How we beat the Blades - Johnson

Saturday, December 9th 2017

Lee Johnson has explained how his players had to adapt in difficult circumstance to beat Sheffield United at Bramall Lane.

Leon Clarke cancelled out Jamie Paterson's brilliant strike before Aden Flint grabbed the late winner to seal the 2-1 victory against ten men on Friday night.

City were up against it as they faced a dominant home side but they dug deep and showed a different side to their game, as Johnson explained post-match.

He told BCTV: "We are just trying to continue improving our performances. The good thing is we have got a good result but we have a lot to work on,

"I think we didn't get the ball moving, which is credit to Sheffield United because they pressed us very well. They did to us what we we do to teams and we just couldn't get our two or three passes that we needed to beat the press, to be able to release somebody one-on-one.

"We didn't get in behind enough like we did against Middlesbrough and we had to change it, It was nothing against [substituting] Niclas (Eliasson) but I had to change the dynamic to give us a platform to play.

"We had to go toe-to-toe for a bit and match them. Once they had a man sent off it enabled us to get back into our rhythm and get the extra pass in. We changed to 4-4-2 and I thought we controlled the game from there on in.

"I thought we were taking a little bit too much time on the ball. I thought a couple of our boys were a bit sow to release the ball so I was quite strong on that. I also said that they were working so hard to get back in the game so I am delighted with the application of the second half to get the goal."