Middlesbrough 2 Sheffield United 2: Managers' reaction as Blades settle for point at Riverside

“The attitude and preparation is no different to any other game, period, full stop. It has to be. There are obvious connections, but the level of trying to win any game is always full tilt for me.

“That’s gone [last season’s4-1 victory for the Blades] ... that’s history, that was last season. We’re onto a fresh team from our point of view, and a fresh season. That happened, and Sheff United got into the play offs and we didn’t. We had a fantastic run of it to keep our season going until the last game of the season, which I think is a better achievement than it maybe it looked at the time. But that season finished on that day (at Preston) for us. It was a couple of weeks later for them.

“So that’s how I look at it. This a brand new season, a fresh start, and we’ve only got one point out of two games, and we need to add to that on Sunday afternoon.”

As a player who also pulled on the shirt of his hometown club before returning as a manager and winning silverware, Paul Heckingbottom is in a better position than most to understand the emotional attachment Chris Wilder has to Sheffield United.

With Heckingbottom it was Barnsley, rather than the Blades, and he has also experienced the “strange” sensation of coming up against the club that he once watched from the terraces.

That is the situation Wilder faces on Sunday when the Blades travel to the Riverside to face his current employers, Middlesbrough. His successful stint as Blades boss came to an end last March, after the breakdown of his relationship with the Bramall Lane board, and Sunday’s clash will be only the second time he has faced his boyhood club since that point.

“It becomes easier but it is strange … 100 per cent, it’s strange,” Heckingbottom said of the situation.

“Whether you’re playing against them or managing, it’s strange. Chris is a boyhood Blade and has gone even further because he’s been lucky enough to play for them, manage them and have success with them.

“And that never goes away. There’ll always be an affiliation there. It is strange but not once the whistle goes. You’re looking at a green bit of grass with 22 players on and you’re doing everything you can to win. So it’s not weird then.”

and the Blades travel to Boro looking for their first away win of the season against Chris Wilder’s highly-fancied side ...