Blades beat Albion to win Premier League promotion

Sheffield United beat West Brom at Bramall Lane to win promotion back to the Premier League after two years in the Championship.

The Blades, who went into the game needing just three points from four games to secure promotion, had been sluggish up until then but overwhelmed the away side from thereon and Anel Ahmedhodzic scored with a controlled close range volley to seal victory with just under 15 minutes to play.

Paul Heckingbottom’s side will join title winners Burnley in the top flight next season.

The play-off chasing visitors had enjoyed the better of things up until the opening goal but Karlan Grant headed a great chance wide in the opening minutes and a penalty shout was turned down when Brandon Thomas-Asante was felled on the edge of the area.

Berge’s goal totally knocked the stuffing out of Carlos Corberan’s men though and the Blades’ margin of victory could have been more comprehensive at the end.

Success on the pitch despite uncertainty off it

This is the third time the Blades have been promoted to the Premier League, with all coming via second-placed league finishes.

They have spent the vast majority of the season in second place behind champions Burnley.

It is two days short of four years since Chris Wilder, who had guided them to the League One title in 2017, ended their 12-year top-flight hiatus.

The Blades-supporting gaffer then led them to an impressive ninth-placed finish in 2019-20 in their first season back in the Premier League.

However, things fell apart the following campaign both on and off the pitch. Wilder left the club in March before they finished bottom of the table with just 23 points under the caretaker charge of Heckingbottom.

Serbian Slavisa Jokanovic was appointed that summer but was sacked in November after a slow start to the new Championship season and further disagreements behind the scenes.

To the surprise of some, Heckingbottom was immediately installed as his long-term successor and oversaw a run of form that saw them go from 16th to fifth by the end of the 2021-22 campaign.

Although they fell to a penalty shoot-out defeat by Nottingham Forest in the semi-finals they carried on where they had left off when this season started and won seven of their opening 10 matches.

A run of six games without a victory followed but they quickly returned to form with seven wins in eight, including a 5-2 shellacking of Burnley, either side of the World Cup break.

The Clarets pulled away from them with a run of 10 successive wins but the Blades have retained second position from 13 November, when Burnley went top, despite challenges from Luton and Middlesbrough.

The Blades’ success on the pitch has been in direct contrast to the uncertainty off it. They were placed under a transfer embargo in January, lifted last week, for missed payments to another club and a protracted takeover by Nigerian businessman Dozy Mmobuosi remains incomplete.

United fans will hope that this promotion will see issues in the background sorted in time for their Premier League return in August.

More to follow.