Tom Cannon returned to the bet365 Stadium to haunt former club Stoke as the Irish striker scored Sheffield United's winner.

Cannon was starring on loan for Stoke last season before Leicester recalled him and sold him to the Blades for an initial £10m in January.

He has found goals harder to come by at United and this strike was only his third of the season as the visitors made it five wins on the bounce against Stoke to get over their Boxing Day bashing at Wrexham.

Jairo Riedewald had opened the scoring with his first United goal before Cannon's effort but Ben Wilmot halved the deficit to set up a nervy finale, only for Stoke's Ben Pearson to be dismissed late on for fouling Patrick Bamford.

The win was the response Blades boss Chris Wilder wanted after the Wrexham debacle, while Stoke have now lost seven of their last 10 games to lose further ground in the promotion race.

Callum O'Hare should have opened the scoring when he met Femi Seriki's low right-wing cross unmarked on the penalty spot, but skied his effort.

Ben Gibson missed with a headed chance before Tatsuki Seko found Sorba Thomas at the back post and he headed straight at Blades goalkeeper Michael Cooper when he had time to control the ball and pick his spot.

The game came to life on 47 minutes when Riedewald celebrated signing a new Blades contract by getting on the wrong side of Sam Gallagher to poke home.

United were cruising when Cannon made it 2-0 on 53 minutes after he converted Harrison Burrows' cross from six yards out.

But United conceded five at Wrexham and looked vulnerable again when they failed to clear their lines following a long throw and Wilmot fired home off the underside of the bar on 65 minutes.

Robert Bozenik twice went close before Cooper saved from Bosun Lawal and the Blades were creaking.

But then, after Viktor Johansson saved from Bamford, Pearson was red-carded when he pulled the former Leeds striker down two minutes from time to deny him a goal-scoring chance.

Stoke boss Mark Robins told BBC Radio Stoke:

"You can make changes, and by the way, the changes that I made, I don't like the booing because we've got a limited squad and those players need the support as well as anybody else.

"I don't like that. They're all trying, regardless of what people think. For whatever reason, I'll make those changes. When that happens, I don't expect my substitutions to be booed. You know, you don't expect that because it's done at the right time for the right reasons.

"We're all on the same page and we're all supportive and we hate losing games of football, all of us, collectively, all of us.

"You win them together, and you lose them together, and you draw them together, and in the second half, I know that performance was much, much better and what the supporters expect."

Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder told BBC Radio Sheffield:

"It was very rewarding, we got our rewards. I don't think people should really zone in on maybe the last 15-20 minutes because that was the end bit. The first 65-70 minutes were outstanding.

"And then when we had to show bit of courage and personality, which I questioned, we showed it. They've got to stop putting me through the ringer, me and 3,000 Sheffield United fans!

"There's a lot of work to be done, but it's nights like these, moments like this, you know you're always chasing winning feeling and we got it.

"I thought in the first 20 minutes we were outstanding, the first half we were excellent."