WORTHINGTON CUP Q/F - SHEFF U 3 CRYSTAL PALACE 1: Progress may have been wholly unconvincing, but Sheffield United can look ahead to their first ever League Cup semi-final with relish.
Neil Warnock's side edged nervously beyond Crystal Palace last night as the substitute Paul Peschisolido, first flicking in Peter Ndlovu's cross and then stabbing home Wayne Allison's knock-down, scored twice in two frantic minutes at the death.
A Premiership club awaits in the last four and having beaten two already en route - Leeds and Sunderland - this pocket of south Yorkshire fancy its chances.
Some 10 minutes from the break, Michael Tonge's centre was headed powerfully goalwards by Shaun Murphy - himself a former Palace player, if only on loan - with Aleksandrs Kolinko leaping to tip behind.
But the Latvian was less decisive from the corner, Phil Jagielka nodding across the six-yard box for Carl Asaba to stab home.
But Palace refused to give up and the excellent Tommy Black tore at dithering home defenders.
By the time Irishman Paddy Kenny denied Julian Gray at full stretch late in the second half, the nerves had been transposed to the stands and, as Black squared across the goal-line, Robert Page succeeded only in bundling the equaliser into his own net.
Guardian Service
SHEFFIELD UNITED: Kenny, Jagielka, Harley, Murphy, Page, Brown, McCall (Montgomery 84), Ndlovu, Tonge, Asaba (Peschisolido 84), Allison. Subs Not Used: Kozluk, Ten Heuvel, Javary. Booked: Brown. Goals: Asaba 35, Peschisolido 86, 88.
CRYSTAL PALACE: Kolinko, Powell, Symons, Antwi (Borrowdale 66), Butterfield, Mullins, Gray, Riihilahti, Black, Johnson, Adebola (Williams 79). Subs Not Used: Michopoulos, Heeroo, Togwell. Booked: Black, Mullins. Goals: Page 82 og.
Referee: E Wolstenholme (Lancashire).
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