Paul Ince fires Sheffield United warning as Reading look to repeat Bournemouth trick

The Championship strugglers, who are 21st in the table but have opened up an eight-point gap between themselves and the bottom three, have lost only once in their last five after taking a point from the Cherries a month ago.

The Royals are the Blades’ first opponents on a potentially-pivotal Easter weekend, which also sees promotion rivals Luton face Nottingham Forest tomorrow while Bournemouth host Middlesbrough. On Monday, when United travel to Bristol City, third-placed Huddersfield Town host Boro.

“This Friday, we’re up against a team who has just come down from the Premier League,” former England international Ince said of the Blades.

“A team who have kept the majority of its players since coming down from the Premier League. So we’d all expect them to be up there challenging at this stage in the season. And they are.

“They’ve done well, really well. The home fans there are fantastic and they will give them a right good lift when they need it – I think they are unbeaten in 12 or something at home. It’s been a long time since they’ve lost there.

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“So we know it is going to be a tough game. But we knew it was going to be a tough game at Bournemouth and no-one expected us to get anything from that one.

“So we’ll go there and try to put on a show and do what we want to do. We can’t worry too much about Sheffield United – they’ve got pressure to stay in that top six, we’ve got the pressure of trying to stay up. So it should be a good game.”

“At this stage, it’s about taking it a game at a time,” Ince, who was installed as Reading's temporary boss after the sacking of Veljko Paunovic back in February, added.

“We as a staff, we are just trying to keep everyone focused on one common goal – and that is to keep this team in the Championship."

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