Report | Swansea City 0 Sheffield United 0
Swansea City continued their unbeaten start to the Championship season as they shared the spoils with Sheffield United at the Swansea.com Stadium.
The hosts bossed possession for much of the content and got themselves into a number of promising positions, but were unable to make them count.
Joseph Opoku, Moussa Yeo and Elijah Just were among those to have sights of goal as the Swans – who lost skipper Ben Cabango to injury in the second half – had to settle for a point.
The visitors had chances of their own, and went closest of all when Callum O’Hare struck the crossbar in the opening half.
The Swans had shown one change from the win at Stoke City as Adam Idah started up front, with Zan Vipotnik on the bench and new signing Ross Stewart also among the substitutes.
There was plenty of energy about Swansea’s start, although maybe not quite the accuracy the home side would have liked to display.
Good pressing work from Idah and Josh Tymon saw Joe Rothwell robbed of the ball deep in Blades territory, but the striker’s attempted cross to pick out the supporting full-back was gobbled up by Michael Cooper in the United goal.
The Swans enjoyed a period of extended pressure from that point, Yeo darting into the area before being crowded out, and Idah producing some nice moments of link-up play.
The visitors had been penned in but they appealed for a penalty when Harrison Burrows went down in the box, but referee Tom Nield instead booked the defender.
Yeo then took on his man to get into the box again, his sliced shot rebounded to him and unselfishly nodded down for Just, but the New Zealander missed his kick as the ball bounced in front of him.
A neat move down the right involving Cabango, Filip Lissah and Opoku ended with the winger’s shot being blocked as Swansea continued to press.
But the closest either side came to a goal in the first half was when O’Hare showed good feet to work space to loft a shot goalward, only for the ball to cannon down off the crossbar and out.
Swansea threatened early in the second period, Opoku seeing an off-target shot blocked after Tymon’s delivery had run through to him on the right side of the area.
At the other end Japhet Tanganga headed over from a corner, while Mark McGuinness sliced wide after getting free at another set-piece.
Matos turned to his bench and introduced Vipotnik and Jisung Eom in place of Idah and Yeo, but the hosts then suffered a blow when Cabango pulled up after stretching to prevent O’Hare reach a loose ball and he was replaced by Josh Key.
Lawrence Vigouroux saved from Jairo Riedewald a couple of minutes later with the Swans adjusting after their defensive reshuffle.
Jay Fulton had a header blocked from a deep Tymon cross, while Marko Stamenic came agonisingly close to reaching the left-back’s delivery from a quick Swansea attack as the final 10 minutes arrived.
Melker Widell very nearly threaded Eom in on goal, only for a desperate tackle to divert the ball away from the South Korea international as it ended all-square.
Swansea City: Lawrence Vigouroux; Filip Lissah, Ben Cabango (captain) (Josh Key 66), Stephen Welsh, Josh Tymon; Jay Fulton (Ross Stewart 81), Marko Stamenic, Elijah Just (Melker Widell 66); Joseph Opoku, Moussa Yeo (Jisung Eom 61), Adam Idah (Zan Vipotnik 61).
Unused Substitutes: Andy Fisher, Tiago Parente, Leo Walta, Ronald.
Sheffield United: Michael Cooper, Sam McCallum, Oliver Arblaster (Jamie Shackleton 89), Japhet Tanganga (captain), Joe Rothwell (Jairo Riedewald 66), Callum O'Hare, Harrison Burrows (Rhys Norrington-Davies 89), Mark McGuinness, Femi Seriki, Sydie Peck, Patrick Bamford (Tyrese Campbell 77).
Unused Substitutes: Adam Davies, Matt Doherty, Tom Cannon, Romelle Donovan, Jamal Baptiste.
Referee: Tom Nield
Attendance: 17,710