A nostalgic sense of wonderful days gone by floated around Bramall lane at around seven o'clock on Saturday evening. There was a time when last minute winners were the order of the day for Sheffield United but those days had begun to fade into folklore as a poor start to the season usurped the sense of achievement that premiership football afforded the blades faithful not too many moons ago.
The blades began shakily as
Some nice football by Mark Viduka and James Morrison put Yakubu through one on one with Paddy Kenny, but the striker took an eternity to get his shot away and by the time he did the angle was too narrow and his effort came back off the post.
With the blades on the ropes, Jonathan Woodgate spurned a similarly golden chance to put the Teesiders into the lead following a cross for Stuart Downing. The
Having weathered the early storm the blades began to enjoy more possession as the half progressed, with Kazim Richards clearly relishing the big stage and proving the doubters wrong with his assured performance.
It was from a Kazim Richards pass that Rob Hulse was able to race clear of the Boro defence and coolly lift the ball over the on rushing Mark Schwarzer to put the blades in front on 33 minutes.
Sheffield United were unlucky not to add to their lead as Kazim Richards went close before half time came with the home team very much in the ascendancy.
The second half began with Middlesborough again quicker out of the traps and the blades were punished with yet another early goal on 49 minutes. The steady defence was breached by a hopeful ball forward from Emanuelle Pogatez that somehow found Yakubu clear of the united back line and this time he shot early and found the bottom corner with Paddy Kenny choosing to stay rooted to his line.
United took the knock of the early goal on the chin and stepped up their efforts to restore the lead. The second half saw a torrent of powerful attacking play from the blades as boro seemed to lack the stomach for the fight, settling for counter attacks through the dangerous Stuart Downing.
A nice flowing move from involving Leigertwood and Quinn ended up at the feet of Keith Gillespie 12 yards out to the right hand side of the penalty area. His low shot was well saved by Schwazer when a cross to the far side may have been a better option.
A seeming endless number of corners allowed man mountain Claude Davis the chance to offer his considerable height to the attack and one such corner saw the ball drop to Jagielka at the edge of the penalty area but his volley arrowed into the upper reaches of the kop.
The introduction of Kabba and Webber on the 75 minute mark lifted the crowd who were already on top form as the players pushed for the winner that the team needed and deserved. Webber went on an endless run before unleashing a shot from 20 yards just wide of Schwarzers bottom left hand corner.
With time running out Warnock threw on a fourth Striker in the shape of Christian Nade with 5 minutes remaining, but it was a more familiar face that was to write the headlines and send the fans into the stratosphere.
A clearance from Andrew Davies was intercepted by the chest of the impressive Phil Jagielka who drove forward before unleashing a powerful drive from all of 30 yards. The ball bounced just in front of the despairing Schwarzer and nestled into the goal to hand the blades the lead with a matter of minutes remaining.
Boro pushed for the remaining seconds but for all of their possession they had created very little and the two early misses proved crucial. The ref blew for full time and scenes reminiscent of the Nottingham Forrest play-off win ensued as the red and white half of