AUDIO: Micky Adams believes it's time to start getting 'ugly' with his Sheffield United team after yet another home defeat at the weekend.

The new Blades boss insisted he was encouraged by their performance against City – but admitted substance wins over style every time.

'If they perform like they did today they will be okay, but we have to be attack-minded because I have to win games of football – single points don't get you up the table,' he said.

'I know some fans will say 'that is another defeat, Adams', but I will show the lads strong leadership – and next week it could be ugly on the training pitch because we have to start putting wins on the board.'

Had United – Ched Evans in particular – taken their chances in the first half, it could have been a very different story. But inevitably, the fact he scored an equaliser got lost in the criticism of referee Andy Haines for allowing the two goals by Andrew Crofts to stand.

Adams insisted there were incidents – not necessarily just the obvious claims for a foul on goalkeeper Steve Simonsen – that the official missed.

'The first one leading up to the corner there is quite clearly a trip on Kyle Bartley which the referee missed,' he said. 'It goes out for a corner, the ball then comes into the box and there is a foul on Simonsen – in our view. Obviously Paul (Lambert) will see it as slightly different to me, but he would do.

'Then the second goal, Ched Evans clears the ball and the fella (Aaron Wilbraham) jumps into him and it's a foul, but he's missed that as well.

'It's gone against us today. I am sure that in the coming weeks we will get decisions that will be for us, but today we have had decisions go against us.

'I really don't like managers blaming referees every time things go wrong for them, but on this occasion I feel we have lost the game because of two bad decisions – we could have drawn or even won and the lads didn't get the reward they deserved.

'It's a cruel game isn't it? Today I thought that for long periods of the game we dominated it, we just couldn't get the ball in the back of the net. We needed a goal first half, but having said that I thought that was the best we have played since I've been here.

'We have played with a spirit today that was encouraging. We have got to stick together – all the old cliches. We start again on Monday morning.

'There are still games to go – we have got a big game coming up in 10 days' time and we have got to be ready for Leicester, and we will be, but we have played a top five side today and at times made them look average, so I think that has got to be encouraging.

'We had a bit of quality at times and an edge to us right from the start which allowed us to get a tempo to our game.'