Sheffield United's Iliman Ndiaye 'can do things most Premier League players can't'

Insisting “there are very few Premier League players” who can “do what he can with the ball,” Heckingbottom claimed Ndiaye’s second-half finish provided yet more evidence he is destined to reach the highest level of the game.

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Praising United’s courage and commitment, which laid the foundations for a victory which propelled them into the quarter-finals of the competition for the third time in four years, Heckingbottom told The Star: “You don’t expect anything else from Iliman. That’s probably going to announce him to a slightly different audience but I’ve always known what he is capable of. I know I’m going to sound as if I’m biased but Iliman can do it against anyone. It doesn’t matter what the level of the opposition is at all. Where the best players play, the areas they do damage in, he really comes alive.”

“Iliman can do things with the ball that lots of Premier League players can’t,” Heckingbottom added. “We’ve always known what he’s all about.”

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Although Ndiaye delivered the defining moment of the contest after being introduced following the interval, Heckingbottom described United’s performance as a “real team effort”. Among the eight changes he made was the introduction of Andre Brooks, with the teenager making his senior debut against the country’s fourth ranked team.

“They made it a good watch for me,” said Heckingbottom, who was beginning a touchline ban. “We had to be brave, with and without the ball. We had to go after them as well, because we couldn’t just sit on the edge of our box. To do that required real courage and bravery, because let’s not forget who we were up against. The most pleasing thing for me was our composure.”

United were paired with fellow Championship promotion hopefuls Blackburn Rovers in the last eight of the competition. Second in the table, two places above Jon Dahl Tomasson’s men, they visit Ewood Park on Saturday before facing them again later this month for the right to appear at Wembley.