Paul Heckingbottom’s Sheffield United challenge could prove key to Blades’ Premier League survival hopes

Paul Heckingbottom has challenged his Sheffield United side to rediscover the art of winning games when they are not at their sparkling best - a knack that could prove key to their hopes of staying in the Premier League this season. United gave their survival hopes a real shot in the arm at the weekend with a dramatic victory over Wolves at Bramall Lane.

Their first three points of the season moved them level with second-bottom Burnley and to within touching distance of fourth-bottom Luton Town, as the Blades bid to finish top of their mini-league at the bottom of the table and survive in the top-flight. After the international break that follows this weekend’s trip to Brighton, United face Burnley and third-bottom Bournemouth in successive games.

Although United have been in a number of games so far this season, they had to wait until their 11th league clash to pick up their first three points and boss Heckingbottom has identified the knack of picking up points when his side are not at their sparkling best as potentially decisive for the rest of the season. “We showed against Wolves that we are here to compete and pick up points,” he said.

“I thought the game had been unfairly taken away from us but scoring the winner with the last kick of the game is the best way to do it. We’ve had a couple of games where the quality of the opposition has just taken the game away from us, but we’ve been in a lot of our games as well.

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“In most of them we’ve been right there and we’ve had some really cruel defeats in the final few minutes so we could’ve had more points. The result against Wolves was really important in that aspect. We were really dominant in the second half and deserved to win, but we have to get better at winning the other way when the other team is on top.”

Heckingbottom, who took caretaker charge of United towards the end of their last stint in the top-flight, is well aware that his side cannot afford to be too far off their best levels for too long in such a ruthless division, however. “We’ve found the Premier League tough so far, and even from when I last experienced it three years ago it has come on,” he added. “Everyone knows how big the Premier League is around the world but the standard and the quality of the players and the teams has gone up another level.

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“We’re really pleased to be back; we want to compete and we look forward to every game. We have to understand that sometimes these games are really tough but no one is going to feel sorry for us and everyone is competing for points so we have to make sure we are always putting ourselves in a position to take points.

“We’ve had enough evidence so far this season to know that there are games to be won in this league and we can pick up points, but we just haven’t picked up enough. We’ve seen more than enough to know that we can pick up points but it’s not going to get any easier and every team has their own reasons to fight for points. We have to accept that and know that we have to deliver our best performance every week to give ourselves a chance.”