Sheffield United 0-1 Millwall: Josh Coburn steers Lions to victory

Josh Coburn's first-half strike clinched play-off chasing Millwall a 1-0 win at Bramall Lane and dented Sheffield United's automatic promotion chances.

Millwall turned in one of their best away displays of the season to frustrate the Blades and Coburn's thumping finish lifted the Londoners to within three points of the top six with five games to play.

Blades substitute Jesurun Rak-Sakyi twice went close to equalising, while Chris Wilder's side, who slipped to their eighth league defeat of the season, created a string of scoring chances.

But the Lions, for whom Mihailo Ivanovic should have doubled his side's lead, turned in a never-say-die defensive display and were a constant threat on the counter.

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Coburn headed an early free-kick over for Millwall and Blades forward Rhian Brewster's first-time effort span narrowly wide from a corner.

The visitors, who began the day in ninth place, six points off the play-offs, struck the opening goal in the 21st minute, just when the Blades appeared to be building momentum.

Billy Mitchell's low ball into the box picked out Casper De Norre and he helped the ball on to Coburn, who slammed home his fifth league goal of the season beyond Blades goalkeeper Michael Cooper.

Ben Brereton Diaz went close to an early response for the home side when his glancing header forced a fine reaction save from Lukas Jensen.

Home fans' frustration at going a goal down reached fever pitch when referee Sam Allison waved play on after Millwall skipper Jake Cooper had wrestled Anel Ahmedhodzic to the ground.

The Blades created several half-chances before the break but Millwall, who continued to carry a threat on the break, held on to their slender lead at half-time.

Rak-Sakyi replaced Brereton Diaz at the break and he should have equalised for the Blades just after the restart, only to miscue his shot in front of goal from Harrison Burrows' cross.

Rak-Sakyi turned sharply to fire straight at Jensen soon after as the Blades turned the screw in search of an equaliser.

Ivanovic then missed a golden chance to put Millwall 2-0 up, shooting straight at Cooper after Coburn's cross had left him one-on-one with the goalkeeper.

Jensen saved well from Gus Hamer's fierce low effort before Blades boss Wilder sent on Vini Souza, Callum O'Hare and Tom Cannon for Hamza Choudhury, Brewster and Tyrese Campbell.

Cannon lashed in a low shot, well held by Jensen, as the Blades ramped it up with 10 minutes to go and Rak-Sakyi's close-range effort rolled agonisingly wide as Millwall held on and Wilder's side slumped to back-to-back defeats.

The managers

Sheffield United's Chris Wilder:

"We have to deal with the negativity because we've brought it on ourselves, I've no problem with that.

"The narrative will be, 'we're out of the race'. I don't think that's the case with five games to go.

"We've got to reset. I've got to pick the right team for Saturday [at Plymouth] because there's no real margin for error now.

"We've not lost three games on the spin all season, we've lost two twice. We've got to adjust that and get back on track, so these last two results don't define our season.

"It was a difficult night for us, a frustrating night. The longer the game went on, the more we didn't control our emotions well enough.

"The anxiety sort of crept into the players and decisions they've not really made all season started creeping into their game.

"If you go deep into a season like we are doing, we've got to deal with this a lot better.

"It's a new experience for a lot of our players, playing for a big club in this division - it's not League One now, it's big boys' football."

Millwall's Alex Neil:

"Sheffield United are a really good side and I think everybody will probably expect them to get promoted this season.

"But we've got our own agenda. We came here to win the game. We didn't come here to make up the numbers.

"We want to challenge and hopefully we go into the weekend to challenge, to see if we can beat Middlesbrough and see where that takes us.

"We don't want the season to fizzle out. We want to be fighting for something and that's not easy, there's a lot of good teams in this league."

Neil has won promotion three times via the play-offs with Hamilton, Norwich and Sunderland and added: "If we get in the play-offs, I'd fancy my chances."

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