PNE left Bramall Lane in disbelief that they had come away with nothing, Jean Calve's 74th minute stunner settling it.

The Lilywhites put in an excellent away performance, looking strong and creating some good chances, but were left rueing the missed opportunities once again, undone by the French full back's suckerpunch on his debut for Gary Speed's Blades.

Manager Darren Ferguson made one change from the side that overcame Bradford the previous Tuesday with Billy Jones returning at right back, Danny Mayor dropping to the bench, David Gray moving onto the right hand side of midfield in an effort to stay tight and that was certainly a feature of the opening period for PNE.

After his performance at Valley Parade on Tuesday night Keith Treacy must have been brimming with confidence coming to his former club and within the first four minutes the Irish winger almost opened the scoring. Paul Hayes was awarded a generous free kick a couple of yards from the right hand corner of the Sheffield United penalty area and Treacy curled a superb left-footed effort that crashed against the inside of the right hand post. On the rebound it fell to Matty James, but the young loanee's blasted effort smashed into Jonny Ertl and away for a corner.

It was a blistering start from the yellow clad Lilywhites and within a minute of that chance North End were in on goal again. This time Joshua King showed strength and speed to drill his way through the Blades defence and then showed the guile to thread the ball in to Paul Hayes, but Nyron Nosworthy timed his sliding tackle perfectly to put the ball behind for another corner.

These two chances inside the first five minutes proved to be the best of the half, with the game very cagey after the opening exchanges. The home side were reduced to long range efforts, with Ertl and Britton both failing to test Lonergan from 25-plus yards, the balls ending up in the North End fans rather than anywhere near the goal.

Craig Morgan and Sean St. Ledger seemed to further develop their understanding at the back and dealt with the physical threat of Evans and Cresswell, despite good pressure at times from Gary Speed's outfit, however, North End always looked threatening on the break and with the half drawing to a close the pace of Joshua King again caused problems for Nosworthy, winning a corner. Treacy whipped the ball in with pace, but with Hayes looking to punce Bartlett just got in ahead of him and cleared the ball.

After the interval North End started the half like they started the first and won an early corner with good aerial pressure from Morgan. And the yellows could have had the lead on 52 minutes. Joshua King showed his strength to get past Nosworthy. He drove into the box and fired low; Simonsen did well to parry, but it fell to Billy Jones on the penalty spot who swivelled and fired just over the bar - a really good opportunity.

Following the chance the first change of the afternoon as a leggy Keith Treacy was replaced by Danny Mayor; the Irishman probably feeling the effects of 120 minutes of running at Bradford in the week.

King was taking up Treacy's mantle from Valley Parade of shooting from all areas and on 59 minutes the United keeper was only able to parry a 25-yard stinger from the Norweigan youngster, but before Gray could get on the end of the rebound the former Stoke keeper was able to get out and grab the ball.

On the hour mark Gary Speed made his first change; £3m frontman Ched Evans replaced by Mark Yeates and it was the former Middlesbrough man who brought the first save out of Lonergan of the afternoon three minutes after entering the firsld. He found some space in a central area 25 yards out and hit a crisp effort towards the top right hand corner, but Lonners was up to the task and palmed it behind for a corner which Davidson and Hayes were able to clear between them.

With just over 15 minutes to go Sheffield United grabbed the lead from an unlikely source. North End's backline had looked untroubled and it took the ball falling 30 yards out to new signing and right back Jean Calve to find the net. The Frenchman hit a stunning shot first time that flashed like a tracer bullet into Lonergan's top corner, giving the keeper no chance.

The goalscorer fell to the floor and needed treatment for cramp after his goal and was replaced before the restart by Matt Lowton. It was a real blow to North End who had looked comfortable to that point.

Jon Parkin replaced Paul Hayes for the yellows with Adam Barton also replacing David Gray with North End throwing men forward in the final ten minutes to try and grad what would be a deserved point after a battling display at a ground they haven't won since 1978.

Some tremendous build up play involving King, Barton and Parkin in the 85th minute almost brought a one-on-one for Billy Jones, but as the full back took aim the linesman's flag went up, much to the chagrin of the PNE faithful behind the goal.

The Lilywhites had a huge shout for a penalty in the 87th minute and should have had one when the referee gave them a foul on Parkin; but he adjudged it to be outside. Paul Coutts took the resulting kick, but could only find the wall.

The yellows through men forward in the closing stages, but were unable to grab the goal their play deserved.