Sheffield United manager Paul Heckingbottom has slammed the unacceptable way his players allowed Newcastle to out-run them in yesterday’s 8-0 demolition at Bramall Lane.
Eddie Howe’s men were on fire as they put eight past the Blades, giving them one of their finest performances of the Premier League era.
But for Sheffield United it was a miserable evening and their manager was understandably critical of his players afterwards.
“The first half we had to change the way we wanted to play, set up a bit differently,” said the 46-year-old. “We went in 3-0 down and that was purely down to our organisation.
“We made changes at half time to chase the game and regardless of mistakes, mistakes lead to goals. The things we have to put right are the bits off the ball.
“We understand the league we are in, we’ve lost three points regardless but as long as learn from the nature of the defeat and what went wrong then all we have lost is three points.
“You could see moments where Newcastle out-fought us and out-ran us. That is not acceptable. We want to compete. There is still a level of competition we expect. We know they have top class players but there is an expectation from us that we are here to compete.
“We prepare for moments like this, we prepare for coming up against top teams and we prepare for our performances not being good enough. Our season won’t be defined by this game so long as we take the things from it we need to and address things.”