United's second string produced a resolute display to stop West Brom going top of the totesport.com league at The Hawthorns on Monday night.

Rodney McDonald, currently on trial with the Blades from Stoke played a full game, whilst Nathaniel Foster nearly nicked all three points late on, only to be denied by the evergreen Dean Kiely.

Albion, who included first-team squad players Rueben Reid and Chris Wood, were soon on the back foot as James burst into the box, but his goal bound effort was blocked was Downing.

McDonald denied Reid, after a slip by Aksalu, and from the resulting corner Maguire produced a good block to stop O'Neil's volley troubling United's Estonian international goalkeeper.

After Roe had made a timely intervention to halt the progress of Brown, substitute Berahino came close to opening the scoring on the stroke of half-time, but Aksalu made a smart diving save away to his right.

Six minutes into the second half Roe and Lowton combined, only for the left-back to see his shot saved by Kiely. Moments later Foster engineered some space on the edge of the penalty area but blazed over when well placed.

Elford-Alliyu and Reid had chances for the home side, before Aksalu was down quickly to save Wood's drive from the edge of the box.

As the game entered its final quarter United came close to snatching a winner on three occasions. Firstly, James fired over from Foster's pull-back; Slew then stung the palms of Kiely after some good work on the left from Roe, before Foster forced Kiely into the best save of the match after beating the offside trap.

At the other end, New Zealand international Wood wasted a glorious chance to pinch all three points in the dying minutes, as the striker scuffed his shot wide with the goal at his mercy. Aksalu ended the night saving comfortably from Mantom and Berahino as the Blades secured a deserved share of the spoils.

Coach Mark Smith felt his players were good value for their point and hopes they can finish the season off on a high when they host Sheffield Wednesday at Bramall Lane next week:

"In the end it was probably a fair result and it is pleasing that we have kept a clean sheet. We were organised and determined throughout and the lads coped well with two or three changes to our system during the game.

"It was an entertaining match and West Brom played some good football at times, but we stuck to the task and in the last two games have showed some signs of progress which again is satisfying. We finish off our campaign against Wednesday and it would be a real boost to end the season in style, with a win."

West Brom: Kiely, O'Neil (Berahino 34), Downing, Samuels, Waghorn, Reid (Nabi 90), Mantom, Grier, Thorne, Brown (Elford-Alliyu 65), Wood.
Unused: Allsop, Lovell.

Blades: Aksalu, Brown, Roe, Williams (Darlow 80), Macdonald, Lowton, Gregory, James, Foster, Slew (Ahmadi 79), Maguire.
Unused: Billard, Murray, Pennycooke-Morgan.