Sheffield United: Rivals' inconsistency giving Adkins hope of play-off spot

Despite a poor start to 2016, which has yielded just three wins in 11 league outings – against Colchester United, Doncaster Rovers and Port Vale – the Blades are still only four points off the top six.

None of the sides currently in the play-off spots – Walsall (on a five-match winless streak), Gillingham (lost their last three games) Coventry City (one win in seven games) and Millwall (one win in four) – are in decent form.

While chances of automatic promotion may have sailed a long time ago, United have still got a realistic chance of making it into the play-off places.

To do that, though, they must end a miserable run of form that this week saw defeats to Rochdale and Burton Albion.

“We are 12th in League One, it isn’t good enough,” said Adkins.

“We are four points off the play-off positions and we have to keep pushing, because there is inconsistency in this division for many, many teams. You are probably looking at Burton, and maybe Wigan at this moment in time, who are the two consistent teams. Everybody else is beating each other.

“It’s still up to us to have that charge for the remainder of the season.”

United travel to Fleetwood tomorrow, and Adkins’s main brief is to try to boost flagging confidence levels in the Bramall Lane dressing room.

Adkins said: “You’ve got to be ready to make a mistake without fear of reprisal. But you can’t keep making the same ones.

“Sometimes, it’s easy to bark-up about what people are doing wrong and what they can’t do.

“Sometimes it’s good to remind people what they can do and what they are good at.

“Confidence is a big thing in football as it is in life.”