Sheffield United top Championship winners after dull final day of the regular season

The Championship season ended with a whimper with Sheffield United the big winners in more ways than one…

Winners

Sheffield United

When former Barnsley and Leeds boss Heckingbottom took charge at Bramall Lane in the first half of the season, the Blades looked likelier to face a second successive relegation than fight for an immediate return to the top flight. The hard part was turning a season of struggle under Slavisa Jokanovic into a campaign of joy, hope and excitement. That isn’t to say that winning the play-offs is easy, but United will fancy their chances of defeating first Nottingham Forest over two legs and then either one of Huddersfield or Luton at Wembley.

Performances like this 4-0 demolition of champions Fulham have been rather commonplace as the season progressed, and any more like it will give the South Yorkshire side every chance of joining the Cottagers back in the promised land of the Premier League. Four different goalscorers and four different assist-makers with three players landing on both sides of the goal-getting statistics made for pleasant reading too.

Luton Town

Like Sheffield United, a relatively drama-free lunchtime for Luton. Making a mockery of that 7-0 defeat to Fulham which left their play-off place looking precarious, the Hatters also finished with a five-point cushion to the dotted line. They could have lost 7-0 again and it wouldn’t have mattered thanks to defeats for fellow challengers Millwall and Middlesbrough, but this was as good a way as any to finish the regular season.

The goal was a gift from goalkeeper Orjan Nyland, but Harry Cornick’s snappiness to take the ball from the Norwegian’s feet and finish between the shot stopper – or lack thereof – and the near post still