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Sheffield United chief plays down mind games
SHEFFIELD United manager Kevin Blackwell is urging his players to ignore the mind games ahead of tonight's crucial encounter at Peterborough.
The stakes are high as United travel to London Road aiming to end a run of six consecutive away defeats in the Championship.
A morale-boosting performance and victory is the target for Blackwell, who wants to reignite the club's faltering play-off tilt.
However, Peterborough boss Jim Gannon has tried to heap the pressure on United's shoulders ahead of their clash by declaring his 24th-placed outfit are already relegated following their 1-0 loss at Coventry on Saturday.
"I don't know of any manager that gives up," said Blackwell. "Anything can happen and no manager will write off the season at this stage.
"Jim is a shrewd cookie and he will be using that as a little bit of psychology.
"He knows his players and that you have to get results from somewhere so the best way to do it is by saying that there is nothing on it.
"Jim will be hoping that some of those players who have been playing under that pressure might not play under that pressure anymore and start to express themselves.
"It has been a tough season and Jim's comments are part and parcel of it for me."
A frozen pitch forced United's scheduled meeting at Peterborough to be called off last month.
The worn surface at London Road is unlikely to lend itself to attractive football but Blackwell insists the state of the pitch will not be a factor in the final outcome.
"My reports from the scouts who were there on Saturday said it was extremely bad," he said. "We won't know until we get there how bad it is and at that point we may have to look at certain things that we do in our game plan.
"It is something that we will have to put up with and adapt to.
"The fact is that the London Road pitch has been poor for a while now. The advantage for Peterborough is that they are used to it whereas teams who turn up could get caught out.
"We know what the pitch is about and we know we have to deal with it."
United's top scorer, centre-forward Darius Henderson, serves the final game of his three-match suspension while Henri Camara is a doubt.
Marcel Seip, James Harper and Ched Evans are pushing for recalls.
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Weather for Sheffield
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 11 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: East
