Job done for Sheffield United as they prepare to face Preston North End

No matter what happens in the final few games of the season, no one will be knocking the Blades out of second spot, meaning they will be back in the Premier League next season.

This is is only their second season outside the top flight since they were last there, after their meteoric rise from League One to the top half of the Premier League.

Paul Heckingbottom took charge of the side midway through last season and almost had them up at the first attempt, in the end it just about proved too little too late as they were defeated in the play-offs.

This time around however the Blades have looked a cut above and have been on Burnley’s tail all season as the top two sides in the Championship.

Wednesday’s 2-0 win over West Bromwich Albion sealed their place back in the Premier League and unfortunately for Heckingbottom, his side still have two games to go in their season before they can properly relax and celebrate their success.

Heckingbottom said: “I said to the players before the game we got so close to promotion last season. We’ve got to enjoy this, you enjoy every win and when it’s a win as special and significant as this, we are going to have a good time.

“I thought in the second half we were much better, we stepped on to them a lot more and we changed the midfield around slightly, we went to a three-man midfield.

“West Brom are very well organised and if we didn’t get through them in the first two or three passes, they had two banks of four and were difficult to break down and were breaking on us. So we had to work hard but we’ve had that in every game.

“I think you have to be motivated by winning; you’ve got to take the risks. You may end up failing or doing things that cost you your job but you’ve got to go for it.

“I don’t think it will sink in for a while but I’m just determined to enjoy tonight and make sure everyone else enjoys tonight. It’s a shame we’ve got three more games left!

"We celebrate every win, and I think that's why we've got 26 of them.

"From 43 games, that's tremendous, so we'll celebrate. We set out a long time ago to achieve this, with a group of players who I already knew, the majority I knew.

"We've been written off, people saying the squad's too old, he'll need this or that. No. We've been promoted. They deserve all the credit in the world."

It is unknown quite how United will approach Saturday’s game, with their promotion already sealed. They could well have spent the last few days, since their promotion, celebrating their win and turn up to this weekend’s game at Bramall Lane in a worse for wear state.

On the other hand they could rotate and include players with a point to prove going into their Premier League campaign.

Either way, with the likes of Iliam Ndiaye, Oli McBurnie and Billy Sharp all as potential options up front; Oli Norwood, Sander Berge, John Fleck, James McAtee and Tommy Doyle in midfield and Anel Ahmedhodžić, John Egan and Chris Basham at the back, there is no shortage of quality options for this level.