Paul Heckingbottom says Sheffield United 'will keep getting better' ahead of Wednesday night's Championship clash with Sunderland at Bramall Lane. A late goal from Chuba Akpom denied the Blades what would have been their second league win of the season on Sunday, in a 2-2 draw with Middlesbrough.
Heckingbottom was pleased with his side's performance at the Riverside, Sheffield United twice taking the lead as they faced off against former boss Chris Wilder and could have won the game. The Blades have picked up four points from their opening three games so far this season, Sunderland up next on Wednesday night.
And although Heckingbottom was disappointed to drop points, he's convinced his side will get better as the season goes on. Speaking to SUTV, he said: "First and foremost I enjoyed the game, I thought it had all sorts in it and I've just said to the players when I enjoy the game it usually means we've done well.
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"I don't want to be on the back foot when we take teams on away from home and I thought we did that today. I thought we had lots of energy, lots of effort, tackles, good quality from both sides in patches, but I'm disappointed we've lost the game from the position we got ourselves in.
"But, I'm not going to be overly critical of the players. Obviously we're disappointed with the goals but we'll keep getting better, of course we will. In terms of how we want to play and the identity of the team, the mentality of the team, that's how we want to play.
"The bits that I'm happy with, when I'm stood on the sideline I want to enjoy watching my team. The effort they put in, the quality on the ball, the intensity which they play, how they stand up to different challenges - we did that and we had a right go.
"I thought we had big spells in the game. First-half, we didn't get enough shots away from positions we got ourselves in. I felt Boro weren't a threat, two attempts on our goal, we scored with out first and we've got in so many good positions and either Andre Marriner stopped us or we gave the ball away ourselves.
"We wanted to be better than that. Second-half I thought we started the second-half really well on the front foot. I honestly though we'd go on to win it but you've probably got to credit Middlesbrough there, they didn't lie down and that's what made it an entertaining game."
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