Paul Heckingbottom: Penalty save gave Sheffield United big lift
Posted Tuesday, December 27, 2022 by PA
Sheffield United manager Paul Heckingbottom talked up the importance of Wes Foderingham’s penalty save at the start of the second half which helped his side beat Coventry 3-1.
After James McAtee had put the Blades ahead in the first half, Foderingham denied Viktor Gyokeres from 12 yards.
Ciaran Clark then put Sheffield United 2-0 ahead four minutes later before substitute Tommy Doyle netted a third to seal a seventh Championship win in eight games, leaving the second-placed Blades eight points clear of Blackburn.
Heckingbottom said: “We got better and better with the ball, but we still needed that big moment from Wes (Foderingham) as well. I thought from that moment on, we took over.
“I thought it gave everyone energy, that save, not just the players. That’s the moment I thought we really took over.
“I thought Coventry paid us a lot of respect by changing how they play a little bit, slowing things down and having the game a bit more fragmented, so we had to somehow take control of the game and get hold of the ball a bit more and make more passes.
“The goal settled us down and we were good from that point. There were lots of big moments.
“The more points we pick up now, the better position we put ourselves in – that’s it. We’ve spoken like that since the start of the season. There will be bumps in the road, so the more we do now, the better we’ll be at the end of the season.
“I think we’re a good side and we’re difficult to play against. If a team beats us, they’ll have played well.
“We’ll push everyone and make sure we give everyone the toughest game we possibly can and test them.”
Gyokeres later found the net to make it 3-1 with 15 minutes remaining before Blades defender John Egan was sent off.
Coventry boss Mark Robins felt that his side failed to build on a promising start.
He said: “I think their goal was the turning point because I thought that up until then, we were the better team.
“I thought we controlled it generally and they were on the back foot for a lot of it. They looked nervy.
“We are better than the goal we conceded. They countered on us from our own corner, which doesn’t generally happen. The way that they broke away, with the quality that they’ve got, was really quick.
“From our point of view, we were well in the game. The second goal goes in from a set-play and again it’s poor.
“We missed the penalty to try and tie things up and then we don’t adjust quickly enough in terms of our mentality.
“We were well in it and created some really decent opportunities, even at two-nil down.
“We worked to fashion some chances and tried to put them under pressure, but we ran out of time.”
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