Blades out to repay fans’ faith in quest for promotion

The Blades make the short trip to Glanford Park on the back of successive home defeats to Peterborough United and Fleetwood Town respectively, with a three-match winless sequence causing a fair bit of anxiety among Unitedites.

Sections of fans showed what they thought of last Saturday’s Fleetwood loss in no uncertain terms at Bramall Lane, booing the Blades off at the final whistle.

It was a far from edifying experience, according to Murphy and while he appreciates fans’ right to voice displeasure with he and his team-mates taking the criticism squarely on the chin, he is hoping not to experience it again at any time soon.

The Scot said: “It is just part of football. You know if you are not doing your job, people are going to boo. It’s the same if you score a goal, people will cheer.

“It is not nice knowing you have let people down and hopefully in the next game we will go out and win and at the end of the game, they will be cheering, which will make a big difference.

“If we get booed off the park, it means we have not done our jobs properly.

“It is up to us to try and change that. I am sure they will cheer us off the park if we win. We want to win for the fans and ourselves.”

Last weekend’s defeat reduced the gap between the fifth-placed Blades and the two sides just outside the play-off positions –Barnsley and Peterborough – to just three points.

A break in the Blades busy match itinerary has at least enabled minds to be refreshed and bodies rested ahead of a critical run-in and Murphy believes it has come at an opportune juncture.

But equally he is confident the Blades’ recent haul of just one point from a possible nine represents a temporary blip.

Murphy, in double figures this season with 10 goals and keen to augment that tally further, added: “Obviously, the last week was a disappointment.

“But up until then, me and the team were doing very well and we were top of the form table and pushing for the top two.

“We are hoping last week was a little blip and we can get back on track.

“I don’t think the blip has been for any particular reason. Sometimes, games don’t go the way you want and things happen in a game that make it hard for us. It is up for us to fix these things and move on.”