Kevin Gage's Sheffield United Column: Why one man sums up Blades under Chris Wilder... and why I'd dispense with 'player of the year' tradition

Another sell-out Blades crowd. Another step closer to a potential European qualification spot. Another weekend of absolute joy and amazement at just what we are witnessing at Sheffield United Football Club this season.

I’m not sure where to start this week as the positives just keep piling up! I’d said after the Manchester City game that we faced a run of league fixtures that could really shape our season and with 10 points out of the possible 12, it’s certainly doing that.

Add into the equation that next up is a Newcastle side that, by many of the important performance statistics, should be bottom of the league and it could actually get even better! Oh, and we’ve got a home draw in the FA Cup quarter-finals as well...what a time to be a Blades fan!

So where do we start? How about John Lundstram being recalled into the side after what must have been a huge blow to his morale, ego, confidence (maybe?) to put in a top-class solid performance that he’d been doing virtually all of the first half of the season. After 10 minutes or so, he’d settled back in as if he’d never been away, and not only provided a technically brilliantly ‘whipped’ cross for the goal, but could easily have had two goals himself.

He actually connected too perfectly with his two volleys as a slight miscue might have taken the shots in! He gets everywhere and does his defensive jobs for the team so effectively too...welcome back to the JL7 machine!

Or do I start with the legend that is BIlly Sharp? Enough words have been written about his goal-scoring achievements, but to score in the manner he did on Saturday must have been a bit special. He’ll tell you that all his goals are special, but a flying ‘bullet’ header, leaping about five yards off the ground, twisting in mid air and powering the ball into the roof of the net? Come on! That was an absolute cracker!

It was just part of a brilliant individual performance as he held the ball up superbly, found pockets of space in and around the box at will, and led the team by example as usual. After kicking his heels on the bench for most of the season, he’s getting game-time and justifying Chris Wilder’s faith in selecting him every single time. Billy Sharp scores goals… fact. But he does so much more that that… another fact.

Or do I start with Dean Henderson? Firstly, I absolutely agree with our manager that he WASN’T Man of the Match! The goal line scramble saves he made and another routine (for him!) stop came just at the time that the award options on the big screen came up! Hendo was in the right place at the right time for that, just like he seems to also be in exactly the right place at exactly the right time when the goal is fired at his goal!

He’s a very special talent, and I get the feeling he loves us as much as we love him. If that’s the case he might just be here a while yet… fingers crossed.

So I’m not starting with any of those players. I’m starting (and finishing actually!) with the man who epitomizes absolutely everything that is good about Sheffield United and everything that a Blades team managed by Chris Wilder stands for. He was my man of the match Saturday and to be honest he should be the running most weeks, but because he just does his job supremely well, unspectacularly but ruthlessly efficiently and without fuss, I think he sometimes gets overlooked and taken for granted.

Not by his team mates and managers I’ll bet though, as they 100 per cent know what he brings to the team every time he pulls on a Blades shirt, and has also done since the day he stepped through the front door of the place. Yes, Chris Basham was my man of the match by a distance on Saturday and if his second half piece of outrageous skill had been rewarded with a goal when he flicked the ball over the defender’s head and volleyed towards the top corner, we’d have given him the goal of the season award there and then!

He’s raised his game this season to meet the demands of the Premier League, and performs week in week out to an incredibly high standard against some of the world’s best strikers. Then again, virtually everyone in the team has also taken their individual games to new levels and found a higher gear than maybe they ever thought they’d achieve, and it’s been a privilege to watch.

And now I’ve mentioned awards, player of the season anyone? Again, where do I start?!!! Can we dispense with tradition and just give about a dozen out? Anyway, that decision is a few weeks away yet. More pressing issues are securing a top-six spot, European qualification and winning the FA Cup, and I genuinely can’t believe I’m even typing those words to be honest!

They were NOT the aspirations I thought I’d be looking at going into March when the season kicked off! But when opportunity knocks, a Chris Wilder team usually takes it, so watch this space!

Bring it on. UTB

Kevin Gage owns The Manor House hotel/bar/café, Dronfield. Follow him on twitter: @gageykev