THEIR friendship was cemented over a few choice words across a corridor.
So Kevin Blackwell and Stan Ternent will have no problems casting personal feelings aside when Sheffield United and Huddersfield Town do battle at The Galpharm Stadium tonight.
The half-time altercation between the two managers came during United
v Burnley in April 2001. Ternent, in charge of the visitors, clashed with Blackwell, then Neil Warnock's assistant, after the first-half of a keenly contested encounter that effectively ended the Lancashire side's play-off hopes.
The incident, the basis of a particularly colourful chapter in Ternant's autobiography, Stan the Man: A Hard Life in Football, has become a legend with the line between fact and fiction blurred.
Blackwell insists that, contrary to reports, insults were the only thing they exchanged .
And after putting the finishing touches to his master plan for tonight's Carling Cup second round tie, he revealed they have a healthy respect for one another.
"Stan gives as good as he gets and he won't stand down. He knows I'm exactly the same too.
"Funnily enough, immediately after that he offered me a coaching job at Burnley. We made up straight away and, to be fair, we've become good friends."
Despite an impressive win over United in pre-season, Ternent, who took charge of Huddersfield this summer, has yet to secure his first league win in West Yorkshire.
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