Sheffield United: Fans will love the manager's latest rallying cry and dig at 'corporate' football

The former Barnsley, Leeds and Hibernian manager outlined his plan ahead of tomorrow’s crucial encounter against West Bromwich Albion, insisting that Bramall Lane’s “phenomenal” supporters have an important role to play in United’s push for promotion from the Championship.

Heckingbottom’s team have prepared for the match three points behind Steve Bruce’s sixth-placed side, having played two matches fewer than the visitors from The Hawthorns.

“The best thing, the very best thing, is when a team and the crowd are working together in unison,” he told The Star. “We’ve all seen how powerful that can be when it happens here.

“I love that because, listen, I’m a football fan myself. I grew up watching football and even back then, when everything was aligned, it was brilliant. You could feel it.”

Insisting United will try and attack their remaining 19 games, 12 of which are at home, Heckingbottom added: “I think my time up in Scotland reiterated that to me. It’s not as corporate up there. The clubs up there, they haven’t outgrown their communities and they don’t want to. It’s more teams for supporters, just the same as I tell the players here now this is their team and their club too. It belongs to the fans and the players.”

Although United’s hopes of making an immediate return to the Premier League following last season’s relegation were last night dealt a blow when Rhian Brewster was ruled-out for the rest of the campaign, Heckingbottom believes they can take advantage of a fixture schedule disrupted by a spate of postponements over Christmas and New Year. Despite being a source of frustration at the time, that means nearly two thirds of United’s appearances between now and May will be at their own stadium.

“That’s what we want, one entity,” said Heckingbottom, who has won all but three of his nine games since being appointed in November. “I can feel it and I can see it.

“So many (matches) lately have been away, but the support we get on the road has been amazing and we’ve had some great celebrations afterwards. That brings everyone closer together.

“We can help out each other, the team and the fans, definitely. We will look to be proactive. But within the games we’ve got left, there are so many different challenges and when teams look to slow it down against us, I know our fans will show their knowledge and their energy and their understanding to help us through that. We are going to be facing different things and we want to face them together.”

"What comes first, the chicken or the egg? Do we get the fans going or do they get us going? People will have different views,” Heckingbottom added. “What I do know is that we’re all stronger when we’re together and that’s something we all want to make sure is always the case here.”