Slavisa Jokanovic says Sheffield United players have trust on top of first Championship win

The Blades were 6-2 winners over Peterborough United in a performance full of the attacking verve lacking in August. Ben Osborn and full debutant Iliman Ndiaye scored twice each, Morgan Gibbs-White notched on his first appearance since joining on deadline day, John Fleck scored his first goal since January 2020 and Billy Sharp produced three assists.

Before the game, the Blades had only scored once in the league this season but Jokanovic felt the work put in at the Shirecliffe training ground during the international break had paid dividends, particularly in the understanding between Ndiaye and Gibbs-White.

"I must be satisfied with the very good football," said the Serb.

"I've complained my team didn't create enough chances, today we scored six.

"We needed this kind of victory, it's important we got three points but it's important my players trusted the good football.

"We played the first 45 minutes very well. We made one mistake (Jack Robinson caught dwelling on the ball) and they punished us hard but at the end it was calm."

Gibbs-White, on loan from Wolverhampton Wanderers, played on the right of a 4-2-3-1 and Ndiaye at No 10 and their link-up play was excellent, the clever runs of Sharp making it easier to produce killer passes for him too. Youth product Ndiaye made his debut from the bench in Paul Heckingbottom's first game as caretaker manager last season but his only appearance since had come against Derby County in the League Cup but he signed a new contract this week.

"We tried different things in training," said Jokanovic, explaining why he picked the team he did. "We had some links between them and they looked a good combination. This is what I saw on the training ground.

"We showed many creative things we have missed.

"Billy ran into the space and this kind of movement gave us a lot of options.

"He didn't score today but he's scored I don't know how many goals in his career."