'Different sport' - Chris Wilder hits back at top ref's verdict on big Sheffield United decisions v Liverpool

Chris Wilder has vowed to continue sticking up for his football club after highlighting three decisions he believes went against Sheffield United in their defeat to Liverpool on Wednesday night. Wilder believed both Liverpool goals shouldn't have stood, and that James McAtee should have been awarded a penalty after being shoved to the ground by Ibrahima Konaté.

Liverpool went ahead when Virgil van Dijk volleyed home after maneuvering Anel Ahmedhodzic out of the way, before going 2-0 ahead in injury time through Dominik Szoboszlai. But Wilder was left fuming by a tackle on Darwin Nunez on Jayden Bogle moments earlier, the substitute striker wrapping his legs around Bogle while on a yellow card.

Both incidents were looked at by VAR before no action was taken and former top ref Dermot Gallagher said on Sky's 'Ref Watch' show that neither the Bogle foul, nor the McAtee penalty, should have been given - much to the confusion of Wilder. "You've known me long enough; I'm not going to sit here and tell you that my team were brilliant when they weren't.

"There's no spin involved and we were desperately unfortunate with three decisions. Anel isn't going to drop the ground for nothing because he knows he's going to get it from me if he does. I love the show and I love Dermot - we have history going back to when I was at Oxford - but if an incredible referee comes up with the conclusion on Sky that that isn't a foul, well, I'm watching a different sport.

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"I don't think we deserved to get beat 2-0 and who knows, in the last four or five minutes we could have got something. It's a definite foul and I'm delighted Jayden's okay. I don't think the lad's meant to do him but it's one of those with excessive force, as we saw with John Lundstram two or three years ago. Tackling is different than it was 10, 15 or 20 years ago.

"I'm not just going to sit back. I'm the Sheffield United manager and a Sheffield United supporter, and I'm going to stick up for my football club. I think we've been on the wrong end of three poor decisions and maybe because of the situation we're in, people expect us to go down: 'Go on, float away back to the Championship where maybe you belong as a team.' I ain't going to accept that.

"We need consistency and there's three really poor decisions by the referee. We need to start making some more on-field decisions to get to the right conclusion. I can see the first one but not two or three; it's ridiculous. We still have to score that penalty, we know that. We'd still have to get something out of the game in the last two or three minutes. But I'm not going to sit back and accept it and be quiet about it."