Chris Wilder's verdict on Sheffield United's win at Bristol City
Sheffield United bounced back from a midweek defeat at Portsmouth to beat Bristol City at Ashton Gate
Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder has praised his players’ performance after a ‘comfortable’ 1-0 victory against Bristol City at Ashton Gate on Saturday.
United clinched an early lead courtesy of a fantastic strike from Oli Arblaster only five minutes in.
Wilder’s men saw out the match, after facing periods of the second half under the cosh.
Amid lots of talk ahead of the game as to who would replace the suspended Hamza Choudhury at right-back, skipper Japhet Tanganga put in a solid shift and was consequently rewarded with a clean sheet.
The Blades were under pressure to get a result after they conceded in the dying moments against Portsmouth at Fratton Park on Wednesday night, despite equalising after going 2-0 down.
Speaking to The Star after the win, he said, “I'm really angry about what happened mid-week, if I'm honest, because I'm really, really disappointed. So that sometimes pushes you and fuels you a little bit more.”
The Blades secured a clean sheet for the fourth time this season, with the third coming only one week ago against Lincoln City last Saturday.
The United gaffer once again praised the camaraderie of his players.
“We've had to put up with stuff, but you see today it's all worth it when you put it together, especially the first half. I enjoyed the first half.
“It was a really good first half,” he continued. “A bit disappointed that we'd not maybe doubled our lead.
“I thought we got everything pretty spot on and understood there's going to be a reaction from the opposition in the second half, and they stuck it on us.
“We've had to defend properly, we've had to defend out wide, we've had to defend crosses, and we broke it up a couple of times and game management was good.”
“I thought the game management today was spot on,” he added.
“We kept the same shape; we didn't go early on a defensive shape, we felt we wanted to go and get the second. We talked at half-time, even though we've had some chances and the opposition will come at us, that we need to have a little bit more control with the ball; at times we didn't.”