Lescott's leveller withers Warnock

Sheffield United 2 Wolverhampton Wanderers

These two sides featured in many pre-season lists of play-off contenders, and though both remain unbeaten there was not much else to suggest that either will be knocking on the door of the Premiership next May. Yesterday's game came belatedly to life in the last 10 minutes when the substitute Carl Asaba's spectacular overhead kick put United briefly ahead, only for the Wolves' defender Jolean Lescott to restore parity two minutes later.

Until then, in the absence of much resembling attacking flair, both sides had been grateful to capitalise on defensive errors. Indeed Wolves should have taken the lead after 25 minutes when the defenders Rob Kozluk and Shaun Murphy left Michael Oakes' long clearance to each other, but Adam Proudlock, with only Simon Tracey to beat, shot against the goalkeeper's legs. He made amends five minutes later when he latched on to a cross-field ball from Shaun Newton, left Keith Curle standing and crossed to provide Cedric Roussel with an easy tap in.

United, who have now drawn all four league matches this season, gave little sign that they could cancel out the deficit until Lescott conceded a penalty by pushing the substitute George Santos as they went for Paul Devlin's free-kick. Laurent D'Jaffo stroked the kick low to the goalkeeper's right.

More poor defending almost allowed Wolves to restore their lead when Murphy cleared off the goalline from Roussel after Tracey raced out but failed to make contact with the ball.

Instead, another Devlin free-kick allowed the Blades to go in front seven minutes from time. Murphy headed down and Asaba, who had been on the pitch just six minutes, finished in style.

It should have been beyond Wolves' reach minutes later when Peter Ndlovu burst through and beat Oakes with a fierce drive only to see the ball rebound off a post into the goalkeeper's arms.

The home supporters' disappointment was compounded immediately when the United defence failed to pick up Lescott as he pushed forward in search of the equaliser and allowed him to turn in Paul Butler's cross from close range.

Inevitably, both managers believed they had thrown away two points through poor defending. "We gave away two sloppy goals when we were in full charge of the game,'' said the Wolves manager, Dave Jones. "But they kept plugging away. We dealt with it for long spells but not for the full game.''

His United counterpart, Neil Warnock, said: "They were the better side in the first half but in the end we should have won it. Both their goals were sloppy. We should have closed them down earlier.''

Warnock was delighted to see Asaba open his account for the season. "He's been lacking in self-belief and I think he was pleased to be on the bench. His goal was fabulous."

Sheffield United (4-4-2): Tracey; Kozluk, Murphy, Curle, Phelan; Brown, Ndlovu, Ford (Santos, 27), Devlin; D'Jaffo, Peschisolido (Asaba, 76). Substitutes not used: Page, Nicholson, de Vogt.

Wolverhampton Wanderers (4-4-2): Oakes; Muscat, Butler, Lescott, Naylor; Newton, Dinning, Cameron, Sinton; Roussel, Proudlock (Ndah, 76). Substitutes not used: Robinson, Beresford, Pollett, Andrews.

Referee: E Wolstenholme.