Don't play for two weeks and then you play three times in six days, why? because it's live on Sky, irony is results have dipped this week althoug performances haven't , and I've not mentioned duff refs yet. https://www.sufc.co.uk/ MANAGER Christopher John Wilder (born 23 September 1967) is an English professional football manager who formerly played as a right-back. He is the manager of EFL Championship club Sheffield United. Wilder's extensive professional playing career saw spells at Sheffield United (twice), Rotherham United, Notts County, Bradford City, Brighton & Hove Albion and Halifax Town. He also had loan spells at five clubs. After retiring, he became a manager and was in charge of Alfreton Town, Halifax Town (their last manager before liquidation), Oxford United, Northampton Town, Sheffield United, Middlesbrough and Watford. He won promotion from the Conference Premier with Oxford via the play-offs in 2010, from League Two as champions with Northampton in 2016, from League One with Sheffield United as champions in 2017, and from the Championship with the same club two years later. please log in to view this image INS AND OUTS please log in to view this image FORM GUIDE please log in to view this image PNE 6 BLADES 13 please log in to view this image please log in to view this image
Team News Paul Heckingbottom should be able to call upon the same group of players who faced Birmingham City during the week. Odel Offiah made his first league start for the club on Tuesday and won the man of the match award, so will be hoping to keep hold of his place in the team. Long-term absentees Brad Potts, Jordan Thompson, Pol Valentín, Robbie Brady and Will Keane remain unavailable. The Visitors It’s been all change and then change again at Bramall Lane over the past few months, with Chris Wilder moving on at the end of the 2024/25 season when Sheffield United were beaten at Wembley in the Play-Off final. In came Rubén Sellés as manager, however the former Hull City boss was relieved of his duties following six straight defeats at the start of the season, and Wilder was then reappointed. The Blades’ fortunes have started to turn since and they’ll arrive at Deepdale on Friday following back-to-back victories over Watford and Blackburn Rovers. Match Officials Referee: Farai Hallam Assistant Referees: Akil Howson and Nigel Lugg Fourth Official: John Busby Farai Hallam will referee only the second PNE match of his career on Friday night. The first was the 1-1 draw at home to Stoke City in April 2025. So far this season, Hallam has shown 33 yellow cards in eight matches. HE GAVE STOKE A DUBIOUS PENALTY, HECK Paul Heckingbottom wants to see more of the same from his side on Friday night, albeit with a better result at the end of it. North End go into the clash with Sheffield United following back-to-back defeats for the first time this season, although the manager has been happy enough with his side’s performances in those losses. Asked what he hopes to see against the Blades, Hecky said: “Hopefully more of the same of how we’ve been performing, only with a better result. “Watching the [Birmingham] game back and more than that then reflecting on the two days' prep we did and how the staff delivered that and the decisions we made, I’m really pleased with everything other than the result. That's the frustrating part, so more of the same.” In Sheffield United, PNE are taking on a side who were a game away from returning to the Premier League last season, but the start of this campaign has been a complete contrast. After six straight defeats, Rubén Sellés was relieved of his duties and Chris Wilder returned, and the Blades have seen an upturn in form since his appointment at Bramall Lane. Hecky – who led the Yorkshire outfit to the Premier League in 2023 – feels they’re far better than their current position in the table. Hecky said: “They’ve spent money again. They’ve lost a couple of big players but spent money again and invested in the squad. I'm sure the previous manager would have liked that investment and all the squad put together earlier because if it's not you always feel like you're chasing. I think they've been a victim of that. “But certainly with the calibre of player, the size of the squad, and the quality of the squad, it's no surprise to me that they've started picking up results.” It was a frustrating defeat to Birmingham City for North End on Tuesday night, but one of the real bright sparks of the evening was the performance of Odel Offiah. Handed his first league start for the club, the defender took his opportunity and ended the day with the man of the match award. Hecky said: “Odel’s been great. It was a toss of the coin at the start of the season. He was really pushing Jordan [Storey]. Jordan's responded well. I think I've said a couple of times before, Jordan knows he's got someone champing at the bit desperate to play. “He's earned his place in the team. I didn't know he'd got man of the match the other night, but I can see why. I had a little sit with him afterwards and we've been through a couple of things from the game that he did really, really well, and then bits that we still want him to touch up on. “But he can be really pleased with how he played because he's out of his comfort zone when we're playing him there because the things we're asking him to do, he’s never been in those starting positions before. “It might sound silly, but he’s an attacking player. We have him attacking from centre-back, we have him attacking from right-back, but [when he's at] wing-back a lot of the time we're asking him to receive the ball a lot higher, which is different for him.”
Less than 1 minute ago please log in to view this image Attendance: 16,542 (2,386 Sheffield United fans). Referee: Farai Hallam. BIG ARTHUR please log in to view this image Two nil up f**ked it up, long time we have come back from a position like that probably Fleetwood 2014 was the last time and to do it against thhe Blades is even better due to the fact we rarely beat them. McCann out with a broken arm, Gibson injured during the game could also be out for a while as well but those plus some dire defending in the first half were the only downside of a crazy game. First ten minutes Blades could barely get out of their own half, by the time a quarter of an hour had elapsed they were two up, the first Brooks who was granted the freedom of the entire half ran onto towards goal and scored easily, bit of fortune a couple of deflections and O'Hair skipspast Armstrong and it's two. For the next 30 minutes we played like strangers, the ball spending much of the time in the air, whilst United harried us out of possession, did well to keep the score down. Game changed with Gibson's injury, Lindsay different type of player to Gibson and as a result we didn't faff around at the back as much, ball began to played upfield quicker. Dobbin in injury time reduced the deficeit, nicely taken shot from outside the box. United kicked off the second half and within 75 seconds were kicking off again. Devine free kick, Storey header expertly put into his own net via the thigh of United skipper Tanganga. Before the hour in front, Vukcevic burst of speed past Tanganga, cross into the centre Jebbison header 3-2 we were probably helped by a United defender doing a Long John Silver impression, but c'est la vie Devine and Small both went close before United started to pin us back, bit of naff defending by Small set up a chance but O'Hair couldn't quite get and Soumare missed from close range. Then the Smith must sore moment, great cross by Thor and Smith puts it wide of an open goal from less than 10 yards, luckily it didn't come back to haunt us. After Ings put a free kick into the away end the referee who in the main had a decent game blew the final whistle(he did miss a handball in the first half though) HECK Paul Heckingbottom felt his side showed what they’re all about in the remarkable 3-2 comeback victory over Sheffield United. North End found themselves two goals down inside the opening 16 minutes, but a Lewis Dobbin strike in the fourth minute of first-half stoppage-time brought the Lilywhites back into it. A Japhet Tanganga own goal in the opening minute of the second period saw PNE go level before former Blade Daniel Jebbison completed a stunning turnaround. Hecky said: “I’m really, really pleased with the players after a really frustrating night midweek. They’ve showed what they're all about again tonight. “I'm really proud of them, with the spirit, the energy, the performance, the 15 players who were on the pitch. It will always be a team game. I’m really, really proud. “It's difficult against a team that are very, very good on the counter and you could see that. We started the game fantastically well and we've got some young players in the team and we've got Odel [Offiah] playing out of position. We just switched off and bang, all of a sudden we're one down and we give them the second goal and that's against a team who are really good at setting up to just play on the break. “But we played into their hands for ten minutes after the second goal. We just lost our shape and our discipline with the ball, trying to get the first goal, second goal, third goal all straight away and just played into their hands for a bit. Once we corrected that, we were fine. The goals we scored were excellent.” Jebbison, who made his professional debut for Sheffield United under Heckingbottom, was the match-winner at Deepdale in a moment he visibly enjoyed. The forward was teased with ‘Jebbo, what’s the score?’ chants from the away end at 2-0 down – chants which were fired back at the Bill Shankly Kop from the PNE fans in the second half. Hecky said: “I was just making sure he wasn't going to do anything silly on the pitch and start getting involved in celebrations, giving a bit back because it can always come back and bite you when you're giving stick either way. “But he's a popular member of the squad. He’s performing really well at the minute, doing a real shift for the team and I'm delighted he got the winner.” CHRIS United manager Chris Wilder highlighted positives in the Blades' performance but conceded his side only had themselves to blame after a 3-2 defeat at Preston North End. The Blades looked comfortable, leading 2-0 and playing well after goals from Andre Brooks and Callum O'Hare, but Preston hit back just before and after the interval, completing the turnaround in the second half. After the game, Wilder admitted it was a game his side should have put to bed. He said: "Scratching my head how we've not walked away with three points. Unbelievable, but we've only got ourselves to blame. Game management, naivety of the team. I think the game plan in terms of setting up worked in our favour. We set traps, we pounced, we countered, we looked a really good side. We have to put teams to bed though. "We have to take the game away and then we have to realise when we're coming up to half-time that there's game management about it. What is the feeling of this place going to be like after 45, 46 minutes with the home team 2-0 down and possibly Paul and Stuart scratching their head and maybe thinking, dear me, we've dodged a bit of a bullet here because the game should be done, but it wasn't because we didn't turn the ball down the side. We tried to be too intricate with it and then we made a really poor decision to go and engage in a tackle where we didn't and then you're feeling it. "Their boys sprinted down the tunnel and no doubt the team talk from them would be, right, we need to be a load better. We conceded a free kick straight after half-time, allowed them to put the ball in our box. We get blocked, boy wins a header, comes off Japh and all of a sudden it's game on and it's two each. I think we're really unfortunate with the third goal. Mark McGuinness gets a whack and he's desperately trying to get back into the middle of the goal, maybe we should come over and shuffle over. All of a sudden it's game on and really we're all scratching our heads in the changing room afterwards." United controlled the game for much of the first half but the Blades boss stated conceding three goals was always going to make life difficult. He added: "I thought we were good, maybe the opposition might think it was them, but I thought we were really good. We were really good in our structure, we set traps, we jumped it, when they went long, we jumped on the second ball, we played our way out of it, we created opportunities. It wasn't just set plays or direct play, even though there's always different ways to win games, it was combinations, it was opportunities, but I'm going to talk about, from a defensive point of view, conceding three goals gives us an uphill task in terms of trying to win a game of football."
