Chris Basham reveals Sheffield United target to avoid "sleepwalking" into Championship

Chris Basham has revealed the target that Sheffield United set themselves to go down “with a little bit of dignity” and avoid “sleepwalking” into the Championship next season.
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The Blades already relegated from the Premier League, suffered another painful night this season on Saturday as they lost 4-0 at Spurs, with Gareth Bale grabbing a hat-trick.

They have four games left in the top flight before they return to the Championship, from where they will be hoping to bounce back sooner rather than later.

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“We beat Brighton and said: ‘Can we get two or three wins out of the next few games?’,” Basham revealed after the Spurs humbling.

“So we’ve got to produce in the next few games. We’ve got to take the shackles off. We’ve been relegated and the new manager is watching, so we need to prove ourselves. Me included.

“We’re going to give it our best shot and hopefully get a few points on the board to go down with a little bit of dignity, and a few goals as well. We don’t want to be sleepwalking into next year and let it linger.”

Basham made his return from injury in the capital after over a month on the sidelines.

Chris Basham returned from injury recently: Simon Bellis/SportimageChris Basham returned from injury recently: Simon Bellis/Sportimage
Chris Basham returned from injury recently: Simon Bellis/Sportimage
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“There was a buzz about the place from the win against Brighton and the lads have been working so hard,” he added.

“There's been a lot of organisation about the place as well, so we're disappointed that we didn't get to grips with the game in the first half.

“It's always going to be tough coming to teams like this, they have a bit of a hangover from the [League Cup final defeat] as well so they wanted to put that right.

“But it's very disappointing from our point of view that we couldn't at least stay in the game for longer than 70 minutes.”

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Barring a reaction from playing 90 minutes at Spurs, Basham is expected to keep his place in the starting line-up next week when the Blades face Crystal Palace at Bramall Lane.

They then round off their two-season stay in the Premier League against Everton, Newcastle and Burnley.

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