Sheffield United manager Paul Heckingbottom delighted with Stoke result

Sheffield United manager Paul Heckingbottom was pleased to come through a tough Championship game against Stoke with a 3-1 victory and expects more tests as the season goes on.

Jayden Bogle scored twice after Iliman Ndiaye opened the scoring. Nick Powell’s goal at the end of the first half reduced the arrears before Bogle’s second in the final minute secured the points.

Heckingbottom said: “We prepared for how tough the game was going to be and I’m expecting 19 more tough ones just like that.

“I’m frustrated because we recover great off one of their counter-attacks, but then they have a throw-in and we were slow to set-up. That’s the one black mark against us today.

“We had control of the game up until that point. Our first goal was a fantastic goal.

“Jacob Brown had that header and that was it. We expected a tough game and we got one.

“For me he (Ndiaye) was the Player of the Month in December, but he didn’t get it. Anyone who watched all our games would struggle to find a better player than Iliman. He’s answered again with that (the goal). He was really good.

“Everyone is involved in how we attack. Everyone is challenged to create goals and score goals.

“When we need to have control of the game without the ball, we know what we do and we know how we want to do it. It allows us to see games out.

“I just think there are going to be so many ups and downs between now and the end of the season. The more wins we get now the better we’ll be.”

On Bogle, Heckingbottom said: “He’s a dribbler, he’s a jinker. For a wing-back – how we play him – he can defend one v one and he’s certainly improved on that in my time here. He’s a very strong defender.

“He’s got a bit of unpredictability in the final third and for me that’s to be encouraged.”

Stoke boss Alex Neil accepted his share of the blame for the defeat, saying: “I’ll take a big part of the criticism in the fact that I wanted us to play and open the pitch out.

“We did to our own detriment, really, because the first goal came when we hit them down the right-hand side. They’ve got two strikers in the box and we’ve got three centre-backs – we don’t pick them up and they score.

“For the second one, we lose the ball, trying to play in our own half.

“Then we get a goal back and in the second half, I changed it. We didn’t risk the ball from the back and tried to play on the front foot more and pin them in.

“It might not be pretty but we were better doing it. We looked better.

“I thought that we were arguably the team that looked more likely to score in the second half.

“Then the third goal pretty much sums our games up recently. ‘Jags’ goes in for a tackle, it rattles off their lad, lands in behind us, we don’t anticipate it quickly enough and he squares it and finishes the game off.

“I thought it was harsh at that point – I don’t think they deserved a goal at that stage.

“I thought we were passive in the first half, but I can’t fault the lads’ effort in the second half.”