Sheffield United's David McGoldrick refuses to throw the towel in on forlorn-looking relegation battle

The gap to safety is 14 points, and could be more by the time Liverpool visit Bramall Lane for Sunday's evening's game. The Blades have just 13 games to bridge it. Only the foolish would bet against relegation now.

But footballers do not reach the top by accepting the seemingly inevitable, and striker McGoldrick is refusing to throw the towel in.

“It’s tough but there’s 13 games to go and 39 points to play for,” he argued. “Mathematically it’s still possible and while that’s the case, we keep on fighting, The manager wouldn’t let us do it any other way and we wouldn’t do it any other way either.

“You get as many points as you can. If you get on a great run, with momentum, who knows? Do you want us to say we are down and throw in the towel? No.

"If we pick up a win, and then another one and then another one, who knows? The manager is always positive. He’s the driving force of this club. He’s always positive and it never changes. That’s why his record is what it is.”

The Blades' next three matches are at home – to Liverpool, Aston Villa and Southampton – within the space of seven days and although home advantage is not what it was during this behind-closed-doors time, McGoldrick is taking hope they can use that as a springboard.

“These three games at home are huge,” he stressed. “We have to make it tough because the fans can’t make it a fortress and as horrible as we can can for the teams coming by playing some high-tempo football. If we get some points on the board and get a little bit of momentum, you just never know what can happen in this league.

“Look at Fulham, everyone's saying they are staying up now and Newcastle will be going down, blah, blah, blah but their form until recently hadn't been too great. In February they've picked up a few more points than they have done in any other month (eight of their 22) and it's all positive for them. So if we can do that and close the gap, who knows?”

As has often been the case in recent weeks, Sheffield United go into the weekend hoping a win will take them off the bottom. That possibility will only be removed if West Bromwich Albion take something from Saturday's 3pm kick-off at home to Brighton and Hove Albion. To move up a position would at least be a boost to morale in an extremely difficult season for the south Yorkshire club.

Newcastle United could extend the gap to safety by taking points at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday evening. If they fail to, Fulham can catch but not realistically surpass them with a win at Crystal Palace in Sunday's noon kick-off.

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