KEVIN BLACKWELL WEMBLEY PAIN
Blades boss determined to make it third time lucky
KEVIN BLACKWELL will prescribe himself a Wembley painkiller tomorrow after losing his last play-off final - and with it his job at Leeds.
Sheffield United's manager still feels hurt about being booted out of Elland Road after leading the club to within 90 minutes of a return to the Premier League.
Now he is reaching for the top flight once more with another of Yorkshire's finest, while Leeds languish in the third tier after sinking to unthinkable depths since his dismissal.
Blackwell admits that the Elland Road episode - losing to Watford in the 2006 final and then being sacked just seven games into the following season - was "definitely the lowest point of my career".
But it was more the manner of it that still haunts him.
"To get one game from the top flight and then lose your job, that's the unpalatable thing about it," said the Blades boss.
He insisted there were "excuses and lies" from Leeds in the wake of his controversial exit. And he said: "Clearly the finances were not as told to me because less than nine months later the club went bust."
Support
Blackwell revived Leeds on a shoestring after the fire sale that followed their drop out of the Premier League. He added: "Some of the things that happened have always wrankled with me. I felt bitterly let down by certain people there. They know who they are."
But he has no argument with the vast legion of Leeds fans who, he maintains, respect and even support him to this day.
He said: "I've had emails and letters from Leeds supporters wishing Sheffield United all the best. It's frustrating to see the club still languishing. If we go up, I hope for the fans that they follow us into the Premier League at some point."
Blackwell was out of work for five months after leaving Elland Road before falling foul of another club in crisis at Luton.
He admitted: "Losing that play-off final was such an empty feeling and that never goes away from you. I feel it's haunted a few managers at Leeds. Maybe the club is cursed, I don't know. There's always a feeling of 'what if' about that Watford game.
"But I feel I've improved as a manager and coach since then. And I thoroughly enjoyed the experience at Luton.
"My time at Leeds helped me. We lost one game in 17 and did well against Liverpool in the FA Cup. Then the administrators decided to dismantle the team."
Blackwell has been a firefighter at Bramall Lane, too, having inherited a team suffering a relegation hangover under his ousted predecessor Bryan Robson.
Wary
His return to the club where he was Neil Warnock's assistant also coincided with seething injustice over the Carlos Tevez affair. Now, with United having extracted £25million compensation from West Ham, they are better prepared to mix it with the big boys.
But Blackwell feels sympathy with Robson. He said: "The Tevez business knocked Sheffield United sideways and Robbo took over when the club was on a real downer. It took a while to get over it and get on with life."
Blackwell's players have since taken justice into their own hands, but he is wary of a Burnley side who won both league games with United.
Blackwell said: "Hands up, they were the better team and we had better learn from those meetings."
Blackwell also lost a play-off final - to Wolves in 2003 - as Blades coach under Warnock.
And he said: "I hope we can make it third time lucky, but Burnley are a very good side with so many matchwinners - people like Martin Paterson, Chris Eagles and Robbie Blake, who I managed at Leeds.
Fantastic
"But they're not a team of individuals. Like my side, they knuckle down as a group."
Blackwell's first-choice strikers Darius Henderson and Jamie Ward are both being given until the last minute to recover from ankle and hamstring injuries.
It could mean a chance for ex-Arsenal forward Arturo Lupoli, who is out to clinch a permanent move from Fiorentina to Bramall Lane after scoring in both games he has started.
Lupoli took a 50 per cent pay cut to join the Blades until the end of the season.
And he said: "I still have three years on contract at Fiorentina but my situation is open. It would be fantastic to play in the Premier League.
"This game could be won in the last minute and if I'm on the bench I'll be ready whenever the manager wants me."
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