Defeat to Lewes demonstrates why Jonathan Morgan’s Sheffield United Women remain a team in transition

Where Paul Heckingbottom’s men clinched a 3-2 win that sent them to Wembley for an FA Cup semi-final last Sunday, on Women’s Football Weekend seven days later Jonathan Morgan’s Blades fell by the odd goal in five to remain in the relegation battle in the Women’s Championship.

It would take a catastrophic collapse from here for Sheffield United to lose their second-tier status – Coventry United in the sole relegation spot are nine points adrift with four games remaining – but it was a game which showed this remains a season of transition for Yorkshire’s highest-placed club in the women’s football pyramid.

In front of a crowd of 966, about average for the Blades but a little disappointing given there was no men’s fixture and the women’s team attracted 11,137 in the last international break, United looked a team still adapting to Morgan’s front-foot football two months after he succeeded Neil Redfearn as manager. "That was disappointing today,” said Morgan. “I had to explain to the girls that they were significantly poor individual errors we’re making.

"They’ve listened, since I’ve come in they’ve taken a lot on board, you can’t change everything overnight, but at the same time we should have won today. Lewes didn’t create anything apart from three shots from our errors.

“It is just a learning curve, it is a journey we’re on, but I’ve said to them you have got to start to grow, you cannot keep making the same mistakes. They’ve had so long being an out-of-possession team and we’re now trying to implement in-possession which realistically isn’t going to take shape until next season in terms of the consistency, but we have to start somewhere.

"We say to them take two or three touches because we’re not consistent enough yet to play off the one touch and sometimes they’re trying to play it too quick for their own good.

“Courtney Sweetman-Kirk and Mia Enderby were our outlets today and they were always in the positions we wanted them to be in, we just didn’t get the ball to them.”

It was Sweetman-Kirk who opened the scoring in the first half, giving United a platform to build on.

But Kirsty Barton equalised 10 minutes before half-time when she was given too much space on the left-hand side of the penalty area.

Anything Morgan might have said at half-time to retake the initiative was straight out of the window when Lewes took the lead two minutes after the restart.

A hopeful ball forward was misjudged by central defender Grace Riglar and Ellie Mason raced through on goal, intelligently used Emily Kraft as a decoy and blasted the ball high into the roof of the net past Fran Stenson.

The response from United was swift. Bex Rayner clipped over a free-kick from the right and defender Naomi Hartley met it at the back post to guide it across Sophie Whitehouse and into the corner.

Parity was shortlived however, as on the hour Mason was played clean through on goal again, this time by a sumptuous ball in behind with the outside of her foot from Grace Palmer. Mason toyed with Blades keeper Stenson before rifling the ball past her.

The goal that took the sting out of United who never really threatened an equaliser and had to keep alert at the back with Mason playing off the shoulder.