Burnley
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Leeds United
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Middlesbrough
Millwall
Norwich City
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Sheffield United
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Sheffield United travelled to Burnley on Monday night knowing that anything less than a win would end their hopes of achieving automatic promotion.
In a fascinating end to the Championship promotion battle, it was left with a three-horse race between Leeds United, Burnley and Sheffield United.
Leeds thrashed Stoke City 6-0 in the earlier kickoff to all but book their place in the Premier League as striker Joel Piroe made history at Elland Road.
So, it was all on the showdown at Turf Moor to decide promotion. Burnley dealt first blow through Josh Brownhill, who is in the race for the Championship Golden Boot, before Tom Cannon equalised to score his first goal for the Blades.
Sadly, after sparking belief of a comeback, Brownhill netted from the penalty spot on the stroke of half-time, a goal that sealed Burnley’s promotion to the Premier League and left United facing the play-offs.
Sheffield United fans react after Burnley and Leeds seal promotion
It looked likely that Sheffield United were going to finish in the top two. But, a run of three defeats on the bounce, including a dismal loss to Plymouth, saw them fall behind the pacesetters.
The Blades have capitulated at the completely wrong time, leaving Chris Wilder fuming and supporters fearing the worst ahead of the play-offs.
“Tough to take our performances over the last few weeks. Soft, slow, & tactically deficient chasing a game. Those performances offer little excitement or hope for the play-offs,” one fan wrote.
“It’s extremely concerning (and has been all season) that unless Hamer creates something, we really have nobody else who has the quality to make chances. Overall, I’m not confident in the slightest for the play-offs,” another commented.
“Only got ourselves to blame… Oxford, Millwall and Plymouth were our easiest games out of the remained and we couldn’t do anything with that. we deserve to lose the playoffs,” a third replied.
“They’ve been the 2 better teams comfortably. The way we’ve lost it is the frustrating thing,” another accepted while a sixth pointed out: “We only have ourselves to blame.”
“So it’s Playoffs and we all know how that ends. Our own faults,” someone else wrote.
Sheffield United’s abysmal play-off record
Sheffield United fans are understandably worried ahead of their play-off campaign, where it’s likely they’ll play one of Bristol City, Coventry City or Middlesborough, depending on who finishes in sixth place.
Worryingly, the Blades have never gone up through the play-offs, be it in the Championship or in League One, losing in all eight attempts.
United have failed on five occasions in the second tier, most recently in the 2021/22 campaign as Steve Cooper’s Nottingham Forest got the better of them.
Wilder will now need to galvanise his players after the disappointment of losing out on automatic promotion, and it’s going to take some doing based on recent history.