Paul Heckingbottom details conversations with Sheffield United hierarchy as job pressure builds pre-Burnley

Paul Heckingbottom is feeling no added pressure from the Sheffield United hierarchy ahead of this weekend's trip to relegation rivals Burnley. The Blades' sorry defeat at home to Bournemouth at the weekend saw fresh questions about his position at Bramall Lane.

United slipped to four points from safety on a poor afternoon against the Cherries, in which they registered just two shots on target - one minutes from time from Will Osula and the other Oli McBurnie's injury-time goal. They cannot afford many more placid performances in a pivotal period, with the Burnley clash their first of seven engagements in December.

All eyes will be on the Blades' display at Turf Moor this weekend - Burnley going into it on the back of seven straight defeats in all competitions, and losses in all of their home league games since being promoted alongside the Blades earlier in the year. That is despite them spending over £100m in the summer - a far cry from United's own modest outlay.

Asked if he felt any added pressure from above going into the weekend, Heckingbottom replied: "No. I’ve spoken with Steve [Bettis, chief executive] and there have been no different conversations. There is pressure from ourselves to do it, because that's what we want to do. I still expected us to go out and win, regardless of what Bournemouth have done or spent, but we do it our way.

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"Burnley have spent over £100m and brought in 15 players but we couldn't do that with the position we were in. We kept on their coattails [last season] doing it our way, with work on the training ground and using academy players, and it served us well. And until we get the level of resources of the others, we'll keep doing it our way."

Supporters voted with their feet last weekend, many leaving the stadium well before McBurnie headed home George Baldock's cross deep into injury time, and some have been vocal this week about the need for a change of some sort - whether it's the manager, his personnel or tactics.

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"We've changed virtually every game, simply because we’ve had to," Heckingbottom said in response. "I’d love to get some consistency and start working with the same group of players every week on the training ground. Hopefully we’ll get to that point, but our problem has been that there has been too many enforced changes.

“Whether that’s selling players or recruiting late, or getting injuries when we thought we’d got the squad together ... we need that to settle down. There’s pressure from us to do it because that’s what we want to do – we want to win.”