Paul Heckingbottom reveals Oli McBurnie refused to be denied Sheffield United start due to illness error Yorkshire News

In the absence of the injured Billy Sharp, the centre-forward was one of the home team’s impressive players, whose performance was better than their 1-0 scoreline, and Heckingbottom criticized his failure to convert possession into opportunities.

But McBurnie’s performance was excellent, receiving a standing ovation from an outside crowd then in the background as he walked out after an impressive 73 minutes.

“He’s had some bad luck,” Heckingbottom said of a striker he signed when he was Barnsley manager. “I would have started the weekend if it wasn’t for a thigh strain.

“He’s had moments where he’s been struggling, making himself available for the bench.

“Today he was throwing up with a stomach virus, but if he declared fit, he was going to start it and get what he could out of it.

“He managed to keep some food before the match.

“I knew he wouldn’t last, but I thought his performance was excellent in terms of leading the line and being a target.”

“I’m happy for him, but everyone needs to know what he’s been doing and how he’s been performing.

“He’s been working hard. We’ve explained to him what we expect and what it’s going to take to get him there. Don’t shy away from it, it’s hard work.”

“He bought into it and had to be patient, but he missed opportunities for different reasons, so he insisted he wasn’t going to miss this one.”

The only frustration was that he had nothing else to work with, with promising-looking deep balls getting cut or hit too much and crosses failing to find their man. That the Blades only had nine shots on goal was incredible considering the quality of their play in midfield and Morgan Gibbs-White playing against McBurnie.

It made the clean sheet they kept invaluable.

“I think we played well and had good value for 1-0, we put ourselves in very good positions as the game went on and we started the second half well,” the coach commented.

“Probably the only criticism was that we didn’t create enough chances thanks to the good game we were having and when we were winning the ball high.

“As long as that happens and you only have one goal on it, you know at some point you’re going to know you’re going to have to weather a storm. Teams are going to take chances, they’re going to put bodies higher up the pitch.” , play later.

“If we had capitalized on one of the breaks we had, for example, when Morgan passed, things would have been a lot simpler, but the fact that it didn’t mean we had to rely on that defensive solidity. There were a lot of good examples.” of it from different players.

“Any win when you’re playing with someone around you is big, of course it is.

“It gets even bigger in this business end of the season and with the stakes. It’s a big win, a good win. I was pleased with a lot of things that I saw.”

The match marked the debut of Croatian central defender Filip Uremovic, who was signed during the international break in March due to the suspension of his contract with Russian club Rubin Kazan as a result of the invasion of Ukraine.

It was a solid debut, which unsurprisingly ended after 63 minutes with a cramp.

“Yesterday I saw two games with him playing against Mbappé and people like that. He has played against players that you will never see play in the Championship.”

“He has experience and mental qualities. What he doesn’t have is Championship experience.”

“I had no reservations about his football and his quality.

“It’s the slower nature of the Russian Premier League. It’s much slower with an emphasis on possession. If you can’t see a forward pass before you receive it, usually your first touch is backwards, which means you’re always going to pass. backward.

“In this league, if that first touch is the other way around, you’re inviting a press.

“He was cramping. While aerobically he’s very good, we’ve had him training with us for a few days and we benched him as soon as we could, it’s only his first game in a month so we kind of expected that.

“Emotionally it’s different. It’s his debut and a great game because, regardless of the 26,000 here and the search for a potential place in the Premier League, it’s something important not only for us but for people all over the world.”

“This is one of the biggest leagues in the world, so it was important to him personally.”

The victory moved Sheffield United up to fifth place, with Middlesbrough sixth at home to Fulham on Wednesday.