Sheffield United 2 Stoke City 1: Morgan's sting in tail leaves Stoke red-faced

Late winners at Bramall Lane have become such a common sight that it probably should not have come as a surprise when Sheffield United's captain Chris Morgan headed home in the first minute of added time on Saturday.

It condemned Stoke City, the better team on the day, to a third successive defeat. More significantly, it maintained United's 11-point advantage over Leeds, who head the chasing pack, and cut Reading's lead above them to seven.

This was the fourth home game of the season in which United have scored a winner in the last 10 minutes, and the same happened away to Watford. They have now scored 14 times in the last quarter of an hour of their matches, the highest total in the Championship.

Without these goals, Reading would currently be relaxing with close to a 20-point cushion. "It says two things about us," said Morgan, the central defender. "First, determination, and second, fitness. We've scored a lot of late goals and that's a pleasing thing." His manager, Neil Warnock, added: "That goal epitomised us. Of course the players are fit, my teams always are, but we were running on empty after three games in a matter of days.

"I've never been as proud. A manager couldn't ask more out of a group of players than I have. It's a great result psychologically. The other teams around us will look at it and be gutted."

Warnock's counterpart, Johan Boskamp, saw the defeat as another opportunity lost. "We didn't play well, we played great and against one of the top teams in our league we were the better team but again we gave it away. We are giving presents to other teams because its Christmas and New Year. Luckily for us Christmas and New Year are over so maybe we can stop. I think we had more attacks and played better football than Sheffield."

United enter 2006 with a golden opportunity to end their 12-year exile from the Premiership. Stoke, on the other hand, entertain Ipswich today facing the prospect of completing a blank Christmas. They have lost all three of their games in the past week and in the process dropped from fifth place to 12th in the predictably congested middle portion of the league.

They were unfortunate to fall behind to Nick Montgomery's first goal of the season and when Mamady Sidibe was set up for the equaliser by Sami Bangoura, it was they who looked more likely to win the match.

Even after Morgan had met Phil Jagielka's cross to put United ahead, Stoke might have drawn level but for a linesman's flag ending a goalmouth scramble.

"At 1-1 we could sense the fans getting a bit edgy," said Morgan. "They expect us to beat everyone at home. I don't think they'd have booed us off but they wouldn't have been happy." There will doubtless be further tensions ahead, but the smart money is on captain Morgan leading his men into the Premiership come May.