ACE McBURNIE STAYS RED-HOT

Points dropped, but Oli still burns Blues

REVITALISED Oli McBurnie is aiming to maintain his red-hot scoring streak despite Sheffield United’s promotion bid stuttering for once.

The Blades had won their previous four games on home soil this term but could not make it five after Birmingham captain Troy Deeney cancelled out McBurnie’s opener.

McBurnie hammered in a thunderous shot in the 64th minute for his fifth goal in six games before Deeney equalised with a clinical close-range strike six minutes later.

After scoring just twice in the past two seasons, McBurnie is just delighted to be back among the goals despite the leaders failing to take maximum points.

The 26-year-old Scotland striker (celebrating, left) said: “We knew that Birmingham were going to come and make things difficult for us. But that made it even more frustrating because we feel like we can and should beat everyone here.

“It feels like two points dropped, but we didn’t really create too many clear-cut chances.

“That bit of magic wasn’t quite there, but maybe we will look back on it in the next few weeks and say it was a good point.”

On his superbly-executed goal, McBurnie added: “I just tried to hit it as hard as I could.

“I think I was just getting angry because I wasn’t really touching the ball in the game.

“It’s a nice feeling to get another goal. When you’re on a run you just want to keep going.

“With the amount of games coming up, I want to keep it going and hopefully get another couple on Tuesday.

“It’s that age-old thing of confidence – when you are scoring you feel as though everything’s going to go in.

“I definitely feel more appreciative now of good form and it’s good to enjoy my football with these boys. Everyone is buzzing around and you can see that – everyone is fighting for places and it’s a good place to be at the minute.” Table-topping Blades are unbeaten in 10 games and key players are returning from injury.

Boss Paul Heckingbottom said of McBurnie: “Oli’s where we want him to be and where he needs to be, not just for us and his team-mates, but also for him as a person. He probably didn’t realise that in the past.” Deeney’s strike was his first of the season and the big striker (below) paid tribute to Blues manager John Eustace afterwards, saying: “This kind of performance shows the culture the gaffer is trying to create and what the players are trying to buy into. “We’re a decent outfit but we just need to start believing in ourselves. To get a point away at a team who are top shows how far we’ve come.” Next up for Blues is a trip to Middlesbrough on Wednesday.