Blackpool, perhaps the Championship's surprise packet, are in town tonight and Gary Speed pays due respect to them in his preview:

"They are tough to play against, have done marvellously well and Ian Holloway has done a great job. We were poor at their place and they deserved their 3-0 win over us earlier in the season.

"Blackpool are a team without real stars but with a good work ethic and they seem able to rotate their players and maintain results.

"Charlie Adam is a very good player. I saw him when he was at Rangers and he didn't look out of place. He has an eye for a goal as well and we shall have to keep an eye on him.

"We want revenge and our home record has been good with seven wins and three draws in the last nine league games here so we can approach the match with confidence.

"Keeping a clean sheet would be very nice and we always fancy ourselves to score at home. We play more off the front foot at the Lane and go at teams more from the start."

With a Premier League Championship medal in his locker Speed is in a good position to judge what is required for a team to last the distance, and with the Championship such a notoriously tight league, he insists that United should not be written off:

"Leicester are beginning to pull away but a couple of back to back wins would see us right back in there again.

"The last two seasons saw us strong from this point on in the season and we don't want this one to fizzle out.

"It has reached a point when we really need to go for it and the lads think that they have enough in the tank to mount a challenge."