Palace holding Blades scoreless at the break

Crystal Palace 0 Sheffield United 0

Sheffield United dominated but could not find a breakthrough in their Coca-Cola Championship clash against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park.

Only a victory against the team managed by former Blades boss Neil Warnock would keep the Yorkshire club’s automatic promotion hopes alive, and they created several good chances in the first half.

The pick of them came after 11 minutes. A clearance from Paddy Kenny released David Cotterill down the right-hand side.

He cut infield and sent an arrow-like cross to the far post where Darius Henderson was arriving unmarked. But the pace of the ball was just too much for the Blades striker and, at full stretch, he powered his header wide.

Kyle Naughton flashed a 30-yard shot past the same post soon after.

At the other end, Neil Danns volleyed wide after the ball dropped to him on the edge of the area following a corner.

The latest of several long throws into the box from Kyle Walker ricocheted into Cotterill’s path midway through the half, but the former Bristol City striker snatched at the chance and blazed his shot over the crossbar from the edge of the six yard box.

Sheffield United continued to apply pressure and only a fine save from Julian Speroni to push Chris Morgan’s downward header over the crossbar kept the Blades at bay just after the half-hour mark.

Soon afterwards, Cotterill’s shot from the right-hand side of the box had Speroni scrambling across his goal.