Blades on the way up

Sheff Utd 2 Walsall 0

Sheffield United manager Neil Warnock was a satisfied man after his team moved into second place in Division One with a 2-0 victory over Walsall at Bramall Lane.

The host’s fourth successive home victory without conceding a goal came courtesy of strikes from Paul Peschisolido and Nick Montgomery after the Blades put a poor start behind them to finish the game camped in the Saddlers’ half.

Peschisolido opened the scoring in the 41st minute when Walsall goalkeeper Jimmy Walker fumbled a cross by Alan Wright. It allowed Peschisolido to atone for a miss moments earlier when he shot well wide from 10 yards out.

Three minutes after Darren Wrack spurned a 50th-minute chance to level when glancing his header wide while unmarked six yards out, Montgomery sealed the three points.

Jack Lester found the outstanding Michael Tonge who beat his man and provided the cutback for Montgomery to slot home from 10 yards for his second goal in successive games.

Warnock left out Michael Brown, who was sent off as United lost 3-2 at Burnley on Saturday. He said: “I decided to make some chances and we ended up playing some good stuff.

“It was as good as I have seen us play against Walsall but they also contributed to a good game.”

The Blades’ boss felt his team were worthy winners, adding: “It would have been a travesty if things had gone another way. We deserved to win. The only time they got behind us was for Wrack’s header.”

Warnock acknowledged the contribution of every player in his well-balanced team and his only complaint was with the lack of prowess in front of goal.

He said: “Typically we don’t take enough percentage of our chances and so we always end up being in danger of being caught. We are always going to be open to a Darren Wrack as we do not finish teams off.”

Peschisolido’s opener came near the end of an uninspiring first half characterised by sloppy passing and a lack of finishing.

It was the visitors who had had the first opportunity in the 10th minute when Blades’ goalkeeper Alan Fettis punched Steve Corica’s speculative shot straight to Gary Birch who fired into the Kop from 15 yards with just the goalkeeper to beat.

United did not test the Saddlers’ goalkeeper until the 19th minute when defender Phil Jagielka headed straight into Walker’s arms while unmarked in front of goal.

Darren Bazeley almost inadvertently turned a cross by Rob Kozluk into his own goal but Walker reacted quickly to drop to his left before he pulled off an acrobatic save from Kozluk’s 25-yard thunderbolt.

At the other end Wrack put a one-on-one with the goalkeeper well wide following Simon Osborn’s defence-splitting pass.

But Peschisolido started the ball rolling for the Blades before they turned up the heat in the second half.

Wrack’s chance apart, Walsall did not look like adding to their meagre tally of six away goals and Lester, Peter Ndlovu and Montgomery all went close for the Blades with long-range shots as they kept their promotion challenge firmly on track.

Walsall boss Colin Lee was full of praise for the Blades. He said: “They are a very good team. Tactically they played with two smaller players up front to get amongst us.

“Tonge was exceptional, he opened us up for the second goal. I think he is a great player. Their quality was very good and they hurt us more than we hurt them.”

Lee bemoaned his players’ lack of cutting edge, saying they had no killer instinct.

He said: “For all the nice football we have to have an end product. It is goals that change games and goals that win games.

“Performance-wise it was better but we just have not got that quality in the final third.”