ECHOSPORT chats to Sheffield United fan Sam Hill ahead of tonight’s game with Southend United at Bramall Lane.

What are the expectations for Sheffield United this season?

“As ever with this football club we are expected to challenge for promotion.

“Last season was a real disappointment in that we had a manager (Nigel Adkins) with experience of promotion from this league, but failure to have a settled 11 cost us league position and consequently cost him his job.

“The new man (Chris Wilder) is a blade and has managed to clear the decks a bit but I believe us to be work in progress and believe the play offs are a more achievable target.”

What have you made of their start?

“It’s not been the best. On the opening day at Bolton we played very well, creating plenty of chances in the first 20 minutes before conceding a wonder goal.

“After that we seemed to lose all confidence and struggled to keep that performance up.

“Against Rochdale on Saturday we seemed to struggle and, following a bad error from our keeper, we laboured to a 1-1 draw.

Who should Southend be keeping an eye on?

“Billy Sharp is a lethal finisher at this level but he already seems to be weighed down by the captaincy, though he did score a very good goal against Rochdale.

“John Fleck is a very clever midfielder, always looking for a forward pass, but is still settling in and Jack O’Connell looks like a very good player at the back.

Are there any injuries?

“We went into Saturday’s game with a couple of knocks but it would appear that none of those were serious injuries.

“I think we have a full squad to select from.”

What’s the predicted line-up?

Long, Brayford,Wilson, O’Connell, Hussey, Duffy, Basham, Fleck, Done, Clarke, Sharp.