AFTER the disappointing weekend loss to Watford, Saints showed two vital things at Sheffield United – character and a desire to put right what had gone wrong.

You might say, quite correctly, that the very least you expect from a team is for them to try and show a bit of heart.

But when you’ve been beaten quite heavily at home, and in such a deflating manner, going a long way to face a tough, physical side can be enough to make some teams buckle.

But Saints stood up to everything the Blades had to throw at them and gave back plenty of their own.

And most importantly they showed they can learn from their mistakes – that was from the top down.

After the Watford game it was clear that Saints had to make sure they blended youth with experience rather than purely rely on their young guns.

Queue Jan Poortvliet’s immediate response – Chris Perry, Rudi Skacel, Bradley Wright-Phillips and Stern John all back in.

As for the team, well the very basic errors that cost them the three goals against Watford, all from set-pieces, were not repeated.

In the second half Saints came under a barrage of corners and high balls into the area but they stood firm.

In fact you could almost see the determination in their faces to make sure they didn’t concede from them.

They remained concentrated and took responsibility for both themselves and their teammates.

Teams and footballers will always make mistakes as everybody does in any walk of life but all you can ever ask is to learn from them.

For that Saints and Poortvliet deserved credit on this occasion.

The first half was a bit of a nonevent.

There was a school of thought before the game that United might well be quite tired having played just two days previously in a Sheffield derby and for over an hour with ten men.

As it turned out they didn’t just look quite tired but absolutely knackered.

Saints did what they had to and kept the ball, made them work even harder and you could almost feel a sense of dejection amongst the players and the fans at Bramall Lane.

The nearest United came in the first half was when Stephen Quinn got in after six minutes but saw his shot from just inside the area turned round the post by Kelvin Davis.

Saints were neat and tidy in possession, threatened a few times and created one clear-cut opening.

Wright-Phillips played a sharp one-two with John but his shot was over the bar from a good position.

Predictably the Blades came out after the break fired up and with a couple of pairs of fresh legs on the field and suddenly the game came to life.

Just two minutes in Saints did creak slightly from a set-piece with Anthony Stokes heading Brian Howard’s corner goalwards but Simon Gillett was there to clear off the line at the far post.

Joseph Mills tested Paddy Kenny for the first time with a near post drive before Davis had to make a good stop from Danny Webber.

The game continued to pulse with both sides looking capable of breaking the deadlock as Stokes and John failed to hit the target from reasonable openings before Stokes had a goal disallowed for offside.

Davis had the higher workload in the latter stages of the game and produced three excellent saves.

The first came when Ugo Ehiogu managed to get a header from a bundle of players at a corner on target but from point blank range the Saints keeper kept it out.

He followed that with a flying stop to keep out Kevin Naughton’s long range effort and then a near post save from Stokes.

In between Kenny had also been in business, saving superbly from Wright-Phillips’ well taken effort after his attempted cross had come back to him and then from Adam Lallana’s volley from outside the area.

David McGoldrick came on as a sub and had a very presentable chance as well after a great cross from the left by Lallana but missed the target.

Saints had a late scare when Ollie Lancashire was sent off for the second time this season.

Having already been booked for a late tackle he brought down Webber on the edge of the area and it was no surprise to see a second yellow followed by a red.

In the end, though, you felt it was a point won and a point proved for Saints.