IT WILL be a tale of two local boys made good at Bramall Lane tomorrow when Tony Parkes and Neil Warnock pit their wits against each other in front of the live television cameras.

Despite being born in Sheffield, Parkes is "a true blue and white," as Jack Walker put it on Parkes' appointment as full-time manager this week, after 30 years of uninterrupted service at Ewood Park.

As an adopted son of Blackburn, he will lead Rovers in his first game as the fully fledged boss into battle against a Sheffield United side managed by lifelong Blades fan Neil Warnock.

Also born in the steel city, former Bury boss Warnock described it as "the best job in the world" when he was appointed as United's fifth manager in less than two years a fortnight ago.

But while the two managers might take centre stage, Parkes stresses that it's the players that count most as Rovers look to extend their unbeaten run to nine games and continue their climb up the First Division.

He said: "They've a new manager installed and he again is a Sheffield-born manager so they will be making a big thing about the two of us. But at the end of the day it's all about the players.

"They're the ones who need the recognition. They're going to play the game and hopefully we're going to win it."

And after weeks of speculation were finally ended by Parkes' appointment on Monday, he just wants to concentrate on the task of putting more points on the board to close the gap on the play-off places.

"It's just been congratulations most of the week but we need to get on with the job ahead.

"Everybody knows I'm the manager until the end of the season. We don't really have to dwell on that," he added.

United are stuck in the First Division relegation zone but won their first league game under Warnock two weeks ago as they try to sail into calmer waters after months of managerial and boardroom upheaval. And Parkes, who has taken Rovers up to 11th-place, is expecting another tough test.

"We need to keep our run going. We've hopefully turned the corner and we're looking forward to going to Sheffield and hope we can play well," he said.

"In this division everybody can beat anybody else on the day. That has been proved over the season and I don't think that will alter as the season goes on. We've just got to hope that we're not one of Sheffield United's wins at home.

"We respect them, like we would the top sides. We've done our homework on them and hopefully we can get a good result."

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