Like A Blade through Melted Butter

Man of the Match - Micah Hyde

Neil Warnock made one change to his starting line up, outbound Andy Gray replaced by Neil Shipperley. 11,802 turned up for Burnley's return and as the game started, the Longside were chanting the team on, a rare occurrence these days, as were a few members of the Jimmy McIlroy Stand.

It was Burnley who began the game on the front foot, but a first minute shot form Micah Hyde from the edge of the box went well wide. Two minutes on however, the game began to turn, as Lilian Nalis forced a good save out of Jensen in the Burnley goal.

It only took until the fifth minute for the deadlock to be broken, Branch committed early to try and tackle United's Paul Ifill, recently signed from Millwall, who beat him, and crossed to Neil Shipperley on the near post, who converted to get his first United goal on his first United start.

Burnley's only reply to this was a somewhat lacklustre shot from Garreth O'Connor from outside the box, which headed well wide. In what was a poor first half for the Clarets, Micah Hyde and Gifton Noel-Williams were the only players to look good, in a long ball system which quite frankly didn't work.

Sheffield United's long throw-ins courtesy of Leigh Bromby caused havoc in the Burnley defence, which looked much worse than it did last season.

Burnley almost conceded a second in the 19th minute, as Brian Jensen did something we would have expected a couple of years ago. He charged out of the goals in attempt to get there before Paul Ifill, failed, but did well to redeem himself by sliding into the ball, knocking it out for a throw in.

After this, the tide turned somewhat in the game, Burnley winning the first corner of the match, before Noel-Williams missed two good chances to bring the scores back even. The first one was a Frank Sinclair cross, which he seemingly knew nothing about, but it bounced off him and rolled past the face of the goal and out for a goal kick.

The second was a free header in the box, which everyone in the stadium thought had gone in, the Jimmy Mac Stand erupted in cheers, until the Burnley faithful realised it had somehow gone over the bar.

Burnley's closest chance of the first half however, was when a 35th minute throw-in came to Akinbiyi on the edge of the box, whose athletic overhead kick sent the ball just over the crossbar.

In the 40th minute, Sheffield United won their first corner of the game. The ball came in, Jensen made his way out and punched it, where it rebounded off United's Chris Morgan, rolled back towards the goal, where Micah Hyde and Jensen were both ready to stop it. However, they were both pushed out of the way by Sheffield players, and somehow referee Mr Halsey let the goal stand, doubling Sheffield's lead and effectively leaving Burnley with no chance of coming back into the game.

The rest of the half played out, and Burnley fans and players were both glad to see half time arrive.

For the first few minutes of the second half, it looked as if Burnley could end the 90 minutes four or five goals down, as United attacked from the off, and a Paul Ifill cross from the right nearly found the back of the Burnley net.

However, Burnley managed to carve out many chances over the remaining 40 minutes, resulting first of all in our first effort in target in the 58^th minute, a tame Akinbiyi header straight into the keeper’s hands. Several more chances were wasted, including a half-volley from Branch, which threatened the corner flag more than Paddy Kenny.

However, Burnley showed what they can do in the 72nd minute, when Micah Hyde slipped the ball down the wing for Captain Frank Sinclair, who beat his man with one touch, crossed with another, straight to Akinbiyi whose touch bounced up off diving goalkeeper Kenny, hit the crossbar, then crossed the goal line, for Burnley's first goal at Turf Moor this season.

This got the crowd excited again, as did Burnley's first substitution of the game, in the 81st minute, bringing on young striker Kyle Lafferty for his home debut in place of Frank Sinclair.

Lafferty placed right wing though, and Elliott was pushed back to right back. At the same time Kozluk - heavily linked with Burnley this summer - replaced Michael Tonge.

In the 84th minute, another man who had a quiet night, James O'Connor hit a good shot from within the box, but sadly it was blocked by a defender. To fill up time, Neil Warnock replaced Ifill with ex-Blackburn player Keith Gillespie, who got his usual hot reception and Danny Webber for Steve Kabba.

The game held only one more chance, a good one, and it fell to the clarets. After Noel-Williams was tackled, Garreth O'Connor burst through to claim the free ball, but his shot was saved well, low to Paddy Kenny's right.

The PA system announcement gave man of the match to James O'Connor, but I can only give it to Micah Hyde, who was greatly improved over Saturday, and began to boss the midfield in the second half.