RECORD BREAKING OWLS GO TOP

from Joao Pedro’s pass. Ahmedhodžić then nearly popped up at the other end, curling an effort wide from Fleck’s ball having started the attack inside his own half.

The hour mark saw Osborn and Doyle introduced and moments later Bogle had the ball in the back of the net from Ahmedhodžić’s volley across goal, but the assistant referee raised his flag to curtain the celebrations. But less than 10 minutes later, after Berge had been denied by Bachmann, United did hit the front as McBurnie was left unmarked at the back post from a corner, his header caused panic in the six-yard box and Porteous was unfortunate to see the ball go over the line off his legs.

Watford through everything at United as the clocked ticked down, including well into five minutes of added time, but the Blades were to be broken down despite two or three nervy moments in their own penalty area at the death to add another home win to the tally.

Darren Moore hailed a record-breaking afternoon at The Valley as the Owls beat the Addicks 1-0 to achieve a run of 20 games unbeaten in League One. Liam Palmer’s early goal was enough to break the 62-year-old record and the Wednesday boss was happy with how his players applied themselves in the capital.

Moore said: “I thought we started the game really quickly, we knew we had to do that here at The Valley because we knew the home crowd would be behind them.

“I thought the boys did really well and it was an excellent goal. The only thing about today was that we could have scored more goals with the chances we created.

“But on the flip side I thought the concentration levels off the ball were exceptional and that’s earned us another clean sheet and three points.

“I said to them at half time that they could have been three goals to the good, so it’s about resetting and applying ourselves in the right manner.”

Harry Catterick’s Owls side of 1960/61 held the previous club record of 19 league games unbeaten, and Moore noted the achievement whilst remaining focused on future challenges. He added: “We’re really pleased with the record.

“It seems a long time when you go back to the start of the 20-game run, but we’ve just focused on applying ourselves game by game, one at a time. We have this record but we’ll put it to one side and keep going.

“We don’t look at anybody else, we focus on us as a group and as long as we’re being competitive and showing our level best then we can’t argue with anything.

“The players know what is required, they know the hard work they have to put in and we know there are more hurdles ahead of us and we’ll approach them together.”