Adams hoping for the chance to lead Blades’ revival if relegated

It is now 15 weeks since Adams swapped a promotion push with League Two Port Vale for a relegation battle with the Blades – and his quest to save his boyhood idols from the drop looks doomed to failure.

The Blades, who are bottom of the table, visit next-to-bottom Preston North End tomorrow in a fixture that, just two years ago, had offered a stepping stone to the top-flight when the two clubs met in a play-off semi-final.

This time around, the prize for the winners is not a trip to Wembley but a glimmer of hope. For the Blades are eight points adrift of safety with only five games to play and Preston are just one point better off.

Only a bizarre set of results can stop both clubs going down now and Adams, for one, is keen to start planning for the future.

“If we do get relegated, there is a massive rebuilding job to to be done here but I have shown at other football clubs that I can do it,” he said yesterday. “It will hurt me massively if we do go down but, if we do, I want the opportunity to take us back up.

“No-one has given up – I don’t want to give anybody that impression,” he stressed.

“But it is looking nearly impossible. Could I have seen this coming? Possibly. Did I think it would happen? Maybe naively, no. But I can honestly say I have done everything I possibly could to try and arrest it.

“Often in football, you will hear fans saying to managers “You don’t understand this football club, you don’t care because you’re just the custodian of it and we are going to be here long after you have gone’. Well, I don’t think they can throw that at me.”

Adams, who grew up in Tinsley and began his career as a schoolboy at Bramall Lane in the Seventies, signed a two-and-a-half year deal upon his arrival and is unlikely to be sacked this summer. He refuses to say whether there have been any guarantees.

Since losing to Cardiff City on Tuesday night, Adams has spoken to chief executive Trevor Birch about releasing loan players and the possible promotion of younger players to the first team for the last five games. Defender Nyron Nosworthy and striker Marcus Bent are set to return to Sunderland and Birmingham City, respectively, while teenagers Harry Maguire and Jordan Slew will be involved tomorrow at Deepdale.

The other loanees currently at the club are West Bromwich Albion left-back Joe Mattock, Fulham winger Bjorn Helge Riise, Aston Villa centre-back Shane Lowry, and Argentinian full-back Elian Parrino.

“We have had a lot of loan players (this season) and some have been successful, some have not and may be disappointed with their contribution,” Adams admitted. “To make way for some of our Academy and development squad to break through in the next few games, we may need to send them back. That decision will be made in the next day or so.”

The Blades’ first team has won only two games out of 19 under Adams but the success of the club’s youngsters in reaching the final of the FA Youth Cup has put a silver lining on that cloud. A total of four or five youngsters are likely to be in the first-team squad tomorrow with defender Maguire, 18, leading the way after an impressive debut against Cardiff as substitute.

Striker Slew, 18, has played three times this season as substitute while Norwegian striker Erik Tonne, 19, was a recent substitute against Middlesbrough. Another contender for a role, Irish midfielder David McAllister, is slightly older at 22 but has made only one first-team appearance in the FA Cup against Aston Villa.

Strikers Ched Evans (knee) and Richard Cresswell (groin) miss out again tomorrow and there are also doubts over Mattock (groin), Stephen Quinn (knee) and Daniel Bogdanovic (dead leg). Midfielder Lee Williamson, however, returns to face his former club after serving a four-game ban.

Parrino, meanwhile, will miss the rest of the season with a broken metatarsal – and joins Chris Morgan, Johnny Ertl, Andy Taylor and Ryan France as the club’s long-term absentees.

“There will be a sprinkling of youth in the team and, if the kids are good enough, we will throw them in and see how good they are,” said Adams. “We have a few injury doubts so the numbers are going to be determined by who is available.”

On the significance of the game, Adams said: “Both teams know the importance of three points and a draw would not satisfy anyone.”

Preston manager Phil Brown has described tomorrow’s clash as his side’s ‘biggest’ game of the season.

Brown is targeting maximum points from the last five matches and believes that will be enough to avoid the drop.

“This game is massive for us, a real six-pointer,” he said. “It is the game of the season as far as I’m concerned. I’m putting pressure on my lads by saying that because I know they can respond to it and I’m putting pressure on the supporters, too, because I’d love to see a full house.”

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