Division One: Sheffield United 2 Blackburn Rovers 0 - Andy Neild reports

WHAT is it about the city of steel that exposes a Rovers underbelly of tin foil?

While Wednesday and United have galvanised themselves for the television cameras, Rovers have simply crumpled and folded on their two visits to Sheffield this season.

Just where do you start to explain the contrast between the simply dazzling opening 20 minutes against Watford and those two simply dreadful first half displays?

Well, I suppose as good a place as any to start is at the beginning. And you cannot expect to give yourself a fighting chance when goals are conceded as pathetically as on the two occasions in question.

But, there must be something a little more sophisticated at the root of Rovers' away form in general.

After all, if Watford can come back from two goals down, then why do Rovers have to wait until Graeme Souness again strains a vocal chord during the half-time interval before signs of recovery are shown?

The manager believes a collective naivety is a major contributory factor, along with a lack of energy, muscle, fight, bottle -- call it what you will.

He explained: "We felt that if we weathered the early storm we would be all right. But we gifted them an early goal and you can't legislate for that.

"The last words before we went out were 'Stick it in behind them, turn them and make sure we are winning the bits in midfield'.

"But we didn't do that against United and we didn't do that against Wednesday. Maybe there's something in the water in Sheffield. "We didn't compete with them and show the energy that you must show in this league. That was the most disappointing thing for me."

Souness believes that, without the will to win the battle, it is impossible for any tactical system to effectively bed down.

But, even when Rovers showed greater resolve in the second half against both United and Wednesday, there still appears to be something missing.

And I believe that essential ingredient is width. The starting formation of 4-3-3 is fine at home, when the opposition are on the back foot and the system can effectively become a 4-1-5.

But, on their travels, Rovers have consistently struggled to peg opponents back in the early stages.

In fact, when those midfield battles are not being won, and especially after the shock of conceding sloppy early goals, Rovers often find themselves over-run in midfield.

This was again the case at Bramhall Lane and Damien Duff was gradually dragged further back into a more orthodox midfield role.

The trouble is that he then seems to get caught between two stools and, to compound the lack of a genuine wide outlet on the right side, Duff is sucked into the midfield scramble and away from a touchline that he should be fondling, never mind hugging.

"We were quite happy as long as they had possession in the right areas. We tried to limit them getting round the back of our full backs so they played in front of us. It worked a treat," grinned United manager Neil Warnock.

Division One sides do not know how to defend against sides that consistently reach the byline. But this is a side of Rovers' game that is in evidence on fewer and fewer occasions.

And, on the occasions when crosses were provided as United tired and Rovers pressed in the final quarter, it was often more central players like David Dunn who were making the runs down the flanks.

Sure enough, the chances started to flow but it was all too little and all too late and Sheffield United did more than enough to deserve all three points.

The Blades knew exactly how to twist the knife after Alan Kelly's calamity after four minutes.

The backpass from Henning Berg did not leave his keeper with many options but he chose wrongly in taking an extra touch.

His control let him down and, suddenly he was staring down the barrel. A panicky hoof clattered into the legs of David Kelly and shot back past the keeper to dribble over the line as Kelly desperately retreated.

United then exploited the very real threat posed by Marcus Bent, who peppered the Blackburn goal from a succession of crosses.

Bent's presence also resulted in the loose ball which fell to the feet of Paul Devlin. Too many defenders stood off, allowing Devlin to seize his chance and let fly from 25 yards into the roof of the goal.

Then referee Matt Messias turned Messiah for Rovers when Martin Taylor was adjudged to have been bundled over in the box before Bent picked his spot in Kelly's far corner. And, at 2-0, Souness' words of wisdom need not have been wasted. Rovers were indeed a different proposition in the second half and the presence of Christian Dailly, on for the injured Taylor, created a more assuring air at the back.

Dunn came more into the game and set up two chances for Diawara, who is still struggling to justify his reputation.

The chance of the game then fell to young substitute James Thomas, who could only blast over an open goal after Nathan Blake's header had rebounded off the foot of the post.

Had that gone in, and Damien Duff's dragged shot found Henning Berg's outstretched toe, it would have been an outrageous Sheffield steal.