Sheffield United defender John Egan insists they're not yet down.

United won the first game of their season at the weekend, but unfortunately for them it was a third round FA Cup tie against Bristol Rovers.

Egan told the Sunday World: "Football is full of ups and downs, and it's a lot more downs than ups for probably 90 per cent of players in the game.

"You just have to deal with it - but we know we've had two fantastic years, with promotion and a ninth finish in the Premier League.

"Yes, this year's not been great, we've lost a lot of games, and that's not what you want to do as a footballer, but you can give up and throw the towel in or you can keep fighting.

"Some of our performances against the bigger teams have been similar to last season when we did well, but when you're not getting the results, you don't think that way. But looking it as a whole, the performances were similar.

"We've had a lot more to deal with this year, more injuries too . . . so the team's not been as settled. It's been similar to last season in some ways, but we're obviously on the wrong side of so many results so we have to learn from it and improve."