Just as Blades fans were beginning to erase the memories of Wembley in May, their enemy that is the penalty shoot-out struck again when this time Burton were victorious from the spot.
United missed out on promotion at the national stadium three months ago against Huddersfield Town in the most cruellest of fashion, and the funny game that football is, the footballing Gods ensured United were put through fresh penalty shoot-out heartache in their first competitive action of the new season against Burton Albion.
Nothing could separate the two teams over 90 minutes, nor 120 minutes. United came from behind twice against ten-man Burton, who had a man sent off in extra time.
The game finished 1:1 after 90 minutes, and then 2:2 after a further 30.
United started the game with new faces Tony McMahon and Shaun Miller, and Danny Wilson also awarded Mark Howard his first team debut between the sticks.
Yusuff fired the Staffordshire club into the lead with a fierce drive into Howard’s left corner from the edge of the box.
New recruit Shaun Miller then saw his header strike the post, meaning the Blades went in at half-time trailing to the League Two side.
Nick Blackman appeared for the second half, just a day after signing for the club on a two year deal, and just six minutes into his Blades debut he fortuitously got his name on the scoresheet after flicking Flynn’s ball towards goal, but Burton keeper Atkins somehow couldn’t stop the ball from dipping underneath the crossbar, in a situation where you’d expect him to do better.
Nothing was determined after the original allotted amount of time, so the game went into extra-time, and it was Gary Rowett’s side who blinked first yet again when Taylor embarrassed the United left-back Williams and drilled a low shot right into Howard’s bottom right-hand corner.
United were handed a lifeline back into this Capital One Cup tie, though, when McFadzean was felled in the area, leaving referee Trevor Kettle no option but to point to the spot.
It was quite a surprise when Blades fans saw centre-back Neill Collins stepping up to the spot to take the penalty kick, but then again he did score three out of three penalties last season. Atkins foiled Collins to his left, but the ball fell straight back to the feet of the defender who could convert the rebound to make it 2:2.
Burton’s Marcus Holness was then dismissed for retaliation. His protestations to the referee went too far, meaning he was awarded a booking, and then just seconds later was dismissed for continuing with his frustrations to the official.
And to penalties it went, in front of an empty Kop, with spot-kicks being very much a nemesis for United. There was a real sense of “oh no, not penalties again” around the home areas of the ground, and this is how it panned out: Quinn – SCORED, Weir – SCORED, Collins – SCORED, Bell – MISSED, Maguire – MISSED, McCrory – SCORED, McDonald – SCORED, Webster – SCORED, McMahon – SCORED, Richards – SCORED, Doyle – MISSED, Taylor – SCORED.
Burton win 5:4 on penalties.