Porter handed chance to earn Clough’s vote

The former Oldham and Motherwell striker, new Sheffield United manager Clough’s first signing when he was installed as Derby County manager in early 2009, will return to the Blades on Monday following a loan spell at neighbours Chesterfield.

Now the Blades’ new boss has told Porter that it is up to him to impress in training.

Clough said: “He will be down at the training ground on Monday and Chris is like everyone else; we’ll assess him and see if we can use him.

“He has got to impress us to see if he can break into the 18 (match-day squad).

“Anybody who is outside the 18 has got to do that and those who are in it have got to work extremely hard to retain their place.”

The Blades’ chief insists he has no preconceptions regarding the make-up of his side, with everyone having the chance to play their way into his plans, if they display the right qualities and attitude – on both match-days and in training.

He said: “We have deliberately said to the players, ‘we will just judge you from day one’.

“Some are going to benefit and some suffer because I am sure some lads will have done really well for two months and won’t be having the best of times at the moment.

“But maybe there’s some who have been unlucky who get a fresh chance and benefit from that.”

Former Manchester United winger Febian Brandy is on the mend following illness and is in contention for tomorrow’s trip to face Shrewsbury Town at Greenhous Meadows.

“Febian has trained this week and has been fine. He was quite ill over the weekend and just before. But he has a lot of his strength back now and is eating properly, which is good, and he’ll be in the squad on Saturday,” said Clough.