Although Sheffield United now find their automatic promotion dreams in tatters, the determined Blades will still feel confident they can achieve promotion via the lottery of the Championship playoffs after Friday night’s comfortable 2-0 win over Stoke City.
This routine victory away at the Potters was their 28th of the season to date, which is the most tallied up by a side, funnily enough, even as Leeds United and Burnley showed off their superiority in the confirmed top two.
The United away masses who made the trip down to Staffordshire would have been largely delighted with what they saw from their team, with a fight and bite present in their game, alongside moments of quality to seal a confidence-boosting three points.
Top Blades performers vs Stoke
Both goals on the day would come from unlikely sources, with former Norwich City full-back Sam McCallum powering home a header deep into the first half, before second-half substitute Andre Brooks made sure of the win with a late breakaway strike.
McCallum impressed in spurts on just his eighth league start of the campaign, with the 24-year-old managing to win all of his aerial duels on the night, away from connecting valiantly to this corner delivery.
McCallum wasn’t the only stern body in Wilder’s defence, with Rob Holding – who will be wanting to impress ahead of the playoffs – also excelling as his side picked up a well-deserved clean sheet, with the ex-Arsenal man managing to win five duels of his own.
Kieffer Moore also shone up top for the Blades in what was an attritional contest, considering the Welshman won a staggering 15 duels in total, away from unfortunately squandering five shots on the Potters net.
But, not everyone adorned in the United away top would be overjoyed with their efforts at the full-time whistle, with this underperformer now at risk of being dropped for the intense playoff matches to come.
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It was certainly a full-blooded affair between Mark Robins’ hosts and Wilder’s visitors, with five yellow cards being handed out across the duration of the feisty 90 minutes.
Whilst that suited the likes of Moore with his towering 6 foot 5 frame, ex-Stoke City man Tyrese Campbell would flounder on the contrary, with the bruising nature of the contest proving to be too much for the 25-year-old up against his former employers.
Minutes played
65
Goals scored
0
Assists
0
Touches
23
Accurate passes
10/14 (71%)
Shots
3
Total duels won
3/9
Looking at the table above – away from losing out on six duels across the 2-0 win – Campbell would regularly find himself out of the contest in an attacking capacity, leading to the United number 23 amassing just 23 touches of the ball.
Even Michael Cooper, in-between the sticks for the away side, would accumulate more touches with 43, culminating in Wilder bringing off the out-of-sorts attacker for Tom Cannon to get a cameo at the end.
After all, Cannon has recently broke his goalscoring duck for the promotion hopefuls against Burnley, meaning he could be in line for more first-team chances soon, having shown a glimpse of the quality that he can provide.
Campbell does boast ten league goals for the season, but with no strikes now from his last six Championship outings, a fresh body up top might well start against Blackburn Rovers on the final day, before the nerve-wracking playoffs kick off.
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