Promotion message now clear but Sheffield United have lessons to learn from Reading defeat

With the race for promotion starting to really hot up, Sheffield United's performance against Reading could hardly have come at a worse time. Not since the early part of Slavisa Jokanovic's reign have we seen this team so disjointed, out of form and lacking quality.

They were second best all over the pitch as Reading put together a 'proper team performance' in the eyes of their manager Paul Ince. They were everything United weren't.

While an opportunity missed, there wasn't too much damage done to their league position. They started and ended the day in sixth place. With only four games remaining, Paul Heckingbottom says his players are now in a sprint finish to the line in a bid to secure one of those four play-off places.

Although accepting Reading were full value for their win, he was disappointed with the manner of their winner, coming so soon after United had grabbed a late equaliser. It was a dramatic finish we have already seen before when Huddersfield did exactly the same back in August.

With more twists and turns to come and the pressure starting to ramp up, his message to his players was clear at full-time. They must learn their lesson from this defeat and hold their nerve in these remaining fixtures.

"That was the takeaway message that I left with the players," he told Yorkshire Live. "You look at where we are now, we have four games left. It's turning into a sprint, there are more teams involved because of other results and games are going to get tighter and nervier and more important than that one.

"The message is we have to make better decisions. I thought the emotion of scoring and the stadium erupting affected our next two minutes.

"We had more than enough experience to get set up properly to deal