Although football statistics can be notoriously difficult with which to win an argument, there was plenty of evidence to suggest that last weekend's contest with Preston could well have ended with a home win.

The Blades' backroom staff whose brief is to record and analyse every shot, kick, save, run and tackle etc had some interesting facts and figures to hand following the 1-1 draw.

Many in the ground could have reasoned correctly that Preston keeper Lonergan had to make four saves to Paddy Kenny's one, but our Prozone crew were able to reveal that United had five shots blocked by defenders and the visitors none.

And that didn't take into account the number of times that Lonergan tried to clear the ball from danger when taking on crosses and set-pieces, none of his partial clearances landing kindly for United to capitalise on.

United's attacking dominance is brought even further into focus from two other statistics; the Blades won the corner-kick count by 13 to 4, and they put in a total of 22 crosses to Preston's ten.

Makes you wonder how James Beattie needed a penalty to score to save United's skin!