Wilder has Dalglish in sight

AVOID defeat at Norwich City today and Sheffield United will match Kenny Dalglish’s Blackburn Rovers as the only newly promoted team to remain unbeaten in their first eight away games during the Premier League era.

Rovers were the richest club in England at the time, boasting the country’s most expensive player in Alan Shearer and destined to be champions two seasons later.

Sheffield United have done it a different way under Chris Wilder, who has largely kept faith with the players who did well for him in the Championship and given license for his famed overlapping centre-backs to keep breaking forward.

They have won at Everton and come from behind to gain draws at Chelsea, Tottenham and Bournemouth. Last Sunday, they left Molineux with a point against a Wolves team who began this weekend in fifth place.

‘We’ve been consistent in our approach, home or away. We don’t do anything different,’ says Wilder. ‘We played one of the best sides in the division on Sunday and wanted to get out of the traps quickly. It’s the same as always and has worked well for us. We need to be bang at it on Sunday to keep the run going.’

Ironically, Sheffield United’s 2-0 reverse against Newcastle on Thursday night, their first defeat in eight games, was the fourth they have lost on home soil.

But Wilder said: ‘Mentally, they are a very strong group. We saw that last season by going to Leeds and West Brom and getting results when the pressure was on for promotion.

‘A lot of people wrote us off at the start of the season. It was music to our ears. We thought “we’ll show you” and stuck to our principles. Yes, we’ve just lost at home to Newcastle but it won’t damage our confidence.’