BLACKBURN boss Graeme Souness today urged his players to keep their nerve after two precious promotion points slipped threw their fingers against Sheffield United last night.

Henning Berg looked to have set Rovers on the road to another vital victory when he popped up to head home his first goal of the season inside the opening five minutes.

But Blades striker Peter Ndlovu then fired home a second half equaliser to earn United a share of the spoils -- although a point meant Rovers jumped back above Bolton on goal difference with two games in hand.

"It's always disappointing when you don't win your home games," said Souness.

"So it wasn't a great night but it wasn't a bad one either.

"We are second in the league again and the ball is very much in our court.

"Mathematically, it's still in our hands. If we win all our games, we go up, it's as simple as that.

"If Bolton win all their games they won't go up, because we'll have more points than them.

"So we've just got to make sure we bounce back on Saturday."

Roared on by a season's best crowd of 26,276, Rovers were keen to keep the momentum going following Sunday's thumping derby win over Burnley.

But they found United a tough nut to crack despite the boost of an early goal.

"We knew what type of game we were going to get because when you play Sheffield United there are no surprises," said Souness.

"It's our job to break stubborn teams down and we've done that consistently in the past but we didn't do it last night.

"One or two of our players were not at the races for whatever reason and we paid the price. The goal we conceded was avoidable on our part.

"But give Sheffield United some credit, they won their big derby game on Sunday and came here in a buoyant mood."

United's rough-house tactics threatened to get out of hand at times as leading scorer Matt Jansen was singled out in particular for some harsh treatment.

And Souness felt his players didn't receive enough protection off the match officials.

"The referee was disappointing," said Souness. "There was some clever fouling going on and he either chose to ignore it or wasn't aware that it was happening.

"But that's part and parcel of professional football and we have some young players who will have learned something from those oldpros last night."

Jansen was left to rue a second half chance which came back off the post when Rovers were leading 1-0. But the former England Under 21 international refused to be too downbeat about the result.

"I maybe should have hit the target and if that had gone in it would have been 2-0 and we would have been looking at all three points.

"Unfortunately, though, we just got the one but, as we were saying in the dressing room after, we are a step closer. We're in the same position as we were on Sunday but with a game less so we're not too disappointed, we've just got to go to QPR on Saturday and get a result."

Meanwhile, Republic of Ireland midfielder Jason McAteer was apparently unhappy at being left out last night with Keith Gillespie getting the nod instead.

The Northern Ireland international had to be substituted midway through the first half because of a stomach bug.

"Keith had an upset stomach," said Souness. "He wasn't well before the game but he didn't tell anybody.

PIC: Berg celebrates his early goal, but Rovers failed to secure the win.