BLACKWELL GIVES NO CLUES ON HOWARD

Blackwell - no clues on Howard deal.

Sheffield United manager Kevin Blackwell admitted he could shed little light on the status of Brian Howard's protracted move to the club following their 2-0 win at Doncaster.

The Blades announced on Monday that the Barnsley captain was set to join them today, only for Barnsley to reveal that they found the offer unacceptable and had instead accepted an offer for the player from an unnamed club.

Blackwell answered "correct" when asked if Howard had not signed for the club, and said that he "hadn't got a clue" as to whether or not the deal would be finalised tomorrow.

"It was agreed (last night)," he added, as to why he had announced the deal. "I can't say anything."

On the field, an own goal from Gareth Roberts and a sweet strike from Stephen Quinn secured a second successive win for Blackwell's side who are now firmly in the play-off picture following a run of four games without a victory.

"We created better chances than them and every time I thought we could score," Blackwell said. "The system that they (Doncaster) play here causes people problems but we acquitted ourselves well and every time we went forward we looked threatening.

"Since I have been here, the last 14 days prior to Saturday was the first time I have seen a downturn in the players. I have been here nine months and if I have got to choose those 14 days as the worst 14 days then it's not too bad is it?

"If we can get a good result against Bristol City (on Saturday) then we will have put our little blip behind us. Every game is a massive result when you're at Sheffield United. Yorkshire derbies and tough games to win and if you come away from home and get three points then you're delighted."

Despite watching his side slump to a fifth straight defeat, Doncaster manager Sean O'Driscoll refused to be downbeat.

After a promising start to their maiden season in the second tier, Rovers are now sitting inside the relegation zone and have failed to score in six of their 10 games.

In fact, they have only scored four goals all campaign, a problem underlined by a poor showing from their strikers tonight as Darren Byfield in particular wasted two great chances, with Jason Price also guilty of a bad miss.

"I'm disappointed," O'Driscoll admitted. "We didn't put the ball in the back of the net, but I'm pleased with the performance. I thought that our discipline was really good, which it had to be.

"They are the foundations that you need to keep whether you're playing good, bad or indifferent or winning or losing games. We need to keep those to give us the platform to play and we have got to keep going.

"If we had have hung our heads we may as well have walked off the pitch. We tried to do the things that were right and on another day we would have scored two or three. We have to dust ourselves down and move on."