Kevin Blackwell played down talk of a half-time rocket being the motivation for a resurgent second-half fightback at the Keepmoat Stadium.

His team had looked likely to end up well-beaten but claimed a worthy point and the United boss said it had been a relatively quiet interval chat:

"I asked the lads if they thought they had done enough. They said no so I simply asked them to go out on the front foot and to be positive. We dominated the second-half and had two good penalty shouts.

"We were all over the place to begin with and we could have been three or four goals down by the break but, equally, we could have won in the end so a draw was a fair result and I am happy with a point.

"The lads could have laid down and died because Donny are a good side, especially when they at home and in front, but they deserve credit for not doing so.

"The fans quite rightly had a go at as in the first half but they were absolutely brilliant in the second and drove the team on."

Steve Simonsen became the 22nd player to debut for the Blades this season but may not be the last because injuries have again threatened disruption for the visit to Cardiff on Wednesday:

"Darius Henderson was missing and to add to that Chris Morgan was injured in training on Friday, Henri Camara has pulled a groin and Mark Yeates had a kick in his lower back.

"I don't have any more forwards and having to put a left-back on when a forward was injured just about sums things up.

"I asked Kyle Bartley if he had ever played there before and he said he had at Bolton as a kid before he became a defender.

"Glen Little did a great job and I was very pleased for him. Even though at his age he can't play a full 90 minutes I thought today was the right game for him."

Blackwell later revealed that the seven game losing streak on the road had prompted a change of preparation as he and his staff came up with an original idea:

"I watched Question Time the other night, switched over and found myself watching 'Kes' and Brian Glover's amusing teamtalks so I showed it to the lads and Henri Camara was in stitches."