Fortress Bramall Lane once again makes the difference as Sheffield United return to the playoff spots

Sheffield United returned to the playoff positions with a 1-0 victory over Queens Park Rangers, once again seeing the Blades victorious at Bramall Lane.

The South Yorkshire side’s home form under Paul Heckingbottom has been remarkable, with United now victorious in eight of their ten games in S2, drawing the other two.

Oliver Norwood’s first goal of the season was enough to separate the two sides on Tuesday evening as the 30-year-old capped off a lovely corner routine.

Now, with six games of the regular season to go, the Blades must remain steely and ensure that they finish the season in the top six.

In terms of remaining fixtures, Heckingbottom’s men are blessed with the fact that four of the final six are at home, although two of them are against the clear favourites for automatic promotion in Fulham and Bournemouth.

Strugglers Reading and midtable Cardiff City are also yet to make the trip to Bramall Lane whilst away games against Bristol City and QPR are still on the calendar.

On paper, the South Yorkshire outfit doesn’t have the most talented squad out of those currently in the race for a top-six spot. However, it’s hard to argue that any other side has as much experience as this unit.

Although there are younger stalwarts, such as Morgan Gibbs-White and Sander Berge, most of the squad played together when putting together the Blades’ last successful promotion campaign in 2018/19.

The likes of Norwood, John Fleck, Enda Stevens, Chris Basham, John Egan and Billy Sharp all have at least one promotion at Sheffield United on their CV, with some playing key roles in the 2016/17 League One promotion campaign.

United’s average age is also 27.1 years. However, it can also be argued that Heckingbottom doesn’t have much experience as a manager at this level whilst, for example, Nottingham Forest’s Steve Cooper guided Swansea to the playoff final last term having taken the Swans to the semi-finals the season prior.

With one of the best fanbases in the second tier, some of the best players and good form, securing a playoff spot is certainly on the cards for United. Whether or not they could complete something special will have to be discovered.

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