sport

BLACKWELL URGES ON HENDRIE

Blades celebrate Quinn's goal.

Sheffield United manager Kevin Blackwell urged midfielder Lee Hendrie to use his inspirational Carling Cup performance against Port Vale to reignite his career.

The former Aston Villa and England midfielder produced a performance that fully warranted the standing ovation given to him from the home fans after scoring a delightful first-half goal and terrorising the Port Vale defence throughout the Blades 3-1 Carling Cup triumph at Bramall Lane.

And, after a brief spell on loan at Leicester last season, Blackwell admits seeing Hendrie in such potent form is akin to making a new signing.

"I'm delighted for Lee because before I came his last game against Scunthorpe the crowd turned on him - which was a large part of the reason I let him go to Leicester," Blackwell said.

"But he's come back, worked his socks off and to get a standing ovation goes someway towards his full rehabilitation. But what I'm excited about is that I've got a brand new player.

"His goal was typical Lee Hendrie - back to the old days. When it fell to him he still had a lot of work to do but he finished it in style.

"I think Lee has got to wake up to the natural, God-given talent he's got and maybe he has to work that little bit harder to keep that consistency. Everyone knows he is capable of it and after tonight, he can be very proud of himself."

Blackwell's side were made to sweat by their lowly visitors when Luke Rodgers darted ahead of veteran centre-back Ugo Ehiogu to slide home Louis Dodds' right-wing cross and cancel out Hendrie's classy first-half opener for the Blades.

But the Blades soon showed their Championship pedigree and, despite a noble effort from the Valiants, restored their lead through a stunning volley from midfielder Stephen Quinn in the 71st minute.

Danny Webber put the game beyond doubt from the spot in the final minute.

And Blackwell admitted he was relieved to his side succeed where the likes of Barnsley and Norwich failed by progressing to the second round despite a brave fight from the visitors.

"We knew it was going to be a tough one and in all credit we knew Port Vale would come here and give us a stern test," Blackwell said.

"It could have been a lot more comfortable but we knew, facing lower league opposition, it was never going to be very comfortable evening.

"We showed a little bit of rustiness at times but I'm not going to criticise my lads because they stood up to the test and this is a competition that, as we saw last night, can see a lot of Championship teams bow out early. So it was about getting through and being professional about it."

Port Vale boss Lee Sinnott insisted his side would be leaving South Yorkshire with their heads held high and felt the experience of playing against superior opposition will only benefit his fledgling squad.

"We're very much a team in it's infancy and Sheffield United are a team very much further down the road of success than us but that is where we want to be and that is what we are looking to achieve," said Sinnott.

"We'll be taking the positives out of this game and it's important we look on the bright side. "We've come here off the back of an incredibly hard first game of the season - people may disagree with me but Luton away is possibly the toughest game anyone in the whole three divisions could have faced because no-one has ever been docked 30 points before and no-one knew how they were going to react.

"But we knew what Sheffield United were about and they'll be aiming for the Premiership this time next season so we'll take away what we've learnt from these first two games and go into the first home game of the season at Vale Park."