IT was no consolation to Sam Allardyce and his players to know they were the better side, to feel they should have won and to realise the three points they ought to have taken would have put them level with Watford...In fact it was sheer torture.

"We were superior," Franck Passi lamented. "This was a hard result for us to take."

But the game is hard. It is cruel to those who squander opportunties and it can be savage when mistakes are made.

Three points were theirs for the taking at Bramall Lane on Saturday but Wanderers missed out, failing to ram home their advantage and, as is always the danger, dropping their guard for one desperate, decisive moment.

The upshot of Lee Sandford's 81st minute header is that, instead of piling more pressure on Graham Taylor's Hornets ahead of Sunday's Sky TV showpiece at the Reebok, they've dropped to fifth in the table and are only five points better off than Neil Warnock's Blades - a team they are streets ahead of in terms of quality.

Warnock has no pretentions; he can't have with a team capable of delivering a succession of aimless, unpressurised upfield punts to no-one in particular, as they did at one stage in the first half when even the long-suffering home fans were wondering if the standard of entertainment they are forced to endure could actually sink any lower.

Wanderers looked like Brazil in comparison during that first period when the contrast between the teams was at its most stark!

But the Blades' boss, who demands hard work and a high tempo, will remind you the game is all about who scores the most goals and, if it only takes one, then so be it. The winners can laugh, the losers ... well, they can please themselves.

Wanderers have only themselves to blame, though, for failing to post their sixth away win of the season.

The pace and trickery of Ricardo Gardner and the power and threat of Michael Ricketts gave them an overwhelming advantage against defenders made to look cumbersome and leaden-legged.

And the ease with which Gudni Bergsson and Paul Warhurst dealt with Warnock's new French-speaking strike duo of Patrick Suffo and Laurent D'Jaffo suggested the defence would at least keep a clean sheet and assure Allardyce of his minimum requirement - a point.

But Wanderers couldn't find the cutting edge when they needed to and, once again, were found wanting in the closing minutes - except that on this occasion they still had time to salvage something.

That they went close to rescuing a point with a late flourish that saw Per Frandsen and Carsten Fredgaard so narrowly off-target, Kevin Nolan denied by a desperate last-ditch block by Shaun Murphy and John O'Kane stretch Simon Tracey for the first time begs the question 'What might have been?' had they shown the same urgency and determination before going a goal down.

But, for all their possession and undeniable supremacy, their only previous clear chance had come late in the first half when a sweeping counter-attack, started by Jussi Jaaskelainen, ended with Bo Hansen racing in at the back post to hit Michael Ricketts' cross into the side-netting.

It might have sounded harsh on the dashing Dane but Allardyce reckoned it was harder to miss than to score.

The Blades don't make life easy for their oppoenents, especially at Bramall Lane where they have only lost once this season, and pride themselves on their set-piece work.

But they rarely get the advantage they had on Saturday. Just as Warhurst raced back to snuff out a dangerous raid at the expense of a corner, the scoreboard showed that Crewe had gone a goal up against Sheffield Wednesday and brought the loudest cheer of the day from the home fans. Confused or distracted ..? They shouldn't have been but Wanderers certainly appeared to switch off as Michael Brown received Wayne Quinn's short corner and chipped the ball to the far post where Sandford got above Ian Marshall to head the winner.

Marshall's berating of Jaaskelainen suggested he felt it should have been the keeper's ball!

It would all have been academic if Wanderers had capitalised on a flying start which saw them force three corners in the first six minutes. Ricketts, who had scored in each of the previous five games, was into everything, threatening to run Murphy and Keith Curle ragged while Gardner comfortably had the beating of Gus Uhlenbeek.

On occasions the powerful Brummie was guilty of wasting promising opportunities he had created himself by trying one touch too many but at least he has the confidence, despite so often being outnumbered, to go it alone if he has to.

Credit the Warnock boys - who'd sold top scorer Marcus Bent to Blackburn 24 hours earlier - for an improved second half performance (it couldn't have been any worse than the first) while it must be said Wanderers lost their way somewhat until they were shocked into that late response.

Thankfully there was no repeat of the ugliness that overshadowed the last meeting of the teams at the Reebok in March when Dean Holden suffered a broken leg.

There was a hint of needle when Bergsson and D'Jaffo clashed early on and a couple of unsavoury challenges in overtime but nothing for anyone to get upset about while the anticipated duel between Robbie Elliott and Paul Devlin was confined to footballing matters rather than combat - an even contest as it turned out.

"No quarter was given," Warnock said, happy to consign previous ill-feelings to the history books. "It was a full-blooded match but there was no nastiness - even the bookings.

"I don't think the lad (Bergsson) meant to do Thomas and Browny (Michael Brown) knew he was going to be late (on Fredgaard) but no broken legs. I thought there were a few naughty tackles at the Reebok, where I didn't think we were solely to blame, to be honest."