Blades boss buoyed by fitness

04 March 2009 11:08
The Blades claimed a 2-1 victory over Championship promotion rivals Birmingham at Bramall Lane on Sunday and currently lie sixth in the table.[LNB]United's victory over Blues came after the team had endured a gruelling FA Cup replay defeat at Hull on Thursday night and Blackwell believes the intense training is starting to pay dividends.[LNB]Blackwell told the club's website: "This is payback time for all the hard work done in pre-season and the stats against Birmingham showed that we outran them in every department - short, long, sprinting.[LNB]"And that was with half a dozen players or so who had played a hard match at Hull just 72 hours earlier.[LNB]"The game is not just about fitness and running, of course, but you simply have to have it and finding the balance between rest and putting the work in is very important."[LNB]The Blades will be looking to maintain their fine away form on Wednesday night at Coventry which sees them unbeaten on their travels in the league since defeat at Sheffield Wednesday in October.[LNB]However, the Sky Blues are on a fine run which has seen them take 10 points out of 12 and last week they beat Premier League Blackburn to book an FA Cup quarter-final against Chelsea.[LNB]It has seen manager Chris Coleman nominated for the Championship manager of the month award and the Ricoh Arena side will be looking to make a late push for the play-offs.[LNB][LNB]

Source: Team_Talk