David McGoldrick: Sheffield United always knew they would beat Derby County’s infamous Premier League points tally

Last night’s 1-0 win against Aston Villa took the Blades up to 14 points, three more than The Rams’ entire total in the 2007/8 season when they won just once.

McGoldrick, whose seventh goal of the season proved the difference, told Radio Sheffield: "We knew we weren’t going to do that. We knew we were going to get over that point.

"It’s going to be a tough, tough ask. It’s not over mathematically, nothing is. You can’t rule anything out.”

The Blades held on with 10 men for more than 30 minutes after Phil Jagielka was sent off to reduce the gap to seventeenth to 12 points with 11 games left.

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McGoldrick said: “I’ve scored a couple this season and not been on the winning end so obviously it’s great to score and get a win for the confidence, for the boys.

“To go down to 10 men and grind it out, I think it shows what we’re about as men. We stood up, it was backs against the wall for the first half hour when Phil [Jagielka] got sent off but we grinded it out and that’s what we’re made of.”

The veteran striker, now 33, admitted this season has been the “toughest” of his career to date.

He added: “We have got another big game on Saturday [...] it’s not over.

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"We have still got to do a job. Our manager wouldn’t let us not come in and train hard. From the first game of the season against Wolves to the game today, the attention to detail has been the same, pre-match has been the same, nothing has changed.”

Next up for the Blades is Southampton at home on Saturday, who are without a victory in nine matches in all competitions, but did win 3-0 the last time the teams met in December.

McGoldrick said: “In our dressing room that was the lowest point of our season.

"We all had to have a real hard look at ourselves. In my terms we had to fix up.”