Lucas Neill, West Ham's new right-back who chose a relegation scrap with the Hammers (and a reported £50,000 a week) over the comparative merits of playing for Liverpool, went down injured for the second time in three games on Saturday.

With jeers of  "you're not fit to wear the shirt” echoing around Upton Park for much of the afternoon, Neill - injured or otherwise - could not wait to leave the field, and practically sprinted off.

West Ham spent over £20million bringing new players in during the January transfer window, but while Marlon Harewood was missing a penalty in the 1-0 home defeat by Watford, up the M1 in Sheffield Phil Jagielka was smashing home his own spot-kick to give Sheffield United a 2-1 lead over Tottenham Hotspur. Bramall Lane celebrated and the team congratulated Jagielka before maintaining a strong rearguard and preserving the lead. The result? A priceless ten-point lead over West Ham and the relegation zone.

Neil Warnock, the Sheffield United manager, is lauded and derided in equal measures for his old-fashioned approach to a game that on occasions has become less than beautiful under his stewardship. The infamous Battle Of Bramall Lane apart (the abandoned fixture with West Brom in 2002 which saw three United players sent off), there was also the contretemps at Reading this season which saw substitute Keith Gillespie red-carded before play had even resumed.

Yet despite the outspoken, frequently controversial nature of the man, Warnock's side are well placed to avoid relegation, a fantastic achievement for a team that took just two points from their first seven games. Unlike West Ham, their season has been built on team spirit and hard work from a set of players with a point to prove and who now show a self-belief that they are good enough to play in the Premiership.

Players such as Nick Montgomery, Stephen Quinn and Chris Armstrong are hardly household names - or even particularly talented footballers - but they have the desire to play for United and the will to win that you simply cannot buy. Montgomery, in particular, was outstanding against Spurs - as he was in the victory over Arsenal earlier in the season.

The United squad reads like a who's who of top-level failures: Rob Hulse had an awful season with West Brom, as did Jon Stead during his time last year at Sunderland. Gillespie had his contract terminated by Leicester two seasons ago, Colin Kazim-Richards was playing in Brighton's reserves back in August, and Armstrong was told he would never play again after a knee injury three years ago.

Yet Warnock has moulded them into a pure example of the whole being more than the sum of its parts: Stead has scored twice in his four games and Hulse was on the scoresheet yet again in Saturday's win.

Gillespie helped himself to goals against Manchester United and a spectacular winner against Charlton, while Kazim-Richards created both goals against Spurs with quality crosses, and Armstrong is establishing himself as a Premiership full-back of some repute. In their captain Jagielka, their dynamo Montgomery, and their spearhead Hulse, the Blades have a strong backbone around which a team with confidence and determination has been built.

Warnock and his players deserve an enormous credit for making the most out of limited ability. If they could bottle the attitude shown by those in red and white on Saturday, they would not need the influx of a billionaire foreign owner - although one suspects West Ham would be at the front of the queue with a large shopping trolley.

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