Sheffield United v Norwich: Why there's no panic for Heckingbottom despite disappointing run

They also know Championship football better than most.

People like Chris Basham, Oli Norwood, John Egan, John Fleck and Billy Sharp.

There are plenty of others besides in United’s strong dressing-room and they are the equivalent of long-standing, proper tradespeople who take great pride in their work and possess standards.

Those football discussions even extend to the odd coffee together in the cafes of Ecclesall Road and there were chats in the immediate aftermath of Wednesday's painful late loss at Coventry City.

It extended United's winless streak to five matches, with a turnaround of less than 72 hours before Saturday's game with a promotion contender for good measure.

A salt-of-the-earth professional, Basham's face when he was substituted shortly after conceding a fateful 87th-minute penalty at the CBS Arena told a story after he erred.

Fortunes can soon turn in the Championship and good weeks and bad ones are part of the regular landscape for most.

United are not on a stellar run of form, for sure, but neither have form and performances gone out of the window either.

Heckingbottom didn’t have to say a great deal after Coventry, as his experienced players knew.

One error in isolation in a close game against a side who he rightly stated to be in a 'false position' beforehand was the story.

After the initial pain of disappointment, his senior cast will quickly move on mentally.

Heckingbottom said: "Bash gave the goal away and will be devastated about it. But he defended great and so did Eags (John Egan) and Anel (Ahmedhovic) against their threat which we speak about. You want to win and we have disappointed players in there. But do you know what? We can sulk about it or go and try and attack Norwich. That's it.

"It's tougher for a player than it is for me as your job is different. I came out from the players (at Coventry) and they did not need to hear me and straightaway I was thinking about the Norwich game.

"It's a third of the way through now and there will be more ups and downs and challenges and different things that we have to deal with along the way. It's part of it."

In the increasingly data-driven world of modern football management, statistics are often never far away to provide solace. They certainly are not for the Blades in terms of their story so far in 2022-23.

For his part, Heckingbottom's view is more old-school. His prime driver is always performance and if his side gets that right, he is confident that good results will follow.

Particularly if you keep an eye on the finer details and minimise the error count.

He continued: "In this run of five, I'd take a lot of things we have been doing in it. I’m not big on ‘stats’ and could say we’re top of this, this and that, but we’ve not won in five.

"We had the second most expected goals of the season and scored three in the (Blackpool) game, but didn't win as we still made mistakes.

"It is more about what we do in performance. There's still a lot of things we are doing well, particularly without the ball as we showed at Coventry.

"Could and should we have more points now? Yes. But we haven't and must try and earn them. But as we get players back and get that healthy competition and put people in and out based on errors, we might have to make none in a game to win.

"We might have to make none against Norwich to win.”