Paul Heckingbottom tells Sheffield United: Ignore the mistakes but up the energy against Sunderland

That was not because Paul Heckingbottom was trying to lull his players into a false sense of confidence ahead of Wednesday's game at Sunderland – far from it.

If Middlesbrough beat Stoke City on Tuesday what was once a 10-point cushion to the Championship play-off places will be down to one for the second-placed Blades. They need to respond at the Stadium of Light.

Manager Heckingbottom was very honest about how unhappy he was with a performance he called "the furthest away from how we want to play since I've been here in terms of the energy of the team and how positive we were with the ball".

But whilst demanding more physically, he does not want his players fretting about taking risks.

"The last time we played Sunderland at Bramall Lane (in August) we had John Egan playing a diag(onal pass) from middle centre-back to Rhys Norrington-Davies getting in behind their defence," recalled Heckingbottom. "Rhys was our left centre-back. That's what we want.

"That's the intent we're talking about."

It is why he reflected on the 1-0 defeat to Luton Town in the way he did with his players.

"Having watched the game back and looked at certain numbers, that was a million miles away from how we want to play so there was real clarity in that," he said. "There has to be clarity about what we're about.

"We made a lot of unforced errors but I've not focused a thing on that because we need players to take the ball, to make errors. If you're not making errors you're being safer.

"We need to make sure we take the ball, drive, run, play forward, commit bodies into the box. Then we've got bodies high to win the ball back.

"If we do that and get beaten, it's on me.

"We expected to perform much better than we did (on Saturday). And this is not just players, it's everyone – my preparation and the staff's.

"We need to be better because it might happen again."

Heckingbottom has never been one to pretend performances were better than they were, and expects his players to show that honesty.

"You either bury your head in the sand and hope or you stick your chest out and fight and scrap," he said.

"If you go into any pub in any part of the country you can sit next to someone who'll tell you either them or someone they know would have been a top footballer. They'll give you the excuse of injury, women or drink. It's always one of the three.

"When things get tough, there can be an excuse or a reason why. We haven't worked that way.

"We've had many an opportunity, many a time we could have had an excuse but we haven't.

"It's helped us keep climbing the league for 18 months and get to the quarter-final of the FA Cup and we need to keep that mentality because it's not going to get easier, it's going to get harder.

"If anyone had said at the start of the season with 10 (league) games to go you'd be second and in the quarter-final of the FA Cup, we'd have snapped their hands off.

"We are where we deserve to be. We need to focus on the things we've done well up to this point and try and block out the rest.

"Ultimately it's down to us and what we do so we have to use that as a real positive."

Asked if he had any fresh injuries from the Luton game, Heckingbottom replied: "There were the usual knocks you get after games but everyone was on the grass. I think everyone's as determined as each other to put that result and performance right so everyone was chomping at the bit to be on the grass."

Last six games: Sunderland WLLLDW; Sheffield United LWLWWLReferee: M Donohue (Greater Manchester)Last time: Sunderland 1 Sheffield United 2, September 9, 2017, Championship