Nyron Nosworthy was full of praise for goalscoring hero Jean Calve and young defender Kyle Bartley, following the Blades hard-fought success of Preston North End on Saturday.

Nosworthy said Calve's strike was one he would have been proud of and admitted it was a relief to get the win, which was aided by the backing of the crowd:

"It wasn't a bad way to finish your debut; I would have taken that all day long! It reminded me of what I used to do in my heyday and it is good to see someone still doing it now, joked Nosworthy.

"I am very happy for Jean but more importantly the team, although it was certainly the goal of the season to date.

"We have been unlucky apart from the QPR game and we have deserved more points than we have managed to get.

"The crowd were patient which helped us be patient with how we played. They had a few chances which they failed to take and sometimes you need a world class strike to break the deadlock and fortunately that went our way."

Chris Morgan's absence with a calf problem saw Kyle Bartley partner Nosworthy at the heart of United's defence and the latter had nothing but praise for the on-loan Gunner and he hopes the victory over the Lilywhites can kick-start the Blades season under new boss Gary Speed:

"Kyle is a fantastic young prospect and has got all the attributes to succeed. He is still learning, but he is played very well and we bounced off each other throughout the game because the lad King was a real handful.

"It has been a hard start but we still have to aim for the top six, we need to find that consistency especially on the road, but we have got a great chance like anyone else."