The gap to safety increased back to five points following Barnsley’s 14th away league defeat of the season – only Peterborough (16) have lost more in the Championship this season.
Their tally of seven points collected away from home, goals scored (12) and goal difference (-21) are the second worst in the division with only the Posh faring worse on all three accounts.
This was the 14th time Barnsley have gone in at half time with the score 0-0 and they have gone on to win only once (v QPR) with this the eighth defeat, including both meetings with Sheffield United.
Barnsley fell behind after 54 minutes, the second successive away game in which they have conceded in the opening 10 minutes of the second half.
Barnsley’s last five matches have now finished either 1-1 or 2-0 as have six of the last seven with the one exception being the 3-2 win over Middlesbrough.
There was 28,515 fans in attendance, the biggest crowd Barnsley have played in front of in 2021-2022 and indeed due to the COVID pandemic, the biggest crowd since the 21st September 2019 at Nottingham Forest (29,202)
This was Barnsley’s 17th league blank of the season, their most in a season since 2013-2014 (20)
Barnsley have now won only one of the last seven meetings with the Blades (L4)
United have scored at least twice in each of the last three clashes.
The Reds have now failed to score in each of their last three visits to Bramall Lane and have only one goal from the past four.
They have won only one of the last nine visits (D4 L4)
Sheffield United have done the double over Barnsley for the first time since 2008-2009
Barnsley Team:
40. Brad Collins
7. Callum Brittain
30. Michal Helik
6. Mads Andersen
26. Remy Vita
17. Claudio Gomes
33. Matty Wolfe
27. Amine Bassi
4. Callum Styles
28. Domingos Quina
14. Carlton Morris
Substitutes:
11. Aaron Leya Iseka (for Styles 74)
21. Romal Palmer (for Wolfe 75)
44. Devante Cole (for Gomes 90+2)
Unused Substitutes:
1. Jack Walton, 5. Liam Kitching, 22. Clarke Oduor, 24. Aapo Halme.
Sheffield United Team:
18. Wes Foderingham
12. John Egan
34. Kyron Gordon
19. Jack Robinson
8. Sander Berge
24. Conor Hourihane
23. Ben Osborn
33. Rhys Norrington-Davies
16. Oliver Norwood
27. Morgan Gibbs-White
10. Billy Sharp
Substitutions:
36. Daniel Jebbison (for Sharp 65)
9. Oliver McBurnie (for Berge 71)
4. John Fleck (for Gibbs-White 83)
Unused Substitutes:
1. Adam Davies, 35. Kacper Lopata, 3. Enda Stevens, 29. Iliman Ndiaye.
Sheffield United manager Paul Heckingbottom said:
"It's been a slog for a long period of time and there have been things niggling at me like the big injury list we've had, so I think it's only just that we sign off with a win before the international break.
"Twelve thirty kick-offs can be strange, stadiums can be flat - we also looked like a team who played on Wednesday night and we needed to inject an aggressive mentality into it and just do everything quicker.
"Barnsley tried to stay with us but a good, quick free-kick, I'm delighted Sander got his goal, and we didn't really look back then."
Match Reports:
Sky Bet Championship Results
SATURDAY 19TH MARCH 2022
Sheffield United (5th) 2-0 BARNSLEY (22nd)
Berge 54
Gibbs-White 76
Derby County (24th) 1-1 Coventry City (11th)
Godden 28
Lawrence pen 66
Bristol City (18th) 2-2 West Bromwich Albion (12th)
Wells 29
Grant pen 68
Weimann 85
Reach 90+3
Huddersfield Town (4th) 0-3 AFC Bournemouth (2nd)
Anthony 19
Lerma 31
Solanke 46
Hull City (20th) 1-3 Luton Town (3rd)
Adebayo 9
Cornick 56
Bree 72
Eaves 90+2
Reading (21st) 1-0 Blackburn Rovers (6th)
Laurent 78
Stoke City (15th) 2-0 Millwall (10th)
Brown 19
Saville og 70
Swansea City (16th) 0-0 Birmingham City (19th)
SUNDAY 20TH MARCH 2022
Queens Park Rangers (8th) 1-3 Peterborough United (23rd)
Amos 9
Clarke-Harris 39
Clarke-Harris pen 53
Marriott 54
Barnsley lie in 22nd place in the Sky Bet Championship with 28 points from 38 games. We are 33 points off the Play-Offs, 41 points off the Automatic Promotion Places, 49 points off First Place and 5 points inside the Relegation Zone.
Up to 20/03/22
Next Up:
At Oakwell:
Sky Bet Championship Matchday Thirty Nine: Barnsley v Reading, Saturday 2nd April 2022. Kick-Off: 3pm
On The Road:
Sky Bet Championship Matchday Forty: Millwall v Barnsley, Saturday 9th April 2022. Kick-Off: 3pm