Barnsley 1-0 Sheffield United: Lifeless Blades suffer defeat in South Yorkshire derby | OneFootball

Sheffield United suffered their first defeat of the season as they crashed out of the Carabao Cup at local rivals Barnsley.

Max Watters’ goal early in the second half was enough to see the Reds knock out Championship opposition and advance to the next round of the league cup.

Chris Wilder made several changes to the short trip to Oakwell, nonetheless it was still a strong side. Anel Ahmedhodzic returned to the starting eleven after missing out last Saturday with an illness, while the likes of Vinicius Souza, Harrison Burrows and Gustavo Hamer dropped to the bench. Oli Arblaster missed the squad altogether, as did several others such as Kieffer Moore and Michael Cooper.

Lineups

Barnsley: Slonina, Cotter (O’Keeffe 70), Roberts, Pines, de Gevigney, Phillips, Marsh (Lofthouse 79), Earl, Watters, Yoganathan (Russell 73), Connell.

Unused: Killip, Benson, Gent, McCarthy, Łopata, Nwakali.

Blades: A. Davies, McCallum (Burrows 73), Brewster (Hamer 73), Rak-Sakyi (Campbell 62), Ahmedhodzic, Coulibaly, Norrington-Davies (Trusty 62), Marsh, Peck, Hampson (Brooks 62), Sachdev.

Unused: Faxon, Souttar, Souza, One.

Rhian Brewster for Sheffield United playing against Barnsley in the Carabao Cup at Oakwell Stadium.

First half

The game was starved of goalmouth action in the opening minutes – the most exciting moment came when Marsh almost stole the ball away from the Barnsley keeper as he attempted to clear it.

It took until around 15 minutes for the Blades to carve out a real opportunity, this came through the full debutant Rak-Sakyi. The winger danced past his man down the right, dribbling to the byline he provided an accurate cutback to Brewster from about eight yards out but the striker’s first time left-footed shot smacked the post.

Soon after, the Blades had McCallum to thank for clearing a dangerous low cross to the near post from Cotter. The home side’s confidence had risen and a testing powerful effort from Phillips saw Davies called into action before the break.

Second half

Rak-Sakyi was the main threat for Sheffield United in the first half, and he started the opening few minutes of the second interval looking lively. Receiving the ball on the right side of the box, he turned inside on his left foot and fired a snap-shot agonisingly over the bar.

But it was the League One outfit who struck the opening goal – some terrible defending from Norrington-Davies allowed his man to ghost past him to the byline and deliver a low centred ball to Max Watters who was there to tap home on 52 minutes.

Cotter was enjoying himself out there and he felt confident enough to attempt a long range shot which took a wicked deflection as it had Davies scrambling in goal. Pines had a headed effort which flew over the bar from a corner.

With Barnsley looking comfortable in the game, the Blades turned to the bench to bring on Gustavo Hamer, Andre Brooks, Harrison Burrows, Auston Trusty and Tyrese Campbell, with Jesurun Rak-Sakyi, Sam McCallum, Rhys Norrington-Davies, Rhian Brewster and Owen Hampson making way.

Hamer almost made an instant impact with 15 minutes to go as he unleashed a swirling strike which stung the palms of the Barnsley keeper. From the resulting corner, the Blades thought they found an equaliser when Trusty headed home on the line only to be adjudged to have fouled Slonina in goal.

Hamer once more had an attempt parried away from distance, while on the opposite flank Brooks was looking lively as he made multiple bursts into the box delivering dangerous low crosses which were ultimately cleared after Peck struck the post.

With seconds to spare, some neat one-touch play around the box between Brooks and Peck saw a shooting chance created for Peck but his effort sailed wide of the left post.