Sheffield United boss gives interesting insight into how he set up his side to beat Sunderland

The Blades had lost four of their last six games to give Middlesbrough hope of overhauling them in the race for second, but the gap between the two is now back to six points.

Heckingbottom admitted that his side's winner should not have stood due to Sander Berge interfering from an offside position, but also spoke of his delight with an impressive first-half performance.

The Blades manager had left out some experienced players and deployed a slight formation change for the game, adding athleticism to his side to target Sunderland in transition - something they did to devastating effect for much of the first hour.

Heckingbottom said: "All of the lads who came in [did well].

"Jebbo [Daniel Jebbison] has a really specific role in that shape to stretch and make more space for [James] McAtee and [Iliman] N'Diaye, and then without the ball he's the first one to set the press.

"I felt we looked lethargic against Luton, that wasn't how I want us to play. So I wanted to get energy in the team, and then looking at Sunderland and how they play and how we felt we could hurt them, it was about those players behind their midfield and that's why we went with that shape.

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"I picked a team tonight with four changes and it will be a talking point with really good players left out. When we play with our midfield three and two forwards, if we play it properly we are more open because we have four forwards, two wing backs and a centre back joining in one side. When we play that shape we have two midfielders behind the ball, it's actually less aggressive but it can open up a bit more space for those balls into the front players.

"We would have used it a lot more against back fours this season if we hadn't been getting the results that we've had.

"You look back at the game and it's probably very even.

"We've lost four of the last six games and statistically, we were far better than the opposition. This one, Tony will be looking at the game and seeing all the good stuff his team have done. They're the fine margins."

Sunderland's lack of striking options was again key in the game, as they struggled to turn possession into chances late on.

"The pleasing thing today was when we sent the experienced players on late on, because of the injuries Sunderland have got they were playing with no centre-forwards, so they had a lot of players coming deep for the ball," Heckingbottom said.

"We had to be really disciplined and not come chasing them and leave spaces. We were able to get that experience on with that message, I'm fine if they've got 40 yards from goal but we're not letting them in the box. I felt we controlled the game."