Sheffield United: Huddersfield Town boss makes a telling statement

Despite seeing Billy Sharp’s early strike propel the hosts’ to victory, Fotheringham insisted Town should take encouragement from the fact they had disrupted their opponents’ rhythm as the contest progressed.

Suggesting he suspected that second placed United would always pose too stern a test for his “inexperienced personnel”, Fotheringham, whose side remain at the foot of the table, conceded: “Listen, they (United) are one of the best in this division. Their position tells you that. So for us to come here and cause them problems, to pen them in second-half, I think we can take a lot of heart from that.

“I thought the boys gave everything out there. We’ve got people out, we know that. But the lads got a great reception from the fans and that tells you something. It shows what the lads put in and we’ve got to use that as the yardstick moving forward. Make sure it’s something we build on.”

Despite acknowledging that the quality of United’s performance dropped immediately after the interval - “We weren’t as good or as tidy on the ball as we’d usually like” - Heckingbottom insisted he had “never” feared United would concede thanks to their commitment of their defending. However the pattern of the game, combined with Fotherham’s post-match comments, served as a reminder that his squad is now viewed as one of the competition’s most coveted - if not the most coveted - scalps.

“If you look at the options they’ve got, we always knew this was going to be a tough one to come back to,” Fotheringham said. “They’re up there for a reason and we know what that is, when you look at the type of player they’ve got available to them. But, like I say, I thought my boys could take plenty of positives away with them.”

“It was always going to be a difficult way to start again after the break,” he added. “But we competed and we competed well, against a lot of very good players.”