Stoke City 1 Sheffield United 0: Michael O'Neill says Stoke "deserved" victory over Blades

John Egan’s own goal was the difference between the two sides, Josh Tymon’s cross fortuitously deflecting off the Republic of Ireland international for the only game of a contest low on individual quality.

United’s injury woes worsened when Billy Sharp and Oli McBurnie were both ruled out through injury, leaving teenager Daniel Jebbison to lead the line on his full Championship debut.

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“It’s nice to come out on the right side of it,” O’Neill said.

“It was always going to be decided by one goal. I thought we were the better side in the second half and deserved to win it.

“They [United] are a very good team, they’ve recovered from a very difficult start and I think they’re as good as Fulham in terms of the points they’ve won.

“So it was a good performance against a very good side.”

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On the winning goal, former Northern Ireland boss O’Neill added: “We’ll happily take the deflection. We haven’t had enough of that so we’ll happily take it.”

O’Neill was full of praise for Stoke’s defence, including former Blade Phil Jagielka who was excellent against Jebbison – who, at 18, is less than half his age.

“Gibbs-White is a real threat so we had to limit the space,” O’Neill added.

“I thought Jags and Taylor [Harwood-Bellis] defended so well and were good on the ball too.”

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