Sheffield United vs Coventry City: What the Sky Blues camp are saying about the Blades

The Sky Blues have been the surprise package of the season, ririsng to fourth in the table thanks in no small part to their impressive ability of nicking games by the odd goal.

Mark Robins’ side can also turn on the style, however, with some eyebrow-raising results in amongst that drive to the play-off places – notably the 4-1 victory over high-flying Fulham early last month.

United on the other hand haven’t exactly been setting the world alight but that doesn’t mean that City are heading to South Yorkshire expecting anything other than a test of their promotion credentials.

Robins, having watched the Blades extensively, has sugested that they have been unfortunate not to have picked up more points than they have at this stage, and has warned his players to expect a ‘challenging game’.

"It's certainly a tough game at Bramall Lane, it's a brilliant place to go, always a good atmosphere and obviously the Sky cameras are there too with the early kick-off, our supporters will go there in huge numbers and I think it will make for a really good game,” the Coventry manager said.

"They've obviously come down from the Premier League and they've got a team full of good players. It will be a challenging game but those are the games you want to be involved in all the time, and one you're in the Championship for.

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"You've got to take each game in isolation," Robins added. "I think their performances have actually been okay and they've been unfortunate from time to time but they've got good players throughout, some of them we know and Kyle McFadzean's going back to his boyhood team so there's a lot of connections but it's a tough game and a game we can look forward to.”

Meanwhile, midfielder Ben Sheaf has echoed the manager’ words on the quality they feel United have in their ranks and doesn’t believe that 17th place in the Championship is representative of their collectve abilities.

"We're excited," he said. "Personally, I've never played at Bramall Lane so I'm looking forward to that and they were a Premier League team last year, they've got some good quality players so we're looking forward to that challenge as every game is in the Championship."

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"There's never an easy game in the Championship," he said. "Maybe their squad doesn't reflect where they should be in the table but there's plenty of time left in the season and we just have to take every game as it comes and we'll be looking to get a good result tomorrow and a good performance."