‘Seagull’ Done is happy to swoop for the Blades

“At Rochdale they called me the seagull for the way I swooped,” said Done, 26, who took his scoring form from the Spotlands to Bramall Lane on Tuesday night, with a goal in United’s convincing 4-1 win over Colchester.

“I think it was Chris Beech (Dale’s youth-team coach) who gave me the nickname, because he’s from Blackpool way.

“He said I was like a seagull on Blackpool pier. I had no idea what he was on about at first, but he told a story about being there with his kids one weekend and a seagull swooped down and nicked his chips!

“He said that’s what I’m like because I won’t give a centre half or any defence any time to settle.”

The derogatory terms are all given in good heart, for Done is proving perfectly adequate at swooping on League One defences.

At Rochdale, the mobile attacker struck 14 goals, which in part convinced Clough and United to part with a hefty six-figure sum for his services on deadline day at the beginning of February.

After sitting in the stands to watch the Blades lose to Preston in the FA Cup and Gillingham in the league, Done was finally given full flight on Tuesday with a match-winning 60-minute performance.

“He showed what he’s all about against Colchester,” said Clough.

“We’ve got to learn a bit more about him and he’s got to learn more about us.

“But he was a pest, he put centre-halves under pressure – and we’ve not had so much of that.”

Done added: “I had a good battle with the centre half, I bet he was calling me a pest and some other names as well.

“But I take it all as a compliment because it means I’ve done my job right. I’ve certainly been called worse.”

And Done was proud to have made a strong first impression on what is the biggest opportunity of his career.

“It was hard to leave Rochdale because I had some great times there,” he said. “But it was an easy decision to come here and play in front of 17,000.

“For that to be your home support is new to me, and something I wanted to experience.”