Sheffield United skipper Billy Sharp's self-belief will drive Blades when it matters most

But something else you wouldn’t dream of writing; that he won’t finish the season in double figures.

In short, never write this bloke off. And genuinely, this column proclaiming exactly that was actually drafted BEFORE Sharp netted his first goal of the campaign, last Saturday’s winner against Huddersfield.

Sorry Billy, that was a bit of a spoiler in same ways! Because with or without the goal, the same would have applied.

Time will eventually catch up with Sheffield United’s talismanic skipper but, even at 36, that time is not now.

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His body language, that bustle and everything about him, strongly suggests he feels the same. Right down to wanting to play more minutes than he has been allowed, which has been a trait throughout his time at Bramall Lane.

There is another element to that, though.

Sharp drives standards in the dressing room whether he’s in the team or not.

Beyond that, he wants to be in the eleven and feels he should be, that pugnacious self-belief never wavering.

There will be those foolish enough to discount Billy at this, admittedly late, stage in his career. Maybe the murmurings would have been louder but for last Saturday’s strike in what was his 17th appearance of the campaign.

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Others had started picking themselves ahead of him with Oli McBurnie and Iliman Ndiaye wresting the scoring mantle from his shoulders.

United tend to look elsewhere now for sources of inspiration to unlock tight games.

And I don’t doubt manager Paul Heckingbottom will keep rationing Sharp for maximum impact, whether his most senior player likes it or not.

But no player at the business end stands to have a bigger bearing on the promotion race than one with 265 career goals to his name and a clear hunger for many more.

Fitness permitting, and he appears to work harder than ever on that, you can see Sharp at the forefront of another promotion charge.

He’s one of a core of seen-it-and-done-it players driving the club’s ambitions.

There will be no loss of nerve and when it comes to leadership from the front United still have a powerful example.