Sheffield United 1 Derby County 0: Reaction from Slavisa Jokanovic and Wayne Rooney as Billy Sharp's late penalty downs the Rams

Morgan Gibbs-White of Sheffield Utd and Graeme Shinnie of Derby County have an exchange of words: Simon Bellis / SportimageMorgan Gibbs-White of Sheffield Utd and Graeme Shinnie of Derby County have an exchange of words: Simon Bellis / Sportimage
Morgan Gibbs-White of Sheffield Utd and Graeme Shinnie of Derby County have an exchange of words: Simon Bellis / Sportimage
Sheffield United returned to Championship action this afternoon when they beat Derby County at Bramall Lane.

Wayne Rooney’s side made the trip to South Yorkshire bottom of the table following their 12-point deduction, and suffered further frustration when Billy Sharp fired home an 89th-minute penalty.

This is how the game unfolded, with reaction from both managers.

Blades v Derby LIVE from the Lane

filling up nicely with five minutes to go until kick-off, fair play to Derby as well for selling 2,000 tickets at £37 a pop for this afternoon’s game despite all their off-field woes - expecting a bumper crowd for this one and a competitive game, despite everything going off at Pride Park... Wayne Rooney’s players will want to put on a show of their own to distract from all that and the Blades will be hoping to continue their recent resurgence under Slavisa Jokanovic, too. Bring it on!

Everyone could see it was needed...

and eventually it happened, to the Blades’ benefit

Battle of the Baldocks is roughly 10 minutes away ...

A bumper crowd expected today

Congratulations on a great achievement, Jags!

Up against his old pal Jags tonight...

And here’s how Derby line-up this afternoon

The Blades line-up in full...

and the Blades make two changes from the side that won at Hull last time out in the league - Norwood and Ndiaye come back in, Brewster and Hourihane make way and are on the bench

The man in the middle

The Referee: David Webb, from Lancashire, will take charge. He averages 4.6 cautions per game this term. However, although he appears to be happy to issue yellow cards, Webb has not produced a red since January.

Comment Guidelines

National World encourages reader discussion on our stories. User feedback, insights and back-and-forth exchanges add a rich layer of context to reporting. Please review our Community Guidelines before commenting.