Boss Paul’s delight as Blades sink sorry Blues

PAUL Heckingbottom praised the Blades’ battling spirit as they came from behind to maintain their play-off hopes.

In another game featuring protests from fed-up Blues fans, the visitors fought back from Lyle Taylor’s second goal since joining the home side on loan to clinch the points with strikes from Billy Sharp and Jayden Bogle.

Sections of the home support wore masks as part of their ‘faceless’ protest and blew whistles in the opening ten minutes, but the visitors overcame the disruption to clinch their fourth win on the bounce.

The victory means Blades are only three points off the playoffs ahead of Wednesday’s huge clash with West Brom.

“I’m happy with the three points, the nature of the victory and the fact that we fell behind and responded,” said boss Heckingbottom.

“We showed great mentality to come back into the game and the goals were fantastic. There’s no easy game in this league. To restrict Birmingham to the chances they had, we did really well.”

Despite the troubles off the field,

Lee Bowyer’s side had the better of the chances in the first half with Kristian Pedersen and Onel Hernandez both missing the target from close range.

Blues broke the deadlock on the hour mark courtesy of their two recent signings when Juninho Bacuna’s delicate flick created the space for Taylor, who slotted past Wes Foderingham from close range.

Heckingbottom’s side levelled three minutes later when Fleck opened up space in the middle for Berge to set up Sharp for his ninth goal of the season.

And they completed the turnaround in the 75th minute when a neat interchange of passes involving Berge, Sharp and Bogle resulted in the right-back poking the ball under Etheridge.

Blues boss Bowyer received a yellow card following the goal for protesting that an earlier offside was not picked up.

“The rules change every game,” he fumed. “I’m upset and disappointed because my players deserved more.

“I feel for the players, but I feel for the fans. They spend their hard-earned money every week and they shouldn’t be going home with nothing.”