Sheffield United boss fires warning to his players after they extend lead at top of table with Swansea win

Heckingbottom's men will travel to Preston North End this weekend top of the early second-tier standings, after Tuesday's win at Swansea City sent them four points clear of second-placed Norwich City.

Despite everyone connected with the club publicly refusing to get carried away, there is a growing optimism about this season around Bramall Lane - even on the terraces amongst those battle-hardened folk who have been conditioned to expect the worst when it comes to their football team.

"It doesn't matter, really," Heckingbottom said of his side's league position at this early stage.

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"We keep saying that it's consistency we're after. We'd have taken a 0-0 and a point [at Swansea] to keep the run going, because the performance was good and everything we wanted to show, we showed.

"Wins are hard to come by in this division and the moment you drop off, you can get beat.

"We've got a target on our backs as it stands and people will raise their game. We've got to deal with that and we think we deserve to be up there."

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United have picked up this season where they left off in the last one, where a remarkable run of late-season form following Heckingbottom's appointment propelled them into the play-offs and to within a penalty shootout of a final at Wembley.

"It's not just these nine games this season," Heckingbottom added.

"In my eyes, the staff and players have been performing like that anyway for the last nine or 10 months.

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"It's not a fluke now. But we've got to keep pushing because everyone will want to beat us. That's where we are, and that's fine.

"If we have to chase at some point in the season, again that's fine because we've done that before.

"We'll just keep going and and look for the performances and that consistency.

"We won't win sometimes, and that's fine. As long as we know why we haven't won and we've still delivered as good a performance as we can."

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