Sheffield United boss Paul Heckingbottom urged his side to enjoy themselves after clinching promotion to the Premier League with a 2-0 win over West Brom at Bramall Lane.
Second-half goals from Sander Berge and Anel Ahmedhodzic gave the Blades, who lost in the play-offs last term, the victory they needed to seal their return to the top flight.
Heckingbottom said: “I said to the players before the game we got so close to promotion last season. We’ve got to enjoy this, you enjoy every win and when it’s a win as special and significant as this, we are going to have a good time.
“I thought in the second half we were much better, we stepped on to them a lot more and we changed the midfield around slightly, we went to a three-man midfield.
“West Brom are very well organised and if we didn’t get through them in the first two or three passes, they had two banks of four and were difficult to break down and were breaking on us. So we had to work hard but we’ve had that in every game.
“I think you have to be motivated by winning; you’ve got to take the risks. You may end up failing or doing things that cost you your job but you’ve got to go for it.
“I don’t think it will sink in for a while but I’m just determined to enjoy tonight and make sure everyone else enjoys tonight. It’s a shame we’ve got three more games left!”
West Brom manager Carlos Corberan said his team, two points off the play-off places, are going to fight to win their remaining two games.
Corberan said: “For me, we played with personality, even if we didn’t achieve the result we wanted to. I think the team was competing well enough until the first goal.
Premier League Bound Blades. 🆙 pic.twitter.com/EUn4fxPZDo
— Sheffield United (@SheffieldUnited) April 26, 2023
“We had a big chance early on but unfortunately we couldn’t score. The players have put a lot of effort in and I have to give them credit because they were trying to be brave.
“It was an even game and then we conceded the goal which unbalanced the game and emotionally it was difficult to change the result.
“The way to change games like these is to attack but in the last third of the pitch we didn’t find the solutions to connect and create something else.
“They were better than us in the attacking half and we couldn’t find a way to unbalance the game like they did.
“Until the end we are going to fight to win football games. We have six points left to play for and we have to be determined to give our best and be focused on what we have to do.”
