Paul Heckingbottom wants Sheffield United to forget the 'nonsense' but celebrate things that matter

First was a win that booked a fifth-round tie at home to Tottenham Hotpsur, but Tuesday’s game was also Chris Basham's 500th as a professional and Ismaila Coulibaly's first Blades start.

These are things their manager wants to dwell on.

"It's tough to get wins so we'll celebrate the wins, it's the best feeling," he said. "There's a lot goes into getting those wins.

"The dedication of someone making the 500th appearance is something that should be celebrated, debuts – Izzy (Coulibaly) getting his first start or the young boys on the bench, goals, breaking records – Bill (Sharp) went past someone a few games ago – all these things are really important.

"There were lots of things that were very good in the game – I think we had an effort on goal on average every three minutes. Against a team sitting in their half that's very good.

"That's from slow build-up to then changing tempo when you get through that first line, it's through exploiting chances in transition because if a team's sat deep in a block, one of the best ways you can have space is on that first pass after you've regained the ball. Another one's set plays.

"The fourth one would be where we win the ball back but we didn't really get that opportunity in the Wrexham game.”

What Heckingbottom did not want to dwell on was the more headline-grabbing elements around the game with Sharp accusing Wrexham and even their Twitter administrators of disrespect and captain Ben Tozer and manager Phil Parkinson throwing the same accusation back.

"The people who've got involved (on Twitter) probably have got a lot to learn – getting our name right for one,” said Heckingbottom. “That's not Phil and his players, that's the club.

"It's nonsense, it's rubbish, it doesn't really bother us.

"I can't believe how it's being portrayed. It's old news.

"Sometimes we'll say things and I'm not on social media so I won't see but I know I'll upset someone or they'll say I'm talking nonsense but that's just the world we live in.

"You can't really be bothered about it if your intentions are good."

Now the focus is on Saturday’s visit from Swansea City. The Blades hope Oli McBurnie will be fit after a calf injury, but Tommy Doyle is running out of time to recover from a similar problem. Jayden Bogle returns from suspension and John Fleck is getting close to a return but George Baldock is still not back in full training.

Those who played in midweek are in good condition physically but there is more to it than that in a typically busy Championship schedule.

"While we've done a bit on Wrexham, then it has been a bit of mental and physical relaxation and framing the two days before the Swansea game," explained Heckingbottom. "The process you go through helps with that and getting into a routine so everyone's well drilled."