Sponsored by
Billy has a snow stormer. MATCH ACTION SLIDESHOW
Barnsley 0 Blades 1 Sharp (77)
CHRISTMAS card scenes at Easter, blizzards after your hot-cross buns. Things went seriously out of sync at Barnsley.
At Arctic ice station Oakwell, Sheffield United toughed out a result, trampling over a home record which would have been Barnsley's pride and joy but for the FA Cup.
A big goal from Billy Sharp, the kid United sold to Scunthorpe and bought back as a natural scorer, brought a huge result for both sides.
Starry-eyed Blades dreamers will say four wins in four, brings the play-offs a few inches closer. The realists will know the more probable outcome is extended employment for manager on probation Kevin Blackwell.
For Barnsley the prospect is of a trip to Wembley with continuing concerns about their Championship future packed among the new suits, new strip and kitbags.
What did you think of the game? Post your comment below.
The difference between United and their near neighbours in the end was Sharp- the lad who just a few weeks back couldn't buy a goal.
Blackwell didn't hold back in bigging him up. It's three goals in three games for Sharp in a run of four straight wins.
"2 million for him. I'd have paid four," the United boss stressed.
The same manager left 4m buy James Beattie on the bench for 66 minutes at Barnsley.
And he might have regretted it after the sitter Rob Hulse messed up in the first half.
A free header on the brink of the six-yard box following a good centre from the well impressive David Cotterill and it should have been 1-0 to the visitors.
It wasn't much of a game before the break. Barnsley had plenty of the ball and Diego Leon looked the class act among them and might well have scored with a drive from around 30 yards which forced Paddy Kenny to dive to his top right corner to glove away.
Barnsley began to suspect their luck was out when Gary Speed decked Stephen Foster in the area.
Ref Lee Probert missed it. Barnsley boss Simon Davey didn't. Not good for the FA's 'respect a ref' campaign.
Davey took it hard.
"I spoke to the referee at half-time and told him it was a penalty. I even tried to show him the video but he wasn't having any of it," the Barnsley manager explained.
"There's nothing you can do, they either give them or they don't. They can't rescind anything, they can't change the circumstances. It's just disappointing as manager when you know it was a definite penalty.
"Gary Speed was all over Stephen Foster, he's pulling him down, he's pulled his neck. He was trying to get the shirt off his back by the look of it, but unfortunately four officials didn't see it. 16,000 others did."
Both teams picked up casualties before the break with Barnsley centre-half Dennis Souza sustaining a cut eye and headache and Blades right-back Del Geary limping out of it.
John Halls was a one-for-one swap in the Blades ranks, Marciano van Homoet prompted a back-four revamp for Barnsley.
A low- grade first half had to improve and sure enough it did. United skipper Chris Morgan, Barnsley born and bred, hacked a Kayode Odejayi header off Kenny's line just after the re-start.
Davey reflected: "From minute one we dominated.
More on next page
READ MORE
Blades set for late play-offs challenge - Sharp.
Renaissance man reviving Premiership dream.
Football headlines.
Latest football gossip.
All sport categories.
Football headlines.
Latest football gossip.
All sport categories.
We had spells when the ball would just not drop to the right person. It would ricochet off someone or they'd get in a last-ditch tackle. They'd get it off the line or there'd be a penalty which wasn't given, and that's what it was like all day.
"We huffed and puffed and kept trying to knock on the door and it wouldn't open for us."
A wrestling bout between Morgan and Odejayi at a corner might have brought another Barnsley penalty and Brian Howard went down and got up appealing after another United-penalty-box crowd scene.
Beattie replaced Hulse in the 61st minute as snow enveloped the stadium, and chances continued to fall to both sides.
David Carney's volley was blocked by Bobby Hassell before Blackwell sent on Keith Gillespie for Carney and Davey responded by replacing injured Odejayi with Daniel Nardiello.
Barnsley had a real warning that this United team can get goals when Michael Tonge found Speed and he smashed a shot on to the inside of keeper Luke Steele's right hand post.
Moments later, 1-0 to United and nearly 6,000 fans went crazy. Sharp's finish from the inside right channel and around 18 yards out was perfection.
Said Blackwell: "Billy will get the plaudits and when you look at what's happened to him over the season I think he richly deserves it.
"He's had to learn the hardest lesson of all as a footballer, that you have to treat success and failure the same way.
"It was a tough, tough spell for him and I was delighted to see him come out of the other side.
"I think that will make him a top-class striker now."
Sharp almost helped set up a second, his fine cross met first time by Beattie but brilliantly smothered by Steele.
Istvan Ferenczi replaced Leon for Barnsley but it was Sharp again who went closest to scoring, his right-footed curler in stoppage time saved by Steele just before the final whistle.
READ MORE
Blades set for late play-offs challenge - Sharp.
Football headlines.
Latest football gossip.
All sport categories.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Sheffield
Friday 10 February 2012
Today
Fog
Temperature: -6 C to 0 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: -2 C to -1 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: South west
