‘Naive’ Sheffield United pay price for getting carried away with Bramall Lane emotion, says Paul Heckingbottom

United lost 2-1 to Reading at Bramall Lane on Good Friday but lost no actual ground in the league table as defeats for Nottingham Forest and Blackburn, allied with draws for Millwall and Middlesbrough, meant they held on to sixth place.

Heckingbottom said: “That’s the big take-away, you look at where we are now there’s more teams involved, we’ve turned it into a sprint.

“The games are going to get tighter and nervier and more important than that one.”

United thought they had snatched a draw when Iliman Ndiaye steered the ball home in the 90th minute but Reading went up the other end and pinched a winner through Tom McIntrye.

“The big message is we have to make better decisions,” said Heckingbottom. “I thought the emotion of scoring and the stadium erupting affected our next two minutes.

“Although we had young players on the pitch who made mistakes in that moment, we had enough experience to set up properly and deal with the threat.

“We’re going to find ourselves in that position again when we’ve scored and the place has gone up and we need to see the game out.

“We knew they’d be tough to break down, but the problem is when you go behind to a team that plays like that, it’s perfect for them.

“We got back in and paid the penalty with a bit of naivete. Our big crime today was switching off and not defending the second ball.”