Steve Neville returned to Sheffield United on Saturday for the first time since his transfer to Exeter to snatch a priceless point for his team.

In an astonishing second half revival, City came back from 2-0 down to score two goals in two minutes and snatch a well earned point.

Neville's great moment came in the 57th minute. He and goal-keeper Len Bond and player-manager Gerry Francis had led the City defiance against an expensively gathered Sheffield side and he was on the spot to gleefully accept an atrocious back header meant for the goalkeeper. Their recovery left the 10,000 Sheffield crowd wondering what had hit them and pondering too why Exeter are so unhapilly placed in the Third Division.

Neville nipped in and ran to score a goal of outstanding quality. No wonder, an hour after the final whistle he was still leading the Exeter celebrations. A minute before the Neville strike, Peter Rogers had started the Exeter revival, scoring a simple goal when United's big defenders were caught flat footed from a right wing corner. The ball went to Rogers at the far post and he accepted the clear chance calmly, thus making up for a bad miss earlier in the match when, with the teams still level, he missed a clear header. The busy Neville had crossed a good ball from the left but Rogers, probably taken by surprise when the defence failed to cut it out, unaccountably missed. It proved an expensive mistake for after half an hour a bad error by the city defence gave the ball away, and Sheffield's 17-year-old discovery Tony Philliskirk curled a beauty over Bond into the top corner. Stan McEwan forced a good save from the Sheffield goalkeeper but City in this spell were troubled by the pace of Morris and the sharpness of Edwards and between them they carved out the second goal.

Exeter could not contain Morris and after a scramble Gary Brazil turned in a busy penalty area to score. At 2-0 with over half an hour left, few people in the ground could have given Exeter a chance of revival. But Francis, in vintage form, organised the com- petition and in two momen- tous minutes Rogers and Neville turned the match upside down. Indeed if a chip by Rogers had gone in City might well have become the first visiting side to win in Sheffield all season. As he celebrated with his old team mates after the match, Neville said: "It was a terrific result for us to come here and recover like that.

People will point to the mistake by the Sheffield lad which led to my goal but they forget that we gave them their first. If we could just get it going at home, and I reckon we will, we shall soon be out of trouble." "I thought we competed a bit better than they did and I wish our supporters could have seen our recovery."

Sheffield United - Waugh, Heffernan, Bolton, Arnott, Stancliffe, Kenworthy, Morris, Philliskirk, Edwards, McHale, Brazil.

Exeter City - Bond, Kirkuр, Viney, O'Connor, Webster, McEwan, Neville, Rogers, Auguste, Francis, Taylor.

Attendance 10,334.