‘This is how Sheffield United can get back in top-2 picture after handing Burnley, Leeds promotion advantage’
Sheffield United told what they need to do to get back in automatic promotion picture after handing Burnley, Leeds United advantage
At the end of a week that had been identified as a big chance for Sheffield United to cement their automatic promotion place, hopes of finishing in the top two are as remote as they have been all season. A trio of shock defeats have left the Blades five points off joint leaders Burnley and Leeds United, with just four games of the season to go.
Such a shocking run of form at such a key point of the season has predictably seen most fans resigned to another tilt at the dreaded play-offs, with United’s wretched record in the end-of-season lottery doing little to inspire much confidence on that front either.
But whilever there is a chance that the Blades can turn around their fortunes and make a late bid to gatecrash the top two, they must give everything in that pursuit and then deal with whatever comes afterwards if and when it does.
There is still a glimmer of hope in the shape of a trip to Burnley next Monday, although the Clarets have not lost on home soil all season and with the form that United are in, the home side will undoubtedly be favourites to take another step towards an instant return to the Premier League after relegation last term.
United just need to get back on the horse as soon as possible to regain some of the momentum they have lost with defeats to Oxford, Millwall and Plymouth Argyle which have left their top-two hopes dangling by the thinnest of threads ahead of this Friday’s home clash with Cardiff City.
What Sheffield United need to do to have a chance of gatecrashing top two
The mood inside Bramall Lane for that one will be fascinating after a horror week which began with United two points clear of their rivals and ended with them so far adrift. “It’s strange because with the play-offs, the team that finishes third is not always necessarily the favourites,” said pundit Ally McCoist on Talksport this morning when assessing the Premier League race.
“Everybody has to concentrate on a massive Easter. United have a Friday night game at home to Cardiff City and then go to Burnley. If Sheffield United win those two games, then I'd suggest they are right back in the automatic chances.”
Judging by the fall-out from Saturday’s defeat at bottom club Plymouth Argyle, the former Scottish international has more confidence in United’s top-two chances than the majority of their fanbase and United’s biggest task between now and the end of the regular season may prove to be getting those supporters back on side ahead of a likely play-off campaign.
If the season finished today then it would be Coventry City in a two-legged play-off semi-final for the Blades. A 3-1 victory at Bramall Lane over Frank Lampard’s side just a few weeks ago was one of the best performances of the season so far, but that now seems like a distant memory and few, either amongst the fanbase or in the wider football world, could have predicted the capitulation that would follow in the last week.