Sheffield United beat Burnley as Nick Pope is ruled out of Euro 2020

The Burnley goalkeeper Nick Pope was ruled out of Euro 2020 because of an impending knee operation that ruled him out of his side’s final game of the season, in which Sheffield United finished a miserable campaign with a win in front of their own supporters.

The 29-year-old will have surgery this week, ruling him out of the England’s squad which will be named on Tuesday. David McGoldrick, who has been voted Sheffield United’s player of the year, scored his eighth Premier League goal of the campaign midway through the first half as the Blades won for just the seventh time in the league this season.

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Three of those victories came in the nine matches under the stewardship of the interim manager Paul Heckingbottom, who is likely to now return to his role with the under-23 squad.

The Blades, who finished bottom of the table, have known their fate for some time and will now look to appoint a permanent successor to Chris Wilder, who left in March. Heckingbottom used his pre-match press conference to call for clarity regarding the new manager and urged the board to make an announcement shortly after Sunday’s match.

It was the first played at Bramall Lane in front of supporters since 7 March last year, when the Blades beat Norwich 1-0 to continue their challenge for a place in Europe. Things have changed drastically in their absence and the home fans saw their team start slowly as a succession of corners either side of the 10-minute mark saw Burnley make a bright start. However, the Blades survived the early pressure and took the lead after 24 minutes.

McGoldrick netted his ninth goal of the season with a fine curling finish from 25 yards that found the bottom corner of the net following a driving run after receiving the ball midway inside the Burnley half. Will Norris, in goal in the place of Pope, should probably have done better.

Burnley offered little in reply and Chris Basham came close to a second goal when he thumped a fierce shot against a post following a corner.

Harry Kane has won the Premier League golden boot award for a third time after scoring in Spurs' 4-2 win at Leicester to take his season tally to 23. Kane, who looks likely to leave Tottenham this summer, also topped the scoring charts in 2015-16 (with 25 goals) and 2016-17 (29). Mohamed Salah went into the final day level with Kane, but could not find the net in Liverpool's 2-0 win over Crystal Palace.

Premier League top scorers

Harry Kane (Tottenham) 23
Mohamed Salah (Liverpool) 22
Bruno Fernandes (Man Utd) 18
Son Heung-min (Tottenham) 17
Patrick Bamford (Leeds) 17
Dominic Calvert-Lewin (Everton) 16
Jamie Vardy (Leicester) 15
Ollie Watkins (Aston Villa) 14
Ilkay Gündogan (Man City) 13
Alexandre Lacazette (Arsenal) 13

McGoldrick had a couple of chances in the second half but the ball got stuck under his feet inside the penalty area before he looped a header over the crossbar shortly afterwards.

Burnley’s best chance came with 11 minutes remaining but nobody could turn the ball home following a big goalmouth scramble. Rhian Brewster’s wait for his first Blades goal will extend into next season as Norris got down well to smother his low shot from 20 yards.

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The hosts survived some late pressure, with Jack Robinson having to clear the ball from just in front of his own goal line after Chris Wood tried to poke it home, but the Blades held on comfortably in the end for a rare but deserved victory.

Dyche did not confirm that Pope was out of the European Championship but the Guardian has established this is the case.

“It’s nothing too serious, we don’t think, but it still needed doing,” Dyche said. “He was trying to get right for this game to give it a test but didn’t quite come through in training, so he and we have had to make a judgment call on that.

“It’s mainly down to him and he knows what he’s got to do. He’ll have that [the operation] done this week and hopefully it will settle down for a quick recovery.”