THE inspirational steps Paul Jewell will take to bring success to a team have been revealed after the Town boss played a famous film scene to rally relegation-threatened Wigan Athletic.

The Ipswich manager has become something of a Houdini act after leading two clubs to survival on the final day of a Premier League season.

Now one of the secrets behind his success has been uncovered after Jewell admitted playing an inspirational scene from an Al Pacino movie just minutes before Wigan’s must-win match at Sheffield United in 2007.

The four-and-a-half minute monologue from American Football film, Any Given Sunday, helped inspire the Latics to a dramatic 2-1 victory at Bramall Lane, condemning Neil Warnock’s United to relegation instead.

Writing in the Daily Express, Jewell recalled: “We got to the ground and, at 3.50pm after I’d given my team talk, I got all the squad, the staff, everyone together and asked them to stand up, arms around each other’s shoulders.

“Then I put a DVD on of Al Pacino’s speech in Any Given Sunday – the one about ‘climbing out of hell, one inch at a time’. I wouldn’t usually do something like that, but the way we started the game I’m sure it helped us.”

Jewell’s use of the iconic Pacino speech, given to the film’s fictional football team moments before a big play-off game, shows the lengths he will go to in his pursuit of success – and should be welcomed by Town, as well as film, fans.

The Town boss also revealed other sides to his footballing mentality, admitting to ‘settling’ for a 2-0 defeat in an earlier match at Anfield to ensure goal difference didn’t come into the winner-stays-up clash against the Blades.

He explained: “We had gone to Liverpool and been battered. We were losing 2-0 and I am a bit ashamed to say it, but I settled for that because I thought goal difference would be so important. I hated being negative there, Our fans booed me.”

But restricting Liverpool to just two goals meant the final game of the season was a simple relegation play-off.

With the Premier League reaching a nailbiting conclusion, Jewell was in the JJB Stadium last Sunday to see his old club beat, and relegate, West Ham.

Looking ahead to tomorrow’s matches, Jewell said: “It is a giveaway as to how important the Premier League is that there is so much riding on tomorrow.

“On the one hand, it’s terrible for everyone involved in it, but in a perverse way it is also an occasion to relish. There is an edge on these games that you get a rush from as a manager.

“You need a little luck and it was Sheffield United who went down in front of their fans. When you see what has happened to them since, it shows how much is on these games.

“If you come through, then you feel exactly the same as the Premier League winners and Champions League winners.”