Sheffield United: The big thing this week that pleased Paul Heckingbottom about his Blades squad

That Paul Heckingbottom hasn’t been in the position of manager for very long came into play. Here was an extra opportunity for him and his new coaching staff of Jack Lester and Stuart McCall to work on certain aspects of United’s game, to fine-tune.

There's also the fact we’re about to head into that time of year where players can barely catch a breath before they are thrown into another challenge, such is the nature of the festive fixture schedule.

Here then was an opportunity for further recovery in this frantic division, for the squad to be fresh and ready for the battles ahead.

Some people may have thought collectively all of that may have been a positive take on the Covid-enforced postponement.

Not so the manager, or indeed his players.

For Heckingbottom believes that the only way he can gauge any progress that might be made since his taking charge is by playing matches, particularly against the top teams in the Championship.

Having recorded their third win in a row away to Cardiff in their last match – what seems like a long time ago now – the boss wanted to ‘let them off the lead’ and what pleased him most was that the team felt the exact same way.

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“I was gutted when our game was called off on Monday,” said Heckingbottom ahead of Monday's match against Fulham at Craven Cottage. “We had a really good week last week, the players were ready.

"Sometimes you get those moments where you just want to let them off the lead and let them go, that's what they feel like at the minute.

"I'm really pleased with them. I know we are going to lose games, you can't win every game but certainly if they can maintain their effort and intensity and the buzz they have got about them at the minute then we'll win more games than we lose and that's the aim.

“We came in on Monday morning and trained and the good thing for me was the players were as gutted as the staff were, they could probably sense it was an opportunity, a home game in front of our fans again, trying to get the place going and buzzing.

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"You always want games, especially when you are in a good place and the boys feel like they are in a good place. I think they look like they are in a good place and we just want games now to see.”

So did he see any positives in an extended break?

“No, we were ready for it,” he added. “The games are part of the process for us about getting better.

"That's our test, we can work as much as we want on the grass and on the training pitch but we'll only see if it's making a difference in the game time. The most important thing where you learn are the games.

"The players were disappointed, I was disappointed and we are looking forward to the next one. We've used it, don't get me wrong, we have used the time but there's no substitute for the games."