Sheffield United player details key reason behind their failure to get promoted last season | OneFootball

Sheffield United midfielder Oliver Norwood believes the Blades missed out on promotion to the top flight at the end of last season because they ran out of time, speaking to The Star.

The Blades had made a poor start to life back in the Championship under Slavisa Jokanovic before the Serbian’s dismissal in November, with Paul Heckingbottom coming in and instantly improving their fortunes with a change of style.

Sitting in 16th place following Jokanovic’s last game in charge, they managed to secure a fifth-place at the end of the 2021/22 campaign with Heckingbottom overseeing just one home defeat during the remainder of that season.

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But they drew the short straw by coming up against eventual play-off winners Nottingham Forest in the semi-final of the competition – and went into the second leg at the City Ground 2-1 down following a disappointing first tie.

However, they managed to get themselves into a 2-1 lead through Morgan Gibbs-White and John Fleck, and had a golden opportunity to make it 3-1 with the Blades dominating that tie.

Unfortunately though, the visitors were unable to capitalise on this as they lost the penalty shoot-out, consigning the Blades to another season in the second tier.

In the end, time was United’s worst enemy according to Norwood, both in terms of winning automatic promotion and that play-off semi-final clash in the East Midlands.

He said: “Last season we ran out of time. It’s pretty simple really.

“If we had a bit more time – even five or 10 minutes more of the Forest game – it may have been a different story.”

The Verdict:

Unfortunately, a slow start to the campaign cost them, though this was to be expected considering the club’s board probably didn’t provide enough backing to Jokanovic to make the changes he wanted.

As well as this, most of his summer additions came in during the late stages of the window so you do have to feel for Serbian – because he needed more signings to stamp his authority on the second-tier side’s squad.

If the Blades weren’t going to spend a huge amount of money, they needed to appoint someone like Heckingbottom who could retain the back three system but provide a different voice and set of methods.

The backline certainly benefitted from their current manager’s arrival and with the Blades able to conduct some shrewd business this summer, they have put themselves in a good position to get back to the Premier League at the first time of asking.

And with a strong start to the season under their belt, they will have a great chance of being in the mix during the latter stages of this term, as long as they can keep their consistency.