Sheffield United's Paul Heckingbottom and Ben Osborn know what to expect from 'hungry' Rotherham United

The Blades know how dangerous the Millers can be as they were the last team to beat them, in November.

After the World Cup break things were more difficult for Matt Taylor's side, particularly with their goalscorer at Bramall Lane, Ben Wiles, picking up a serious injury.

But a change of formation, seven January signings, a 4-0 win over Blackburn Rovers and a draw at Watford have changed the mood.

"The last two games they've looked like a real hungry team with a real drive about them," says manager Heckingbottom, tellingly using the same adjective Taylor did in his press conference at nearby Roundwood shortly after.

"There's a good energy, which any team would want.

"They've been very direct – and that's not a criticism – and very aggressive on second balls. They put lots of balls in behind and in the box and when they lose it they win it back high.

"We have to guard against that and make good, sound decisions to limit that and balance it with how we want to play. We have to be able to play and make our shape beat their shape."

Ben Osborn is expecting another difficult game after last week's 3-3 FA Cup draw at Wrexham.

"It's not going to be too dissimilar from Wrexham, they'll have a bit more quality and the atmosphere will be rocking," he says.

In response to November's loss the Blades put a lot of thought into what they must do better.

"We weren't at our best that day," admits Osborn. "It wasn't for a lack of trying, it was more quality.

"They defended well and the goal was really sloppy and they made it really difficult, we couldn't really break it down.

"A few individual performances weren't great but they (the coaching staff) were fairly positive, we were on a decent run and there's going to be times when that happens.

"We assess it, look at what's gone wrong and try and move on from it.

"It's definitely not brushed under the carpet, we do a deep analysis on what went wrong. Sometimes it's a case of we actually played really well and finishing let us down.

"We work on it and come up with solutions for when teams play like that again against us.

"Sometimes we do that when we win and the gaffer sees a period in the game he's not too happy about. We're always trying to improve."