Gary Naysmith came through 75 minutes on his return to action following a knee compliant, but it was otherwise a disappointing performance as Port Vale left Bramall Lane with three points from Wednesday afternoon's totesport.com league clash.
Derek Geary had been pencilled in for a second consecutive start after playing at Walsall, but was forced to withdraw at the 11th hour through illness. Matthew Lowton was switched to right-back, with Carlos Pomares slotting in at centre-half and Connor Brown taking his place on the bench.
United shaded the first-half in terms of possession and should have gone into the interval in front, but Kingsley James saw his spot-kick and subsequent follow-up volley superbly saved by Vale keeper Joe Anyon. The second-half saw Vale create the better chances and Anthony Malbon scored the only goal of the game midway through the second period.
Estonian goalkeeper Mihkel Aksalu was called into action as early as the 3rd minute, but he comfortably saved a speculative effort from Morsy. At the other end Lowton and Roe combined to tee up Slew but Anyon made a routine save before the loose ball was cleared.
The Blades were starting to gain the upper hand and Roe was a whisker away from getting on the end of Lowton's pinpoint centre, before Malbon failed to capitalise on some hesitation between Fortune and Aksalu.
Referee Smedley turned down United's claims for a penalty moments later when Lowton appeared to be tripped by Bell but the referee did point to the spot in the 38th minute when he adjudged that Raglan had upended Roe from Gregory's knock down. James stepped up from twelve yards but Anyon was smartly down to his right and quickly back on his feet to save the rebound.
The second-half took a while to get going and when it did it was the Valiants that had the first clear opening, although Malbon lacked conviction with the goal at his mercy. Naysmith tried to drive the Blades forward, but after his marauding run was halted by Raglan, Slew fired wide with a left-footed strike.
In the 67th minute MALBON atoned for his earlier misses when he coolly slotted home after Morsy had beaten Lowton and cut the ball back from the byline.
The closest the home side came to an equaliser was when Lowton headed against the underside of the crossbar from Slew's right wing cross, although it wouldn't have counted as the linesman had his flag raised for offside.
Coach Mark Smith was critical of his troops following the defeat and hopes to see more desire and drive in the remaining three matches:
"That performance just about sums up our season, because we haven't really found any kind of consistency or momentum in our performances.
"We haven't gone out there and grabbed the initiative when it was there for the taking, and missed chances have again proved costly."
Blades: Aksalu, Lowton, Naysmith (Pennycooke-Morgan 75), James, Fortune, Pomares (Darlow H/T), Gregory, Wilkinson, Slew, Ahmadi (Foster H/T), Roe.
Unused: Andrew, Brown.
Vale: Anyon, Raglan, Molyneux, Richman, Bratt, Rowe, Beeston, Morsy, Malbon, Siribour (McGowan 67), Bell.
Unused: Johnson, Connelly, Ede.
