Sheffield United: James Shield's verdict on the factors behind a deserved FA Cup win Millwall

But when the victorious manager began picking apart the contest, during an eloquent post-match interview following his team’s win over Millwall, it quickly became apparent the foundations of their success had been laid long before goals from Daniel Jebbison and Jayden Bogle sealed the visitors’ progress.

“We changed formation,” Paul Heckingbottom explained. “We’d been working on it for a few days.

“Millwall, as you’d expect, set up for how we’d usually go about things. But we’d already decided to do things a little bit differently.”

Although it was not the only reason behind United’s success, the tactical adjustment Heckingbottom and his assistants had devised and then utilised certainly helped their players seize control of a third round contest which turned out to be much more one-sided than expected. Insisting that United had actually been operating with a front “three” rather than the two cited by various outlets afterwards, Heckingbottom suggested it is a ploy he might use again between now and the end of a Championship season which has seen his second-placed side establish a nine point lead over third. The change certainly appeared to flummox Millwall who, in sixth, only began to threaten during the closing stages. By which time, as Gary Rowett later conceded, they already found themselves “with a mountain to climb.”

“A lot of teams have gone 4-2-3-1 against us, we’ve noticed that pattern developing, and tried to match us up man to man,” Heckingbottom told The Star. “They’ve done that to try and negate our runners and also take our press away. It worked really well here and we wrestled control of the game.”

“We did it to help us win,” he continued. “Not just here, but also moving forward. It’s always good to have options and this gives us another one.”

James McAtee, who darted forward to support Jebbison and Iliman Ndiaye whenever United had the ball, was responsible for creating United’s opener. Involved in an exchange of passes, the midfielder picked-out Jebbison who feigned to shoot in one direction before sending the ball another. Bogle was the next to profit, this time from an Ndiaye assist. The Senegal international, described as “one of the best” talents in the division by Rowett, caused Millwall problems all afternoon with his trickery and movement. Which, having frustrated United’s coaching staff on occasions since returning from the World Cup, was a joy for Heckingbottom to behold.

“We played that way for a while not so long back,” he said. “But you could see Iliman had forgotten how to play it properly and across the board we weren’t aggressive enough with it. We saw this as a chance to try and get through, obviously. But also as a chance to work on that. It’s something we can use going forward.”

Having highlighted Millwall’s prowess from set-pieces before making the journey to London and also their strong home record, Heckingbottom added: “To restrict them to so little showed what we did worked well. And that it was executed properly also.”