The manager on the away draw
Manager Greg Abbott gave us his thoughts on the away draw at Brammall Lane shortly after full time on Monday.
"We probably have to be pleased with the point but I'm disappointed we didn't get three, to be honest," he said.
"I thought we were excellent and that we had the better of the chances. I'd go as far as to say that until the sending off we looked like the better team.
"The referee decided to get involved in a game he didn't need to be involved in and it stopped our momentum."
"The sending off looked very soft,"he insisted. "I can't really explain it at all. If he gets sent off for two very soft challenges then there should probably have been eight people sent off today. That's in a game where there wasn't one single bad challenge and the referee just felt he should get involved.
"It did set us back but we did try and win it by putting Manny [Mathieu Manset] on. We felt we had a really good chance of getting the three points because it always looked like it would be just the odd goal either way."
"With the chances we had in the first half we thought we should have gone in at 1-0 up," he added. "But once we were down to ten men we showed a lot of determination to keep our clean sheet. They didn't really create a lot, they just tried to put the ball in dangerous areas, but I thought we dealt with it all really well."
"Liam [Noble] came back into the team and performed really well," he said. "He showed a lot of determination and energy in the middle of the park and that's credit to him. It will have done him the world of good.
"Mark [Gillespie] put in another good display but we knew he'd do that. We think he's going to be a good goalkeeper and he's shown that again with the work he did for us today.
"We felt that David [Symington] needed a break. He found it tough last weekend but he'll bounce back. He's full of energy and he is going to be a very good player."
"Sheffield United have a very experienced side but we worked hard to close them down and to stop them from playing," he added. "I'm very pleased with our performance. We looked strong when defending and they all worked for each other. They have deserved their reward today.
"The sending off means we will have to change things again for Oldham. However, Peter Murphy had a fantastic contribution when he came on and he is desperate to play. We've seen with Andy Welsh that every member of the squad wants to be part of it and that's a good sign for us all.
"We want wins, of course we do, but we now have three draws from three tough games and that keeps the momentum going. The important thing for us now is to get to Oldham next week and make sure we build on it."
"To see the fans standing and clapping us off at the end was nice," he concluded. "We need to do that more because they've been brilliant this season.
"They've deserved to see more performances like that because they pay a lot of money to watch us all over the country. The fans are very fair with us and I think, even if we get beat, if they see that we've put everything into the game then they will always appreciate it."
