Sheffield United manager Paul Heckingbottom admitted that it is now “all to play for” in the race for automatic promotion to the Premier League after his side secured a hard-earned 1-0 victory at Reading.
After a scrappy first half, United made the decisive breakthrough in the Sky Bet Championship contest when Iliman Ndiaye tucked home from close range for his 12th goal of the season.
The second-placed Blades survived a late rally from Reading and extended their lead over third-placed Middlesbrough to seven points.
Heckingbottom, who watched from the stands as he served the final game of his three-match touchline ban, said: “We know where we are now.
“There’s always been games in hand, games either way, whatever. But now we’re seven points clear [of Boro] with 11 games left. There it is. It’s all to play for.
“It was a good win for us, a big win. We were really strong in the first half but we wanted to pose more of a threat in the second and the goal was a fine example of that.
“For all the possession that we had, we could have had more balls slid down the side of Reading’s centre-backs and really caused them more problems.
“We kept getting into that final third but then it was a case of ‘what’s next?’ We had to get their centre-backs facing the way that they didn’t want to and then see what we could produce.
“We had big performances all the way through, although we didn’t pass the ball as well as we would have wanted in the second half.”
Reading lost at for the first time in eight games in all competitions, a run going back to early November.
Royals boss Paul Ince said: “We played well tonight, we did really well. I’m just disappointed that we didn’t get anything from the game.
“It was a great response after the poor second half against Middlesbrough last week (a 5-0 defeat). It was a good reaction.
“You’re playing a team that could go up automatically or via the play-offs but we competed with them and played some good football.
“We mixed it up well and, in the last 15 minutes, they (United) were just kicking it up the park and you could see them at panic stations.
“I get that, today was obviously a massive win for them because it puts them seven points clear of Boro.
“But, for us, it was just so disappointing because we played so well and we deserved something at the end.
“When you look at their goal, it was just one mistake from us, one fine detail – and they go bang, bang and score.
“But today’s about being positive because I think the display warrants that.”
