Spirit of Glover aids Blades form

He had no doubt that showing the football clips featuring the hilarious Brian Glover in his games teacher role helped them earn a point at the Keepmoat Stadium.

Six Championship away defeats had followed an FA Cup exit at Bolton and with six loan players in his injury-decimated squad, Blackwell was left to fathom how to engender team spirit.

"We even thought of asking the players to wear their club suits and treat it as a home match but in the end we decided the best way was to have a laugh," said the Blades chief.

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"I had been watching Question Time on the television and after watching Margaret Beckett you need a laugh so I flicked over to ITV 3 and Kes was on and that's what triggered it.

"Some of the lads had never seen it before and we showed them the clip of Brian Glover coming out for the warm-up with the ball under his arm and they were giggling – Henri Camara, who is from Senegal, was in stitches. It's about taking the pressure off the players. They don't know each other. It helped lift the mood and that's what you need."

But, having seen his side torn apart in the early stages, Blackwell admitted: "After 20 minutes I was not laughing and if this had been last season the paint would have been coming off the walls at half-time.

"But it's not right at the moment – I don't know the players. There are six in there who are not my players. I don't think you can steam into someone if he is moving on in a few weeks. The psychological approach changes massively.

"So, at half-time there was no shouting. I just said 'you are good players. I know you don't know each other, but just go out there and play'. And we dominated."

Blackwell understood the fans' frustrations, adding: "The lads will learn more from playing together and under pressure like that. We looked all over the place in the first half and the crowd turned on the players after 15 minutes but they were brilliant in the second half and it affected the performance of the players.

"But we cannot go into next season and field a back five with virtually no experience of Sheffield United."