"It will happen..." Chris Wilder's Sheffield United play-off vow as Newcastle United set blueprint to follow

Sheffield United’s sorry play-off record is giving few Blades fans hope of ending their long curse this season - but Chris Wilder is paying little attention to the past after the Blades’ automatic promotion dream officially died last night. The Blades’ 2-1 defeat at Burnley saw the Clarets seal their place in next season’s Premier League, with Leeds United joining them after spanking Stoke City earlier in the day.

United have embarked on eight promotion play-off campaigns in their history and been successful in none of them, with a failure in a relegation play-off as well for good measure early in Dave Bassett’s time in charge in the late 1980s.

Understandably there is little appetite amongst the fanbase for yet more disappointment but Wilder is insistent that past failures have little bearing on future opportunities - citing Newcastle’s recent ending of their long trophy drought, beating Liverpool to win the Carabao Cup earlier this year, as possible inspiration.

“We’ve talked about it before,” the Blades chief, who has personal positive experiences of play-off combat after leading Oxford back into the Football League via that method back in 2010, said. “The club has been here for a long time, since 1889, and it’s going to be here for another 150 or 200 years, unless something happens to take it away from us all.

“There’ll be a time to put that record to bed, and hopefully the time is this season. I know what it’s like, even though it was on a smaller scale, to come through the play-offs and win. It’s an incredible feeling.

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“As a perfect example, everyone thought Newcastle would get turned over in the Carabao Cup but they had a day and a night to remember. It will happen. Sheffield United will win play-off semi-finals and will win a play-off final. And it’s about time that they did it.”

Before then United have two regular season games in which to hopefully rediscover some momentum, after their recent run of form stretched to four defeats in five games. A tweaked tactical set-up saw Tom Cannon get off the mark with his first goal since his £10m move from Leicester City, and could give Wilder some more food for thought ahead of the end-of-season shootout.

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United can still break the 90-point barrier which in most other seasons would have been enough to secure automatic promotion, with the Blades, Leeds and Burnley all driving each other on in a remarkable three-way tussle that saw the league lead change hands so many times.

“We’ve finished third and we’ve taken it deep,” Wilder, whose side travel to Stoke City on Friday for their final away game of the regular season, added. “It’s been an insane season and there will be some big games now. The home game [in the play-offs] at Bramall Lane will be off the scale. We’ve got to dust ourselves down and go again, and we will do that. We want to go and get 90-odd points, that’s the next target now."