Sheffield United sealed a historic double-double over their city rivals Wednesday at Bramall Lane, a 2-1 home win condemning the Owls to relegation to League One. It looked ominous for Wednesday as the Blades cruised into a 2-0 lead at half-time.
But the second-half sending off of Kalvin Phillips changed the momentum of the game and saw Charlie McNeill pull one back for the home side, giving the game a nervier feel than had ever seemed possible in the first half.
Both sides finished with 10 men after Gabriel Otegbayo received a second yellow late on for fouling Tyrese Campbell while there was even time for a flashpoint after the final whistle, when Svente Ingelsson took issue with Sydie Peck celebrating with his own supporters and sparked a mini-melee between both sets of players.
Here’s how we rated the Blades as they sealed a first double-double since 1953 over their rivals...
9. Callum O'Hare 6
My word, was he in the wars this afternoon. United's No.10 was clattered throughout the game, especially by Ingelsson and then later by Cooper as Wednesday seemingly singled him out for some rough treatment. He could have issued the perfect response when he latched onto Seriki's pass inside and lashed goalwards but it curved away slightly and smacked into the post, rebounding to safety. Made way for Soumare later on | UGC Photo: UGC
10. Gus Hamer 7.5
In big games like this your big players are the ones who show up, and Hamer is without doubt one of those. He showed that inside the first 75 seconds when he was the recipient of Ndala's hashed clearance and with thousands of cries of "shoooot" in his ears, he took a touch to calm things down before playing an inch-perfect pass for Bamford to finish. Made way for Arblaster later on | UGC Photo: UGC
11. Patrick Bamford 8
Up against his old Leeds pal Cooper and was into that physical battle from the first few seconds, and it didn't take too much longer for him to write his name into United folklore with the opening goal within 80 seconds. He had the freedom of Sheffield to score it too after a wonderful unselfish pass from Hamer | UGC Photo: UGC
12. Subs: Oliver Arblaster
Came on for Hamer and showed some neat moments on the ball, and some handy ones defensively too as United looked to see out the victory | UGC Photo: UGC