TOWN boss Mark Cooper is refusing to discount today’s opponents from the League One promotion race despite their lowly position.

The Blades endured a nightmare start to the season which led to manager David Weir, only appointed in the summer, being sacked after only 13 games with his side 22nd in the table. He was replaced by former Derby boss Nigel Clough, who has led a mini-revival which has moved United up to 19th, 14 points off the play-offs.

While Cooper believes a club of Sheffield United’s size is too big for League One and is not completely discounting from the promotion race despite their 14 point deficit, the Town boss admitted slipping down into the third tier can often prove difficult for big clubs to deal with.

“It’s not the team that’s too big it’s the club,” he said. “Obviously the team is not too big because they are there and have been there for a few years.

“It’s the same as a lot of clubs really in that financial problems mean you have to cut your cloth accordingly and then it becomes hard to get out of the division.

“They are here for a reason and we will respect them, but we will still want to go out there and show everybody what we are all about.

“We want to go away to the big stadiums and come away with everyone talking about how good a team we are.

“Anybody can get on a run, especially with Christmas coming where you can win four or five games and getting yourself right in there, so you can’t rule them out of a run for promotion.

“The first thing ,though, would be to make sure they’re not down there at the end of the season, but with the players they have they are certainly capable of going on a run.”