NEIL Warnock put on a brave face at the Reebok on Saturday, despite seeing his Sheffield United players drop deeper into relegation trouble.

A Kevin Davies goal 10 minutes from time gave Wanderers a victory that, combined with Charlton's disputed late penalty winner against Wigan dragged the Blades down to just one point above the drop zone.

But Warnock was upbeat, encouraged by the performance, if disappointed by the result.

Keeper Paddy Kenny kept United in the game with crucial saves to deny Nicky Hunt and El-Hadji Diouf but, before the Davies decider, Jussi Jaaskelainen had to go full stretch to keep out long-range efforts from Mikele Leigertwood and Michael Tonge.

"It sounds daft but the dressing room's quite high," he said. "We came here, we played with freedom and I thought we enjoyed it. I enjoyed it on the bench.

"In free play I thought we created more chances, although Paddy made two wonderful saves.

"I also thought their keeper pulled off quite a number of saves as well so it wasn't just one sided and I think they'll be quite relieved to get three points with a fantastic goal. We were disappointed to lose but it was a super strike from Kevin Davies.

"You can see why they've missed him recently because so much of their play goes through him.

"I thought we were coping quite well. I thought we defended and attacked on the break. But, if anything, I thought we made a couple of bad decisions on the break when we had three on three. This is not an easy place to play free-flowing football but I was pleased with the number of counter-attacks we made.

"We've certainly improved and we were 100 times better than when we played Bolton at Bramall Lane. There's nothing to be down about. I thought we played well."

Warnock, whose players had the backing of 3,600 vociferous fans in the crowd of 24,312, remains confident that the Blades can beat the drop, despite losing ground after looking relatively safe at the turn of the year.

"We think we've got a great chance," he said.

"Yes, Charlton are doing well, West Ham are going well, but we've got a tremendous team spirit and we've got great fans. We saw how they backed us here but it will be even better when there's 32,000 of them at the home games.

"I'd rather be in this position, to be honest."