Sheffield United manager Paul Heckingbottom was delighted with his team’s display after seeing them beat Reading 4-0 to replace their opponents at the top of the Sky Bet Championship table.

Oli McBurnie opened the scoring and Anel Ahmedhodzic made it 2-0 a minute into the second half. Iliman Ndiaye added a third, with Ahmedhodzic scoring again to round off the scoring.

Heckingbottom said: “That’s the type of performance you want. From start to finish, it was pretty dominant, so I was pleased. It was good, it was strong.

“We’ve got more missing and I want more options. It was great to take Iliman and Oli off when they started flagging a little bit and inject energy with Reda (Khadra) and Rhian (Brewster).

“It was good, but we’ll be even better when we get all the other boys back.

“I was just happy with the (opening) goal. From his (McBurnie’s) point of view, you’re just looking to get across the defender and a near-post header shows the hunger and the goalscorer in him.

“The quality of the goal was really good from our point of view. It was good for him and good for the team and really put us on the front foot.

“He had such a bad run of luck last year with how he got Covid and how he suffered with that, with the illness and weight-loss and everything after that. He came back and broke his foot.

“It’s him seeing how good he can be, him seeing how important he is for us and him seeing how many goals he could score. Him thinking about it will only drive him on.”

Reading boss Paul Ince had no complaints about the result, saying: “We didn’t deserve to win the game. We looked tired. The Millwall game took a lot out of us.

“It was tough – they’re a good side. I’m still very pleased and proud of my players. To pick up nine points out of 12 is not a bad return. We just have to now go again on Sunday, against Stoke.

“These are a very good side. When you take off a £20m striker and replace him with another one. That’s where we want to be, I think, as a club in two years’ time.

“Hecky’s got a very good side and he’s a very good manager. They’ll be up there at the end of the season, that’s for sure.

“As much as we can be disappointed, I’m not disappointed because I just think we’ve been on a good run and in a perverse kind of way, I think it brings us back down to earth.

“We’ve got to move on, regroup and go again.”