Paul Heckingbottom offers verdict on Sheffield United performance in win at Birmingham

Paul Heckingbottom was full of praise for his Sheffield United side as they came from a goal down to beat Birmingham City on Friday night. 

It was a cagey game with the Blades creating more than enough chances, keeping opposition goalkeeper Neil Etheridge busy throughout.

However, Birmingham proved to be stubborn opposition as Sheffield United struggled for long periods to find a breakthrough.

It was a goalless first half before the game sparked into life as Lyle Taylor put the Blues ahead. However, the lead didn’t last long as Billy Sharp latched onto Sander Berge’s neat pass to thread home an equally impressive goal of his own.

Sheffield United scored the winner just ten minutes later when John Fleck played in Jayden Bogle, who timed his run to evade the linesman’s flag and slot home between Blues keeper Neil Etheridge’s outstretched legs.

This led to manager Paul Heckingbottom praising his players, telling Sky Sports: “A real good win, the fact that we fell behind and the way we responded, I felt we deserved it. The first half we were a little bit off but we got a lot more sharp moments in the second half.

“Both were good finishes from Billy and Jayden – and the second was a great team goal. We’ve now put ourselves into an even better position to go on from this. We’re delighted where we are.”

That win means that Sheffield United are now tenth in the Championship table, three points adrift of the play-off places ahead of their clash with West Brom on Wednesday night.

The Verdict

It was a positive second half performance from Sheffield United who were unlucky not to get a penalty in the first half after Iliman Ndiaye was tripped.

Obviously going behind was a sucker punch, but United kept cool, rallied and got the win