Before the kick-off of the Championship game of the day, two Sheffield United fans decried their team as playing 'table football'. Why? 'The players never bloody move.' However, this characterisation of their team was impossible to subscribe to. The only static aspect of Sheffield United is their position. Change that to 'top-of-the-table football'.

Furthermore, Sheffield United beat Ipswich with a mixture of passing, pace and movement. This is eminently contradictory to the fans' view and to Ipswich manager Joe Royle's assessment of the difference between the teams: 'They're big and strong - no wonder they're top of the league.' This is a falsehood. If anything, the difference between the teams was one man - Steven Kabba.

Indubitably the man of the match, Kabba was omnipresent. Or at least, he was involved in almost every key incident. First, four minutes into the game he scored his fifth of the season, shooting perfectly into the bottom left-hand corner of the goal from outside the area.

In the 60th minute, he brought down Castro Sito and gave away a penalty. But such was Kabba's day that it counted for nothing. Paddy Kenny, diving to his left, saved Darren Currie's shot.

And then, in between being a perpetual nuisance and testing Ipswich keeper Lewis Price at every opportunity, Kabba was drawing fouls that led to bookings and, in the 86th minute, one red card. Sito was shown his second yellow card for bringing down Kabba as he was about to bear down on goal.

Four minutes later, Kabba completed an inspired performance with his second goal, having been sent straight through. Kabba deserves to be top of the league.

A happy Neil Warnock said: 'Steven is playing more for the team than he used to. And he took his goals well. However, it's always hard against Ipswich, because of all the possession they have. So I'm very pleased.'

Royle reflected: 'If you got a goal for 10 passes, we'd be top of the league. But we wouldn't have scored if we were still playing now.' You don't, and they probably wouldn't.

It came as no surprise then, that Warnock said: 'We're playing with big smiles on our faces.'

You don't get that level of detail in table football.

Richard Stonehouse (Observer)