Chiedozie Ogbene marked his first game since the Republic of Ireland's famous 3-2 win over Hungary in November with the final goal in Sheffield United’s 3-1 victory against Oxford United in the Championship.
The 28-year-old was a key figure for the Boys in Green in their unexpected defeats of Portugal and Hungary – Ogbene hit the post in the 2-0 win over Portugal and won the penalty for Troy Parrott’s opening goal in Budapest – but a hamstring injury has kept him sidelined ever since.
He appeared as a 71st-minute substitute and a little more than 10 minutes later the Ipswich loanee put the gloss on victory when he raced into the area on to Gus Hamer’s superb diagonal pass and kept his composure to fire home his first goal for the club.
United, with Ogbene's Republic of Ireland international team-mate Tom Cannon leading the line, fell behind to Myles Peart-Harris' early opener for Oxford.
Sydie Peck cancelled that effort out before second-half goals from Andre Brooks and Ogbene sealed the Blades' sixth win in their last seven league games at Bramall Lane.
The Blades’ win against boss Chris Wilder’s former club continued their climb towards the top half of the table and also lifted them to within eight points of the top six with 16 games to play.
They introduced new deadline-day signings Kalvin Phillips and Joe Rothwell to the crowd before kick-off, but neither deal was completed in time for them to make the squad.
Former Republic of Ireland Under-21 international Eiran Cashin claimed his first goal for managerless Blackburn Rovers to secure a 1-0 win over bottom club Sheffield Wednesday and move out of the relegation zone.
The 24-year-old, who began the season on loan at Birmingham City from Brighton and linked up with Rovers on a temporary basis in January, has yet to be capped for Ireland at senior level.
After a turbulent few days at Ewood Park that saw Valerien Ismael depart, the on-loan defender provided much-needed respite by emphatically converting from close range in the 12th minute to ensure Rovers edged a game originally abandoned back in December with the hosts leading.
The only goal of the game owed much to the tenacity of Sondre Tronstad who kept the ball alive under pressure from two players on the left and when it fell for Ryoya Morishita, he whipped in a low cross to Cashin who tucked home from close range.
The victory ended an eight-match winless run to haul Roversout of the drop zone on goal difference, while stretching Wednesday's sequence without victory to 24.
Hull missed the chance to go within two points of the Championship's automatic promotion spots as Watford impressed on their way to a 0-0 draw under caretaker boss Charlie Daniels.
Tuesday’s match was due to be played a month ago, only for it to be controversially called off just 18 minutes before kick-off due to unsafe areas around the MKM Stadium pitch.
Hull came into the rearranged fixture in third spot having won all four Championship matches since the postponement, but they were denied a fifth victory on the bounce by play-off hopefuls Watford.
