Aston Villa 3 Sheffield United 3 - Report and pictures

Out-thought, out-fought and out-classed by a Sheffield United team who for 81 minutes looked destined to hit the top of the Championship thanks to Billy Sharp’s hat-trick, Dean Smith’s team somehow pulled it out of fire with goals from Tyrone Mings and Tammy Abraham, before Andre Green’s dramatic leveller deep, deep into stoppage time.

It is the kind of fightback which should re-galvanise a season which for much of the night looked destined for the rocks as the Blades controlled proceedings with ease.

Boy, did Villa need a shot of the arm on the evidence of the first half and much of the second.

There remains a lot of hard work for them to do, as they remain three points adrift of the top six with many of those above possessing games in hand.

But after pulling off this comeback, they should surely believe anything is possible, heading into games with Brentford and Albion in the forthcoming week.

Smith handed Mile Jedinak a first start since September in one of two changes to the team which drew 0-0 at Reading. The other saw Jonathan Kodjia replace Albert Adomah, who along with Glenn Whelan dropped to the bench.

Winger Green was deemed fit enough to be named among the substitutes, following a fortnight out with a hamstring injury.

Both Sharp and Abraham had started the night tied at the top of the scorer charts on 19 goals each.

But it was the Sheffield United man who would take less than 11 minutes to become the first player in the division to hit 20 for the season.

His strike partner, Gary Madine, rose unmarked at the far post to head Oliver Norwood’s corner back into the six yard box and Sharp showed predatory instincts to turn it home.

That was despite Abraham, of all people, thinking he had done enough to deny his rival by hacking clear. Replays showed his attempt had failed by millimetres with referee Tony Harrington duly awarding the goal.

It was an opener which capped a dominant start from the visitors, who had already tested home goalkeeper Lovre Kalinic courtesy of a low, powerfully struck George Baldock shot.

From that period on they were everything Villa weren’t: calm, composed and confident, moving the ball with a method lacking in their hosts.

Villa’s efforts were rather summed up when John McGinn, busy as ever in midfield, won the ball in the Blades box to briefly spark the crowd but then immediately ran it out of play.

The hosts would at least manage a couple of attempts on goal before the break, though nothing which forced goalkeeper Dean Henderson into any work.

Abraham headed wide at the far post when he appeared slow to react to a Hutton cross, while the latter also sent a shot over the bar.

Villa looked to raise the tempo early in the second half but it was still the visitors looking more dangerous and a well-timed Tommy Elphick block was required to stop a goal-bound Madine effort.

The latter would have a hand in the Blades’ controversial second eight minutes into the second half. When Kalinic parried Dowell’s powerful shot, Madine was there to send a looping header back across goal, Sharp eventually forcing the ball home as the keeper looked to gather.

Kalinic, his team-mates and much of the crowd were adamant he had both hands on the ball and that the goal should not have stood. Replays also showed Sharp to be offside in the build-up. Yet not even that could disguise the dire defending, with a host of Villa players standing and watching as the visitors reacted quicker to the ball at every turn.

Sharp’s hat-trick goal, which arrived two minutes past the hour mark, was controversy free. Dowell escaped down the right and whipped in a cross which flicked off Hutton and neatly into the path of the striker to head home at the far post.

Villa’s late rally came completely out of the blue, sparked eight minutes from time when Mings rose at the far post to head home Conor Hourihane’s corner.

Four minutes later, Abraham arrived at the far post to stab home Tommy Elphick’s cross and the fans, though reduced in number due to those who had already exited, suddenly had a voice again.

It reached a crescendo when, in the fourth added minute, John McGinn won the ball in the box and delivered a cross which Green rose to head home at the far post.

Teams

Villa (4-3-3): Kalinic, Hutton, Elphick, Mings, Taylor, Jedinak (Whelan 66), Hourihane, McGinn, El Ghazi, Abraham, Kodjia (Green 66) Subs not used: Bjarnason, Elmohamady, Hause, Adomah, Steer (gk).

Sheff U (3-4-1-2): Henderson, Basham, Egan, O'Connell, Baldock, Norwood, Fleck, Stevens, Dowell (Cranie 74), Madine (McGoldrick 69), Sharp (Washington 86) Subs not used: Stearman, Duffy, Johnson, Washington, Moore (gk).