his own net when a shout from the keeper might have avoided it. It was so harsh on the individual and the team and our away end reflected that by bursting into voice immediately.

From there we opened more and had a go - committing players forward. It left gaps and United looked more of a threat in the break.

We continued to frustrate- loads of effort but just not good enough quality and it seemed like every decision went against us. There was one foul on Imray which was ridiculous and didn’t get given but plenty of others where it seemed we were just getting nothing. The clock ticked down.

Wallace came on for Bostock which by then made sense with our youngster not impacting but I felt Dike had been poor and we needed to gamble on Maja just in case something landed for us.

Time seemed to be running out when Campbell stepped forward to control a headed clearance, take a couple of strides and then he slammed the ball home hard and low from about 25 yards into the far corner.

We’ve not had a lot to cheer about all season and especially since last Xmas and it felt like all of that came out in the away end - we went absolutely mental to the point where it didn’t feel entirely safe but what a release.

After that we did get a few more changes on but we didn’t really create much more… and the officials penalised us for everything. At the other end we needed decent defending and goal keeping to hold on.

The players and Mozza were applauded off and rightly so. We went with probably our most physically and athletically competitive 11 and really dug in for it. Defensively we looked okay we just still have to find a way of creating more with what we have.

I still feel like we need a miracle but if we play that way we’ll pick up points for sure. The quality of the league gives us the best chance - it really is so poor that there isn’t a team you can’t get a result against or that is going to overwhelm you with quality. But we need wins.

• O’Leary - 6 Decent enough. One good save. Not much else to do.
• Imray - 7 Credit here. He had a shocker at Blues for 30 mins but did redeem himself before being hooked at HT. this was better and he can get forward.
• Campbell - 7 Just loads of heart and fight. What a goal!
• Bielik - 6 Did well to last the half, will be a miss.
• Styles - 6 Generally good but needed to release it quicker a few times.
• Price - 6 I thought one of his better games for a while but still sloppy mistakes.
• Diakite - 6 scrapped and tackled, got it forward
• Molumby - 6 same - didn’t give in
• Bostock- 5 Struggled a bit but covered well and kept going. Did give us balance and legs which is the worry with other options there
• Dike - 5 Didn’t look after it enough and never looked a threat
• Heggebø- 6 Battled away. Refs don’t give him anything.

• Taylor - 6 did okay
• Wallace - 6 much more effective off the bench
• Jamma - 5 didn’t really get into it
• Mowatt and Maja just ran the clock down

I’m running the Manchester Marathon in April for Refuge. Huge thanks to those Baggies all over who have sponsored me already.

Link: Brendan's fundraiser for Refuge

Kev Buckley:

Campbell moves central - can't stop scoring

Only saw a highlights package of this one, although, as you might expect, given the "quality" of the division this season, there weren't all that many highlights.

It wouldn't surprise me to hear that a lot of people have long since forgotten that Campbell was actually brought the club as a centre-back, and so it was a bit surprising to see Imray playing in the right-back role that Campbell has all but made his own, when fit: guess we really are running out of options.

The Albion's chances all seemed to end in ways we have become accustomed to - either the wrong choice made or shots blazed high and/or wide.

Brendan's report has us playing a lot better than the package would suggest, although "battling efforts" rarely make it into such highlights reels.

Leaving aside the euphoric nature of the equaliser, regaining the point was certainly welcome, as is the fact that the midweek fixtures see Oxford and Blackburn, two of the sides still "around us", playing each other, with the only other club realistically in the mix, Leicester, having played the night before.