Sheffield United nowhere near good enough v Bournemouth as performance echoes Newcastle shambles

Oli McBurnie described Sheffield United's performance against Bournemouth this afternoon as probably their worst of the season so far as their survival hopes were dealt a fresh blow by a home defeat to one of their direct rivals. The Bramall Lane clash against the Cherries was billed as a chance for the Blades to claw back more ground in their bid to stay in the Premier League, but on another day they could have suffered an embarrassing defeat.

The performance was undoubtedly their worst since the 8-0 defeat to Newcastle and in many eyes, was worse. At least against the Magpies the Blades at least had a spell early in the game where they looked dangerous but from the first whistle to the last against the Cherries, they were comfortably outclassed. Even McBurnie's injury-time header couldn't prevent boos ringing around Bramall Lane on the final whistle.

Asked if United's performance was their worst of the season, McBurnie replied: "Yeah, probably. Obviously it's very fresh, all I know was it was nowhere near good enough. It's strange, it kind of looked like they took us by surprise when we knew what they were going to be about.

"We knew they were going to be athletic with a higher press and it looked like it it took us by surprise which is strange. There's no point coming out here and trying to make any excuse, we were just just miles off it today and deserved to get beat."

United, who started slowly in their last two games against Wolves and Brighton before finishing strongly and taking four points from two games, could not get going at all in a game at home to one of their relegation rivals and paid the price when Marcus Tavarnier put the away side ahead. Justin Kluivert took advantage of a Wes Foderingham mistake to double their lead in first-half stoppage time, before Tavanier's second after the restart well and truly put the game to bed.

McBurnie's late header was nothing more than a consolation goal, with United bemoaning their slow start once more. "We've just spoken about it in the dressing room there," the striker added. "Straight from the start, it just wasn't a performance that we've been speaking about and that the boys had put in in the last few games.

"We can't put our finger on it but we can't make any excuses for it. It's not good enough and we need to be better next week in a big game."