Sheffield United 0 Aston Villa 1 - Report

The result - particularly the manner of it - will do more than any other this season to make Villa believe automatic promotion can be theirs...writes Matt Maher from Bramall Lane.

Seemingly on course for a hard-earned and no less valuable point against an impressive Sheffield United, Villa snatched all three thanks to a last-gasp moment of brilliance from Robert Snodgrass.

A display which owed almost everything to the resilience which carried them through the first-half of the season, was lit up by one moment of magic from a player who has begun to produce it on a consistent basis.

Cutting in from the right flank, Snodgrass unleashed an unstoppable, curling effort beyond Blades keeper Simon Moore and into the far corner.

It ensured Steve Bruce became the first Villa manager since John Gregory in 1998 to record five consecutive league wins.

More importantly, it moved his team up to third in the table, just a point behind Derby, while dealing a hammer blow to genuine promotion rivals.

Make no mistake, for much of the 90 minutes, it was Chris Wilder’s team who appeared to be proving their own credentials.

But they could find no way past Villa keeper Sam Johnstone, who twice denied George Baldock. Jack O’Connell also hit the bar for the hosts, who slumped to their knees at the final whistle, the home sections of the ground in disbelief.

Bruce had, unsurprisingly, named the same starting XI which scored three goals in the opening 19 minutes against Barnsley last time out.

The only change to the 18 saw Axel Tuanzebe, who joined on loan last week from Manchester United, take a place on the bench.

The home line-up included a number of faces familiar to Midlands football, most notably former Villa full-back Enda Stevens. Ex-Wolves trio Richard Stearman, Lee Evans and Leon Clarke also started for the Blades.

Villa had flown out of the starting blocks against the Tykes, taking the lead inside the opening five minutes.

On this occasion it was they who were inches away from falling behind in just as swiftly, O’Connell rising to meet Evans’s corner with a header which crashed off the underside of the bar before being hacked clear.

Villa were under the cosh and John Terry was required to hack clear a couple of dangerous looking crosses before Johnstone was called into his first action of the night, diving to his right to keep out a Clarke shot which had deflected off the boot of James Chester.

A far finer save would follow to deny Baldock following a rapid Blades break which culminated with Clarke teeing up his team-mate to shoot from 12 yards out. Johnstone proved equal to the effort.

Moore, his opposite number, barely had to break sweat during an opening half-hour where it was his team asking all the questions. When the Blades keeper finally was made to work, it was his own team-mate who had the effort as O’Connell miscued a clearing header at a corner and Moore was forced to back peddle and tip the ball over the bar.

The hosts would go close to breaking the deadlock once more before the break, James Wilson coming within inches of a goal to remember. But the Manchester United loanee's overhead kick, after Clarke had headed the ball back across goal, flew inches wide of the target with Johnstone rooted to the spot.

Villa were much better at the start of the second period, the unlikely figure of Alan Hutton setting the tone with an early long range effort which Moore held diving to his right.

Jack Grealish, for whom little had come off in the opening period, will feel he should have scored with a curling effort which flew beyond the keeper’s dive and inches wide of the far post, Scott Hogan having made a clever run to draw defender and make the space after a fine pass by Birkir Bjarnason to start the move.

Yet the Blades still looked sharp and Johnstone’s reflexes were required to keep out a rasping drive from Baldock after the wideman had cleverly worked space in the box.

Chances dried up for both teams for a period until, with ten minutes remaining, Johnstone was called into action again to keep out Chris Basham’s low shot after a sustained period of pressure around the Villa box.

The visitors were seeing more of the ball and the contest was much more even but their build-up play, too often, was ponderous.

Snodgrass then took matters into his own hands, cutting in from the right and curling a left-footed finish into the far corner, before running away to celebrate with 2,500 delirious travelling supporters.

There was still time for Johnstone to tip over an O'Connell header in stoppage time as Moore came forward for a series of late corners. But it was Villa’s night.

Sheff U (3-5-2): Moore, O'Connell, Stearman, Basham, Baldock, Leonard (Lundstram 67), Evans (Holmes 74), Fleck, Stevens, Clarke, Wilson (Donaldson 67) Subs not used: Sharp, Duffy, Lafferty, Eastwood (gk).

Villa (4-1-4-1): Johnstone, Elmohamady, Chester, Terry, Hutton, Bjarnason, Snodgrass, Grealish, Hourihane (Onomah 76), Adomah (Jedinak 86), Hogan (Davis 81) Subs not used: Taylor, Whelan, Tuanzebe, Bunn (gk).