‘Makes you think…’ Sheffield United boss floats FA Cup possibility after pre-Wrexham Wembley admission

United booked their place in the fourth round of the cup courtesy of an impressive 2-0 win at Championship rivals Millwall on Saturday, with Daniel Jebbison and Jayden Bogle on the scoresheet on their returns to the first team.

United’s reward is a fourth-round tie away at National League promotion-chasers later this month and although Heckingbottom declined to tell reporters after the Millwall game that he is targeting a run in the FA Cup this season, he admitted that could change if his side reach the latter stages of the prestigious tournament.

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“You have to roll with it, don’t you?” he said. “I don’t want to sit here and say: ‘Yeah, we want a cup run’, because it can be over just like that. I think you just have to enjoy it. Try to win games and try to be in the hat.

“Listen, we all know what the ultimate goal is. But things can change. If you win a couple of games in the FA Cup, then all of a sudden you are close. We could see the [Wembley] arch lit up from our hotel on Friday night.

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“That makes you think. You want to roll with it and see. We’ll get the benefit from [the FA Cup] as long as we’re in it as well, with the players we use and the systems we use. We’ll see what happens.”

Heckingbottom made six changes to his side at The Den and will likely continue the rotation policy at Wrexham as he looks to balance his side’s promotion push with the chance to gradually step up some of his players’ recovery from injury.

But a lack of options meant key men including John Egan, Ollie Norwood and Iliman Ndiaye played, and risked injury, at Millwall. In the last decade, half of the automatically-promoted sides from the Championship have exited the FA Cup at the first hurdle – with only one going past the fifth-round stage.

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