BLADES A CUT ABOVE
United upset the champs
PAUL HECKINGBOTTOM will aim to sprinkle a little play-off stardust on his Sheffield United side for their upcoming semi-final showdown with Nottingham Forest as they bid to bury a hoodoo.
Heckingbottom has transformed a side going nowhere when he took over from Slavisa Jokanovic in late November, steering the Blades from 16th to a fifth-place finish and encouraging hopes of an immediate Premier League return.
The turnaround has been remarkable and yesterday’s demolition of champions Fulham underlined United’s pedigree — but they have never been promoted via the endof-season lottery.
Heckingbottom has previously gone up via the play-offs as a player and manager, and celebrated the Blades’ top-six finish with his squad and staff at the club’s end-of-season awards last night. Heckingbottom said: ‘We have still got something to play for and it’s the biggest prize so we will try and take it. We’ve got to embrace it.
‘Forest and ourselves know each other well and they will be two good games. We have belief going into the play-offs, but we haven’t won or achieved anything yet.
‘This performance just reinforces the belief of what we’re about.’
Certainly the manner in which they so ruthlessly dismantled Marco Silva’s table-topping Cottagers will inspire confidence in the Blades. So, too, will their form at Bramall Lane, where they have lost only once since Heckingbottom took the reins.
It is a formidable record and a near-capacity 30,813 crowd saw United overcome Fulham’s bright start to assume total control.
The hosts led in the 10th minute through Morgan Gibbs-White when Ben Osborn found space inside the right channel.
His pass found Oliver Norwood, whose fine cross was headed home by Gibbs-White via the inside of the post.
Wolves loanee Gibbs-White, bubbling with self-belief, produced a piece of neat footwork to engineer the space to hit a low shot which flew into the side netting before the Blades struck a second goal in the 21st minute.
Jean Michael Seri carelessly squandered possession and Sander Berge quickly moved the ball to Gibbs-White, whose neat pass found Iliman Ndiaye and he rifled in a low strike.
The decibel levels continued to rise and the Blades added a third goal when the ubiquitous Ndiaye reached the left-hand byline and cut the ball back for Berge to sweep home from the edge of the six-yard box.
A fourth came in the 49th minute when a delightful passing sequence saw Berge find wingback Enda Stevens, who fired in with a low and hard effort.
Chances fell for both sides and Fulham boss Silva admitted: ‘It definitely wasn’t the way we wanted to finish the season. The second and third goals were sloppy and reflected our performance.
‘We weren’t good enough or aggressive enough and they punished us, but I don’t want to use our title celebrations as an excuse.’