What the youth of Sheffield United can bring to beleaguered Blades

One thing at least that Chris Wilder’s gradual promotion of kids should guarantee is a partial lifting of the gloom at doomwatch Bramall Lane. Not that anyone can, or should, blame the many thousands of Sheffield United fans who have fled the ground early twice in recent weeks.

Ordinarily you’d question their commitment as true supporters - but these are not normal times. While the Premier League can be an enjoyable experience even for relegated teams, there’s no fun in seeing your team routinely humiliated. More excruciatingly than excitingly, there are still five home games to come when some folk might prefer none at all and an end to this nightmare.

But I can see the mood changing in line with the manager’s look towards the future - though it will be interesting to see if he tempers it a touch now that Nottingham Forest’s points deduction has given the Blades at least a glimmer of hope. It’s an uncharacteristic call for any experienced boss. The time-honoured moment for blooding youngsters is when things are going well and you have a settled array of senior players to see them through. And in embattled circumstances, you’d normally look to those seniors to dig you out of a hole.

So it’s a telling indicator of how desperate this situation, injuries included, has become for Wilder to veer in the opposite direction. But one thing always on the side of young lads is a sympathetic and supportive crowd. I’d expect Bramall Lane to provide that, even from those who have “deserted” the team recently. It’s a chance for them to see some rising talent and, for the youngsters, a valuable experience in an environment where they cannot be judged too harshly.

So the Fulham game a week on Saturday is a chance to start a reconnection and draw a line under an unprecedented sequence of Bramall Lane drubbings. Conceding 21 goals in the last four has stripped the stadium of it once feared image. Never before can you recall home players being in trepidation and not the opposition.

It needs one brave performance, with empathetic backing, to change that. Let’s hope the international break has provided a reset moment.