Sheffield United learn the biggest mistake they can make in promotion battle

United contest the first of their two Easter matches on Friday, when relegation threatened Wigan Athletic visit Bramall Lane. That game is followed by a trip to Championship leaders Burnley, who are on the brink of sealing an immediate return to the top-flight.

Second in the Championship table and six points clear of their nearest rivals, Heckingbottom’s side are in a strong position to join them after beating Norwich City last weekend. But the 45-year-old cited third placed Middlesbrough’s defeat by lowly Huddersfield Town as proof that, during the closing stages of a campaign, one of football’s oldest cliches really is true.

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“I know everyone says this and people think it’s just for effect,” he told The Star. “There’s never any easy games but particularly not right now. Everything becomes tougher because, by and large, everyone you meet is fighting hard for something.

“It’s either to go straight up, to get in the play-offs or to try and survive. The table shows how well you have done over the course of a season. It is not a guarantee of anything in a particular game.”

“That’s why you can’t look ahead, you can’t look beyond what you’ve got coming up,” he added. “If you do, then that means you are taking your eye off the ball. And you’re definitely doing that if you start looking at certain games as being tougher than others. Because, trust me, they are all tough now as everything gets magnified.”

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Wigan travel to South Yorkshire propping up the rest of the division but buoyed by their recent success over Queens Park Rangers. Huddersfield entered their clash with Michael Carrick’s men deep in trouble but finished it behind 21st placed Cardiff City on goal difference alone.

“Any win we get now, it takes us closer to where we want to be,” Heckingbottom said. “If we get another one, no matter what happens behind us, then it means those teams have even less room for error. But we’ve got to make sure we do that.”

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