Norwich City column: Time to blunt Sheffield United and re-ignite our Championship promotion bid by building key momentum

A win against Sheffield United this weekend could provide the spark needed to re-ignite Norwich City’s play-off hopes.

Those ambitions took somewhat of a beating prior to the international break, with David Wagner’s side picking up a disappointing return of two points from games against Sunderland, Huddersfield and Stoke.

But the visit of Paul Heckingbottom’s Blades – themselves fighting to keep hold of the automatic promotion place they’ve occupied for so much of this campaign – presents the perfect opportunity to shake off that malaise and inject some much needed momentum back into our hunt for the top six.

Why? Firstly, it’s a game that the Carrow Road crowd will be pumped up for. While much of it has waned over the years as the key protagonists have moved on, there still exists some needle between the two sets of fans, dating back to our 1-0 win at Bramall Lane early on in the Daniel Farke era.

Who could forget Chris Wilder’s epic rant about our team bus turning up late and the time-wasting fiasco (take your time, take your time Norwich City).

Three points against one of the division’s better sides would provide a timely confidence boost, for the fans and the players.

It’s been well documented our record against the teams in and around us has been pretty poor, something that will have to change if we are to reach, and ultimately succeed, in the play-offs.

I wrote last week about the need for our strikers to rediscover their goalscoring touch, but the other end of the pitch is equally important.

Grant Hanley has come in for some criticism at times this season (and justifiably so), but hopefully his display during Scotland’s surprise 2-0 win over Spain will spur him on higher levels.

Our skipper remains an integral part of this team and having him at his best between now and the end of the season could prove crucial.