'Chucked it' - Chris Wilder's honest verdict as Sheffield United lose crunch battle with Luton Town

Chris Wilder questioned his Sheffield United side's "attitude to defending" after their damaging defeat to relegation rivals Luton Town this afternoon. The Blades turned things around to lead 2-1, but scored two own goals in the space of four minutes to lose 3-2.

Victory saw third-bottom Luton move six points ahead of the basement club Blades, having played a game fewer, and breathe fresh life into their own bid to earn a second season in the Premier League. For United, any positive momentum generated from Friday night's draw at title-chasing Aston Villa was quickly diminished against one of their fellow strugglers at the other end of the table.

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United, after a slow first-half display, had seemingly done the hard work when they dragged themselves back on level terms, Oli McBurnie cancelling out Alfie Doughty's opener after some good work from James McAtee, before captain Anel Ahmedhodzic netted from close range to put the Blades ahead. But United could not keep their heads and incredibly scored two own goals within the space of four minutes, through Jack Robinson and then substitute Anis Slimane, to hand Luton back-to-back Premier League wins and spoil the Christmas of Blades fans.

A frustrated Wilder insisted afterwards: "We chucked it. We chucked it away. Don't take this as a dig against our opponents but there will be a lot of talk about character and getting themselves back into the game with a never-say-die attitude and all that. I know all about their character. It's a football club built on character, similar to what we're about. But it's nothing to do with that.

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"It's to do with our attitude to defending. It cost us on Friday night and it has cost us tonight. We had to stop the cross on Friday night and we didn't. We had to stop it today and we didn't. It's just an organisation thing. People will say the own goals are unlucky but they're not, they're self inflicted.

"It's an attitude to defending and I'd be saying the same thing if I was a manager at any other club in the pyramid. They haven't had to do anything to get back in the game, we have basically handed them the game. They didn't have to work hard for their goals. They were tossed over to them. We should be talking about a home win, not them getting two to take the points. I don't think it was earned by them ... it was given by us."