Two goals in the First Half by Shipperley and Webber killed of the clarets. In the first ten minutes Brian Jensen was called into action by Danny Webber and twice made early saves. Jensen was also forced to save a glancing Alan Quinn header after a good cross by Leigh Bromby. Burnley then had the chance to make the Blades pay for not taking advantage of their early pressure, but Paddy Kenny tipped a shot by Ade Akinbiyi round the post after a good ball slid through by Garreth O'Connor. Another case of 'if only'! On 25 minutes Neil Shipperley could, and should, have opened the scoring and punished Hyde for a poor back header, but Shipperley stabbed just wide. However, any thoughts that United may be punished for not taking their chances were dispelled on the half hour mark. Danny Webber found Neil Shipperley who this time made no mistake as he turned and fired into the top corner. United then went on to make it two just 5 minutes later, but not before Kenny had to save a header from John McGreal after a corner kick taken by Garreth O'Connor. It was Danny Webber who doubled the Blades lead. Craig Short headed a Montgomery centre back across goal to the waiting Webber. Trailing by two at the break it was always going to be a mountain to climb.

The Second Half started with the Clarets dominating the early stages, but that goal so badly needed, never came. Both O'Connor's forced saves from Paddy Kenny, while Burnley also won a free-kick. With no Jon Harley in the side it was always going to be Garreth O'Connor to take it, and he again forced Kenny to make another save. Branch, who had come on as a sub along with Gifton Noel-Williams, made Kenny work hard for his clean sheet as he forced another save, after build up play involving Akinbiyi. On 78 minutes Akinbiyi could have brought Burnley back into it as he fired over the bar after a Michael Duff cross had been missed by Leigh Bromby. Any hopes of a late come back for the Clarets were ended 10 minutes from time, Chris Armstrong crossed to Shipperley who controlled and drilled his shot low past Jensen into the bottom corner.

A disappointing result for the clarets then, and any hopes of disposing the Bramall Lane and Molineux voodoo in the same season, are over! Lets stay positive though as United are not second in the league by sheer luck. This defeat sees us drop to 11th in the Championship, however we are only 2 points off the play-off places still. Next up is two home matches with an event called Christmas in-between. Watford will be a tough test at home but I am sure we will be up for the challenge. I said at the start of the month that we needed 9 points from December, now we are already a point a head of what I had hoped for, so lets remain upbeat.

If we beat Watford then what better way of celebrating than joining us all at the Christmas bash, you know it makes sense!

UP THE CLARETS

Thanks to McKav for this weeks Match Report.

"Shipps keeps going and he makes me feel good because he looks older than me! They couldn't cope with him and that helped take the pressure of Danny Webber. The back lads were solid - Burnley had just one chance in open play and that's good going"

"We have to be honest and I think my assumptions are honest, they are a good team and were better than us. Players are below par sometimes and I don't know if we were below par or United were better than us, but I'd probably say they were better than us. They have some good players and good ones to come off the bench, so that's it really."

"Neil Shipperley was outstanding for them and the best player on the pitch in what was probably the best forward performance against us this season. He was head and shoulders above everyone else and everything went through him, but he had 10 good team-mates with him whereas we maybe had three good players and that's not enough to win you a match."

"The best part of Burnley today was our supporters, who I thought were magnificent."