Sheffield United's promotion push given added steel after Kieran Dowell strikes to dent West Brom hopes
West Bromwich Albion 0 Sheffield United 1
Sheffield United kept hold of the second automatic promotion place in the Championship as a backs-to-the-wall effort to protect a first-half goal earned them a fourth win in five.
Albion’s home form continues to undermine their own bid for a return to the Premier League. Darren Moore’s side have won eight of their last nine away from the Hawthorns but only two in 11 in front of their own fans. Jay Rodriguez, the Albion striker, put the ball in the net with his hand six minutes from time but there would be no repeat of his controversial handball equaliser against Aston Villa here in December - this time he was correctly denied and booked for good measure.
Chris Wilder’s team have lost only one match in their last 12 in the Championship. The decisive moment here came in the 14th minute with a goal by Kieran Dowell that owed everything to the determination and the lungs of Martin Cranie, the right-sided of the visitors’ three centre backs.
Cranie, who is 32, first caught up with midfielder Kieron Freeman’s driving run to be available on the overlap, and after the ball was released to him still had the energy somehow to hook it back, on the slide, so that Dowell could direct a near-post header into the far corner.
“We do try to get out two end centre halves to come out and get up the pitch and the old man has stretched for it and put the ball in the box and it was a really good finish,” Wilder said. “It was a really good goal from our point of view, although overall it was not our best performance, one where we were better without the ball than with it.”
United almost doubled their lead, Sam Johnstone making a good save on the stretch from Marvin Johnson after a clever touch by Dowell, the England Under-21 international on loan from Everton, before David McGoldrick wasted an opportunity to square to a well-placed Billy Sharp.
The dominant team thereafter was Albion, yet finding a way to break down a disciplined opponent proved beyond them. Dean Henderson made a couple of important saves, from a Craig Dawson header in the first half and from Jefferson Montero in stoppage time, but otherwise there were no real chances.
“We were just lacking that bit of extra sparkle we needed in a game like this,” Moore said, acknowledging that his side’s results at home are a concern.
“Teams are coming here and putting men behind the ball and not wanting to play open football,” he said. “That’s no problem, that’s the way it is with tactics these days and we need to find ways to overcome that.”
Match details
West Bromwich Albion (4-3-3): Johnstone; Holgate, Dawson, Hegazi (Adarabioyo 64), Gibbs; Harper, Barry, Livermore (Edwards 87); Phillips (Montero 63), Rodriguez, Gayle.
Bookings: Dawson, Rodriguez.
Subs not used: Bond (g), Bartley, Johansen, Field.
Sheffield United (3-4-1-2): Henderson; Cranie (Basham 75), Egan (Stearman h-t), Stevens; Freeman, Norwood, Fleck, Johnson; Dowell; McGoldrick (Madine 63), Sharp.
Bookings: Dowell, Stevens, Madine.
Subs not used: Moore (g), Hogan, Coutts, Duffy.
Referee: Oliver Langford (West Midlands).
Attendance: 24,928.
