Sheffield United vs Rotherham United

UTB 05
Paul Heckingbot tom
MANAGER’S NOTES
It has been pleasing to see
everyone’s hard work being
rewarded recently.
Interestingly, or coincidentally, our return
to winning form has been whilst the live
TV cameras have been on us. Three wins
in seven days has, I hope, highlighted that
we are a team that has to be respected
and are capable of winning matches in
different ways. At West Brom we deserved
it, at Bristol City we dug in and on Saturday
we were impressive in ending Burnley’s
unbeaten run – a fantastic team effort
which, it seemed, lifted Blades fans who
were inside Bramall Lane. The character
of the team showed and everyone was
understandably delighted at full-time.
We played our way back into the game
after a challenging start and the response
following Burnley’s second goal set us
up to get on top in the second half. We
played how we wanted to, we worked
on our approach at the end of last week
and it would have been foolish not to take
into account where we would have an
advantage.
There was lots to be pleased with,
particularly in the second half, we were
adamant we didn’t want Burnley to come
and have it their way and make it a game
they wanted, we wanted to make it about
how we want to play. Even though a few
things went against us, we went out and
showed belief to keep executing what we
wanted and did it extremely well.
We didn’t rest and we were quickly
back thinking about tonight’s game – the
work that goes on away from the lights by
everyone with a Blades badge on their
chest is extensive and is aimed at getting
the most out of what we’ve got. It’s a quick
turn around and there’s many points to
consider when we are talking about the
availability of players and we, like every
club, are careful with the information
we give out. We don’t want to give the
opposition an advantage by knowing who
is or isn’t available and it isn’t a secret that
we’ve had one or two issues with injuries.
The on-going situation is something that is
talked about frequently and it is frustration
for all involved, but we will not use it as
an excuse. Recently, we’ve had one eye
on the World Cup break with the hope of
giving the players that need it a rest or
extra time to rehabilitate as we plan for a
busy December and festive period.
All of the above considered, we remain
competitive and there can be no question,
after the last couple of fixtures, that the
Lane is the place for entertainment and
despite not having the cameras to shine
in front of tonight, hopefully we can
continue impressing. This will be a good
test because Matt Taylor and his team will
make it difficult for us. Myself and Macca
were at Turf Moor on Wednesday where
we watched Rotherham leading against
Burnley until they went down to 10 men
and lost to a heart breaking 100th minute
goal. This South Yorkshire derby tonight
will be another big test for us. We have to
be prepared, teams will want to beat us
or stop us from playing our way, but our
aim remains to be strong, dominate the
ball where possible and entertain, that’s
important with in excess of 27,000 home
supporters here on a midweek evening.
With it being our last home game for a
month, let’s all enjoy it, we want and need
to keep collecting points in this tough,
tough division.
Hecky
SHEFFIELD UNITED vs ROTHERHAM UNITED