United's second string ended their totesport.com league campaign in the best possible style by beating Steel City rivals Wednesday at Bramall Lane.

Jordan Slew scored the only goal of the game late in the first-half, as the Blades got the three points that sees them finish above the Owls in the table and gain revenge for the 2-1 defeat at Hillsborough in the corresponding fixture last September.

United started brightly, with Chappell and Gregory prominent from the wide areas and it was latter that had the first meaningful strike on goal in the third minute. After Foster had been fouled by Nyoni, Gregory curled in a free-kick on the angle and it evaded everyone before cannoning back off the far post.

Billard's first action came just after the half hour mark when Palmer shot from the edge of the area after been freed by Kirkland. At the other end Maguire, Roe and Williams were all involved in the build-up before Slew fired inches wide.

Chappell brought a final save from Jameson moments later, before the Blades got the goal their pressure merited in the 40th minute. Maguire freed Foster down the right channel and he picked out SLEW, who slotted the ball home from twelve yards. On the stroke of half-time only a timely intervention from Jameson prevented Lowton from making it two with a glancing header.

The second-half followed a similar pattern to the first in terms of possession, although goalscoring chances were at a premium. James fired over from Foster's knockdown, before some smart goalkeeping by Jameson denied the lively Foster a clear sight of goal.

A fumble by Billard from a Palmer free-kick caused a moment of panic in the Blades box, but Maguire was on hand to clear, before Hall wasted the visitors' best opening after beating the offside trap.

The last ten minutes saw the home side keep the ball well and they were rarely troubled by an Owls attack that looked void of a real goalscoring threat.

Coach Mark Smith was pleased to see his youngsters sign off with a win, but felt they lacked the cutting edge that would have seen them run out more comfortable winners:

"We are delighted to finish the campaign off with a win and another clean sheet is obviously pleasing. It was a well worked goal and a good finish from Jordan, but we should have taken advantage of all the possession we had.

"I said to the lads after that we must show more willing to get on the ball and stretch teams, because to be honest Wednesday gave us an awful lot of time on the ball, but we lacked that real spark that would have seen us create more chances and probably won by a much bigger margin."

Blades: Billard, Brown, Roe, Williams (Murray 68), Maguire, Lowton, Chappell (Pennycooke-Morgan 73), James, Foster, Slew, Gregory.
Unused: Darlow, Andrew, Ahmadi.

Wednesday: Jameson, Barnett, Wilde, Lacey, Nyoni, Wood, Meehan (Eckhardt H/T), Palmer, Hall, Cottingham, Kirkland.
Unused: Cuff, Mir, Modest, Poulton.