When preparing for the most valuable game of club football in the world, Sheffield United’s centre-half, Matt Kilgallon, like his manager, Kevin Blackwell, has been here before. Unlike Blackwell, however, Kilgallon’s memories of Leeds United’s defeat in the Championship playoff final by Watford three years ago are mercifully indistinct. “It was all a blur. Which is probably why we got beat,” the Yorkshireman recalled drily last week.

He remembers all too well how long the sense of disappointment lasted. “Not so much at losing, because we never really turned up. We’d had to switch the team around a little — I had to play left-back because Stephen Crainey got sent off in the semi-final — but there were no excuses and, when you’ve put in so much work throughout the season to get to that point, it’s hard to take.”

That day was, Kilgallon acknowledges, a formative experience, perhaps even more so than the Blades’ controversial relegation from the Premier League under Neil Warnock in 2007. Having been signed from Leeds for £1.75m in the transfer window, Kilgallon played the last six games, including the desperate defeat by Wigan, which, along with the goal by Carlos Tevez for West Ham at Manchester United, sent Sheffield United back to the Championship after only one season. For everybody connected to Bramall Lane — and judging by the thousands of emails, phone calls and letters received by the club in the past few days, many beyond — tomorrow’s final against Burnley represents an opportunity to right a wrong done that day. As Kilgallon points out, however, for the United players, most of whom are 25 or under, the motivation is career advancement.

Coming through the Leeds academy, Kilgallon was often likened to Jonathan Woodgate. Having played for every England development team through to the under-21s, he still has his eyes set on full international recognition. “It sounds daft, but being on television on Saturday evenings instead of Sunday mornings people see you and they see you playing against the best strikers in the world. Performing in the Premier League, playing against the best, can make a huge difference.”

He names a player whose position at United he now occupies, Phil Jagielka. “Everybody here knew Jags was a good player but one good season with Everton and now he’s in the England squad.”

In the opinion of Blackwell, Kilgallon has always had the potential to join Jagielka. The work ethic, on the other hand, has had to be acquired. “I think there are certain lads who are naturally blessed with ability and athleticism and they don’t sometimes work as hard as they could do. ‘Killa’ is a lad who in the early days was very much compared to ‘Woody’ and I think he maybe rested on his laurels a little bit,” says Blackwell. “But since I’ve had him — for most of the last five years — he’s got better and better. He’s still only 25 so he’s got up to 10 years ahead of him and if he puts his mind to it he will play at the very highest level because he has the attributes.”

Blackwell is confident that whatever the result tomorrow, this United will not freeze in the way their Yorkshire rivals did. “That Leeds side was packed with experience but on the day it just didn’t happen. Why? Sometimes a player of more experience will know what’s coming and that can create a sense of fear.

“You’d think, knowing it was a last chance, they couldn’t have been any hungrier but perhaps some of the players at Leeds thought they were too old to go into the Premier League, they’d be let go even if they won. That could have been a psychological factor, I don’t know.

“This team has a very different dynamic. David Cotterill, Jamie Ward, Kyle Naughton and Kyle Walker are all 22 and under \. Greg Halford is 24. Matthew is 25. Darius Henderson, who scored for Watford against Leeds, is 27. It’s a group of strong, fit young players and, while that’s sometimes a risk, I believe they’ll respond the right way. They’re going into it like it’s a Sunday cup final.”

One thing is certain. If the Blades lose, the club will not collapse financially. Blackwell was told at the start of this season to budget for next season by assuming promotion would not be achieved. While most fans maintain United would have finished first or second if leading scorer James Beattie had not been sold to Stoke for £3.5m in January, that was a chance the club was not prepared to take. “We had to restructure as the season went on because without promotion, losing the parachute payment of £9m, £10m, whatever it is, means half our income goes,” says Blackwell.

“Jonathan Stead, Michael Tonge, Rob Hulse and Luke Shelton all went and when ‘Beatts’ followed many wrote us off. But the players have responded and the lads who’ve come in, Jamie Ward, Arturo Lupoli, Craig Beattie and John-Joe O’Toole, have done a great job. When Beattie went we were fourth. We finished third and now we’re in the playoff final.”

To suggest that Sheffield United have barely missed a Beatt since the transfer window closed might be stretching the truth — but they have covered for their former striker’s absence pretty successfully.

Show me the money

Teams promoted to the Premier League get £30m from TV rights, plus around £5m from extra sponsorship and merchandising deals. Even those who are relegated after one season pick up £24m in parachute payments over the next two years, taking the total to about £60m. Deloitte’s Sports Business Group says the wealth of the Premier League means ‘there will continue to be significant investor interest from around the globe for English clubs, in part driven by the prospect of the financial rewards’