CLARETS boss Stan Ternent knows his side must produce promotion form if they are to make the play-offs - starting at Bramall Lane tomorrow.

"If we can take 40 points from our last 20 games that will take us up to 76, the same as we got last season," he said. "That should be good enough for the top six - and I think we have got the players to do it!

"I keep saying that we will need a bit of luck when it comes to injuries and suspensions, something we have not had recently, but if we can produce some promotion form until the end of the season, we can do it."

The trip to Sheffield United will bring him head to head with Blades' boss Neil Warnock, one man in football that Ternent has got no time for.

His book reveals how much he dislikes the man who followed him into the hot-seat at Bury and describes his now infamous bust-up with Warnock's number two Kevin Blackwell in the cheating storm from two seasons ago.

Ternent was furious as he alleged Warnock sent a spy to listen to his half time team talk but he stressed: "This match is not about the managers.

"I have said what I have about Warnock, that has been well documented, and I took umbrage to someone hiding behind the dressing room door.

"But I have no problem with the players or anyone else at the club. In fact, my old Bury chairman Terry Robinson is a friend and he is the club's football director.

"What matters is that we will have a tough match against them, they are the form team of the moment and they have a good squad of players. They have some young lads but also experience from the likes of Stuart McCall.

"It is a game to look forward to, there will be a big holiday crowd and it will be a really good atmosphere. But we know that we are a good side and with a full squad remain a match for anyone.

"We played well against Wolves and Brighton, and we weren't that bad against Gillingham, so the players have been doing well. We have scored eight goals in the last four, now we have to stop letting them in.

"If you don't concentrate and defend in the wrong areas, you will concede goals because we are playing at a high level."

With 24 hours to go, Ternent is still waiting to find out if a couple of his injured players might be able to come back into the reckoning for the trip to Sheffield. Former Wednesday player Lee Briscoe will be guaranteed a "warm" welcome if he could make it while Graham Branch is the other man who might have a chance of making it.

The problem for Ternent is he can't afford to rush players back and run the risk of them breaking down, thus ruling themselves out of future games.

He faces the loss of three players to suspension against Grimsby in the FA Cup on Saturday, Glen Little, Dean West and Gareth Taylor, although appeals are still pending over the latter pair.

But for now all thoughts will be focused on ending a poor sequence against the Blades, two costly defeats in the last two seasons.

"We have not done well there but we had not done well at Brighton and been even worse against Wolves," said Ternent.

And having already beaten third placed Norwich and Nottingham Forest, he is hoping to make it a hat-trick by beating the third placed Blades.