A sort of landmark crept by without comment in Sheffield United’s season - and rightly so.

It was the 50 points normally regarded as the safety mark for teams in the Championship. Hardly a big deal at promotion-minded Bramall Lane.

Yet had that been offered to then manager Ruben Selles, any board member or supporter, after the Blades lost all their first six games (including League Cup), who wouldn’t have taken it? And with such a margin of comfort.

With the play-offs now virtually out of sight, it’s still, for me, an under-performance by this squad of players. And somewhat below manager Chris Wilder’s hopes and expectations also.

That said, it’s important for perspective to acknowledge the obvious single reason for this and why staying up, with still seven matches to go, is not to be dismissed out of hand.

I can relate on fairly good authority that had Wilder been kept in post last summer, with his planning well advanced, he would not only have anticipated a promotion bid but would have accepted pressure on his job if he’d fallen short of top six. You’ll have to trust me on that.

As it’s turned out, he accepted a precarious challenge to turn around a potentially disastrous start. Which at least one close friend urged him to reject.

Laudable as it was for the board to own up to, and try to atone for, their unaccountable managerial mistake, they kept promotion as the target in their Wilder comeback statement.

This was always unrealistic, if not brass-necked, although not entirely off limits. I believe Wilder will be surprised he has not achieved more with this group.

There are good players in most positions, you can go through it. But there is clearly a fundamental flaw within the whole, a failure to find ways to win close matches, as per the majority of Championship encounters.

Quite simply too many goals conceded (54), often needlessly, and far fewer scored (also 54) than should have been the case from healthy chance-making.

How to rectify this? “I know exactly what I’ve got to do,” Wilder responded after another frustrating but all-too-familiar narrow defeat to a leading team in Wrexham.

I imagine that means he has key positions and potential signings in mind as part of an already clearly defined strategy.

So 50 points came & went without ceremony for a team that came within one match of promotion last season. The blunt truth of it is that United, by comparison, have become a bit of a soft touch.

Wilder told me: “Last season there was a slight negativity at times towards the way we played. But I’d much rather find a way to win and be a winning football manager than ‘play well.’

“We all want that - I want us to play in this manner - but there has to be that steely attitude. I’ll get to grips with it and we’ll get that balance right.”

If Wilder has to be more pragmatic and less expansive next time, you sense that’s a course he’s prepared to take.