United travelled to the Welsh capital 13 games unbeaten away from Bramall Lane, but were coming upon against a tough cookie in Cardiff City who had previously only surrender victory at Ninnian Park to Wolverhampton Wanderers and Birmingham City, both of whom are gunning for automatic promotion.
The Blades looked exquisite in the opening exchanges and came close to taking the lead twice when David Cotterill's telling cross evaded keeper Stuart Taylor and crashed off the post before Taylor tipped over Greg Halford's attempted lob. But soon after the Red and White Wizards took the lead when Darius Henderson was hacked down in the box, guilty culprit Gabor Gypes was shown a straight red card by referee Mr. Taylor and Cotterill duly slotted home the spot kick.
Things soon got worse for the home side when an alleged elbow on Kyle Naughton resulted in a red card for Ross McCormmack before the half hour mark. Two minutes after half-time substitute Jamie Ward rose alone to head home from the corner and Stephen Quinn wrapped things up three minutes from time.
Blades boss Kevin Blackwell will hope to see David Cotterill (Wales), Justin Haber (Malta), Jamie Ward (Northern Ireland), John-Joe O'Toole (Republic of Ireland U-21) and Kyle Walker (England U-19) all return from international duty unscathed from injury.
Greg Halford, who is on a seasons long loan from Sunderland was handed his fifth booking of the season in that 3-0 victory in South Wales and will be suspended for the visit of Jim Magilton's Ipswich Town; the same applies to Nick Montgomery and Kyle Naughton.
Blades Possible Line-Up: Paddy Kenny, Kyle Naughton, Chris Morgan, Matthew Kilgallon, Gary Naysmith, David Cotterrill, John-Joe O'Toole, Stephen Quinn, Greg Halford, Darius Henderson, Jamie Ward.
Former Real Madrid and Bolton Wanderers midfielder was shown his fifth booking of the season in their draw against the Hornets; he too will sit this one out with a one match suspension.
The Blues injury crisis has further deepened after three players sustained injuries during this their 0-0 draw against Watford two weeks ago. Giovani Dos Santos (on loan from Tootenham Hotspur) lasted just 25 minutes before complaining of a groin injury, whilst Tommy Miller was replaced by Owen Garvan after 55 minutes after suffering a dead leg, and on the hour David Wright was forced off with a hamstring injury.
Of the injury to Dos Santos, Magilton told ITFC.co.uk: "Gio complained of a groin injury early on and couldn't carry on. He's not our player, being on loan from Tottenham, and we have to be careful with him and it's possible his injury came because of his lack of games."
Striker Jordan Rhodes, Midfielder Luciano Civelli, young defender Tommy Smith and midfielder come striker Jon Walters are already ruled out until the end of the season, meanwhile Moritz Volz is likely to be ruled out until Easter.
Town manager Jim Magilton is likely to call upon the services of former Blades Jonathan Stead and Alan Quinn; Stead signed for United in January 2007 from Sunderland in a £750,000 deal - making his debut in a 1-1 home draw with Portsmouth. He made a total of 32 (+15) appearances and netted eleven goals in a red and white shirt before moving onto Ipswich Town, initially on loan in September 2008.
Meanwhile Alan Quinn joined on a free transfer from local rivals Sheffield Wednesday in July 2004, clocking up a total of 85 (+24) games and scored 11 goals from midfield. To date he is the only player in history to score a goal for both sides in a Steel City Derby; he joined Ipswich Town in January 2008 for £500,000.
Possible Blues Line-Up: Richard Wright, Ramos Ivan Campo, Gareth McAuley, David Wright, Ben Thatcher, David Norris, Alan Quinn, Tommy Miller, Jonathan Stead, Pablo Counago, Danny Haynes.