Sheffield United: Boss talks transfers and the importance of being back at Bramall Lane

After suffering a spate of postponements over Christmas and New Year, the match will be United’s first on home soil since the end of November. That was Heckingbottom’s first game in permanent charge of the club, having replaced Slavisa Jokanovoic 72 hours earlier.

With a centre-half and goalkeeper understood to be Heckingbottom’s top priorities during this month’s transfer window. Several targets have been identified, with analysts from United World - a network of teams established by owner HRH Prince Abduallah bin Musa’ad bin Abdulaziz Al Saud - also involved in the search.

Despite admitting a breakthrough is unlikely to be made ahead of the meeting with Nathan Jones’ side, Heckingbottom insisted the fixture still feels a special occasion, saying: “We are desperate to get back to Bramall Lane and we hope all of our fans feel the same way that we do.

“We want to play on the front foot and deliver a good performance against a really good team.”

United are awaiting the results of a fitness test on Enda Stevens before naming their squad, with the Republic of Ireland international being withdrawn during the closing stages of Tuesday’s draw against Preston North End as a precautionary measure. United were leading 2-1 against 10 men when Stevens departed, but conceded an 89th minute equaliser.

Despite being angered by their performance during the closing stages of that games, Heckingbottom had no criticism of his team’s display as Jayden Bogle and Billy Sharp (penalty) appeared to have put them in the driving seat.

“Just to put things into perspective, with the intensity we showed then, we all know what the atmosphere would have been like at our stadium.” he said. “We know we won’t be able to be fluent all the time. But so what. As long as that fluency is there. If the spirit is there, then the fans are going to respond to that.”

"There might be times when it’s about defending our area,” Heckingbottom added. “That might be the aggression. But our fans will respond if that intent is there.”