It remains to be seen how damaging Saturday’s result will prove to be for Hull City, who have now won just two of their past eight games.
McBurnie, making his first return to the club he made 146 league appearances for in five years, got them off to the perfect start with his 13th goal of the season.
The Scotland international almost made it 2-0 but Mark McGuiness scrambled his acrobatic effort off the line.
Sheffield United looked set to stretch their winless run to seven games before the game turned on Lundstram’s red card.
The midfielder, who played 108 times in the league for the Blades between 2017 and 2021, had been booked less than 10 minutes earlier for a coming together with McGuiness and then took out Riedewald on the halfway line.
However, he, along with his team-mates and Tigers staff, argued he had been prevented from getting to the ball by the positioning of Brooks.
Hull’s sense of injustice was not improved when Brooks awarded the home side a penalty for a foul by Joseph on Riedewald and Hamer confidently slotted the ball to Ivor Pandur’s left.
Ings then compounded a dreadful 13 minutes for the away side when he scored just his second goal of the season to win it for United.
Hull will look to get their top six push back on track when they welcome midtable Birmingham next Saturday, while the Blades travel to Watford the same afternoon.