Norwich City boss fires warning to Sheffield United as he delivers his verdict on Blades

Both sides were in the automatic promotion places before the international break but have suffered since, with United picking up just two points from their five games since the Championship season resumed.

Smith’s side have also tasted defeat to Preston, Watford and Luton in their last three outings, but the former Aston Villa boss insisted that his side shouldn’t be written off yet.

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“We want to respond to the Luton performance but 10 days ago, we'd lost one in 10. And now all of a sudden, it is: 'You've lost three on the spin',” Smith said.

“But I thoroughly believe that we should have won, or at least not got beat, in two of them. Watford were the only team that deserved to beat us.

“In all the games, apart from Watford, we have more chances, so there's not an awful lot wrong. Apart from not taking our chances. You only have to look at the Championship table to see the Championship is very up and down. I've got experience of that, as many people have. That is the nature of the games, when you're having so many thick and fast.

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We've had the second most shots in the league this season, we've created more big chances than we have against us every game. That's probably down to the quality of the players. All we can do is create them big chances and hopefully put them away.”

Smith is also not underestimating the threat of United, despite their own recent poor run of results.

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“Going to Sheffield United, despite their form, it is still the two teams that have had the most shots in the league, going head to head, so we are looking forward to it,” he added.

“Form can be constituted in so many different ways and our players understand that we're controlling games but not finishing games off at the moment.

“I’ve said before that the teams who have been in the Premier League recently have good squads. It will be a tough test.”

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