Football: Blades lack sharp finish

Sheffield United . . .0

Nottingham Forest. . .0

BRAMALL LANE is used to watching the club at the bottom of the League as the clocks go back in the autumn. It is usually the home side which occupies that position, of course, as the Blades prepare for their annual escape under cover of darkness.

To find Forest at the foot of the tree is a novelty, but on this evidence they are worthy incumbents. The driving rain was never likely to suit their thoughtful game, and with Roy Keane filling Des Walker's old slot in central defence, their careful approach work was rarely precise or incisive enough to trouble United's robust defenders.

With their direct approach, United's problem was not in creating chances but in converting them. They put nine goals past Forest last season and always looked the more likely to find the net here without ever setting the pulse racing.

It was the pace of Adrian Littlejohn, appropriately enough, which looked most likely to upset the men from Robin Hood country in the first half, and Forest were fortunate to escape a penalty when the ball struck Keane's hand with the referee unsighted.

But their best chance fell to Brian Deane, whose far-post header from Mitch Ward's free-kick was deflected for a corner. A Jamie Hoyland shot suffered a similar fate, and Ian Bryson failed to connect with Carl Bradshaw's cross with the goal gaping.

Forest's best effort was a Stuart Pearce free-kick, which Simon Tracey, back in the United goal after missing six games through injury, turned round the post.

That said everything about the Forest attack, in which even one or two typically audacious touches from Nigel Clough came to nothing. The rain eventualy relented but the match refused to catch fire. There was none more disappointed at the end of a miserable afternoon than Brian Clough, whose side remain at the bottom.

Sheffield United: S Tracey; M Ward, T Cowan, J Gannon, B Gayle, P Beesley, C Bradshaw, J Hoyland, A Littlejohn (G Hodges, 71 min), B Deane, I Bryson. Subs not used: A Cork, A Kelly (gk). Manager: D Bassett.

Nottingham Forest: M Crossley; G Charles, S Pearce, R Keane, C Tiler, T Orlygsson, G Crosby, S Gemmill, N Clough, L Glover, K Black. Subs not used: S Chettle, S Stone, A Marriott (gk). Manager: B Clough.

Referee: R Hart (Darlington).