Town boss Roy Keane felt his side rode their luck a touch as they picked up their third away league win of the season at Sheffield United. The Blues manager was pleased with the early goal in the 2-1 victory but was disappointed that his side didn’t push on from there.
Keane said: "A good start but a pity we couldn’t build on it. The first goal is always important in any game.
"It was a tough game, a really tough game and we were under a lot of pressure, a bit like here last year, but we managed to hold on and grind out a result without being spectacular.
"But you have to take those results, you can’t try and come and overplay away from home. There were opportunities for us to be more clinical and finish the game off, but credit Sheffield United they put us under a lot of pressure.”
Keane admitted that his side had their fortunate moments: "I think we rode our luck at times today, such as when the boy had the shot and it hit the post and there were some good balls across the box. I think we rode our luck a bit, but we all need that in life and in football.
"Sheffield United have had one or two defeats like we had a few weeks ago and sometimes you just don’t get the break of the ball, which is why football can be so frustrating.”
The Town boss was pleased to see Tamás Priskin net for the fifth time this season: "It was a real poacher’s goal, in the six-yard box. We like them. If you look at all the top strikers in the world they score from six yards out.
"The second one was a good finish from Gareth, who scored here as well last year. It was a good, tough 2-1 victory. We’ll take that.”
Keane says that in addition to Tom Eastman, who suffered a hip problem in the second half, Grant Leadbitter was feeling his hamstring at the end, while David Norris is a big doubt for Tuesday’s home game against Derby with the ankle injury he suffered against Millwall.
Sheffield United boss Gary Speed was unhappy with his side’s defending: "It was disappointing and frustrating as two sloppy goals have cost us. We do a lot of work on set pieces, we knew they’ve got a long throw and we worked on it yesterday.
"We weren’t doing our jobs. We put people in positions and gave them jobs to do and they didn’t do them on the first goal.
"With the form we’re in at the moment, if you go a goal behind you have a mountain to climb.They’ve got themselves back into it through their good play and workrate, which we know they’ll always give, but then threw it away with another soft goal.
"That’s the disappointing thing, we’ve let in two soft goals which have cost us and in the current situation it’s very difficult to get back.”
Speed felt Town took their chances when they came rather than riding their luck as Keane had suggested: "I think when things happen for you you’ve got to take advantage of them and they did that.”