Sheffield United defender Chris Basham has praised his side’s home record ahead of this weekend’s match with Rotherham United.
The Blades have the opportunity to leapfrog Leeds United into second on Saturday when they host Rotherham at Bramall Lane. At least for a few hours, with their game kicking off at 12.15pm before Leeds travel to Bristol City at 3pm.
“Our home record is outstanding,” Basham told the Sheffield Star.
“We said at the start of the season that we wanted to try and make Bramall Lane a fortress.
“But we did not think it was actually going to be like this and that is really important for us.
“We have only lost once in 13 games and we are keeping clean sheets now, which is very important. We have kept 14 clean sheets now this season and if we keep five or six more, that will be perfect.”
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How good are United at home?
Basham’s stats aren’t quite accurate. The Blades have actually lost twice at home in the last eight games, with back-to-back defeats coming against Leeds and West Bromwich Albion in December.
However, since then they have won all six matches at Bramall Lane and, as Basham says, keeping clean sheets with only one goal conceded during that time.
In fact only Leeds have a better home record than United this season. They have earned 39 points in 18 fixtures at home, whereas Chris Wilder’s men have 36 from 17. Brentford are also level on 36 points, but like the Whites, have played 18 games at home.
As for Rotherham, they travel to their south Yorkshire rivals with the unwanted record of being the only team in the Championship this season not to have won away.
The Millers have picked up just seven points on their travels. Only Wigan Athletic and Ipswich Town have fewer with six apiece.
Of course statistics don’t dictate the outcome in football – luckily – but this indicates that the Blades are in a very strong position.