Oli McBurnie reacts as Sydie Peck drops Sheffield United message | OneFootball

Ex-Blades striker McBurnie was seemingly a big fan of what his former club did on the final day of the Championship season

There were many twists and turns on the final day of the 2025-26 Championship season when it came to who was going to grab the final play-off spot, and in the end, it went to Hull City.

At half-time of all three relevant fixtures, it was Derby County that was sitting in the driving seat thanks to their 1-0 advantage over Sheffield United, with Wrexham and Hull both drawing against Middlesbrough and Norwich City respectively.

Come the final whistles though, things had changed dramatically. The Rams had lost 2-1 at Pride Park to the Blades and Wrexham could not find a winner against Boro, but the play-offs ended up being decided in the 67th minute.

And that was thanks to Hull's star player of the season, as Oli McBurnie - signed on a free last summer after his departure from Las Palmas - tucked the ball home from a free-kick after previously equalising from the penalty spot earlier in the contest.

Despite Norwich's best efforts, they could not spoil Hull's party as they manged to secure themselves a two-legged affair with Millwall, and they were also assisted in part by McBurnie's former club in South Yorkshire.

Oli McBurnie reacts to ex-Sheffield United team-mate Sydie Peck's Instagram post

It's fair to say that Sheffield United's season was underwhelming at best, but they rallied to secure a 13th-placed finish with 60 points racked up.

There was a clear mistake over the summer to get rid of manager Chris Wilder and replace him with Ruben Selles, an experiment which didn't last too long, but with Wilder back in the dugout, the Blades could not challenge for the play-offs when it was all said and done.

Even though Hull secured their own spot in the play-offs thanks to their victory, they were helped out somewhat by Sheffield United on the day, as they turned around a deficit at Pride Park to win 2-1 thanks to goals from Tom Cannon and Sydie Peck.

If Hull players knew about Sheffield United's turn-around scoreline, then it would've been a big help from their Yorkshire counterparts to help alleviate some of the pressure on them, despite knowing that a Wrexham winner would have put the Red Dragons into the post-season lottery.

As it happened though, Hull held on, Wrexham didn't score and Derby could not get past Sheffield United again, meaning Sergej Jakirovic's side were victorious.

And match-winner McBurnie could not resist leaving a comment this week on another fellow match-winner's Instagram post in the form of Sydie Peck, who he was a first-team team-mate of at Bramall Lane for a brief period before he moved to Spanish outfit Las Palmas for one year in 2024.

A simple applause was left by McBurnie on Peck's post, perhaps signifying that he is grateful for the part he played in downing Derby in the play-off hunt.

Sheffield United may rue not handing Oli McBurnie another chance last summer

Having been released by Sheffield United in 2024 and moving on to pastures new in the Canary Islands, McBurnie was once again needing a change of scenery last summer after getting an early termination of his Las Palmas deal.

And Hull - who were under transfer restrictions at the time - bagged a huge win when landing McBurnie on a free, especially when it was revealed Ruben Selles snubbed taking McBurnie in for training at Sheffield United to take a look at him.

McBurnie was a Chris Wilder favourite over the years, and the veteran manager has made no secret of the fact he'd have loved to bring the Scotland international back to Bramall Lane, and until the goals of Patrick Bamford came in, he was perhaps what they were truly missing at the top end of the pitch.

Hull though hit the jackpot with their freebie deal for McBurnie, and left Sheffield United in a lot of pain in hindsight as a result - it will make certain individuals within the Blades set-up wince at night knowing what he could've done in-front of goal.