James Shield's Big Match Verdict: Sheffield United display essential promotion-winning trait

Paul Heckingbottom’s team can be ridiculously creative, as Blackburn Rovers, Reading and even leaders Burnley discovered early this season after conceding three, four and five goals respectively at Bramall Lane. They possess a combative streak too, eking out narrow victories over the likes of Huddersfield Town and Wigan Athletic since last year’s World Cup break. But the attribute they showcased during their latest win - beating Swansea City 3-0 thanks to strikes from Sander Berge, Jack Robinson and substitute Oli McBurnie - is the one which, as we enter the finishing straight in this term’s race for automatic promotion, could truly make the difference between going straight up and being consigned to the lottery of the play-offs. Assuming, of course, off-the-pitch events at Bramall Lane do not conspire to wreck all of the squad’s fine work.

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United owed their success against Russell Martin’s side to game-management. The cerebral approach which undid the visitors, something Martin himself admitted afterwards, saw them follow the strategy Heckingbottom and his coaching staff had devised to the letter - negating the visitors’ strengths, accentuating their own and gradually squeezing the fight out of opponents who had begun the afternoon looking pretty dangerous themselves.

“We speak a lot about managing games and we try to be prepared for whatever teams throw at us,” Heckingbottom said afterwards, admitting he was “pleased” to hear Martin describe United as the most tactically astute and physically imposing team in the division. “With the ball and without the ball, the transitions, it will change.”

City did what City always do, which is attempt to take part in their own private game of ‘keep ball’ no matter where they are on the pitch. Combined with a sizeable drop of cynicism, exaggerating the after-effects of every late-timed challenge and foul, it worked for a while. Until United, taking the lead through Berge before Robinson extended their advantage just before half-time, fathomed that the best course of action was simply to wait for a mistake and then emphatically pounce.

Heckingbottom’s men are pragmatists. City, meanwhile, appear hostages to the reputation established by previous squads in south Wales. Like Martin, they are capable. But even though identity is important, it makes no sense to continue following the tiki-taka route without talents like Leon Britton, Gylfi Sigurdsson and Ki Sung-Yueng at your disposal.

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By the time McBurnie struck against his former club, converting from close range after being introduced from the bench, United had already beaten their opponents both physically and psychologically. With their nearest challengers Middlesbrough set to travel to South Yorkshire on Wednesday night, that ability to make sense of a division as maddeningly unpredictable as the Championship could again be crucial. Particularly at the business end of the campaign, when thinking clearly under pressure is a key attribute.

“There’s so many players who have done it before and experience counts for so much,” Martin said. “A stadium where fans have bought into what they’re doing plus the depth too.

“They make good fouls when they have to, understand when they need to turn the screw or go direct.”

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