Sheffield United know they must win wars of attrition to secure promotion

Following their loss to Luton Town, United are preparing for their second away game in just over a week when they travel to Sunderland on Wednesday night. Still harbouring faint hopes of qualifying for the play-offs, Tony Mowbray’s side could feel compelled to try and attack Paul Heckingbottom’s promotion chasing squad in order to fire-up the Stadium of Light crowd.

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But reviewing United’s last road trip - which resulted in a 1-0 victory at Reading - the 45-year-old said: “We’re seeing people set up against us a bit differently now, to try and deny some of our creative players the space. Down there, Paul (Ince, the Reading manager) changed things around a bit and we could see what they were going to try and do when the line-ups came out. To be fair to them, they did it well and we had to work really hard, be patient and trust in what we had worked on doing. I think that could well be something that we’re going to see a lot more of.”

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Second placed United still have to face Norwich City, leaders Burnley and Huddersfield Town away from home before meeting Birmingham City at St Andrews during this season’s final round of Championship fixtures. Both Huddersfield, now led by Heckingbottom’s predecessor Neil Warnock, and City are battling against relegation.

“We’ll be prepared for everything,” Heckingbottom said. “But the way we overcome those challenges, won’t involve sacrificing how we want to try and play.”